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An Exploration in Community Identity Through Textiles
What do I want students to learn?
What will they do?
What will they use?
How will I know they have learned?
how to create textile pattern designs resulting in street banners.
how to document and honor in photos their unique personal visual vocabulary and that of their community.
to connect and truly examine the intimate community of their neighborhoods and see how that visual vocabulary is part of a larger vocabulary of a larger community.
to articulate orally and in writing the meaning of the patterns they created.
Who are the students?
Fourth Grade Students of Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Waimea, Hawaii. This is a private boarding school.

HPA enrolls boarding students from all over the world. In 2006-2007, the students came from the Hawaiian Islands, 13 other states and U.S. territories, and 16 other countries.
Fifth Grade Students of Cureton Elementary School in Alum Rock, San Jose, CA.
This is a Title One public school which is 84% Latino.
Cureton Elementary School
Hawaii Preparatory Academy
Students of Cureton will create textile patterns to represent themselves and then in groups of three will design banners for the street of Alum Rock Avenue. A peer selected group of these will present to the Alum Rock Village Business Association for approval as final banner designs.
Students of Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Waimea  will create textile patterns to represent themselves and then in groups of three will design banners to hang on campus. A peer selected group of these will present to the school board for approval as final banner designs.
This is exploration into visual metaphor, culture and geometry.
Rather than living as passive consumers of culture, I hope students will begin to develop the tools to be active creators and curators of culture.
Photography: FlipVideo Camera, 3 Digital Cameras
and disposable cameras.

Pattern generation: Sumopaint & Repper

Communication cross schools: voicethread & skype

Assessment: SurveyMonkey & voicethread

Google Docs
Victoria & Albert Museum Website
Disruptive Technologies
1.Community
2.Identity 
3.Design
4.Synthesis
Students will document and reflect on thier community in writing and in photographs.
Students will post images on voicethread to solicit feedback from student at the other school and from thier classmates. Students will explore using sumopaint and repper to create patterns with their photos.
EXPLORE
DOCUMENT
COLLABORATE
EXPLAIN
visual vocabulary by uploading to Flickr, geotagging and describing  how the image represents their community. This will anchor their images to the point on the map they were taken so other could take an online visual tour and learn about their community.  This map will be accessible through a project website, a portal for an authentic audience.
Working in teams of three in each class, students will collaborate in selecting a few images they think distill their community the best and then they will collaborate in designing a textile pattern. The resulting group pattern designs will be posted on voicethread for comments.
Students each write an artist statement to accompany their design. They will prepare a written and oral presentation of their creations.
Google document survey at the beginning of the project and a Google peer review poll throughout the project and final written evaluation of project. Students will document process of project in project website blog.
Their written and oral presentations will also reflect what they have learned. The voicethread discussions will show comprehension of art vocabulary and concepts.
Synthesis:
Alum Rock students
create banners for town