Introduction
The greatest challenge I face as an urban teacher is creating culturally relevant lessons that fully engage my students to maximize their creative potential. I believe that excellent curriculum units always begin with a “hook” that pulls the learner into the lesson by grabbing their interest and sparking excitement about the subject. Hooking them into an experience starts by understanding what is culturally relevant and exciting to my students.
It is easy to see what my students are interested in when it comes to art. As I gaze over my classroom, one commonality that I recognize is their love of tattoo art. Many of my students are “tatted up,” so to speak, and they take great pride in the images that decorate their bodies.
My students’ tattoos outwardly communicate their own stories. Some of the common tattoos that I see on my students are pictorial narratives that when “read” tell a story of the loss of loved ones to violence while others show a long family history communicated only with an array of images and names. All this information is accessible to me without words being shared between us. However, when I ask my students to explain the meaning of their tattoos, I noticed that they often stumble over the story because they have never put the story together articulately. Providing my students with the skills and practice to interpret and talk about art will enable them to articulate the context and critically interpret their tattoo images meaningfully. I realized that there is a need and opportunity to teach literacy skills in my classroom so that my students will have the skills that will enable them to “read” images and understand what an image is attempting to communicate.1 Many of the images within my students’ tattoos have cultural and historical backgrounds that have the potential to enhance the overall meaning and appreciation of their tattoos. This unit’s main theme is to bridge the gap between history and art in a way that is personally relevant and meaningful to my art students at Ballou High School.
Through the production of tattoo drawings, journal writing and the study of a historical work of art, students will begin to make connections, seeing how the cultures of the past directly influence the artistic decisions that we make today, especially in the art of today’s tattoos. The Book of Kells will be the artifact that I will use to anchor my lessons with historical imagery predominantly displayed on my students. I chose this collection of illuminated image because of its rich iconography of letters, images and swirling motifs that in many ways resemble the decorative elements found in today’s tattoo art. I want my students to see that their tattoo designs are inspired by a culture of the past so that they can see how past cultures have affected, and continue to influence, the artistic choices that we make in our everyday lives.
Understanding how distant cultures continue to affect us is necessary to point out to my students because it will give them a global view of the world. Many of my students have never ventured out of their neighborhood and often think that they came up with their pop culture trends without understanding that their modern tastes were inspired by people in a different place and time. This kind of global awareness will help promote cultural tolerance in my students and an appreciation of the different beliefs and customs of people around the world.
My school district is committed to this concept of teaching global awareness. DCPS is preparing students to become global citizens through a study abroad program which provides students with equitable access to travel so that all our students can explore the world with the goal of growing competence into real world contexts.
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