Students at Flat Lick Elementary recently learned new creative methods of telling their story through a visiting artist.
Flat Lick was awarded a Teaching Arts Together Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council to provide the learning experience. Teaching artist Judy Sizemore worked with core groups of classes to provide a model for integrating literary and visual arts with content in social studies and math and for place-based learning in the arts. Sizemore visited with students the week of January 25-February 2th.
During her residency at Flat Lick Elementary, Sizemore shared exemplars and discussed characteristics of genres before students started the process of composing individual writing pieces. The end product will culminate with students creating small books including place-based poetry (I Am From, My Colorful Quilt) and narratives about people and places special to them. Other students will interview a special person and write poems or stories to honor those individuals, and write profiles, how-to stories, or feature articles about a person or local tradition.
Sizemore engaged students in pre-writing, drafting, peer feedback and creative revision and integrate social studies/culture.
Sizemore is one of two visiting artists that students will get to learn from. Dianne Simpson will be visiting the school the week of February 8 to work with students as well. Both artists are actively involved in the community through their work with the Knox County Arts Council.
At the conclusion of the residencies, demonstrations and displays of completed projects and student writing will be on display for parents/guardians and other family members during an open house. Student writings will be on permanent display in the school library.
Helen Mills and her husband Gary Tannenbaum, who have supported various projects at Flat Lick Elementary, will provide the matching funds for the project. Diana Mills, a retired Knox County teacher, volunteered to write and submit the grant for Flat Lick and will be responsible for reporting the outcomes of the grant.
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supports the residency of these artists with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.