Art With Ms. Ammons: Discovered Poetry and Altered Books

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Discovered Poetry and Altered Books

Our middle school students have been focusing on the use of text in art and have been making connections with their work in Ms. Gow's class on their poetry. This week, they began a challenging project where they will be transforming books into art. Our first lesson was about "discovered poetry". They skimmed pages of text, looking for words or phrases that could share a common theme different than the theme of the book. They then found ways to highlight those words, blur out the other words, and illustrate the theme. After a day of trial and error and some confusion, they are getting it! I love what these 8 students have come up with so far. A few students have gotten into their books and are reading them, which I think is great to see. I limited their supplies to black and red ink. Next week we will begin adding other supplies as they gain a more firm grasp on the concept. Then we will begin other projects in the book like adding pop-ups, collaging the cover, and other creative alterations. I love this website's ideas: Go Make Something!