Lesson Reflection
The seventh graders studied the theme of personal symbolism in the work of artist, El Anatusi. We looked at the way language can be communicated through images or symbols and reflected how sybmols relate to an individual both personally and culturally. During the artmaking activity, students were asked to brainstrom and design a visual symbol to represent a social or environmental concern they wanted to express to their school community. Many students incorporated universal symbols such as leaves, flowers, water drops, flames, hearts, and the peace sign while others chose more personal symbols. Though this was a small group, the wide range of symbols reflected the diverse thinking students employed while relating personal meaning to their school culture. This artmaking activity also exposed students to the idea of visual literacy which can be described as the ability to interpret and develop meaning from information presented in a visual form. Under this idea, it can be interpreted that pictures can be "read" and meanings can be communicated by reading textless artifacts such as paintings, pictures, and symbols. Once the designs were created, students used a relief printmaking process to create the final artworks on various recycled papers. The individual artworks were then assembled with colored wire and added to the concentric shapes created by the sixth grade class to create one free-form mandala.
It was such a pleasure to work with this group of thoughtful individuals. They embraced this lesson and became true environmental stewards and environmental student-activists as they questioned what role symbols play in daily communication. Please visit the group mandala tab under middle school for photographs of the completed artwork.
Click a photo to enlarge.
The seventh graders studied the theme of personal symbolism in the work of artist, El Anatusi. We looked at the way language can be communicated through images or symbols and reflected how sybmols relate to an individual both personally and culturally. During the artmaking activity, students were asked to brainstrom and design a visual symbol to represent a social or environmental concern they wanted to express to their school community. Many students incorporated universal symbols such as leaves, flowers, water drops, flames, hearts, and the peace sign while others chose more personal symbols. Though this was a small group, the wide range of symbols reflected the diverse thinking students employed while relating personal meaning to their school culture. This artmaking activity also exposed students to the idea of visual literacy which can be described as the ability to interpret and develop meaning from information presented in a visual form. Under this idea, it can be interpreted that pictures can be "read" and meanings can be communicated by reading textless artifacts such as paintings, pictures, and symbols. Once the designs were created, students used a relief printmaking process to create the final artworks on various recycled papers. The individual artworks were then assembled with colored wire and added to the concentric shapes created by the sixth grade class to create one free-form mandala.
It was such a pleasure to work with this group of thoughtful individuals. They embraced this lesson and became true environmental stewards and environmental student-activists as they questioned what role symbols play in daily communication. Please visit the group mandala tab under middle school for photographs of the completed artwork.
Click a photo to enlarge.