This is an individually created image (ICI). The post is directed to Maya and Sean. ICIs to me are better than OWIs and student cards to move to increasing in our language classroom social awareness and lead to discussions about inclusion:
Name: Daisy the Flower
Job: To wake the family in the house next to her field with pretty songs in the morning
Likes/Dislikes: Likes to sing/doesn’t like to be alone
Fear: Too different and won’t ever be accepted and loved
Problem: She’s the only flower in the field made of many colors and so the other flowers don’t like her because she is different
Secret: She is really a sunflower but doesn’t look like one
Daisy the Flower (above) would make a good tableau and a good story. The drawing has great colors and an interesting face, and her back-of-the-page information is cohesive and therefore interesting. Daisy has a definite personality. I would base a tableau or story on her problem in a heartbeat. Her problem is one that many if not most secondary school kids can relate to.
Daisy the Flower –
Artwork: 4/4 – Strong lines and bold colors. Not too much detail.
Prompt responses: 6/6 – Each response is interesting. The cohesive and interesting prompt responses make for a very interesting character that many students might identify with.
Total Score: 10/10
Our multi-colored character Daisy the Flower represents a kind of mask for her creator to communicate something about herself with her classmates. She can’t say it out loud in class, but she feels different from her peers. But she can say it through her drawing.
So, for the student who drew Daisy, your class is not just a language class, but also a venue in which to express something to her peers in a safe setting, without a word her personally. Messages are communicated through the drawings that could not otherwise be communicated, and what greater need is there in our schools than to allow students to be seen and accepted for whom they are as people?
In general, the healing of our schools will not be accomplished through words. It will be accomplished at the more subtle level of art. Just as leitmotifs in sound tracks in movies can help express the nature of a particular character, so also can these prompts express the nature of the person who created them.
This is subtle work. It’s the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) piece that we’ve waited for so long to appear and to be looked upon in school districts as just as important if not more so than the data collection piece.
Subtle work like this creates greater intellectual and emotional interest in children who are starved for authenticity in their daily lives in our lonely and isolating schools. It’s about time. It’s no longer just about the quarterbacks and the cheerleaders. It’s about everybody.