- INVENTING INTERSECTIONS -

Art - English - Information Technology
We shall not cease from exploration:

And the end of all our exploring.

Will be to arrive where we started.

And know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding" in Four Quartets

I Main Street Education Centre

II Students

III Teachers

IV Rationale

V History

VI Goals

VII Evaluation

VIII Process

IX Results

X Other Art-English Collaborations

XI Handouts given to students

I MAIN STREET EDUCATION CENTRE IS:

A public and (in part) market-driven institution with a specific mandate to provide academic high school completion, enabling its graduates to enter colleges, technical training institutes and universities. A vital link between:

1. our students and Canadian culture.
2. between their use of language and their competency.
3. between their ambitions and their independence.

II OUR STUDENTS:

Typically are 17 to 30 years of age, from all sectors of society, native English speakers and former ESL students (mainly Asian) who have not been able to complete their senior high school graduation requirements during the standard three years.

III THE TEACHERS:

Ken Buis, B.A. (Information Technology)
Bob Mallett, M.A. (English)
Alex Sainas, BFA (Art)

IV THE RATIONALE:

Students need to experience practical situations requiring them to communicate on different levels at the same time: write, draw / use a graphics program, and consult with each other (during a peer-editing). In addition, they need to connect academics with the community, hence the use of field trips.

V A BRIEF HISTORY:

This evolving project began with a conversation between Bob Mallett and Alex Sainas on ways to break down the artificial boundaries between English and art to improve our students' communication skills. Since we embarked on this project, we have used Thronton Park, Granville Island, Stanley Park, and the Vancouver Art Gallery (four VAG exhibits - 'Down from the Shimmering Sky,' 'Emily Carr,' 'Toulouse Lautrec,' and 'Face to Face').
Each time we have devised a different English assignment and an art (later music and computer) project created to form a circle: first, view a scene or painting; second, write about it according to set criteria; third, exchange writings, using visual clues to create a drawing/graphic; fourth, explore orally in a group the connections between written and visual interpretations of the scene or painting.

VI THE GOAL: To establish links between observation, written expression, and visual expression using written description, chalk and a computer graphics program, as well as to encourage oral interaction and co-operation in achieving common goals.

VII THE BENEFITS TO STUDENTS:

1. write for a specific purpose.
2. write for a practical purpose.
3. discuss their writing with a student editor.
4. publish written and visual art work - on walls of school and on school web-site in a computer slide show.
5. improve reading skills by becoming aware of the need to choose words, details of setting and characterization.
6. appreciate that writing, visual art and computers, distinct modes of communicating, are interconnectedness.
7. select from the real world those elements that will help create the fictive world of their drawing and writing.
8. observe and respond in writing and drawing.
9. use computer graphics program to create visual art.
10. interact on 3 levels -interpersonal, institutional, community.

(an example of the process using the Vancouver Art Gallery's "Face to Face" Exhibit):

First Class: Introduction of Project (45 min.)

- Alex introduces fundamentals of art to combined English/art class.
- Bob introduces writing assignment and required terms.
- Ken introduces graphic design option for art assignment.

Second Class: Visit Vancouver Art Gallery to view 'Face to Face' Exhibit (2 hrs)

- Teachers introduce assignment before touring exhibit.
- Students and teachers tour exhibit.
- Each student selects one painting that interests him/her.
- Student writes notes creating a personality for the subject of the painting from visual clues in the painting.
- Student writes a one-page essay proving that the person depicted could have the personality traits identified (homework).

Third Class: Editing of Writing / Drawing Session (2 hrs)

- In pairs, students exchange writing and read each other's work, clarifying their partner's work by asking questions (i.e. by editing) until they are confident they can compose a clear description of the subject's personality using only the written clues.
- After selecting either chalk or the computer graphics program, students draw using the written description.
- For homework, students revise their writing using the information provided by their partner's comments, creating a final typed draft.

Fourth Class: Deconstructing Visual and Written Work (1 hr)

- Volunteers have their art exhibited in front of combined class as teacher reads aloud the written work from which the drawing was created.
- Teachers comment positively on the connections between written description and the visual (either on paper or on screen).
- Students ask questions of artist and writer.
- Art and writing is displayed in halls, on web-site and in a tv slide show.

X THE RESULTS

Students realize the benefits of writing and drawing, whether they are enrolled in English, art or computers. Their confidence in speaking, writing and drawing rises, as does their self-esteem. In writing, their ability to use images is increased, as are their abilities to organize a description, to offer proof to support their opinions, and to edit. Most of all, students recognize the interconnectedness of the different modes of expression, and experience the benefits of co-operation.

- Other Art-English Collaborations -

I. Art and Writing: Painted Poems (used by Bob Mallett at a previous school)

Purpose: to respond in written form to sounds, smells, light and touch sensations associated with a number of 20th century images. Based on multi-sensory association, students select music and create 'colour poems' or 'painted haikus' to fit a selected painting. They are asked to defend their choices orally and in written form, usually an essay.
Process: proceeds like a round: Each group of 5 students begins by finding a spot in front of an art reproduction - a variety of which are hung around the room. Underneath each reproduction is paper and pen on which to record responses. Responses can vary depending on the class and emphasis being placed on the activity but typically students are asked to identify sounds that we could expect to hear in the painting, or to tell what the people depicted are saying to each other, or to describe the texture of the clothing worn by a person depicted or of objects in the painting, or to identify the mood of the painting.
Once a student has responded, she/he folds the paper so that their response can't influence the next student. Student then moves on to the next painting and repeats the process. Responses for each painting are then revealed to class. In groups or as a class, students select the most accurate assessments, justifying their choices. In writing, students express themselves in various ways, including description, dialogue, narrative and persuasive essay. If enough time is available, students may take the writing of another student and, using only clues from the writing, draw whatever is presented to them in the writing.
Publication of student work is always encouraged.

II. Art and Writing: The Thronton Park Approach

This approach uses approximately 2.5 periods of 2 hours each. A is distributed, including questions students can ask themselves as prompts for visual component (see below).
First session (45-60 minutes): the art teacher presents ways of expressing emotion (line, shape, colour...) in a drawing; the English teacher presents the writing project and any literary terms required. The project outline is distributed to students (see Attachments).

We ask students to consider questions like those below before beginning to draw or write:

1. How does the season and type of weather affect our perceptions or those of the people/characters in the scene?
2. How does the time of day and the quality of light affect what we create?
3. What sounds most characterize this scene?
4. What smells and/or tastes affect the mood of the scene?
5. What season of the year suits this scene best? Why?
6. What effects do the vertical and horizontal lines have on our attitude toward this scene?
7. Who would you be most surprised to see walking across the park? Why?
8. What mood are you in as a result of looking at the scene? Which colours in the scene you're looking at contribute to making you feel the way you do?
9. Do any of the people you see help make you feel enthusiastic? reflective? joyful? depressed? curious....?
10. How has being in this scene affected your mood?
11. In which direction are you facing? Why have you chosen to face in this direction?<,br> 12. what attracts you most: the buildings, the people, the landscape, the background?

Second session (2 hours): students and teacher(s) meet at a nearby open space (in our case, Thronton Park, adjacent to the west side of the train station) where they are given drawing materials, divided into groups according to the direction in which they will be facing, and reminded of their purpose in recording what they see. At the end of the session students either return to class (if time permits) or their work is collected by the teacher who takes it back to the school. Of course, students may take their work home with them, if this is convenient. Students are also reminded to complete their writing project - to write a description creating the same mood as in their drawing by using concrete images - at least in rough draft form, for the next class.
Third session (60 minutes minimum): is a convening of both art and English classes for the purpose of having the teachers lead a discussion critiquing volunteers' work: the goal is to appreciate the strengths of students' work, to identify the connections they have made between art and writing, and to explore the choices students have made in their visual and verbal productions. Afterward, students publish their final work by hanging them on the walls of the school.
If the English teacher wishes to evaluate all students' writing, she/he should ensure that separate copies submitted before 'publishing.' For further publication, students' work can be submitted to the school's magazine, newspaper or local newspaper.

III. Art and Writing: The Vancouver Art Gallery Approach

We have used this approach with the "Down from the Shimmering Sky," the new Emily Carr exhibit, the Toulouse Lautrec and the "Face to Face" (see above) exhibits. The time required is approximately 2.5 classes of 2 hours each. Although the writing assignment can vary (description, character sketch, story, or essay), the sequence remains consistent. The following example uses an image/mood assignment.
Note that the VAG is very cooperative, providing materials and teacher-orientation sessions for each exhibit (including a booklet and poster). Students must pay a $3 entrance fee, so we encourage students to tell us if they can't afford to pay (so far no one has asked us to pay); as a result, our school pop fund remains intact.
The pre-planning session (45 minutes): includes, first, an introduction to the techniques of viewing (including what to draw), and to drawing with charcoal and pencil. It also includes an introduction to techniques of description, and literary terms: image, diction and mood (also metaphor, simile, personification).

The Vancouver Art Gallery session (1 full class): students meet in the foyer, pick up copies of the guide to the exhibit, then view the exhibit. After considering all paintings, each student chooses one that has made a special impact on her/him, then makes notes on the selected painting as a basis for the writing assignment. This assignment is:

Using images, metaphors, similes and/or personifications to describe the objects in the painting, recreate the mood of the painting. (An extension could be: If one of the objects in the painting were to be defined as a symbol, which one would it be, and what would it represent?)
Students are to complete a first draft for the next class, the in-class session.
The in-class drawing session (approximately 45 minutes): The students exchange writing assignments and edit each other's, then, using its images and mood, draw their own interpretation of the mood of their partner's painting (and, inevitably, of the objects described, although this isn't emphasized since the goal is to recreate the mood using another student's writing). At the end of the session, students hang the art in the school hallways along with the writing that inspired it. For homework, students write a final draft.
The critique session (30 minutes): This can be an extension of the drawing session, if the period is long enough. Final drafts of writing are handed in prior to beginning the critiques. In this session, the emphasis is on making connections between the student's writing and drawing: students should be encouraged to see how a feeling (mood) can be translated from the visual to the written and back to the visual, and that each interpretation has its own validity.
Students tour their own exhibition, select one drawing that best fits the accompanying writing, and present their reasons for their choice during this session. Note: we have found it useful to avoid making this procedure a popularity contest by undertaking considerable responsibility for critiquing. Students are nervous enough without a stray negative comment piercing someone's pride. Students' nervousness, however, dissolves into smiles as the teachers find some interesting connection between every writer's and artist's interpretation.

IV. Art-Writing-Music: An approach presented at the Southill Education

Centre professional development day (February, 1998)
The central goal of this variation is to establish the links between observation, written expression, visual and musical expression through identification and creation of MOOD.

The benefits to students include increased awareness of:

1. the deliberateness of authors' choices of words, details of setting, and characterization;
2. the interconnectedness of visual art, music and writing;
3. the need to select from the real world only those elements that will help create the fictive world of their drawing and writing. (Art as selected reality.)

Overview of the Process:

In groups of two, students
1. listen to a musical selection in order to establish the mood of the piece.
2. write the mood on a piece of paper, ensuring that it is specific (avoiding vague terms like 'sad' or 'happy').
3. Using the mood identified in the music, and perhaps using ideas that occurred to the student while listening, they write a description of a place that inspires a similar mood. Images and diction are to be selected with care and reckless abandon.

Methods of Presentation:

1. Place examples of reproductions, drawing materials, writing materials on tables.
2. If music to be introduced for the purpose of appreciation, then have a tape of selected instrumental music created by the music teacher (variety of periods, textures, paces, instrumentation, and especially moods).
3. Students select one piece of music that most suits their painting, perhaps one that evokes its mood.
4. Students then asked to respond individually to paintings by answering set questions in point form, then by writing a
- description, story or poem based on their responses (each group member to write using another group member's point form list), or
- research the artist's biography, or the history of the period and country.
5. 'Publication' occurs when each group presents (and defends) to the rest of the group the connections they have perceived. (Don't worry, we always find at least one connection.)

1. Provide a series of photos - each group is given one for which to establish its mood or tone.
2. Group (either as individuals or collectively) creates drawing, music (found instruments) and a piece of writing that integrates all 3 with the mood of the photograph.
3. Process could vary, except that the photograph (or other visual) must be presented first. Goal: combine all elements to create one integrated unit.

XII THE FUTURE:

We are exploring the possibility of presenting a combined course offering English 12, Western Civilization and Art 11/12.
We will be presenting the Art-English approach to a district-wide Vancouver School Board professional day next year (2000-2001).

XIII ATTACHMENTS:

The following pages are student assignment sheets the students receive. We hope that teachers will use and modify them to take advantage of their own readily available materials.

Emily Carr Exhibit
Writing Assignment

This writing project is intended to be both
1. a response to your viewing of Emily Carr's paintings.
2. an inspiration for a drawing by one of your classmates.

Before you begin your writing, answer ONE of the following two sets of questions. Choose the one you're most comfortable with, which may not be the shorter one. Write your responses on a separate sheet.

1. What attracted you to this painting?
2. Why do you think the painter wanted to paint it?

1. Identify one central feature (a line, shape, form, texture, colour, space, or movement) that is emphasized.
2. If you were standing in this picture, what emotion would you be feeling?
3. Using images (words that express sight, sound, smell, hearing and/or touch), describe the mood of the painting.
4. If one of the objects in the painting were to be defined as a symbol, which one would it be, and what would it represent?

Once you have completed these preliminary questions, follow these instructions:

1. Stand or sit in front of the painting you have selected, writing ideas for the following:
Using specific diction, describe the scene accurately in words that establish the mood of the painting. Remember that your description will be used by another student to draw an interpretation of what you have said. This interpretation will not necessarily be a copy of the painting, although it may be. Whether it is an imitation of a painting or an original drawing, the artist will attempt to imitate the mood of your writing.
2. For homework, complete a rough and final draft of your description. On the back of your final draft, write the name of the emotion you were trying to suggest in your description. Avoid words like sadness or happiness, which are too vague to be much of a challenge. Instead, try: anger, joy, tension, nervousness, fearfulness, brooding, relief, restlessness.... Remember - a mood is an emotion.

Toulouse-Lautrec

The Goals of this Project Include:

1. exploration of a visual work of art for mood and character
2. application of viewing strategies to generate and shape written ideas.
3. connection of mood and character in a one-page description.
4. transformation of a written description into a visual format.

After touring the Vancouver Art Gallery's Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition, you will be asked to explore the mood and character of the individuals represented in Lautrec's posters, most of which were created as advertisements for the performer illustrated.

The Assignment:

1. Select a poster that appeals to you. Study the figure in it until you can suggest both the character's mood and her/his personality. In doing this, you should consider the character's:

facial expression
posture
style of hair
style of clothing

Hint: Lautrec's use of line, colour and shape reveal much about the feelings and the personality of the character in the poster.

2. As you look at the poster, create a list of the character's personality traits and write one sentence in which you identify her/his mood in the poster.

3. Explore the personality of the character by imagining her/him in today's world, in a situation that fits her/his personality and mood. Be sure to establish her/his occupation, hobby/favourite activity, and other characteristics like whether she/he likes pets, prefers apartments to houses, and any other interesting feature of this character's personality. Be sure to locate her/him in a specific place in Vancouver, a place where she/he might be expected to feel comfortable.

4. For your next class, write a one-page 'scene' in which you describe the character doing something, perhaps with another character, that recreates the mood of the character in the poster. Your chief purpose is to create the MOOD of the character in the poster you chose.

Remember that character is revealed by:
what people say and think,
what they do,
what others say about them,
what the narrator says about them,
their physical appearance, and the surroundings in which they appear.

A Challenge Assignment
Use the character sketch (together with any other character you wish to create) as the protagonist or antagonist of a very short story (maximum 1-2 typed pages, single-spaced).

'Down from the Shimmering Sky' English 12 and Visual Art Assignment

The goals of this project include:

1. exploring diverse points-of-view to develop or modify viewpoints
2. applying strategies from viewing of art to generate and shape written ideas
3. connecting values, beliefs and cultures in art to your own writing.

After viewing the Vancouver Art Gallery and touring the Down from the Shimmering Sky exhibition, you will be asked to participate in the following activities. The activities are intended to explore the meaning of the Native masks and the mythology they represent, so you should keep in mind the following:

As a masked dancer...I am somewhere else. I am totally and completely alone. My universe is the mask over my face. I am the mask. I am the bird. I am the animal. I am the fish. I am the spirit. I visualize my dance.

Masks make the supernatural world visible.

The Writing Assignment

Select a mask that appeals to you. Study it until you can suggest what its personality would be if it were a character in a story. First, write a list of the personality traits this mask/character would have in the story. Second, write brief descriptions of the character's:

physical characteristics (especially of the face)
personality traits
occupation
hobby or favourite activity
his/her lover's/wife's/husband's personality
his/her reactions to at least 3 situations (an accident, the death of a friend, the winning of the lottery, an unexpected problem...)
reactions to one other situation of your choice

Third, write a one-page (typed) character sketch that provides a clear picture in which the reader can SEE and HEAR the character, understanding his/her personality.
Due: __________________

Optional Opportunity:

Use your character sketch (together with any other mask-character you wish) as the protagonist or antagonist of a story (maximum 1 typed page, single-spaced). Hand the finished draft to Bob Mallett, who will submit it for publication to The Main Source, Main Street's newsletter.

Sequence of Project:

1. Combined class:

Alex - introduction of elements of design they will see and use in the exhibit.
Bob - introduction of writing project, explain terms needed, focusing on visual.
(60 min.)

2. (As above) Tour V.A.G. to view exhibit, after meeting in the room beside security on the main floor for introduction to project prior to tour. Meet there afterward for discussion and writing session. (full class period)

3. Next class: In pairs, exchange your writing with a partner, then edit and critique your partner's work prior to drawing from what has been written. Remember - your partner's writing is your guide to what you can draw, so make sure he/she gives you specific, clear guidelines. (30 min.)

4. After editing, use your partner's draft (now edited) to draw your impression of your partner's vision of the mask. Final draft of writing is due next class (Bob will read all submissions). (90 min.)

5. Critique class: You may volunteer to have your work - your drawing/partner's writing or your writing/partner's drawing - critiqued by the teachers. Their comments will focus on the connections ('intersections') they see between the writing and the art. Student input will be welcomed. (45 min.)

6. Everyone's work will be hung in the hallways immediately after discussion. An article will be written for the MainSource, which will also print selected student writing.