Overview

Students will create a small story quilt and a written personal narrative.

Time Duration

4 Days

Subject Integrated

MD State Curriculum Standard: English/Language Arts and Visual Arts Common Core Standard: Writing

Essential/Guiding Question

Artists like Faith Ringgold, Harriet Powers, and Marion Coleman tell stories by creating powerful quilts. What story would you want to share with the world? What is important for other people to know about you? How can you share a story with a visual artwork, like a quilt?

Objectives

Artists like Faith Ringgold, Harriet Powers, and Marion Coleman tell stories by creating powerful quilts. What story would you want to share with the world? What is important for other people to know about you? How can you share a story with a visual artwork, like a quilt?

Materials

• White paper
• Colored pencils
• Scissors
• Fabric squares
• Scraps of patterned or colored fabrics
• Fabric glue or PVA glue
• Writing paper

Process

• We will begin by reading Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. We will look carefully at her quilt and identify elements from the story inside the image.
• Agenda:
• Day 1:
• 1. Read Aloud Tar Beach to the class, modeling the behaviors and strategies of good readers. Pause for students to make connections and predictions.
• 2. Discuss the book and illustrations together. Use the document camera to look closely at the story quilt in the back of the book. Allow students to share connections and locate story elements within the quilt.
• Day 2:
• 1. Review what we learned yesterday. What was the story about? How did Faith Ringgold’s quilt tell her story?
• 2. Look at a few examples of story quilts from the other resources. Allow students to break into small groups and browse the resources to choose a quilt they want to share with the class. They need to invent a story for the quilt. Use the Visual Thinking Strategies: “What is going on in this picture?” “What do you see that makes you say that?” “What else can you find?”
• 3. Students will share their favorite quilts and the stories they created.
• Day 3:
• 1. Review what we have learned about story quilts. Ask students to think of a story that they could tell with a story quilt. Share a personal narrative that you have created as a model.
• 2. Students will record write a personal narrative on publishing paper.
• 3. Student volunteers will share their narratives.
• Day 4:
• 1. Review what we have learned about story quilts and look at a few examples using the document camera.
• 2. Create a design for our own story quilts. Use drawing paper and colored pencils to plan.
• 3. Cut out shapes and symbols from a variety of fabric scraps to glue onto plain white fabric squares to create our story quilts. Add words or other embellishments to complete the quilt.
• 4. Share our quilts with our classmates and the school by displaying them with our narratives.

Special Notes/Comments

Reference material (links, images, CDs, books): Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold Dancing at the Louvre: Faith Ringgold’s French Collection and Other Story Quilts by Kyra Hicks 1.6 Million African American Quilters by Kyra Hicks Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts by Eva Ungar Grudin Journey of Hope: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama By Caroline Mazloomi Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts by Caroline Mazloomi