Saturday SAVY, Day 3 – If Walls Could Talk…(3rd/4th)
Hello families!
We did it!! We not only completed our whirlwind course, but did it all amazingly well. I could not be happier or prouder of the students’ accomplishments. The final day was a synthesis of extremely complex tasks. They took all the content they learned in 2 days, which was all new to them for the most part, and ended up with a creative project that synthesized all they learned. For the final product, the students had to choose an architectural time period (Ancient, Classical, Medieval [Romanesque or Gothic], Renaissance, or Modern) and design an original structure that would fit into that time period. This structure became the primary setting for an original short story. The students had to outline their short stories according to a narrative structure template and include at least 3 character archetypes in their story.
Here is a brief overview of our last day together.
-
A 30-minute reflective warm-up on the concepts of structure and creativity
-
A 30-minute lesson on Frank Lloyd Wright
-
A 30-minute tutorial on watercolor painting
-
Rough and final drafts of watercolor structure paintings
-
Outline and planning of the story
-
Final drafts!
This was MASSIVE amounts of work, but all the students were highly engaged in their projects and stories and had a blast doing it all!
The students presented 3 main elements to the entire class and SAVY visitors, and you may wish to ask them these follow-up questions.
- What is the architectural period of your story, and how does your structure fit into that time period?
- What is the climax of your story? When is the problem of the story solved?
- What character archetypes are in your story? How has the hero changed over time?
For this course, I wanted the students to learn introductory elements of the history of architecture, as well as how real and imagined structures tell a type of story and contain symbolic significance. The synthesis of learned material, as well as symbolic abstractions into art by painting and writing, is extraordinarily complex.
To extend thinking, there are numerous architecture books that are excellent. My personal favorite is The Story of Buildings (2014) by Dillion & Beitsy. There are many books in the “For Kids” series, and the students all seemed to be very interested in Frank Lloyd Wright, so this may be a good place to start: https://a.co/d/go01StX. As mentioned previously, PBS Nova has an abundance of material on specific structures from the Pyramids to Notre Dame Cathedral to the Colosseum to skyscrapers. Of course, there is also the book that was sent home!
Many thanks to the students who made these three information-filled Saturdays memorable and enjoyable! I wish them much success!