Quilting Time Made in 1986 Romare Bearden, American, 1914-1988 Mosaic tesserae mounted on plywood Founders Society Purchase with funds from the Detroit Edison Company (1986.41) © Romare Bearden Foundation Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Click the image for more information.

Preparation:

Tim Smedley, the 7th grade Social Studies teacher, and I each planned separate units that focused on defining the term culture in ways that were meaningful to students. We taught them at the same time, and some of our students were in both classes.
The Common Quilt: Discovering our Cultural Heritage.
We each asked students to research their family heritage and use this information to create their own visual symbols to use in projects.

Compare the felt quilt square made by a Social Studies student with the ceramic tile design the same student made in my art class.

Irish-German-Spanish-American heritage square (click the image for a larger version).

Irish-German-Spanish-American heritage tile (click the image for a larger version).

There is an annual 7th grade field trip to various religious institutions in Dearborn as part of the curriculum for Dearborn Public Schools.

The three artists, Romare Bearden, Hughie Lee-Smith and Ben Shahn used a narrative style that students were able to understand and discuss. Each artist also incorporated their cultural heritage into their work. Students saw the works in a visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts, and we obtaining slides and prints to use in classroom discussions, and researched artists through books and Web sites. See Resources.

I summarized research on each artist into information sheets that I copied and gave to my students. Each student in my 3-D class will have a booklet of artist information sheets by the end of the semester. Students can also create these information sheets, which is a great extra credit lesson for early achievers!

In every 3-D class I teach I stress how important is it to research, sketch and write about ideas. I believe that through this process students make better connections and relationships with the subject in art and other disciplines.