"A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words": Telling Stories Through Paint, Photography and Poetry Using Technology

When a writer begins to weave a tale, it is often with memories from life, which are the basis for storytelling. Writers embellish, imagine, fantasize and stretch those memories to make their stories appealing to their target audiences. Visual artists may represent their stories realistically or symbolically much as a writer, and both can be considered renderings of a scene, although writers paint with words and visual artists paint with images.

This unit is designed to explore how artists and writers tell their stories through different mediums and how they are shaped by history and culture. We will look at poetry, painting and photography from the Harlem Renaissance and how the work reflected the times in which the artists and writers lived. Artists and writers from today also reflect their world in their work as they seek new ways of creative expression. What would a painting, collage or poem look like today if one of the artists from the Harlem Renaissance were to create it? What if they used technology to create their work- a PowerPoint, a slideshow, a video, a Podcast, a digital painting or digital collage?

To understand these questions, students will create their own stories, poems and works of art based on memories. They will use digital means to manipulate and change these images to create a desired effect or emotion; in the same way as a visual artist or writer can also evoke a mood with the use of color, materials or words. They will express themselves like any artist or writer would but will illustrate their own stories using 21^st century tools across multiple disciplines to deliver these stories through slideshow or video.

The unit is designed for students in Grade 6, to be used during a six-week period, twice per week. Students will study the work of selected visual artists and writers from the Harlem Renaissance, and will make connections between the their work and historical events.  Students will examine how life depicted in the days of the Renaissance through Art, Photography and Poetry compare to scenes of daily life today. They will explore how technology was used to create the work, whether there is evidence of any technology in the work and how those artists might create if they were alive today. What would a painting, collage or poem look like today if one of these artists were to create it? What if they used technology to create their work- a PowerPoint, a slideshow, a video, a podcast, a digital painting or digital collage?

Students will be able to understand that Art and Technology have similarities and differences. Students will learn how to use technology to manipulate and change images to create a desired effect/ emotion; much in the same way as a visual artist or writer can also evoke a mood with the use of color, material or words.

There are three main parts to my unit. All components of this unit will rely on electronic resources and software.

Part 1- Art Imitates Life: Students will learn how history and events influence the work of artists and writers and how today’s events become tomorrow’s history.This will be accomplished by viewing poetry and stories online, by viewing works of art online and participating in interactive websites about these works of art, by listening to audio clips of poetry, artists reflecting on their own careers, an actor reading a famous poem, video clips from Discovery Streaming on Harlem, James Van Der Zee, Romare Bearden and samples of jazz from this period in time to set the mood.

Part 2- Little Stories Make Big Impressions: Students will learn how to weave a tale beginning with an anecdote from their lives. They will use a variety of electronic tools to tell their stories. They will examine artists from the Harlem Renaissance who tell stories through their paintings, poems, music, voice and photographs and will relate to some themes common to their own lives. They will learn about stories from the lives of some of these artists and writers, and will be able to relate how these events influenced their life’s work.

Part 3- Making Connections Through the Arts, Literature and Technology: We will experiment with some of the same processes artists used in creating their work and will finish the unit with a presentation of a multimedia piece – PowerPoint or iMovie, using image, word and sound, whose impact will ultimately be created by manipulating these components through editing.