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Description of Unit

This project generates an understanding of the relationship between history, quilting, and storytelling. Students will explore the stories told by quilts, how narratives can be represented through the art form of the quilt, and the relationship between story and history. In designing their own quilt, students will apply geometric principles.

This guide links the Story Quilt unit to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for fifth graders. Story Quilt is an English language arts unit that allows students to gain an understanding of the relationship between history, quilting, and storytelling. Story Quilt also has interdisciplinary connections to the mathematics and social studies disciplines. For example, students generate geometric definitions using critical attributes, as addressed in the Mathematics TEKS, and students study the relationship between the arts and the times during which they were created, as addressed in the Social Studies TEKS. The following document includes the applicable TEKS and the details of the Story Quilt unit. The asterisks indicate the TEKS that are testable on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). The final section of this document presents the applicable Texas College and Career Readiness Standards adopted by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) on January 24, 2008.

Phase I. Learning Experiences

  1. Choose one of these books to introduce the concept of quilting to your students: Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson, The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. Explain how the quilter’s work tells a story. Discuss these questions:
    • How does the quilter use color, texture, form, line, space, and value to tell the story?
    • What role do the principles of emphasis, pattern, rhythm, balance, proportion, and unity serve in the quilt?
  2. Review the history of quilting. Helpful websites include:
     
    http://www.womenfolk.com/historyofquilts/
    http://www.quiltersbee.com/qbqhisto.htm
    https://www.britannica.com/art/quilting

    Which groups of people have tended to communicate and record historical information through quilts? Why? What was the motivation behind this activity? Is there bias in the way the history of quilting is told? Are there errors of omission—whose stories are not told in history books?

  3. Organize the students into small groups. Each group should take one historical or ethnic group to research. Students should identify three examples of quilts from the time period or ethnic group studied. The groups should consider these questions:
    • How were quilts made? What materials were used? Were the materials significant to the people in some way?
    • What purposes did the quilts serve?
    • What were the stories told through the quilts?
    • How has quilting become universally regarded as a legitimate art form?
    • How were political symbols used in the quilts?
    • How do the quilts reflect the belief system during the time period or of the ethnic group?
  4. Discuss the mathematics involved in quilting. Cut out triangles and other shapes to form quilting patterns. Students can use these patterns to create tessellations, rotations, and reflections. A helpful website includes:
     
    http://finitegeometry.org/sc/16/quiltgeometry.html

    Refer to the attached worksheet for looking at quilts.

  5. Create a class quilt. Each student designs a quilt square that represents one event or aspect of a story. Students should take notes and make decisions about who will design each square. Squares can represent plot, characters, and/or setting. Use quilt-making software, if available, or use graph paper to lay out the design. The design of the quilt should be historically accurate from the time period of the story. Record the history or process of the quilt and keep it with the quilt. OR Each group selects a story and designs a quilt for the story. Then compare and contrast the various quilts. Stories should come from books they have read or websites they have visited as part of this unit.

Phase II. Independent Research

A. Research process

  1. Selecting a topic. Each student should identify a story they would like their quilt to tell.
  2. Asking guiding questions. Once the student has selected a story, he/she should form guiding questions to explore, such as:
    • Who is telling the story? Why?
    • What resources will help develop the story?
    • What material will the quilt be made of? Will the choice of material help to tell the story?
    • What other supplies will be needed?
    While these examples are general, the student's questions should be specific to the chosen topic. The questions should lead him/her to form individual research-based opinions. The student should also develop a hypothesis or some possible answers to the questions.

  3. Developing and submitting a research proposal. The student should include numerous components in the research proposal:
    • The story the quilt will tell
    • The guiding questions he/she will investigate, as well as hypothetical answers to those questions
    • Resources he/she will need to find answers to questions, such as primary and secondary sources, correspondence with experts on the subject, etc.
  4. Conducting the research. After you have approved student proposals, each student begins using the resources he/she has identified and others he/she may encounter. During this stage, the student will need to keep a log, note cards, or resource process sheets of all the sources and what he/she has learned from each one.
  5. Developing conclusions. The student should consider the following questions:
    • What was successful about the adaptation of the story to the quilt you will make?
    • What adjustments or changes did you have to make? Why?
    • Who is the target audience for your quilt?
    • What will be unique about your story and quilt?

B. The product

Create a quilt that tells an original story. Write the original story. Design a quilt that goes with it. Use quilt-making software, if available, or use graph paper to lay out the design. The design of the quilt should historically accurate from the time period of the story. Record the history or process of the quilt and keep it with the quilt. Quilts can be made of paper.

C. Communication

Each student will present their quilt to the class, along with the story, which is described in the quilt. The talk should include unscripted questions from the audience.

D. A completed project consists of:A research proposal, including guiding questions and answers

  • A research log, notes, or resource process sheets
  • The product-the quilt and its accompanying story
  • A Works Cited Page
  • A videotape or audiotape of the student's talk, including the unscripted Q&A session
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