Radiant Child: Learning about Basquiat

I have always been a fan of the artist Basquiat. I saw an exhibit of his work when I was in college and was fascinated with his story. He, much like Frida Kahlo, experienced a painful accident in his youth. To help him deal with the anxiety of it all he started studying medical books and learning about how bones and muscles worked. He incorporated that knowledge into many of his works.

As a teen, he started spray painting the most incredible graffiti people in New York had seen. That was actually how he was discovered. This book:

talks about his life growing up and how he developed natural talents. He was encouraged by his mother to pursue the arts.

We looked at some of the works by this artist and discussed how even paintings that are scary and even ugly can also be beautiful. We talked about how art is defined.

Then the kids drew using some of the techniques Basquiat incorporated-he used a crown to denote respect and often drew bones/skulls:

The Big Idea of Love

Our writing prompt for February's class book is about the Big Idea of Love. It's challenging to define a word that we use every day. I asked my students to write about what love was without using the word "love". Here's what they came up with:

Hard to argue with that one, right? :) 

If Martin Luther King Was Alive Today

I strive to give my students different ways to show what they are learning. We have been learning all about MLK's contributions to our society. I asked my students to pretend he never got shot-that he was alive today. What would he say? What would he do?

Here are their responses:

I Have a Dream, from the Perspective of Title 1 Students

We have been learning all about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. We watched the footage of his favorite " I Have a Dream" speech. I asked my students to write about what they dream would change in the world. Their answers are just heartbreaking to me. These are 5 year olds growing up in poverty with all the issues that come along with that. We recently had a shooting here where a little girl was killed as the assailants shot into her mom's car. One of my students wanted to write "I have a dream that babies do not get shot". Oh my goodness, I think my heart broke in two.

for people to be good.

people take care of the trees.

people don't kill people.

animals be safe.

the world is beautiful

everyone can sit in the front.

everyone had a family

no one get shot

that things would be fair

people stop killing each other

don't build a wall

people stop fighting

Using Photographs to Teach Current Events

Growing up I had no interest in history or politics. I am ashamed to say that the first time I voted, I had no idea what the difference was between a Republican and a Democrat. I just voted the opposite of my parents. :) 

I think today with the 24 hour news cycle plus all the stories shared on social media, our students are much more aware of things going on in the world. A well-rounded education should include these stories. In our class we focus on current events at least once a week and we do this often by using photographs. Let me preface this by saying, I think it's really important for us as educators to keep our opinions on events to ourselves. The students are forming their own opinions and I never criticize how they might feel about an issue.

 Photographs-- I get my photos from MSNBC's This Week in Pictures site. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/week-in-pictures   They cull photos from different newspapers around the world. Political events, human interest stories, pictures depicting different cultures are all featured. I have a huge powerpoint of these photos uploaded to Dropbox-if you e-mail me, I'd be glad to share the link.

Here are some ways I use them (I'm presenting on the topic for a district conference so it was easiest for me just to do screenshots of my ideas):

I ask the students to write what the people might be saying or thinking in speech bubbles. Sometimes we label it with a title or caption. Here is an example of one we did this week.

These students are going to have a lot of problems to solve in society when they grow up . Let's give them a foundation in what is happening around the world so they will be prepared to do just that!