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Unit 1: Community or Government
Unit 2: Character

(moving from characters in stories to personal identity)

Unit 7-History and Culture

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Estimated time

One week

Public art can be informative, inspiring and empowering for both artists and audiences. A community puzzle mural has the power to spark dialogue around important issues among teachers, students, families, staff and visitors. The collaborative task produces a final product that combines many individual visions.

How?

Get Ready

1. Secure space for mural, preferably in a public space with foot traffic so many people can admire and interact with the work.

2. Assess resources for creating and decorating large cardboard or paper puzzle pieces.

3. Provide examples of community murals and public artworks from public arts programs. If possible, take students on a "virtual tour" of murals through the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program website.

4. Determine student groupings. Students can work as a whole class or be grouped by interest in certain topics or messages. For poster campaigns, students can work individually, in partnerships or in small groups.

5. Adapt the sample rubric into a visual checklist. Refer to the rubric to define expectations and components of a community puzzle mural before students begin working. Define expectations for equitable collaboration.

Get Set

1. Verbally introduce students to the preparatory steps included in the Do Something Planning Guide. Instruct them in the process of mapping the steps necessary to prepare a community puzzle mural.

2. As a class, generate puzzle mural content and messages that connect to central text themes. Murals should incorporate information and positive social messages to heighten awareness and action. Positive messages may relate to acceptance, inclusion, diversity, equity or justice depending on the central text and the interests of the group.

3. Students should work together to create their designs on large, cut-out puzzle pieces provided to each group.

Go!

1. After completing their puzzle pieces, direct students to assemble the pieces to form a large puzzle mural.

2. Arrange a "launch" celebration to unveil student's artwork. Consider including:

Other classes

Other grades

Families

Other members of school community

3. Consider how viewers can interact with the piece. For example, a "reaction box" can be placed near the mural so people can leave comments, connections and questions for the artists. Invite visitors to see and/or comment on bulletin board. Consider including:

Reflection

Facilitate a class discussion or assign a journal entry about how the mural reflected central text themes and impacted the community. Some suggested reflection questions:

What topic or theme from the central text was included in your mural or poster campaign?

What important message did your mural or poster campaign express to your audience?

English language learners

A community puzzle mural gives students an assessment option that is creative, visually appealing and not solely language-based. Students can express their ideas and feelings through their artwork. This project focuses on linguistic, interpersonal spatial/artistic, and kinesthetic learning modalities.

Connection to anti-bias education

In history and today, large-scale public art has been used in communities to raise issues and advocate for social change. By creating a community mural, students work together to spread awareness, demonstrating a commitment to social action. The puzzle element is a particularly powerful visual representation of the ways that people and issues are interconnected within a community.

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One week Public art can be informative, inspiring and empowering for both artists and audiences. A community puzzle mural has the power to spark dialogue around important issues among teachers, students, families, staff and visitors. The collaborative task produces a final product that combines many individual visions.

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What?

Students make connections to read-aloud texts by relating the text to themselves (lived experiences), to other texts (read in any setting) and to the world (current and historical events)

When?

Why?

Making connections allows students to monitor their understanding and relate learning to their own lived experiences. The strategy enhances meta-cognitive skills and deeply engages students in the reading experience, improving comprehension.

How?

1. Select a Perspectives text or passage to read aloud. Display it in a visible location.

2. Create a list of personal connections you will model while reading the text.

3. Introduce the three types of connections: text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world.

4. Read the text aloud. Use the Think Aloud strategy to model one of the three types of connections. Emphasize connections that add to the understanding of this particular text. Explain why some of those connections aid understanding of the text better than others.

5. Prompt students to make their own connections through the use of guiding questions:

Text-to-Self: A connection between the text and something in your own life experience

What does this story remind you of?

Can you relate to the characters in the story?

Does anything in this story remind you of anything in your own life?

Text-to-Text: A connection between the text and another story or text that you have read previously.

What does this remind you of in another book you have read?

How is this text similar to other things you have read?

How is this text different from other things you have read?

Text-to-World: A connection between the text and something that is occurring or has occurred in the world.

What does this remind you of in the real world?

How are the events in this story similar to things that happen in the real world?

How are events in this story different from things that happen in the read world?

6. Provide a three-column chart to record all three types of text connections. Display sample connections in the classroom for students to reference.

English language learners

Making connections allows English language learners to comprehend texts using information that is already familiar. Consider allowing English language learners to make connections to texts in their first language to assist them in compartmentalizing what they know and what they learn.

Connections to anti-bias education

Making connections gives students space to share their own experiences and hear about the experiences of others in their community. Making connections also encourages students to think about their learning in the context of the larger world.

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Students make connections to read-aloud texts by relating the text to themselves (lived experiences), to other texts (read in any setting) and to the world (current and historical events) Making connections allows students to monitor their understanding and relate learning to their own lived experiences.

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Action Anchor Standards

16. Students will express empathy when people are excluded or mistreated because of their identities and concern when they themselves experience bias.

17. Students will recognize their own responsibility to stand up to exclusion, prejudice and injustice.

18. Students will speak up with courage and respect when they or someone else has been hurt or wronged by bias.

19. Students will make principled decisions about when and how to take a stand against bias and injustice in their everyday lives and will do so despite negative peer or group pressure.

20. Students will plan and carry out collective action against bias and injustice in the world and will evaluate what strategies are most effective.