Portraits of Connecting Cultures
Educator: Carol Heredia, Spanish Teacher
Cultural Partner: Thea Lanzisero, Interdisciplinary Artist
School: Bellport High School
Grades: 11-12
District: South Country Central School District
District NYSED link: https://data.nysed.gov/profile.php?instid=800000037464
Summary
AP Spanish Students in Carol’s class were guided in creating and then painting self portraits out of clay that contained symbols of their cultures, interests and likes. They wrote paragraphs about these things in Spanish and used as part of their Spanish AP test
Rationale
Spanish AP students who were learning how to express themselves, their culture and its similarities or differences in Spanish culture- to speak about in Spanish for their final AP. Carol wanted students to understand concepts of what “culture” means in a unified way, by creating the work and having them experience it instead of it being “taught”to them How can we define culture without reverting only to national/ethnic identity elements How can we work together to create a space that invites all to be respected and valid?
- AP Spanish and Language students have diverse cultural backgrounds worthy of highlighting.
- Motivate students to see their self portrait tile as a way to highlight unique aspects of their culture that represent them as an individual.
- Invite students to tie their own culture to complete the Cultural Comparison Task from the AP exam where students compare an aspect of the culture of the U.S. versus the culture of a Hispanic community
What learning goals/standards did this meet?
Arts: The students learned new skills of sculpting,learning new materials, tools and ways of creating their own likeness, and then adapting unique painting styles and importantly creating symbols as a way of expressing their personal cultures. These sculptures are used to communicate to others information without words as well as verbally in spanish and english. These works are on exhibit in the school library through the end of the year and are viewed by the school staff and student body.
CCCR: 21st Century Skills :Communication:Writing, talk, and actions demonstrate substantial and detailed knowledge
Civic Mindset
- Demonstrate understanding of self as part of and responsible to larger social society through democratic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and informed actions for meaningful participation in civic life
- Use their learning of a 2nd language to understand the diversity in cultures
CR-S: Students are using the process of creating self portraits and identifying something important to themselves culturally while writing comparing and contrasting that cultural aspect to a Spanish speaking country or community. This process will help them sharpen their lens on learning about other societies histories and cultures contributing to their learning though AP Spanish allowing them to understand and interpret not only language skills but understanding unique identities and cultural backgrounds and beliefs
- Using the process of creating self portraits in ceramic, students will highlight a specific cultural aspect that they identify with and then write a paragraph in Spanish comparing or contrasting that cultural aspect with one of the Spanish speaking community.
Outcomes
Students’ learning has expanded as a result of this project because now they…
KNOW… How to compare and contrast different aspects of their own personal culture with that of a different community using Spanish Language and creativity in the art form. New practical skills to create sculpture, and varying ways of expressing themselves and sharing their cultural likes and differences with each other
UNDERSTAND… The overlapping cultural norms as well as differences in cultures, backgrounds and beliefs within the classroom community and the global communities.
ARE ABLE TO… use art and the creative process to express these ideas and get to know each other in a different way through artmaking and appreciate their classmates skills, personalities and cultural variations
