Their Story So Far

New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1991)

Storytelling is, in my opinion, a very important part of our culture. Nowadays I think we allow others to tell our stories, whether through rap, hip-hop, and music videos or social media and standard media people unrelated to our own personal cultural histories create their versions of our scripts. There are modern organizations whose work is having an impact on this trend. I appreciate phenomenal and brave organizations like StoryCorps. I enjoy hearing the variety of personal stories done in interview style. They enrich my life and I'm sure the lives of others.
Storytelling has earned its place as the most important tradition we humans possess. Stories teach us to love, to forgive, to imagine a world outside of our own, and to strive for better than we have. The greatest stories ever told function as a reflection on the world we live in and of both the goodness and evil present in our world. Carpenter, “The Importance of Storytelling”, 2013, https://hslda.org/Contests/Essay

 

In this lesson, I used Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach as inspiration. She is best known for her narrative quilts, it is illustrated with flat figures and shapes, it's a genre style that is all her own. My high school students even allowed me to read them the book for the lesson hook. We all enjoyed the story from the eyes of Cassie Louise Lightfoot. Ringgold reflects upon her experiences growing up in Harlem, NY with narrative text and colorful painting.

I have to admit, it was really challenging to get the students to tell their stories. Most of them replied, "I don't have one." However, the students who were able to dig deep created stories about family cookouts, vacations, and childbirth.

Students were encouraged to use different writing processes, including strategies from the Writing To Win curriculum, and boy did I get some push-back. "Mih Hill, this is ART, not a writing class!" "But, how can we separate them?" I would reply. Below you can see a couple of examples of their drafts. I strive in EVERY lesson to demonstrate to students that art is not just fluff, because the general perception of art in education is that it is insignificant.

The duration of this project was six weeks. They had to talk with family members, and write a draft; next they researched photos, and illustrated the story; then they transferred the drawings onto the cotton duck fabric, and finally, begin painting. If I ever teach this again I will use nine weeks, or perhaps an entire semester, because I discovered that the students required more time. Additionally, only really committed students were able to complete a painting. The quilting aspect wasn't realized. Nevertheless, the process and product deepened the students' skills in a variety of subjects.