My West Philadelphia students lack the skills to express themselves constructively; often resorting to physica l violence and non-constructive verbal interactions to express their emotions. Introducing the idea of telling stories through art seeks to solve this problem, to allow students a healthier, safer, and more constructive way to express their emotions and tell their own stories. Most of my students are not reading on grade level, and therefore not writing anywhere near grade level. They lack the vocabulary to express all the things they see and hear and feel in their lives.

Most students in West Philadelphia are woefully unaware of any cultures other than their own. I want to enrich the art curriculum with many differe nt artists, cultures, and ideas; and to bring the cultures of the Middle East and South Asia into my classroom for my students to see, explore, and examine through critical and artistic lenses.

I’ve also found that because my students are constantly attached to their technology, I’m often competing with tablets and smartphones for their attention. I plan to teach my students to express themselves in many different ways, inspired by ancient art traditions but also related to current technology. My unit plan seeks to explore different ways of visual storytelling, from narrative panels to relief sculpture to emoji inspired by hieroglyphic s. My students will study Sanskrit narrative panels, images of Buddha and Mohammed, hieroglyphics, and even ancient cave painting. They will study the Egyptian, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Arabic symbols and use them to tell their own stories. By the end of the storytelling unit, my students will have learned how to tell their stories in pictures, symbols, emoji, and sculpture. My students will have shared their stories, expressed themselves, and created art that reflects themselves and what they want the world to know about them.

My students will learn a whole host of new skills with this unit. They’ll learn to carve, and to use symbols and images to create a story; their own story. These middle schoolers will gain the tools they need to tell their own truths through art without the need to use any words at all. Objectives for this unit include learning about the ancient (and even some current) visual arts of South Asia and the Middle East, responding critically to that art, creating new art based on that critical response and personal experience, and then reflecting on the creative process. This hits on all four major areas of the national arts curriculum, and fosters artistic literacy. Artistic literacy enables students to comprehens ive ly talk about and analyze art using historic a l and artistic contexts, and provides a deeper insight into the art, giving students a wider berth for creation.

Students will draw on known stories from the Arabian N ights, known figures like Buddha and Mohammed, and known concepts like Egyptian hieroglyphics to think, synthesize, and create their own unique art to tell their own stories about moments and p e o p le in the ir live s . Students will be able to integrate what they learn with what they already know to activate prior knowledge and create art that transcends themselves and tells its own story. Students will learn the importance of stories in general, of each story they study, and of sharing as many stories as possible to get the most perspective and information. Stories are the foundation of a society. Stories need to be started at the beginning, and end at the end. Stories told in any other fashion do a disservice to the people that the story represents (Adichie.)

This unit will address standards in art, Englis h langua ge arts, math, and social studies at the upper elementary level. This unit is designed for grades 4-6, but can be modified up or down to adjust to all levels.

Why Stories?

If the present business environme nt tells us one thing, it is that the rules have been re-written and change is the new constant. As our business thinking becomes more obsessed with only the things that can be measured and expressed in figures (big data and little data) we are in danger of losing our way in terms of connecting with our people. If the rise of social networks tells us anything it is that people need to connect, want to connect and for many the story is just as important (if not more so) as the channel. Sadly storytelling is often seen as soft, time wasting and of no real value. Potentially some of this may be down to poor storytelling in terms of how a story is told, its relevance to the circumstances or the use to which it is being put. However, when we disregard the power of storytelling we ignore one of the most potent means of connecting and communicating and lose out on a very effective method of dealing with some of our most challenging business problems. The rapidly developing field of neuroscienc e has plenty of evidence that storytelling is not just for entertainment but that it has real benefits in connecting people, communicating, learning and achieving change. It has a huge potential range of applications from learning design and sales, to resolving conflict and facilitating change. (Beamish.)

Stories have three main purposes: to instruct, to inform, and to entertain. A story can certainly fill more than one of those purposes as a time, but these are indeed the major function of stories. The stories we look at from both ancient and more recent times are often a mixture of information and entertainment. From stories, we gain information to learn about a society, people, or places, but not fro m a lis t o f fa c ts . The fictional elements, the plot or characters, make the story more interesting, more relatable, easier to remember. We listen to stories to learn, and tell stories to teach. As humans, the desire to share stories is deeply imbedded in us, and tells of our desperate need to communicate; to hear and be heard.

Ancient Storytelling Traditions

Stories have been at the core of society for as long as we have records of human history. People have told stories, visually, orally, and otherwise for thousands and thousands of years. Every religion has its own book of stories, every nation has stories to the point where we only know that some civilizations and people exist because of the stories we have.

The history of the most famous Arabic stories, O ne Thousand and O ne Arabian Nights, has best been summed up by Wikipedia:

One Thousand and One Nights (Ara b ic : ةَی ْ لَلَة وَی ْ لَف لْلَأ, ro ma niz e d : ʾAlf layla wa-laylais a c o lle c tio n o f M id d le Ea s te rn fo lk ta le s c o mp ile d in Ara b ic d uring the Is la mic Go ld e n Age . It is o fte n known in Englis h as the Arabian Nights, fro m the firs t Englis h-language edition (c. 1706 – c. 1721), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment.The work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa. Some tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Greek, Jewish and Turkish folklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Abbasid and Mamluk eras, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hezār Afsān (P e rs ia n: ھزار افسان, lit. A Thousand Tales), which in turn relied partly on Indian elementsWhat is common througho ut all the editions of the Nights is the init ia l frame story of the ruler Shahryār and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more. The bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used forsongs and riddles and to express heightened emotion. Most of the poems are single couplets or quatrains, although some are longer.Some of the stories commonly associated with The Nights, in particular “Aladdin’ s Wonderful Lamp”, “Ali Baba and the Forty

Thieves”, and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor”, were not part of The Nights in its original Arabic versions but were added to the collection by Antoine Galland and other European translators.These stories have been told and retold countless times in many formats. There have been operas, books, and movies. The One Thousand and One Arabian Nights are the most common and most well known source for stories about Genies (or Jins, as they were referred to at the time.) Some of the other stories that inspired this unit, and can be studied in conjunction, ares as follows: Conference of the Birds (Persian): 12th century Persian masnavi (a long epic poem) about the Sufi Islamic path to salvation. This is a celebrated work that has many adaptations and generated many other Sufi works, includ i ng romances and hero tales. There are various Valleys that the hero birds have to go through to reach the K ing that will unite them. The Valleys are representatives of human failings which have to be overcome. Obviously, a work of symbolism and allegory. Story of the Stone/Dream of the Red Chamber (C hinese): C hinese novel written in vernacular (not C lassical C hinese) in the 18th century. Mixes with vignettes about Chinese society. Lots of characters and representatio n of C hinese life (religio us, secular, and everything in between) during the Q ing dynasty.The Pancatantra, or The Five Strategems (S a ns k rit) / K a lila va Dimna (Arabic): The Pancatantrais thought to be the progenitor of the world’s fable traditions, having gone through the Arabic (K alila va Dimna) to the West (Aesop and Grimm, later). The earliest strands go back to about the 200-300 BC E and along with The Buddha Birth Tales (Jataka), The Ocean of Rivers of Stories (The Kathasaritsagara), Tales of Good Advice (Hitopadesha), and the Va mp ire S to rie s (Vetalapancavimasati), the Pancatantra is the centerpiece of the Indian folktale tradition. The Pancatantra means “the 5 strategems” and has a frame story of three dumb princes being sent to a wise teacher to become e d uc a te d in p o litic s a nd wo rld ly life .The Mahabharata, The Great Story of the Bhārata or Indian People (Sanskrit): The archetypal “frame story” probably emerged around 500 BCE but didn’t have its fina l form until several hundred years after that. The Bhagavad Gitais in Book 6 (out of 18) and is the most famous philosophical work of early India. The Mahabharata tells the story of a dysfunct io na l family of princes intent on destroying each other.

Emo tic o ns (o r Emo ji)The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines emoji as “a ny o f va rio us s ma ll ima ge s , symbols, or icons used in text fields in electronic communication (as in text messages, e-mail, and social media) to express the emotional attitude of the writer, convey information succinctly, communicate a message playfully without using words, etc” and the etymology as “borrowed from Japanese, literally, “pictograph,” from e “picture, drawing” + moji”letter, character.”” Technically, that’s exactly what emoji (earlier referred to as emoticons) are. Primarily used in SMS and text messaging, as well as online communication, emoji are beginning to emerge as an independent for of communicat io n among teens and young adults. National Core Art StandardsFirst and foremost, being an art-focused unit, this unit addresses a good number of the National Core Art Standards. National Art Standards are slowly being adopted by more and more states and school districts. These standards are based in four domains: creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. The standards in creating address creating innovative ideas for art-ma k ing, demonstrating diverse art forms, demonstrating quality and care for materials and art, and visuall y documenting personal significance. This last standard really drives the unit home, as the main goal is for students to express themselves visua lly. Standards addressed in the presenting arena are based around developing arguments for use of materials and techniques for artwork. This pulls the final project together in terms of giving each artist agency over their own artwork in terms of choosing materials and methods. In responding, standards include analyzing cultura l associations in art and comparing different interpretations of art. These standards will be addressed in the earlier stages of this unit, while learning about story representatio n and analyzing stories in historical art. The core anchor standard in connecting to art is about relating personal knowledge and experience to making art, which is the key to students being able to connect to themselves and create art about themselves and their stories. Englis h Language ArtsIncorporating Englis h langua ge arts standards into a unit on storytelling is obvious. Fifth grade standards that connect with this unit are connected to reading literacy and writing. Involved over the whole unit, the related literacy standard discusses how students should be able to analyze how visual multimedia elements contribute to a text (and in this case, replace the text sometimes.) The writing standards involve setting up a clear situation for a story, and using concrete representation to convey experiences and events. These

standards will be addressed both in terms of actual written word, and in conveying ideas through images and visuals. MathMath standards addressed mostly relate to lines and circles, as a good number of emojis and emoticons are based in a circle shape. Most symbols in Arabic, Hieroglyphics, Sanskrit, and Chinese symbols are based in line both straight and curved. Standards from lower grades involve composing circles and adding other things to them to create new shapes, and being able to classify shapes and generalize shapes based on classifications and other attributes. S o c ia l S tud ie sSocial studies and history standards in the fifth grade are leveled into literacy skills. Students are expected to be able to read historical texts as well as geographical texts, at grade level. This means studying through the world history curriculum and being able to understand the textbook, which means studying the jargon and knowing the culture and history of regions and countries of the world

Lesson One: Making a Cartouche

Time: 45-minute class session

Materials: Pencils, paper, clay, clay tools

Standards Addressed:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7

Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

VA:Cr1.1.5

Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for art-making

VA:Cr2.3.5

Identify, describe, and visually document places and/or objects of personal significance.

CSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.2

Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.

Do Now (5 minutes): Show me how you’re feeling today using only ONE emoji

Think-Pair-Share (2 minutes): Are emojis a good way of expressing feelings? Why or why not? Be prepared to share out with the class.

Direct Instruction (5-7 minutes): Emojis are symbols. We’re going to look at a civilization that used symbols for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians used symbols called hieroglyphics to communicate and write things down. In most forms, there are single symbols for each letter. You’ve learned about the Ancient Egyptians in history class, so this should seem rather familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giTS7eFxijA

Each student will receive a piece of clay large enough to make a cartouche with their name on it. Each student will also receive a skewer to use as a clay tool, and a reference sheet of symbols for sounds/letters in hieroglyphics.

Think-Pair-Share (1 minute): Are these easy or hard symbols for anyone to understand? Why do you think that?

Guided Practice (5 minutes): Teacher and student will work together to manipulate they clay into an oval shape, long enough for their names. Teacher will model using the reference sheet to sound out their name and start to engrave it in the cartouche.

Independent Practice (15 minutes): Students will continue working on their cartouche independently, while the teacher circulates to offer assistance.

Clean up/Share (7 minutes): Because clay cleanup takes extra time, cleanup will be a few  minutes longer than usual. When students are all done cleaning, some students will be allowed to share their work time permitting. Cartouches will be painted at a later time.

Exit Ticket (1 minute) : Students will receive pre-printed exit tickets to complete at the end of the lesson, to be turned in as they walk out.

Lesson One Exit Ticket: What kind of story does my cartouche tell? Why is it important?

Lesson Two: Telling Stories from Paintings

Time: 45-minute class session

Materials: Reference images of famous paintings, paper, pencils, computer, projector

Standards Addressed:

VA:Re8.1.5

Interpret art by analyzing characteristics of form and structure, contextual information, subject matter, visual elements, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed.

VA:Re7.1.5

Compare one’s own interpretation of a work of art with the interpretation of others.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.A

Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.D

Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

Do Now (5 minutes):  [Projection of Gustave Courbet’s self portrait on the board] What’s happening here? What makes you say that?

Think-Pair-Share (2 minutes):  Talk about your do now answer with your neighbor. Were your answers similar? Different? Be ready to share out to the class.

Direct Instruction (5-7 minutes):  Notice how the artist  didn’t need any words to tell you how he’s feeling. We can see that a lot in art, and in our own lives. For example, when you text Emoji or emoticons to your friends, you’re telling them how you’re thinking or feeling with just symbols or images. Over the past 20 years, a huge range of emoticons and emoji have surfaced.

Have a look at the images of what emoji looked like when they first started, and what they look like now.

What differences can you see?

Guided Practice (5 minutes): Sometimes a picture shows what words cannot. Teacher and students will brainstorm ideas of emoji and emoticons that express how they currently feel. Not as a quick Do Now assignment, but as a thought out project. Students will draw 2-4 emoji, filling up their papers.

Independent Practice (17 minutes): Students will continue to draw independently. When finished with drawing, students may add watercolor or tempera paint to their drawings to make them brighter and more vivid.

Clean up/Share (5 minutes): When students are all done putting away materials, some students will be allowed to share their work, focusing on how images transcend words.

Exit Ticket (1 minute) : Students will receive pre-printed exit tickets to complete at the end of the lesson, to be turned in as they walk out.

Lesson Two Exit Ticket: Why do I use emoji? Give 2 reasons.

Lesson Three: History in Images

Time: 2 45-minute class sessions

Materials: Reference images of famous paintings, paper, pencils, computer, projector

Standards Addressed:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.10

By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

CSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.2

Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.

VA:Pr5.1.5

Develop a logical argument for safe and effective use of materials and techniques for preparing and presenting artwork.

VA:Re7.2.5

Identify and analyze cultural associations suggested by visual imagery.

Do Now (5 minutes):  Think about stories you know from other cultures. Think about movies and books you’ve read. Write down as many as you can think of.

Think-Pair-Share (2 minutes):  Compare answers with your neighbor, be prepared to share any interesting answers.

Direct Instruction (7-10minutes):

Video: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?referrer=playlist-how_to_tell_a_story

(Show excerpts as warranted)

Stories are everywhere, and it’s how we know about the worlds and civilizations that came before us. Who’s seen the movie Aladin, or at least knows the story? (Pause for response) That story is from an ancient civilization from a woman who told stories. Disney didn’t write that story, it’s thousands of years old. A whole lot of Disney movies are based on old stories kept alive through constant retelling. We’re going to map out some events in your lives that might inspire you to write a story. Then we’re going to pick the most significant moment in that story and describe it.

Guided Practice (5 minutes): Teacher and students will brainstorm significant childhood stories (bonus for stories told by other family members), and pick the most memorable moment. Teacher will direct students to draw that moment in as much detail as they can, making it bright and vivid, like putting a memory on paper.

Independent Practice (17 minutes): Students will work on their drawings independently, with the teacher circulating and offering assistance. Students will use pencils and colored pencils for this assignment.

Clean up/Share (5 minutes): When students are all done putting away materials, some students will be allowed to share their work, focusing on how many details look accurate to their story and what seems not quite right.

Exit Ticket (1 minute) : Students will receive pre-printed exit tickets to complete at the end of the lesson, to be turned in as they walk out.

Lesson Three Exit Ticket: How do stories change over time? Are the memories as strong? Do things get lost in time?

Lesson Four: Telling Your Truth

Time: 3-4 45-minute class sessions

Materials: paper, pencils, computer, projector, assorted art materials

Standards Addressed:

VA:Cr1.2.5

Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for beginning a work of art

VA:Cr2.2.5

Demonstrate quality craftsmanship through care for and use of materials, tools, and equipment.

VA:Cr2.3.5

Identify, describe, and visually document places and/or objects of personal significance.

VA:Re8.1.5

Interpret art by analyzing characteristics of form and structure, contextual information, subject matter, visual elements, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed.

VA:Cn10.1

Anchor Standard: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7

Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.A

Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

Do Now (5 minutes): If you could tell the world one thing about your life/struggle/school/neighborhood, what would it be? Why?

Think-Pair-Share (2 minutes):  Talk to your neighbor about why the thought you wrote down is important for the world to know about you and who you are and what you want.

Direct Instruction (3 minutes):  Think about your story, and how to really flesh it out. What are the feelings around it? Sketch out a few emoji to show them. You can make your own emoji if you like.

Guided Practice (5 minutes): Teacher and students will brainstorm ideas of how feelings affect stories, and continue from there.

Independent Practice (20 minutes): Students will write their stories in as much detail as they can before moving on to “transcribing” them into emoji. This will be a several day process for students to write, draw, and add color as appropriate. Students who wish to do an individualized project will work in consultation with the teacher to create their project.

Clean up/Share (5 minutes): At the end of the final lesson, students will share their stories by hanging them up on the walls of the room and having a gallery walk to see all the things their classmates have to say.

Exit Ticket (1 minute): Final assignment will count as the exit ticket for this lesson.

Bibliography: Works Cited

Abidin, C., & Gn, J. (2018). Between art and application: Special issue on emoji epistemology. First Monday, 23(9). Retrieved from https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9410/7576

This article addresses how emoji are both forms of art and communication at the same time, which is essentially the base for this unit plan.

Arnold, Thomas W. Painting in Islam: A Study of the Place of Pictorial Art in Muslim Culture. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1965.

Many students in West Philadelphia are Muslim, and seeing art in their own culture helps to connect prior knowledge with the curriculum unit.

ʻAṭṭār, F. -D., Nott, S. C., & Adamson, K. (2000). The conference of the birds. London: Continuum.

Reference material for traditions of storytelling, not always so appropriate   for students.

Cao, X., Gao, E., Fang, H., & Wang, X. (2010). The dream of the red chamber. Jersey City, NJ: Prunus Press.

Reference material for traditions of storytelling, not always so appropriate   for students.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (2009). The danger of a single story. Retrieved June 1, 2019, from Ted.com website: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?referrer=playlist-how_to_tell_a_story

A TED talk video about how telling only one story can misrepresent a people, a community, or even an entire continent.

‌Choi, A. S. (2015, March 17). How stories are told around the world. Retrieved June 1, 2019, from ideas.ted.com website: https://ideas.ted.com/how-stories-are-told-around-the-world/

General ideas for students and teachers about how stories are told in other cultures and locations.

Dunn, M. W., & Finley, S. (2010). Children’s struggles with the writing process: Exploring storytelling, visual arts, and keyboarding to promote narrative story writing. Multicultural Education, 18(1), 33.

Using the arts to promote literacy and telling stories is elaborated upon in this article, and the research shows that telling stories through arts is beneficial to children at all stages.

English Language Arts Standards  | Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2019). Retrieved June 1, 2019, from Corestandards.org website: http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/

Listing of English Language Arts standards according to Common Core.

Fairy Tales, Folktales, Fables and Trickster Tales. (2019). Retrieved June 1, 2019, from Techno-Kids Club website: http://techno-kidsclub.weebly.com/fairy-tales-folktales-fables-and-trickster-tales.html

Resources for students on stories from cultures that might otherwise be unfamiliar.

Gerry Beamish, Jonathan Beamish, (2015) “Cave wall to internet, storytelling, the ancient learning art”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 47 Issue: 4, pp.190-194, https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-01-2015-0002

This article discusses storytelling, and how it’s an art and a craft at the same time.

Home | National Core Arts Standards. (2014). Retrieved June 1, 2019, from Nationalartsstandards.org website: https://www.nationalartsstandards.org/

Listing of National Core Art Standards, as applicable in K-12 visual arts (and other arts) classrooms.

Hurlburt, G. F., & Voas, J. (2011). Storytelling: From cave art to digital media. IT Professional, 13(5), 4-7. doi:10.1109/MITP.2011.87

A brief overview of the history of storytelling, with emphasis on storytelling through the arts.

Lord, A. (2010). Creative visual art storytelling and concept development. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 3(3), 227-256. doi:10.1386/jwcp.3.3.227_1

An overview of using the arts to develop stories, a crucial skill for elementary and middle school students.

Mathematics Standards  | Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2019). Retrieved June 1, 2019, from Corestandards.org website: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/

Listing of Mathematics standards according to Common Core.

Miller, H., Kluver, D., Thebault-Spieker, J., Terveen, L., & Hecht, B. (n.d.). Understanding Emoji Ambiguity in Context: The Role of Text in Emoji-Related Miscommunication. Retrieved from https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM17/paper/viewFile/15703/14804

This article explains how easily misunderstood emoji, and by extension all forms of arts, can be and how to potentially alleviate that in the classroom.

N.V.R. Krishnamacharya. (1983). The Mahabharata. Tirupati :Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams

                        An Indian example of ancient storytelling, with some stories that may be relatable for children in elementary and middle grades.

Pohl, H., & Rohs, M. (2017). 6 Beyond Just Text: Semantic Emoji Similarity Modeling to Support Expressive Communication. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact, 24(6). https://doi.org/10.1145/3039685

This article discusses how people can express themselves beyond words using emoji, which is one of the foundational goals of this curriculum unit.

Ryder, A. W. (1926). The Panchatantra. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

An Indian example of ancient storytelling, with some stories that may be relatable for children in elementary and middle grades.

Storytelling Instead Of Scolding: Inuit Say It Makes Their Children More Cool-Headed. (2019, March 4). Retrieved June 1, 2019, from NPR.org website: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/689925669/storytelling-instead-of-scolding-inuit-say-it-makes-their-children-more-cool-headed

This article brings research from an Inuit study on how telling stories can calm children down more than scolding them can. It advises that scolding is not the best idea, and indeed that storytelling with students and having them tell what happened to them can help ease the situation.

Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, June 10). One Thousand and One Nights. Retrieved June 1, 2019, from Wikipedia website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

This article is a comprehensive and well-researched source of information on One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which some students may already recognize from movies such as Aladdin.

Wolf, A. (2000). Emotional Expression Online: Gender Differences in Emoticon Use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 3(5), 827–833.

This article explores the differences and similarities in emoji use by males and females. The study is limited by its exploration based only on physical sex and not be gender representation.

Zhou, R., Hentschel, J., & Kumar, N. (2017). Goodbye Text, Hello Emoji. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems  – CHI ’17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025800

This article is a basic explanation of emoji, where they came from, and why they’re becoming so much more popular than text-based messaging.

Appendix I: Standards Addressed

English Language Arts

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7

Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.A

Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.D

Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

National Core Art Standards

VA:Cr1.1.5

Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for art-making

VA:Cr1.2.5

Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for beginning a work of art

VA:Cr2.2.5

Demonstrate quality craftsmanship through care for and use of materials, tools, and equipment.

VA:Cr2.3.5

Identify, describe, and visually document places and/or objects of personal significance.

VA:Pr5.1.5

Develop a logical argument for safe and effective use of materials and techniques for preparing and presenting artwork.

VA:Re7.1.5

Compare one’s own interpretation of a work of art with the interpretation of others.

VA:Re7.2.5

Identify and analyze cultural associations suggested by visual imagery.

VA:Re8.1.5

Interpret art by analyzing characteristics of form and structure, contextual information, subject matter, visual elements, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed.

#VA:Cn10.1

Anchor Standard: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

Math

CSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.2

Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.G.B.3

Understand that attributes belonging to a category of two-dimensional figures also belong to all subcategories of that category. For example, all rectangles have four right angles and squares are rectangles, so all squares have four right angles.

Social Studies

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.10

By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Appendix II: Reference Images

The Desperate Man, Gustave Courbet (1845) oil paint