Linking art and literature - elementary education

Instructor, Sept, 1999 by Linda Rief

Collaborative murals inspire kids to make a bridge between literature and art

Anne, Amy, and Ben painted silently, shaping circles of blue. Nahanni sketched in depth lines, while Sarah and Jay glued ashes to Masonite. Jennifer, Jeff, and Todd negotiated colors, deciding that bright reds, oranges, and yellows represented best what they wanted to say. When these eighth graders had completed and hung their collaborative art made in response to books they had read, we all stood back in silence. "This looks like a real museum," Charlie said. "Like . . . this is real art!"

American painter Georgia O'Keeffe once recalled, "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I had no words for." After completing a collaborative mural project with my students, I realized that they, too, had spoken in a deep and meaningful way - without words. By using art to interpret literature, they had interacted with the text, with one another, and with their audience. Making art slows students down and allows them to enter into the words and ideas of books more passionately.

Along with my associate, art teacher Beth Doran Healey, at Oyster River Middle School, in Durham, New Hampshire, I devised our art-literature connection project. We were inspired by the work of Tim Rollins, a teacher and an artist in New York's South Bronx. Rollins works with high-risk kids, creating painting-collages based on literary classics.

We borrowed Rollins's idea in an effort to help students understand that art is as much a language as words. It says something to the viewer. It allows interpretation in a way that is less confining and structured than words tend to be. It raises questions with few "right" answers. It makes us think.

Here are the steps we took to guide our middle-school students in crafting their pieces:

1 Have groups of five to seven students choose a book that has personal significance for them, or one they believe will leave them with strong, lasting impressions. Our eighth graders selected books with serious, far-reaching themes. One group chose Night, by Elie Wiesel (memoirs of his family's destruction during the Holocaust); another chose The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton (which focuses on the lives of two rival teenage gangs); the third group chose Go Ask Alice (the anonymous diary of a teenage girl whose life is destroyed by drugs). Because these books struck an emotional chord in the children, they were able to examine them deeply. Younger students can choose books more appropriate to their age level. However, the books should always be of the quality to raise questions and make students think.

2 Have students reread the book, recording in their journals, through words and images, their reactions, ideas, questions, or feelings as they read. Groups should meet daily to exchange thoughts. Which images are the most surprising or powerful?

3 Share professional art. Ask students why the artists might have chosen certain symbols; how the shapes, colors, and lines contribute to specific effects; and what feelings the art inspires.

4 Have individuals share their ideas and negotiate a collaborative design. Ask them to consider the shape they will use for a frame, encouraging them to choose forms other than a rectangle. Before tackling the final project, have them sketch their designs on paper in the shape they chose.

5 When students are ready to begin painting, give them a paperback copy of the book they are representing so they can cut or tear out pages to incorporate into their designs. Try to provide the highest quality acrylics, brushes, and Masonite, so children know their art is important and valued.

Youngsters working on Go Ask Alice chose a circle, "because there's usually no way out." Night students selected an inverted pyramid to emphasize the growing power of the Nazis during the Holocaust. The group reading The Outsiders decided on a diamond shape to represent the idea that material possessions can't define a person's worth. It doesn't matter which way you hold their diamond - the shape remains the same. This reasoning, from heterogeneous groups of students, was quite sophisticated. The level of thought deepened as they analyzed, critiqued, and evaluated one another's perspectives.

After the art is mounted prominently in a school hallway or room, ask students to describe in writing what they did. Have them reflect on the process and product by considering the following questions:

* What made you choose the book? How did the design for your art evolve?

* What did you hope to get across from the book through the art? How well did you succeed?

* When you look at your art, what surprises you? What do you think works best?

* What have you learned or discovered about this book, about art, about yourself?

These pieces give their young creators and viewers pleasure and respect for art and artists. They are a bridge to other disciplines and an enticement to read the books represented. We need to give our students opportunities to say things they have "no words for." Not only do our students develop their imaginations when they interpret books artistically, but they enter into the lives of the characters and the events with a more critical, yet humane, stance.