Discover how a cross-school & zone partnership transformed imaginative kindergarten drawings into dynamic three-dimensional sculptures created by high school students, highlighting the power of process and vertical curricular alignment. Participants will explore the project’s development, view student work, and engage in a brief collaborative brainstorming activity to adapt the model for their own settings. (For this project, 60 student pieces of artwork were created in total: 20 drawings, 20 clay sculptures, and 20 written creature origin stories. One "exhibit" consists of three works, one 2D, one 3D, and one write-up. We will showcase multiple exhibits of the Collaborative Creatures project at our presentation.)
Students scroll past images, ads, memes, AI-generated content, and misinformation every day, but many are less prepared to question what they see than they realize. This presentation shares classroom-based research and practical artmaking prompts that help students slow down, analyze online media, and visualize their own relationships with smartphones, social media, manipulation, anxiety, and trust. Participants will leave with adaptable strategies for using visual analysis, discussion, reflection, and artmaking to make critical media literacy feel relevant in the art room.
Literacy in the visual arts classroom empowers students to interpret, analyze, and communicate meaning through both images and words, strengthening critical thinking and creative expression. In a hands-on experience like Japanese stab-bound bookmaking, students naturally integrate reading, writing, and visual storytelling as they design pages that convey personal or cultural narratives. This blend of visual and textual literacy deepens engagement, making artmaking a powerful tool for comprehension, reflection, and authentic communication. All materials for creating the Japanese stab-bound book will be provided—just bring your creativity and an open mind to incorporating literacy in the art room.
