Category Archives: art

DEI in action in the Modern Language Department

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Although teaching language through rich and authentic cultural content has been an ongoing practice in Carondelet’s language classrooms, it has become ever more imperative to ensure that these efforts are truly inclusive, diverse and widely representative of all members of those cultures. Just as we have (mostly:) left behind mindless and ineffective conjugation drills, we must take a close look at the “culture” we are teaching. Our department has been hard at work examining our content and resources, and including cultural contexts that reflect the speakers/signers of the languages that we teach.
Here are some examples of our work: 

In our French 2 classes, our students learned about the rituals of Rosh Hashana, and its enduring significance in French Jewish culture. 
In French 1 classes, students watched a video about breakfast preferences, and compared them to their own and that of other French-speaking countries. 
In ASL, all classes discuss audism (the belief that one’s ability to hear or behave as one who hears is superior) and how it affects Deaf people in their everyday lives.
Kristin is preparing a fascinating unit for ASL 3 about BASL (Black American Sign Language) and its origins.
When black and white students went to separate schools, there were also separate Deaf Residential Schools. The Black-Deaf schools developed their own way of signing. These signs and culture are still passed on today in many families and communities. 
In Spanish, Kerry’s students discussed the importance of language diversity after watching and reacting to a video of a young woman who sings in Quechua an indigenous language of Peru, and parts of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. 
In French 3, students explored the culture of protest of the disenfranchised through street art in Paris and Brussels. We explored graffiti and murals, discussed Art Vs. Vandalism, and created a wall mural to commemorate with words of love, courage and compassion, the victims of 9/11. 
These are just a few of the many ways we show students that the world’s diversity comes in many hues and tones!

Math meets Art meets Mission

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Have you seen the beautiful art created by my PreCalculus students hanging in the Inner Court for the Winton Arts Fest?  I asked the students to reflect on what defines a Carondelet or DLS student, using the schools’ mission statements as well as their own experience.  They then created a picture that exemplified their chosen aspect of the community using only graphs of the Algebraic functions covered throughout the year.  They utilized Desmos and Geogebra to create these creative and beautiful mathematical pieces of art.


They are hanging in the corner nearest to room 2. Please take a look at their work as well as their reflections. Some are touching and insightful, others challenge us to do better as a community. I love that this project used the power of Math and functions (yes, they are so much more than just formulas!) to visually communicate their deep and personal connections to our community.



Here’s a sneak peek of a few:




One group even made me out of graphs of functions and wrote words that I will cherish forever.  Doesn’t get much better than that!







What is going on in the inner court?

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Get on all the busses

A long standing tenet of the CHS VPA department is that we
value our disciplines as necessary to help balance daily life against the
growing forces of technology.  We don’t
think of them as fun options, although we do hope that we are fun. We also do
not think of ourselves as providing supplementary courses. We value whole brain
learning and we are concerned with what device are doing to our student. I am
not a Luddite; I highly value mobile banking from my phone, map apps when I am
in a hurry and the joy of being able to compose and post a murky blog about art
from the comfort of my favorite chair. 
But along with these conveniences, we also suffer some
losses.  The streamlining of some learning
processes, despite the sales pitches of expanded learning through efficiency,
may be depriving many students of the struggle of process.  Screens may also be reducing their field of
vision from panoramic to immediate. 
Through multiple pathways, the VPA department is attempting
to help students maintain a sense of invention, a sense of methodical process
to unlock the unexpected and the reward of discovery.  Most often, our plans affect the maker more
than the viewer.  Once in a while we can
turn that outcome around.
When Natalie Terry asked me about a public space project as
part of the school’s celebration of Lent through service, I doubt I let her
finish before I agreed.  I love the idea
of art as intervention, as disruption, as spectacle.  In those moments, the value of art shifts
from micro to macro, from maker to recipient, and everyone wins a prize.
I think she asked for consultation and support for her
groups to get a public piece going for Lent. 
Of course, I misunderstood that an opportunity to go a bit bigger.  My sculpture class had just finished a
project where they began to understand conceptual ideas within art on a small scale.  I thought this collaborative project could
work to support that lesson.  They liked
the challenge and dove in the design process. 
I encourage the value of disruption and mystery as
tools.  In the end, we designed an
abstracted bus design that had functionality. 
We kept it somewhat simple for construction speed and conceptual
strength.  I tried to challenge to
improve but I let them make decisions.
I also tried to minimize adult assistance.  The girls did great!  A combined task for sculpture students,
student leadership, SLC members and volunteers responding to a schoology update
pooled their energies to get it done in 5 working days. That was success no.1.
We built it publicly to generate interest and demand some
questioning. We orientated it to interfere with traffic, to disrupt flow and to
be cutely inconvenient.  Our concept is
that is the role of artists includes to boldly teach and expand ideas through
our work. We worked here to shatter near-sightedness, to penetrate the
awareness and to contradict the rapid image with a solid, immobile moment. That
was success no.2.  
And, as an extra prize, it looks sweeeeet! Bonus no.3

Inspiring Woman–Barbie?

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As a child, my mom never bought me a Barbie Doll (or a Cabbage Patch Doll) however, I was gifted with several as birthday presents from other family members or friends.

It was what started me on my path to creating and sewing clothes. My mom wouldn’t buy me the store bought clothes for my dolls–it was too expensive and we didn’t have the money–so I started to make the clothes that I saw for Barbie in the stores or at my friend’s house. Later, as neighbors and cousins out grew their Barbies, my collection of dolls and clothes grew.

Which is why I was excited by a 2016 cover article from TIME Magazine about Mattel’s new looks for Barbie, (Mattel updated the Barbie line by introducing a new variety of body types, skin colors and hair. Basically they tried to follow what American Girl had been successfully doing–selling to the individual.) I decided that this needed to be part of the discussion in my Costume & Fashion Class.

So at the end of Unit 1 I have my students read the TIME article and respond to questions (to me and to each other) on Schoology and then then ask my students to create their own Barbie doll.

You will create a your own personal Barbie. (Think “Build a Bear”–only its a Barbie) This will be an original design but can be influenced by contemporary or historical images.  
The design must include:

    • Name–give her a name
    • full-figure sketches of your doll.
    • Images of clothing–2 complete outfits
    • Accessories or other items she needs (for a job, sport, activity).
This year, I have updated my assignment to go along with what most of the girls are doing in English 2 (I teach mostly sophs with a few seniors). Currently the English 2 students are researching and writing about issues important to women. (ie: “pink tax” or female inmates) So while I still have my students the read and respond to the TIME magazine article, I wanted it more updated for today. Then I found out that for Barbie’s 60th Anniversary Mattel has introduced the Barbie Inspiring Women line (currently available & story behind their idea). So this year my students will design for this line.
You will create/design a Barbie for Mattel that would fit into their Inspiring Woman line. (Visit Mattel’s website to see & read more about it)
The design must include
    • Name–Who is she? (Should be based on a real person)
    • Story–Why should she be included in the “Inspiring Women” collection? (4-6 sentences)
    • Full-figure sketches* of your doll:
    • She needs 2 outfits with at least 1 accessory for each outfit. 
    • Include 2-3 reference images of your real-life inspiring woman.
*You can hand draw/color images and then take a photo to include on the page with your other images. I will not be judging the quality of your drawing, but looking at the ideas you are expressing and how you are representing the woman you have chosen.
After everyone has presented their ideas to the class we will vote and decide if we want to let Mattel know who we think should be included in their Inspiring Woman line.
So far, the students are really excited about designing their Barbies–maybe a little too excited, since they want to jump right to designing and drawing and not read the article, but we will get there. 
(Stay tuned–I will post images once all the students have submitted their designs.)

Frosh Creation: Thinking, Making, Sharing – Sample Project Timeline

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Students focus on exploration and process.

The end product is the souvenir from their journey. 

Leah Boyle
Leah Boyle

Branna Sundy
Liv Drey
Analisa Pauline
Kayla Nuti

Day
1
Learn: terms and concepts: rhythm, pattern and pattern terms, motif, shapes vs. forms, synthesis
x1
Explore and gather evidence: photography (this is one of those cases where looking through the viewfinder actually makes the students see more!)
x30+
Day
2
Identify and indicate: digital drawing over the photograph to recognize and mark the pattern
x20
Day
3
Modify/enhance: remove the photographic layer and add new elements that maintain the original patterns
x10
Day
4
Synthesize: Create transparencies of the drawings and stack them in groups of 3 making complex results, modify as necessary to unify
x3
Modify/declutter: Repeatedly subtract a minor element from the field to strengthen the patterning
x3
Day
5
Identify and indicate: using a different color, mark the repeating motif
x3
Convert: Reimagine the motif as a form and draw it
x3
Day
6
& 7
Learn: what is a prototype? What it is role? What can it be?
x1
Build: create a sculptural prototype of the motif with cardboard and tape
x2
Self-assess: complete rubric and end of unit evaluation
x1

Scenario-based Teaching: A Powerful Classroom Tool

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Well of course it does! Even Jesus taught using scenario
situations and there are centuries of data proving how well this worked for
everyone involved.
Last week I tried it out this ancient strategy in my
classroom. I was teaching a lesson on the 5 points of modern architecture. I announced
to my students that I had just purchased a small beachfront lot in Newport
Beach and that they had to design a home for me. As a client, I had very
specific requests for this building. The whole front of the house had to be open,
mostly glass so I would have unobstructed ocean views; it had to be elevated
from the ground to prevent water damage, and so on… What they didn’t know is
that hidden in my requirements, were the 5 points of modern architecture as
conceived by Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The variety of solutions to my problem
was very interesting. For instance, one of my requests was a roof garden. For
one of my students a roof garden meant a swimming pool on the roof surrounded
by plants; another student interpreted it as little green house with a
vegetable garden topped by a traditional gabled roof made out of glass.  I could already envision my wealthy neighbors
stopping by for some free heirloom tomatoes. When the time came for me to
present the material, it took less than 10 minutes of their class time. By
then, everyone was more than ready to understand the concept.
Little beach front beauties (is that dog access on the left?)
I have taught this lesson for many years but this is the
first time that I introduced it this way. It is possible that the idea of changing
my format was inspired by observing Phil Miller’s Economics class the week
before. Phil is dealing with a very quiet group of seniors this year who do not
participate much during group discussions. He gave them a scenario problem about
a high school senior who wanted to drop school in order to work full time so
that she could focus on making more money. Phil asked questions to lead a class
discussion. The day after, a student acted out the role of the high school
senior and students were encouraged to ask questions to her relating to whether
her decision was a sensible economic one. Many students participated. I was
struck by the maturity of the questions and how pointed they were, ranging from
“How much money are you making right now”, to the more poignant ones such as “How
would you describe your relationship with your parents”. I did not follow up
with the next class the next day but I could tell the activity had been
successful. Phil uses this tool very often in his classes. He says it
encourages problem solving and critical thinking. While doing research on this
technique, I found that it is used in many different fields like engineering,
math, business and others. It makes abstract information seem more real and
easy to grasp.
In the case of my students, I started to see some results
right away.  
I gave a simple quiz at the end of the week relating to the
lesson. I usually make these little quizzes multiple-choice. They are quick,
easy for me to grade, and not worth a lot of points. This time I made it a
scenario-based quiz instead.
I always try to help my all students do well on their
quizzes so I post a practice quiz and a study guide on Schoology. In spite of
this, some students don’t pass.  This
time they did not practice but the information was posted for them.
Here are my observations from comparing the results in both
quizzes:
—Students did equally as well or better in the second quiz
even though I skipped through the process of quiz practice and going through missed
answers.
— In the multiple-choice quiz, the students that are
receiving academic help fared worse; in the scenario quiz, the students that
missed one or two classes that week fared worse. 
Here are my conclusions from this experience.
–Students who have high executive mind skills are more
likely to check Schoology and review study guides, therefore my practice tests
are probably only helping students who don’t need that much help
–Real scenarios help all students but they are particularly helpful to students with learning issues.  The information is retained better.
–Scenario-based questions or real world problems solving
may help students who “do not test well” get better scores in their tests.
–Peer Observations are a very “economical” way to learn and
re-learn teaching practices that are useful in the classroom.
I hope this is helpful and inspiring to any of you. Do you use problem solving that include real life scenarios? Do you have any good links to Scenario-based teaching in High School? Please share.

End of the unit projects

Digital Sketchbooks

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Sketchbooks, like journals, are often fertile fields from which great works are developed. They are also a dumping ground for mental clutter that can clog our thoughts.  The polymath Leonardo da Vinci knew that.  His sketchbooks are an amazing collection of observational drawings, improbable inventions, calculations and even a few thoughts on love. The blend of sciences, arts and occasional nonsense in his work were a direct reflection of his thinking.  (I actually advocate a personal sketchbook for everyone.  I think it is a healthy exercise)

The important value of a sketchbook is not that it is a place to jot down an idea or sketch out a vision.  Scratch paper and meeting agendas also serve that purpose.  The true value of a sketchbook is that it is a keeper of past ideas and visions.  It creates a context and history for the latest ideas.  It is this continuity that promotes the strongest progression of ideas. Regular use of one is a discipline that rewards.

I have been unsuccessful in my efforts to have my students to work in sketchbooks as preliminaries before sculptural projects. It is a little tricky.  I don’t want to assess planning. I also respect the differences in creative arcs we all hold. Collecting the books could easily disrupt this still forming discipline. Spot checks are distracting and time consuming. Without points at stake, many opt out of having this treasury of ideas an attempts at their fingertips.

Suddenly, on of the gifts of this year gave me an idea. This year I have only one, small section of sculpture students. This seemed to be a great opportunity to try out a new process.  We will now be exploring digital sketchbooks (DSBs in our classroom).  We are using the free Autodesk app called Sketchbook. It is a great app – TRY IT.  The image archive on that app is called a Gallery.  We will make a separate folder in the gallery for each assignment.   They will jot rough ideas and more developed sketches as the concepts expand. Each page, good and bad, will go into the folder. The progression of ideas is often easier when an array of all attempts is available.

When this idea first came to me, i was happy simply because their iPads are already daily tools and many expect to use them for each class.  I was no longer adding weight to their packs.  Then I realized three bonuses for my class. 

I am fascinated by the creative arc.  I love to watch it unfold in class. I see it as a type of metabolism, a process of intake and output. Like our bodily metabolism, your creative metabolism can be modified with proper attention. Understanding your personal process is essential in getting your bet results.  To assist that understanding, students will take photos of their projects at various midpoints. These process photos will go into the gallery folder for each project. Later, presentations on their personal creative processes will be their gift to their classmates at semester finals. Their DSB will hold all they need to convert to presentation form.  Because gallery is too large of a file to upload on schoology, the students will take a screenshot of the portfolio (thumbnail page) for uploading. We will see the arc of their project on one or two pages!

Also, I try to emphasize process over product everyday in my classroom.  This condensed combination of drawing and process documentation will make it easier for me to assess their efforts towards the goals. In a manner of thinking, this portfolio will be more important to me than the finished piece.

The final bonus is identification.  Some of our sculptural materials do not allow for their names to be easily attached to the work.  We make tags and such but their is always a piece or two that it unnamed and difficult to credit.  Now, their project folder can have some images of the result and I will have an easier time tracking down the artist when the tag falls away.

Vision and Revision

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Vision and Revision
Many students enter their full year visual art course burdened
with misconceptions.  Most of these have occurred
because of an uneven arts education have left them with a primary school level
outlook towards the arts.  Among these
ideas that they hold, a common one it that everything
is art. That’s not true.  It never
was true.
Many things could be art. 
It is possible that anything
could be art.  Personally, I connect with
that school of thought, anything could be art (provided it has certain qualities).  Foremost among these qualities is that art
must have an idea.  A work of art is
evidence of thinking. The technical qualities are used to transmit the
idea.  Exercising advanced expertise with
media and material without concept becomes an academic exercise. 
It would totally acceptable for the VPA to focus completely
on academic exercises.  Many schools do
and are considered model programs.  There
are two main reasons we do not pursue that path at Carondelet.   The
first on is our ISOs.  The second is our
master schedule. 
We want our students to be whole brain thinkers and we want
them to strive for excellence.  We also align
creativity with ingenuity and problem solving. 
This creates assignments that require more of the students than simply
following instructions.  For some, this
is a new way of making. Previously, they may have been guided step-by-step
through their projects. 
If you walk onto many of our neighboring public schools and
you will have a chance of seeing a lot of student work that is technically far
superior to anything on display in our school. 
You may also notice that much of that work falls into that academic
exercise category.  These schools have
the opportunity to teach multiple years of art. 
In that system, foundational work is taught first and is followed by
conceptual work as the students gain more control of their tools and technique.
Our schedule has not had the space to allow students to spend years
investigating their art making.  Making
the most of the situation, we shift emphasis earlier to the conceptual.
This idea may sound great in a blog, or a roundtable
discussion but it presents challenges in the classroom.  To many, art is technique.  That’s all there is to it.  One just needs to bend it or glue it or stack
it and suddenly it will be something exceptional.  Asking them to think first, to be aware of an
idea, to visualize within their art class is blasphemous and unfair. Art should
be easy, and it doesn’t matter anyway because “everything is art.” It is typical that students jump in and use
material without a real idea of where they are going.  This is seldom a successful strategy.
By start of the fourth quarter, one way or another, many
students accept the Art is Idea mindset to some level.  Together, we have somewhat overcome their
interior challenges but there are still exteriors challenges to manage.  Finishing all or most of the curriculum, the pace
of the school year, the brief length of typical classes, and a few other issues
also make it a challenge for the students to dig into an idea also.  We are always moving on!
To allow them explore their ideas a little deeper than usual,
this year I tried a new project.  We just
completed it, our first Revision Project! 
The idea is straightforward, they were to take any one of their previous
seven projects and either significantly modify it or begin a new version
completely. (Easy prep for me!) They selected which one to do.  Some chose the one that was their lowest
grade, others chose the one that was the most enjoyable.  They had to follow the original instructions and
it would be assessed by the same rubric. They were warned the rubric would be a
bit more strictly applied this time. 
Before access to tools and materials, they needed to submit a short
written proposal identifying any issues with the previous and precisely how
they were going to make improvements.  A
few sketches needed to also be presented.
Superficial proposals were rejected.  A few students offered vague promises that
they would simply “try harder”.  Those
girls were challenged to reassess their concept or to redesign it.  Everyone was notified that there would a
little less time allowed since the materials were no longer brand new to them. Armed
with the experiences of the previous three quarters and given a few performance
incentives, they really dove in to their work. 
The class fell into the most glorious vision of chaos as various
students worked with hand tools, power tools or simply their hands.  Some shaped wood, others bent wire. Various
volumes were created in paper mache, plaster, sandstone, soapstone, cardboard,
and sheet metal. My room was destroyed daily. 
An unexpected benefit was the diversity of projects led to more
individualized problem solving; no longer could a student mimic her neighbor’s
solution.
The original stand on the left took hours of building from cardboard
and clay. The revision on the right was much simpler.  The
second try had a better scale, was more elegant and
communicated more clearly.

The results were very strong, grades were raised,
self-confidence crept up. The clarity of idea and the quality of the work made my
grading much easier. A few students realized that a little more time spent in
conceptualizing and designing led to a stronger and more easily reached
conclusion. Hopefully, as we begin our final project, The Catholic Super Hero
figurine, the work will build upon stronger concepts.

Art and Literature in Real Life

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Art and Literature in Real Life

Kate and I collaborated on English I outside reading during the Fall Semester–Book Folder Reports.
As part of the assignment students created a marketing tool for each book they read–this was a colored folder that was decorated with cover art and included information on the book characters, plot and read-alikes.
For the cover art, students could print out or reproduce the cover on the book they read or they could create their own unique cover.
One student, Eunice Casa, was really attracted to this aspect of the assignment and came up with a unique cover for the book: Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zapia.
Original Bookcover
Even better than that, after the assignment was completed, Eunice continued to work on her art and eventually came up with a new version which she posted to Instagram (tagging the author).
Eunice with her Book Folder Project and the revised artwork post on Instagram.
Last week, Eunice came bouncing into the library with Kate to tell us that the author had seen her post and commented how much she “loved it”. This week Eunice came bouncing in again to tell us that the author had even re-posted Eunice’s artwork on her own account.
This intersection of art, literature and real life really made this student come alive this is why we do what we do. To have our students come alive–to further their studies on their own after being sparked by something in our classrooms.