Running Head: ART 133 Unit Paper 1

ART 133 Unit 1 Paper

Rosy Castaneda

Professor Ward

Sacramento State University of California

Running Head: ART 133 Unit Paper 1
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Synthesis

The two main subjects in the readings we have done, have to do with identity and

meaning making. When I read the research by Franco, Ward, and Unrath (2015) titled,

Artmaking as meaning-making, they covered the four avenues of meaning making as well as how

identity is a great example of being a big idea within the avenues. The four avenues to meaning-

making in the book were identity, relationships, story, and celebration. In order to modernize it

one example that a student made was an art piece called Its not that easy to save the world

(Franco, M.J., Ward, A., & Unrath, K, 2015, pg. 46). This art piece had a great big idea that

focused on recycling and the artist used items that symbolized 21st century struggles with

recycling today. The second reading by Parson (2014) , titled Art and Integrated Curriculum

covered how identity is viewed nowadays. He mentions Today we prefer to speak of students

construction of identity from the materials offered by their culture rather than of their discovery

of self (Parsons, M, 2004, pg. 120) . I thought that this was a good example of how speaking of

identity has evolved. It went from being about self discovery to being about how they were

constructed. Identity and meaning making work hand and hand.

Adaptation

I think as far as modifying the identity part of it, I would have them write down what

are symbols that they consider part of their identity. Next, I would have them do some quick

sketches of a few variations of their symbol. I could then have students do a write up for it and

explain themselves through a simple one page essay to connect it to identity. I think the meaning

making part was well explained, but I would possibly do what the book suggest and make an

iMovie. I would want them to not only do images but perhaps even some short videos.
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References

Franco, M. J., Ward, A., & Unrath, K. (2015). Artmaking as meaning-making: A new model for

preservice elementary generalists. Art Education, 68(5), 28-33.

Parsons, M. (2004). Art and integrated curriculum. In E. W. Eisner & M. D. Day (Eds.),

Handbook of research and policy in art education (pp. 775-794). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates.