3rd grade Art: 2015 - 2016
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​The following project was inspired by the tragic events that unfolded in Charleston during the summer of 2015.  I'd been in Berlin, Germany on a 2-week teacher exchange that had already immersed me in the ramifications of radical nationalization and glorified racial superiority.  I felt a moral imperative to find a way to challenge the perpetuation of white supremacy and aimed at doing so through the broader context of a unit on "Color and Value."  In the past, I taught this project focusing on historical moments in African American History:  The Emancipation Proclamation and the abolishment of slavery, Brown v. The Board of Education, Martin Luther King Jr.'s march on Washington in 1963, and the story of Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad.  But in 2014, when 12 year old Tamir Rice lost his life while playing in a park with a toy gun, spotlighting a reality of experiences people of color were still having in America became a personal passion to teach my students.  At the time I wanted to talk to my students about the #BlackLivesMatter movement, it was just beginning and the conversations about how to talk to and teach students about race were still in their infancy.  I continue to seek ways to build a foundation of knowledge in elementary students that give them an authentic account of the history of African American people in our country because the time to foster empathy and perspective is when children are old enough to recognize injustice, and that is much earlier than most assume.  I believe in a responsibility to teach what is important, and the ability to critically navigate the experiences of others nurtures the empathy and understanding necessary for transformative learning and is a step towards racial and social justice.

What are Human Rights?

Editorial Cartoons
(also known as political cartoons) are illustrations or comic strips containing a political or social message that usually relates to current events or personalities, making a point about an issue or event. You can find them in any daily newspaper, but they won't be in the comics section. Instead, look on the editorial pages – they're right next to the editorial columns, and across from the opinion essays.

Rationale:
  • Using editorial cartoons, I want students to unravel the stories behind recent (relevant) social justice movements and put together an idea of the current culture and climate of African American lives in the U.S. As we unpack these stories through cartoons, student artists experience art as a reflective, reactive activity —an exercise in creative production with a charged purpose.  
  • I want my students to understand that having a story worth telling: a story of pride, purpose positivity, or even protest, is at the foundation of being an artist, but more, or perhaps most importantly, of being an activist—someone who uses his/her voice (and skills) to enact change.​

#BlackLivesMatter
(a study of African American History through Cartoons)

"you have the opportunity to be a voice for those that no longer have one; use it to tell their story and do it justice"         --Miss.E

* I gave this unit and the content explored deep consideration and respectful research as understanding that engaging in conversations about racism, discrimination, slavery, and violence are an inevitable part of exploring African American history and culture justly...this was an experimental passion project for me spawned from a fundamental desire to incorporate elements of developing empathetic capacity through the studying of story (ours and others) with and through art.