Rosie Case

Unit Title: Community

Lesson Plan Title: Narratives through quilting

Grade Level: K-6

YOUR RATIONALE:

Everyone has different traditions within a community. Diversity is what creates a unique, interesting and vibrant community of people. Diversity is a difference, however through sharing your family and personal traditions helps to promote a sense of belonging and connection to a group of similar people.

KEY CONCEPT: diversity creates a unique community

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How does your family celebrate community? What traditions do you have within you family and community that make you unique? Does anyone else share those traditions?

ARTIST: Faith Ringgold

Key artwork: “Tar Beach”

Key ideas: Personal connections to family and community

Key art making strategies: quilt making

Importance of quilt making: cultural and art making importance

African American Quilting Today by Judy Anne Breneman

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/afam.htm

“Still it's hard to imagine that heritage hasn't had an impact on African American quilts. Surely their common experiences affected the taste of early African American quilters and there is no doubt that black women today are making striking quilts that reflect African culture. African American quilt historian, Cuesta Benberry, points out, "Quilters are making conscious and deliberate efforts to incorporate African themes in their works. Some persons begin by using African textiles in their quilts; others take courses in art history or engage in ambitious projects such a researching design tradition in a specific African tribes." 3

Overall we find that African American quilters today are eclectic in their approach including the making of quilts based on African textiles to others in the tradition of story quilts. Their quilts range from work with a strong African influence to traditional quilting. While some African Americans are producing stunning art quilts many are making quilts using the same new and old patterns that quilters in general enjoy.”

It’s also important for student’s to understand that you don’t have to limit art to paper or traditional canvas materials. Fabric, threads, yarn and quilting are all materials used in fiber arts.

RELATED STUDIO ACTIVITY

Key ideas: Diversity creates a strong community

Sub-ideas: Through our diversity, we can see how we are all different yet similar and share many common traits, ideas, and traditions.

Choice of media, subject matter, formal limitations: graphite, colored pencils, and torn paper borders

Personal connections: students can share their personal family traditions with the class through visual memories.

Description of the activity:

Students will draw a tradition that they have within their family. They will use colored pencils or markers to add color and torn paper to decorate the borders of their images. The final pieces of each student will be sewn together to create a quilt and the class will share and discuss how we come together as a whole community.

OBJECTIVES:

TSW create a visual of a tradition.

TSW discuss and evaluate how they fit within the community through this tradition.

TSW write a paragraph describing how traditions affect communities.

AREA OF INTEGRATION:

ART AND (your emphasis of area: Social Studies- the study of how people and their traditions affect the areas in which they live.

PREPARATION:

Read Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold.

Discuss traditions within communities-such as quilt making

PROCEDURE:

Day 1

Read story

Talk about personal traditions

Sketch ideas for quilt piece

Day 2

Draw on quilt piece

Decorate with color and torn paper

Day 3

View sewn quilt and critique

Review main ideas of tradition and community

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS:

Faith Ringgold “Tar Beach”

4”x4” paper per student

Construction paper scraps

Glue

Colored pencils

Graphite

Markers

Thread and needle

VOCABULARY:

Tradition: something that reoccurs in celebration of a certain person, event or day.

Quilt: creating a large artwork by piecing together separate squares of fabric (or other material)

Diversity: the term used to describe the relative uniqueness of each individual in a population.

Fiber Art: Artwork done in basketry, fiber, knitting, needlework, papermaking, quilting, sculpture, surface design, wearable art, and weaving.

FOLLOW-UP:

Display quilt in hallways and provide a written summary of each personal tradition.

Create one class quilt using real fabric and quilt making strategies.

EVALUATION AND RUBRICS:

Students will be evaluated on their participation in…

15%-Brainstorm sketches

40%-Quilt Piece

20%-Written Paragraph describing tradition

15%-Critique