Lost Notebook

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Branding kids

http://go2c.sm/2kea

In Search of a Backpack, Minus the Brand
In Consumerism by Sierra Filucci, on 08.03.11

The summer before my daughter started kindergarten was filled with firsts. First summer camp, first swimming lessons, first back-to-school shopping. Thanks to a school uniform policy, clothes were the easy part, but finding a backpack turned out to be an adventure -- not only did we visit countless stores in our search, but we learned a lot about which media brands were working overtime to catch my 5-year-old's eye.

With back-to-school shopping raking in more than $30 billion a year for retailers, it's a prime time to target both parents and kids. And advertisers know that the earlier a kid learns about a brand -- whether it be McDonald's or Tinker Bell -- the more likely she'll be to buy it or beg for it later.

Barbie tries to befriend my daughter
Our first stops were the usual big box stores; there we found backpacks swimming in a sea of sparkly pink, where characters from TV shows and movies frolicked joyfully on the racks. TheHannah Montana backpacks glittered, the Barbie backpacks glowed, My Little Pony peeked her pastel head out behind racks of shimmery Tinker Bell bags. My daughter barely knew any of the characters, but she was an eager recruit, repeating "I want this one!" with every turn of her head.

Now, I have no problem with pink (I used to avoid it, but now I realize it's the least of my problems). But I have a real issue with suiting my kids up in logos and brand names, doing the work of advertisers and paying for the privilege. I know my kids will already be exposed to some 25,000 TV ads before the age of 11, and I'm not interested in hurrying along the process. I'm also not interested in cementing their attachments to heavily marketed characters. It's a slippery slope, I fear, where one character on a backpack quickly becomes a pencil case, a T-shirt, and eventually I'm kissing her good night under a character-emblazoned bedspread.

Mommy says no, and then yes
So I stuck to my guns. "No characters" became my mantra, and despite some frustrated whines, my daughter resolved herself to finding a bag without faces or writing. As difficult as our search became, I was buoyed by the idea that I was teaching my daughter to be a critical consumer, one who can distinguish between pretty and pre-packaged.

At the end of the day, I decided to pop into the sporting goods store. And that's where we found it. It's pink, yes, but completely free of TV tie-ins. She won't see its pretty floral pattern reproduced on a movie screen or a fast food advertisement. When she put it on, her face broke into a giant grin, and she didn't even need to say it -- I knew she wanted it. And I did, too.

How to be a critical back-to-school consumer

* Have a game plan. Expect to encounter lots of kid-targeted advertising, and figure out your stance before you get to the store. My backpack mantra was "no characters," but you could also use "no words or logos," "no violent images," or any simple phrase that you won't mind repeating a hundred times but that clearly articulates your limits.

* Seize the teaching moment. Discuss the tools marketers use to influence kids to buy or beg for something. Turn it into a game where kids try to figure out what product an ad is representing or what symbol marketers decided was popular with kids this year (rainbows! skulls! owls!).

* Look for alternatives to big box stores. Online stores, mom and pops, thift stores, Etsy -- any of these choices offers the chance to find something unique, creative, or even personalized.

* Talk to other parents. Ask other parents for tips on where to find certain goods and which stores to avoid. (After an early encounter with Bratz panties, I became a willing dispenser of underwear-shopping advice to parents at my daughter's preschool.)

* Prepare for disappointment (or at least compromise). Some kids may be so focused on a Barbie backpack or a LEGO lunchbox that they're willing to throw the mother of all tantrums to get it. Only you can decide which battles are worth waging. Remember that kids move on quickly -- almost as quickly as they lose backpacks.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

ESOL : Integrating Art and Language

I recently connected with Georgia McKenna, a teacher from Boston Public Schools, through this blog. Georgia wanted to know more about how I was integrating art with writing in my writing classes at Art at the Center. This prompted me to describe in detail what I am doing in the Art, Science, and Spanish class (see previous post).

Childhood memory, torn paper technique
(Georgia McKenna's class, Boston Public Schools)

Georgia McKenna has a degree in visual art and is certified in ESL (English as a second language). She started teaching five years ago, after working as a corporate advertising and public relations manager, a professional artist, technical writer, among other interesting jobs that help bring the outside world into her classroom. "I love [teaching]. My years of business/writing experience, raising children, and making art have come together in a very compelling way," she says.

"Self-portrait" by Ernesto (part of "My Immigration Story" narrative)
(Georgia McKenna's class, Boston Public Schools)

Last year, Georgia approached virtually everything she taught through art. She says, "The stories my students have to tell are stunning. Really."

Keiri's story is part of a larger assignment called "My immigration story." The students kept journals, shared them in class, and discussed them at length. They read each others' work-in-progress, gave one another constructive criticism, and shared in the creative experience.

"The writing project was officially a personal narrative, to include beginning, middle, and end; real people, events, and places; use specific details and examples. Creating equally detailed art to go along with their writing was something I added as a way to express their experiences without words." The idea was that the experiences expressed in the artwork could be discussed, named, or written about later. For each piece of writing students created a RAFT: Role (yourself), Audience (other students), Form (personal narrative), Topic (When My Abuelita Died).

When My Grandmother Died

It was a sunny day and my aunt told me to rock my grandmother in the hammock. Abuelita was not talking, she was sleeping.

I was singing a song to my Abuelita when she was sleeping. One week before she died she say to us that we are her special babies, her "ninos especiales".

The day she was going to die I was one hour rocking and singing to her in the hammock. I went to see my Tia and I say that Abuelita was sleeping. Tia told me to go to the store and buy bread. My Tia rinsed her face and she went to the living room and felt my Abuelita's wrist.

My Abuelita had died.

My Tia screamed to my Mama to call Tio Chico and I went through the door and my Mama was crying. My Tio scream to my other Tio Azucena run to see my Abuelita. Everyone in the town went to the house to see my Abuelita. My Tia Ana went to the Funeraria to get the casket to put Abuelita in. My Tia dressed Abuelita in a white dress and a bouquet of fake flowers.

Then in the night when the people went to the house to pray, my Tias and Tios were crying because my Abuelita was dead. We stayed two days in the house. The third day we went to the cemetery. First we went to the Catholic Church and the Priest put holy water into the casket. We prayed. We all went to the cemetery and the car that Abuelita was in played church music. The people walked in the sun, it was so hot, and walked in front of the car. We stopped in front of the grave and a man put Abuelita in the ground. A Sister of the Church sang a song and prayed for my Abuelita. All my family was saying goodbye to Abuelita. I love you.

They opened the casket and my Mama and Tia put a candle and a box of matches in. They put Abuelita in the grave. I wanted to die with my Abuelita. My primo held me. I threw flowers on top of the casket. All my family was crying. They put dirt on top of the casket so nobody can open it. They put the cross at the grave. We took photos to send to my family in America. When we were finished we went to the house and ate and the people went to the house to pray for my Abuelita.

I miss my Abuelita with all of my heart.

Next year, Georgia will be starting something new: ESL through Art. Her principal gave her a spacious hallway to turn into an art room, using the girls' room for storage. "Our school is over 100 years old, and we are bursting at the seams with students," says Georgia.

Georgia's budget for supplies is minimal, so she has found some support through private foundations. She working hard this summer to get her "room" ready. She is currently looking for tables, stools, and more to pull her "classroom" together in order to be ready for the first day of school come September.

You can contact Georgia McKenna directly via her email: georgiamckenna@gmail.com

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Art, Science, & Spanish

In "Art, Science, and Spanish" the students made tri-fold animal riddle books.

When working with a foreign language--in this case Spanish--I find researching and writing non-fiction books easier than reading and writing fiction books. The language is more straightforward, there usually aren't any metaphors or similes (which might not translate culturally), and the vocabulary tends to be relatively contained.

For example, when focusing on animals, vocabulary for colors, textures, locomotion, and reproduction are words the students would encounter time and again.

STEP 1: Observe

An alligator eye

I read the students animal books that revealed only one part of the whole animal at a time. They listened to facts about that animal (in Spanish), and tried to guess what animal it might be. When I turned the page, the whole animal was revealed, they its name (in Spanish), and listened to more facts about it.

Students heard me ask them same questions over and over for each animal.

(For example: Que color es? Donde vive? Que come?)

Porcupine paw

As students listened about and guessed animals in the books, they became familiar with certain phrases, such as "it lives" and "it eats" (vive en.... come...).

The students were asked to pay close attention to detail, such as the textures, colors, and features of the animal, such as claws (garras).

STEP 2: Model drawing and painting

Attention to detail

From this picture of a robin, I illustrated an eye (un ojo) and a section of a wing (una ala). We discussed the colors, and noticed that there was more than one shade of each.

I demonstrated how to use oil pastels, and then paint over them with water colors. The water colors allow you to create many shades of one color, and blending looks super cool!

The students were asked to choose an animal they would "make a commitment to" for the duration of the class (so, choose wisely!). Then they began their illustrations: the cover (animal covering), one feature (an eye, or a paw/flipper/hoof/etc.), and the whole animal in its habitat.

Some students remarked they had never noticed so many colors on a "solid color" animal, such as a green frog.

One student had difficulty recreating such a small detail--such as an eye--onto such a large piece of paper. I took a sheet of paper and cut out a small square so that all that was visible of the animal was that one part she wanted to recreate. This also worked for focusing on a small area of the animal covering.

STEP 3: Generate a community word bank

Personal word bank (alphabet book)

I printed out alphabet books for each student--a BIG letter, followed by three or four blank lines. Because we worked in Spanish, I didn't print some letters (K, W) and added N-squiggly (enye), as well as phonemes (such as Ch, Ll, Qu).

We generated words as a class for our community word bank. We started with words and phrases needed to describe the robin (feathers, beak, lays eggs, flies).

Because we were working in a language the students were still learning, I wrote the verbs in the infinitive, and these were copied into their word banks (volar, cantar, poner huevo).

STEP 4: Research

Using an organizer (optional) to take notes

I gave the students an organizer (a Microsoft Word template) to write down interesting facts about their animals. I asked the 4th graders to find twelve facts--but they were so excited they all found about twenty! I asked the 1st and 2nd graders to find find five or six facts--but they each found twelve!

Researching facts in Spanish and/or English

To make sure the students had enough information, I went to the library and checked out one or two books on their animal. I got books in Spanish when I could, but some were in English. I also brought some of my own books in Spanish if they applied. Students also had access to the internet to find answers to specific questions that wasn't in books I had for them. (I typed in the searches with and viewed the pages before allowing them to access the them.) So as not hand them the answers, I provided three or four web pages (tabs) for them to read through and find the answers to their questions.

These rising 4th grade Spanish immersion students took notes in Spanish

If the students COULD take notes in Spanish, I encouraged that (these rising FCPS Spanish immersion boys going into 4th grade could)--but I didn't want language to be an obstacle at this point. If they read in SPanish and wrote in English, or read in English and wrote half Spanish and hal English, that was fine. This was their research, their chance to get to know their animal and what they thought was most interesting about it.

STEP 5: Writing, editing, and recopying

An introduction to rules of conjugation (Goal: Awareness, not mastery)

I posted this verb chart on the wall, but didn't get into explaining it (until it was relevant, I saw no point in it).

As a class we came up with five facts about the robin (in Spanish) in first person and I wrote them on the wall (for example, "I lay blue eggs").

An introduction to the concept of regular and irregular verbs
(Learning a foreign language helps you reflect on your own language's grammar rules)

Once we had five sentences up, I referred to the first verb chart. I changed the verb endings according to the rules (if they were regular). If they were irregular, I referred to the other chart.

I knew this was confusing, so I told them to write their verbs in the infinitive. My goal at this point was just to familiarize them with the idea that their verbs would change when we edited their writing.

Students relied on books, the web, dictionaries, the teacher, and each other

The students took the facts from their organizers and wrote five sentences (in Spanish) in first person. They had access to an online bilingual dictionary as well as paper dictionaries, me, and each other to ask words they did not know. New words were added to their personal dictionaries. I asked them to the best they could. If they wrote parts in English, that was fine. The goal here was to try to write in Spanish and learn new words to express themselves. They each worked to their ability.

These five sentences in first person would be the riddle part of the book.

1st student makes corrections to her writing after editing with the teacher
2nd student neatly copies second draft of her writing onto her book page

I edited one-on-one with the students as they finished their five sentences. I was surprised that some of them had attempted the conjugations by referring to the chart and done them correctly. I pointed out the endings of the infinitives and how to use the chart--and which chart (regular or irregular). When they returned to me a second time--after the words were all in Spanish and the verbs conjugated--we looked at sentence structure and word order (which is different in Spanish) and punctuation.

Students then recopied their writing neatly onto a book page.

When the writing for the riddle page was completed, we moved on to the acrostic poem. They wrote the animal's name (PETIRROJO) in capital letters, vertically. Once again they did their best to write in Spanish, this time beginning each sentence with the corresponding letter of the animal's name. They wrote in first or/and third person, and were more familiar with how to use the verb chart. (For example, for "ROBIN" the poem might begin: Races through the blue sky.)

After tese sentences were edited and rewritten, they were copied in neat handwriting onto a book page.

This non-immersion student learned a ton!

Once the writing was completed, the pages were decorated.

The students wrote an "About the Author and Illustrator" page where, once again, they used first person verb conjugations.

MURCIELAGOS acrostic poem

Finally, the tri-fold book was put together in an order that did not reveal the animal until the last page!

An "extra facts" book page about bats

Most of the students wrote MORE than they were asked to! They worked quickly to add more pages to their tri-fold books--with more facts and another picture. This made folding it a little challenging!

An "extra facts" page about red-tailed rat serpents

An "extra facts" book page about sea turtles

I ran out of time to photograph the completed books! I was amazed at HOW MUCH the students learned in just three days. We worked three days in a row for 2.5 hours each day. Ir was a lot of FUN!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Art & the Writing Process: Kids at Work! May 2011

Artists at work! Oil pastels and watercolors...

Experiencing the writing and illustration process together, week after week, contributes to a "safe" environment for sharing and a feeling of belonging