How Students Can Better Understand Theme and Metaphor by Weaving for Literacy: Esperanza Rising
If you are looking for a unique way to help your students better understand the concepts of theme and metaphor, then I highly suggest that you try the process of weaving for literacy. Keep reading to see how we incorporated this in my classroom.
What is weaving for literacy?
Literacy weaving is an activity where students create their own tapestry by weaving together strips of paper that represent some portion of a story they are reading. In our case, we read the story “Esperanza Rising” and students had to choose a “Golden Line” that represented conflict each character was facing, a symbol, a word, and colors representing conflicts encountered by the characters in the novel.
The strips of paper are then “woven” together to create a large tapestry with the vertical strips representing Esperanza and the horizontal strips representing Miguel from the novel.
How Students Can Better Understand Theme and Metaphor by Weaving for Literacy
When using an activity like this, students are able to take their understanding of a story much deeper. For example, they can determine a theme and connect it to how characters in a story respond to the challenges. This can also include describing the persuasion the narrator’s point of view influences how events are described.
In addition, the art standards paired with this are:
Creating artwork that expresses a specific message.
The use of design principles to communicate ideas.
Identify and use symbols in own works and in the works of others.
Recognize similarities in subject matter.
Plan a series of images as a group.
Setting up the Project
An art project like this provides you with the perfect opportunity for helping students understand how symbols are used in art and literature. Let them see examples and then discuss. Then, have them practice drawing before they get their strips.
Spend plenty of time discussing visual representation so they can truly grasp the meaning of this art form. As for the project itself, we completed it on butcher paper with Crayola marker, so not a lot of supplies are needed at all.
Final Thoughts
Teaching literary concepts can be super easy and fun when integrating arts. It provides students with a unique approach to learning concepts from other subjects without the mundane use of worksheets, textbooks, and the like.
Note: Thank you to 5th grade teachers in the Tupelo Public School District circa 2014 for the lesson idea.
I’m Amanda, and I align standards and integrate content to help teachers meet the needs of the Whole Child in art class! I have yet to find a standard that I couldn’t teach through art, and I want to share it all with you.
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