The+Space+I'm+In

I'm working to get the pictures back up on this page...

Friday, April 22, 2011

In association with Intermediate Unit 1 and Mattress Factory museum, students in 7th grade spent the last week creating exciting, performance-based installation art with language arts integration. The Mattress Factory's education staff has developed a set of materials for students to create with. Through "The Space I'm In" project, students in participating school districts have access to these materials for a week. Educators from participating school districts planned installation art units with science, social studies, math and language arts integration content and took students on a field trip to tour the Mattress Factory. My collaboration with Mrs. D. Lancaster (7th Language Arts) was very fruitful. Students made connections between text and created important messages that were communicated through performance. Mrs. Lancaster spent Monday instructing language arts content. I spent Tuesday instructing arts content. Wednesday Mrs. Lancaster brought everything together and rehearsed each group's performance. On Thursday, the groups performed their skits, read their poems, rapped, sang, and exhibited their artwork. Here are some highlights. Our trip to the Mattress Factory museum on Friday, March 25, 2011

"The Space I'm In The Mattress Factory materials in our gymnasium being set up for presentations / performance on Thursday, April 21, 2011 All of the presentations fall under the heading of "how to make a difference in the world"

(//video coming soon//)
 * 1st Period's** message was anti-war, anti-fighting, and anti-bullying. The presentation included poems, slide show projections, and transparency slide projections all set to the song: "Where is the Love" by the Black-Eyed Peas,

(//video coming soon//) (//video coming soon//) art by: Christina Cupplo (//video coming soon//)
 * 2nd Period's** message included images from the recent tsunami in Japan and the current war in Libya. Students read a poem with excerpts written on poster board. The presentation was set to the song: "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson.
 * 5/6 Period's** message was split into two groups. One group tackled the issue of bullying again with a rap, a skit, video, and slide projections. The other group became superheroes in the fight against littering and pollution with a skit, computer art, poster art, and performance.
 * 6/7 Period's** message was about global warming and the ways a person can help prevent it. This group chose to read solutions from a student-made poster and change the lyrics of a well-known song to advocate for recycling. It was set to the song "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey.

The Cutting Room Floor... I would like to also note that the process of developing ideas yielded some very interesting outcomes that didn't necessarily make it into the productions. They are, none-the-less worth documenting. The following are images of what we started working on in class but didn't show the school.



Joe & Levy say the world is heavy with all this litter on it! _

Carter and Anthony need help cleaning up all this litter!

Josh wanted to imitate Paul Bunyan cutting down the inflatable palm tree 'til Ray said: "I've never seen a lumberjack chop down a palm tree. I'm just sayin'." Joe hugs the tree, instead. "Let's show the world what to recycle!" Sera says: "Riding a bike is Re-**cycling**!" "We can recycle the world!" ... and Justine was so inspired by James Turrell's light installations at MF she developed a light reflection installation that didn't make the final cut due to the space and set up in the gym (natural light was a problem).

//I hope you enjoyed seeing our week-long effort to create installation art and make connections to real world issues through language.//