| 1.
What did your project set out to do? What outcomes did you identify for your
project? |
The Canyon Elementary project set out to explore the driving question "What is Beauty?" through the creation of masks using different media and different cultural influences.
The outcomes included: exposure of students to working with different media and tools, exploration of the use of masks in different cultures, extensive discussion regarding what beauty represented to different individuals and some norms of beauty in society. Students also explored the concept of beauty in literature, primarily through the study of fairytales. The students were invited to evaluate these ideas intuitively, to reflect on their perspectives, as well as those of their peers, with a nonjudgemental approach. |
| 2. What
did the project accomplish? Who was served and how did they benefit?
|
The students were able to create several authentic works fo art including: drawings of their ideas of beauty, paper plate masks adorned with a combination of painting and textured items based on Native American cultures, a homemade clay mask created with emphasis on developing textures and facial contours based on African cultures, swipey clay noses made to teach specific sculpting techniques, egg painting to refine use of fine motor skills, creation of a paper template for the final clay mask, and finally, working with the visiting artist to create a 2-3 lb. clay mask expanding on the year's skill set as described above.
63 students in Grades K-5 at Canyon Elementary were involved in the year-long projects and benefited from the opportunity to explore their own, their peers, and society's ideas of beauty in an intuitive way. They were provided with the media, tools, and skills to create original works of art. |
| 3. How
do you know that your project accomplished these things? What evaluation
methods did you use?
|
The evidence our project accomplished these outcomes is demonstrated in the nature and the uniqueness of the works produced.
Part of the learning process included a combination of personal and peer evaluations at the conclusion of each work, using a biphasic open-ended processing tool. The students were asked what they liked about their work (or their peers') and what they wished could be different.
This proved a very powerful tool to invite both intuition and imagination into the learning process as long as the student was required to give an authentic response. For some students, this was a challenge. However, with repeated use of the tool and modeling of considered responses, they all seemed to be able to accomplish this.
The students' reflection of their ideas of beauty were evaluated in open class discussion at the beginning and end of the year. Both the concepts that were constant and the ones that seemed different were reflected back to the students who for the most part seemed to be thoughtful in their comments and were tolerant of others' ideas of beauty at the final discussion. Some of the most profound insights were put forward by the K/1 class. Many of them seemed to be able to fully engage their ideas and experiences in their processing of this concept and made amazing observations. For example, one child commented about how each day held some kind of beauty if you were open to see and experience it. |
4. How
will you share the results of your program with others?
(These might be other school personnel, parents, press/media, PTO/PTA,
local or state policy makers, etc.) |
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The results of our project were shared regularly with the parents through their children and notes to update them. Reports were made regularly at the Canyon School Organization meeting. The Native American masks and initial drawings of individual concepts of beauty were displayed at the Kellogg School District office for staff and community from around the district to view. Masks and noses were displayed for the Grandparents' and Special Guests' Day at the school. A final showing of the masks was made available for families, students and community at the end of the school year. A Powerpoint presentation was also created, recapping the year's accomplishment.
The media (local newspaper) was invited to interview our artist and view the final mask project.
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Please
attach photographs (please limit to 400 pixels wide) or other documentation
that helps others to understand your project. Label the documentation with text
that explains what it is and how it shows the project’s accomplishments.
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