environment

Civic Engagement

Protector 841 with Wonder Woman shadow. Artist: Linda Stein. Leather, metal, mixed-media; 78 x 56
Protector 841 with Wonder Woman shadow. Artist: Linda Stein. Leather, metal, mixed-media; 78 x 56

Find Cards is a differential learning and assessment strategy that Keifer-Boyd (2014, 2013) developed in the 1970s for teaching mixed age groups from five-year-olds to elders in art galleries. When participants create Find Cards, facilitators discern what learners find important. Also, in composing a question, reflection on what is learned integrates assessment with learning.

FIND CARD ACTIVITY: Partner with another (someone you don’t know in the group). Spend 10-15 minutes together looking at the exhibition and writing a “Find Card.” When finished, place your card with the other cards. Select another card together and find a work that the card prompt directs attention. With your partner, discuss the question posed on the Find Card and other interpretations or knowledge you have about the work. A Find Card begins with a directive or clue of something to find in an exhibition and includes a question. For example:

FIND CARD EXAMPLES:

  • Find an artwork that is about a civic action. What are the challenges of the civic action conveyed in the work?
  • Find an artwork about power and vulnerability. How does the work convey these ideas and with what impact?
  • Find a situation of diversity, difference, exclusion or inclusivity in one of the artworks. Can you relate to the situation? Have you ever felt pressure to exclude someone? What happened?
  • Find an artwork that makes you feel angry. Why do you think it made you feel this way?
  • Find an artwork that makes you feel empowered. Why does it make you feel this way? Do you think others would feel empowered by this too?

RESOURCES:

  • Keifer-Boyd, K., & Kraft, M. L. (2014). IDEA<—>Empowerment through difference <—>Find Card strategies. In S. Malley (Ed.), 2013 VSA Intersections: Arts and Special Education Exemplary Programs and Approaches (pp. 147-158). Washington, DC: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
  • Kraft, M., & Keifer-Boyd, K. (2013). Including Difference: A communitarian approach to art education in the Least Restrictive Environment. Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association.
  • Stein, L. (Ed.), 2016. Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing.

Voice recording of “Civic Engagement” Find Card Activity on July 12, 2016:

 

Download “H2F2 Civic Art Education: Taking the Challenge of Change” Find Card Activity

Agency: Creating Interactive Stories on Becoming a Brave Upstander

Agency is a foundational concept of interactivity and the currency of game design. Create an interactive story game of the 4 Bs with the possibility of becoming a brave upstander. Making choices in the story reveals how there is never a single story about any place or people. Create an interactive story game using Twine or Inklewriter, or other open-source apps for creating and sharing nonlinear stories. The stories should include possibilities for becoming a brave upstander.

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW:

      1. Critique the storyboards.
      2. Play the Upstander game, and the Twine and Inklewriter examples.
      3. Storyboard with collages, drawings, or paintings.
      4. Share stories of the 4Bs and brainstorm characters, plots, scenes, and narratives for interactive story games.
      5. Individually or collaboratively create an interactive story.

Definitions of the 4 Bs:
(4Bs coined by Linda Stein. Learn more about the 4Bs from Stein’s Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females Film, 2015)

    • Bully: A person who targets another, often supported by a group, to intimidate (such as with hurtful rumors using social media) or act aggressively toward another with threats or violent actions.
    • Bullied: A person who is the victim of bullying and may suffer depression, social withdrawal, physical injury, addiction, self-harm, and even suicide.
    • Bystander: A person who is knowledgeable about unjust acts, such as bullying, and does nothing to prevent the injustice.
    • Brave Upstander: A brave upstander joins with others, or stands alone, to protect others from violent circumstances in everyday experiences, such as bullying, or actively engages in promoting the wellbeing of others to balance inequalities or oppression.

RESOURCES: 

    • Bea the Upstander game by John Rapaccioli, 2016.