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Units January 22, 2025

Untold Stories: First and Second Grade Story Quilts

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Lesson Summary: Students will learn about the untold stories of Black artists. Students will be inspired to create art about their own untold stories. Downloads: Unit resources
SECTIONS


This unit was created by educators in Denver, part of the 2022 cohort of The 1619 Project Education Network. It is designed for facilitation across approximately six 45-minute class periods.

Objectives

Overarching objective

Students will learn about untold stories of Black artists to inspire the creation of art about their own untold stories. Students will connect with the themes of head, heart and hands from Born on the Water and create story quilts (inspired by Faith Ringgold), to illustrate their own story.

Students will be able to:

  • Identify Black quilt artists (historical and contemporary artists: the quilters of Gee’s Bend; Faith Ringgold)
  • “Read” artworks by Faith Ringgold, using Project Zero’s “See/Think/Wonder” protocol for looking at art
  • Make connections between the Born on the Water themes of head, heart and hands and stories from their own lives
  • Create their own story quilts to tell personal stories about using their head, heart or hands
  • Add their story quilt to a collaborative class quilt

Skills: Students will learn:

  • How to “Read works of art”: Close looking at the story quilts of Faith Ringgold
  • Story collage skills: (drawing, painting, cutting, arranging and pasting)
  • How to visually communicate a story (drawing and painting details that communicate a personal story about a theme from Born on the Water: head, heart, or hands)

Unit Overview

This unit takes place in the art room but builds on the classroom teacher’s unit in which students delve into the text, Born on the Water. The classroom teacher utilizes K-3 lesson plans in An Educator’s Guide to Born on the Water. In art class, students then revisit the first 18 pages of the book, and focus on the themes of head, heart and hands in telling their own untold stories. Students connect their own human experiences to the humanity so beautifully depicted in these pages of the book.

This unit, which highlights the story quilts of Faith Ringgold, builds on students’ prior knowledge of quilts by Black artists, following a previous unit about The Quilts of Gee’s Bend

Essential question: How can we look to untold stories from Black history to inspire the creation of art about our own untold stories?

Scope and sequence:

Day 1: Introduce Faith Ringgold’s story quilts

Day 2: Read pages 1-18 of Born on the Water; draw draft of story idea about using head, heart or hands

Day 3: Draw final draft of story quilt 

Day 4: Paint story quilt 

Day 5: Add border to story quilt to communicate theme of head, heart or hands

Day 6: Share story quilts and put together collaborative class quilt

Performance Task

Performance Task #1: Planning draft

After re-reading pages 1-18 of Born on the Water,

Students will draw a rough draft to plan their story idea with the theme of head, heart or hands and all story elements (setting, characters, plot/action).

Performance Task #2: Story quilt final draft

Students will draw, paint and collage a story quilt (inspired by Faith Ringgold) to communicate their story about a time they used their head, heart or hands. 

Performance Task #3: Collaborative class quilt

Each story quilt will be glued onto a large piece of butcher paper to create a collaborative class quilt.

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