VA:Cr2.3.5a - Identify, describe, and visually document places and/or objects of personal significance
LAFS.5.RI.1.1: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Focus Standards
Day 1, Afternoon Session: The Great Galaxy Wall
Visual artist Gowri Savoor, takes participants through a brief history of maps and their importance in documenting our identities, histories, relationships to each other and the world around us.
Building on the storyboards they made in the morning, participants brainstormed elements of their personal universe as part of a mapping exercise to document their place in the world
Essential Question:
Where are we in the universe?
Making Maps
Using a variety of mapping techniques, participants created their life-maps. First, placing themselves on the map and then adding other markers. Connecting with roads, lines, orbits – what holds your universe together?
Using tracing paper to add another layer, participants write reflections, thoughts, and memories to the maps.
Participants were given watercolors, and brushes, taught watercolor techniques and painted their maps.
"The experience was really powerful - not just the strategies and information, but the sense of community and safety to try new things and 'step outside' our safe zones." - Teacher Comment