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Just Like Me
Students write essays comparing themselves to an artist of their choice. See Art activity for an extension of this project.
 2 hours
(can be over several sessions)
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individual
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CA Writing Standard 1.0: Students write clear and coherent sentences and paragraph that develop a central idea. Their writing shows they consider the audience and purpose. Students progress through the stages of the writing process.
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Click here for a look at a sample student essay.
Plan
 | Ask students to look through the book to identify three artists that interest them. Have them read the essays by these artists carefully.
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| Give students the pre-writing worksheet and tell them to complete the chart based on their three artists.
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Draft
| In this activity, students will compare themselves to one artist. Remind the students that there are many different ways to resemble someone else: you might share an interest, you might look like each other physically, you might live near each other, or you might speak the same language, for example. Ask them to carefully review their notes on each artist. Have each student pick one artist that appeals to him or her.
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| Ask students to complete the drafting worksheet, thinking carefully about how they are like their artists. Remind them to write in full sentences and to think about how their thoughts will work together to make a paragraph.
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Revise
Now it's time to move from the writing worksheet to a full paragraph. Students take their initial sentences and develop them further in second drafts, using lined paper or a computer. Remind students to explain their thoughts clearly in full sentences and to make connections between their ideas.
Edit
Ask students to edit their second drafts for publication, checking spelling and punctuation. Read through the drafts and mark errors. Encourage students to use a word wall, a dictionary, or other classroom reference tools as they correct their work.
Publish
Publish the essays by posting them in the classroom under the students' self-portraits.
Other Writing Activities
| Comparing Lives: Ask students to compare and contrast two different artists in the book, commenting on both the artwork and the text. How are the artists' lives similar or different? How are their artistic styles similar or different? Tell students to imagine themselves talking to the artists. What would they be like as people? How would the conversations with the two artists be different? (pairs or small groups)
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| Art Critics: Ask students to write reviews of the art in the book. Tell them to pretend that the pieces in the book are hanging in a museum and that they are reporters assigned by their newspaper to review the exhibit. How would they use words to describe the images? What would they want somebody else to know about the art hanging in the museum? Would they recommend that others go to the exhibit? (individual)
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Just Like My Folks
Students identify artists' communities and explore the impact of identity on individuals' art and lives.
2 hours
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large group
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CA Social Studies Standard 3.1: Students describe the physical and human geography and use maps, tables, graphs, photographs, and charts to organize information about people, places, and environments.
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World map; butcher paper or flipchart and markers.
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Choose one focus artist from each ethnic community. Base your choice on the artists' essays and your students' responses to the artwork. As you choose, try to achieve a range of geographic representation, based on where the artists currently live or where they spent their childhood. Some good focus artists might include: Carmen Lomas Garza (Mexican America), Nancy Hom (Chinese American), George Littlechild (Canadian First Nations), Rodolfo Morales (Mexican), Mira Reisberg Australian and Jewish American), JoeSam. (African American), and Michelle Wood (African American).
On your world map, use pins to mark the places highlighted in the artists' essays and biographical information.
Read the focus artists' essays as a class. Have students list the facts they know about each artist.
Talk with your students about the many aspects of identity. Explore the following ideas: We each have a personal identity. Our identities are affected both by circumstances that are individual (specific to our lives) and based on our communities (shared by people who have things in common). Brainstorm a list of different kinds of communities: ethnic or racial, geographic, professional, and so on.
Ask students to identify the different communities these artists belong to. Use a chart to compare your lists of facts about each artists. Ask the class: What about this artist's experience is individual? What do all the artists have in common? What might the artists have in common with other members of their ethnic communities?
| Carmen Lomas Garza | Nancy Hom | George Littlechild | Mira Reisberg | JoeSam |
| Mexican American | Chinese American
Fist nations | Canadian |
Jewish
Australian American | African American |
| Born in Kingsville, Texas | Born in Toisan, China | Born in Edmonton, Canada | Born in Melbourne, Australia | Born in Harlem, NY |
| Taught herself how to draw | Likes to draw simple shapes | His art shows his different moods | Being an artist brings her happiness | Uses lots of colors in art |
If you can, use this exercise as the starting point for a more extended research project about different communities. Begin by comparing the self-portraits with other artwork from these communities.
Other Social Studies Activities
| When I Was Your Age Have your students research what life was like when the artists were their age. Ask students to pick an artist and use his or her birth date to calculate the year when the artist was the student's age. What was life like in the artists' communities when they were children?
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Just Like Me
Students create their own self-portraits in the style of a favorite artist.
1.5 hours
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individual
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CA Visual Arts Standard 1.0: Students apply artistic processes and skills, using a variety of media to communicate meaning and intent in original artworks.
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Drawing paper (preferably 12"x18"); pencils and erasers; oil pastels, crayons, or colored pencils.
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Click here for a look at a sample student self-portrait.
Ask students to identify a favorite artist from the book. Tell them to pay special attention to the artist's style as they choose. If your class has completed the Just Like Me writing activity, have students choose the artists they featured in their essays.
Tell students that they are going to draw a self-portrait – in the style of the artists they have chosen. When they are done, their picture of themselves should look like a portrait the artist might have drawn. A student may even choose to replicate the artist's self-portrait, replacing the artist with him- or herself.
Have students plan out their drawings by sketching them in pencil on a small piece of paper. Tell students this is the rough draft of their art, just as they have rough drafts of their writing.
When students are ready, ask them to redraw their self-portraits in pencil on their large pieces of drawing paper. Then they may color their work, using the medium of their choice.
Share the work by posting it above the students' Just Like Me essays. Put the finished work in a special gallery corner of your classroom.
Other Art Activities
| Photographic Self-Portraits: Read aloud Maya Christina Gonzalez's essay on page 8 about her self-portrait. Point out to the students that Maya made her picture by painting over a photograph of herself. Take a photograph of each student and enlarge it on a photocopier, making the image fill the 8.5”x11” paper. Have students use oil pastels to color themselves in, encouraging them to use colors that surprise them or express their feelings. If you wish, create posterboard frames and ask students to decorate the frames with words that describe themselves, using handwriting or collage.
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Picture Geometry
Students use the self-portraits to identify and compare geometric shapes.
30 mins.
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whole class
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CA Mathematics Standard Measurement and Geometry 2.0: Students describe and compare the attributes of plane geometric figures
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Paper and pencils; blackboard and chalk or flipchart and markers
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Break the class into small groups and assign each group one of the following shapes: circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, and polygons. Tell the groups that it is their job to find these shapes in the book.
Ask the groups to keep lists of where they see the shapes in the art. Tell them that if they can't find the exact shape they're looking for, they should look for a form close to their assigned shape.
Bring the groups together. Tell each group to share two or three examples of their findings with the class. Ask the students to explain why these are good examples. What makes this shape in the art look like a circle? What are the characteristics of a circle? Keep notes for the group on the flipchart or blackboard. After each group's presentation, ask other students if they have characteristics to add to the list. Supplement the students' lists as appropriate.
Ask the students who researched squares and rectangles to compare their lists. Is there any overlap between the two lists? What makes something a square rather than a rectangle? Why might it be hard to find a perfect square in a work of art?
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