Packing Slip 
item |
Face to Face: Making Masks to Explore Identity and Diversity |
contact |
Chris Schnick (Chandler-Gilbert Community College) chris.schnick@cgcmail.maricopa.edu |
credits |
Dr. Paul Petrequin Dr. Kim Chuppa-Cornell |
college(s) |
Chandler-Gilbert Community College |
discipline(s) |
English, Humanities, History |
summary |
Zarco Guerrero is a master at talking about masks as an art form and as a means of expression, making unique masks reflective of several cultural traditions, and performing in his masks. Students gained knowledge through Zarco’s lectures about masks, mask-making, identity and differences. Students also created masks through his mask-making workshops. With the masks they made, some students performed original poetry related to the masks and their identity. |
details |
Two primary sets of students used mask making to enhance their learning. Students from a History-English Learning Community: The American Dream: Myth or Reality? focused on a theme of socioeconomic class differences. Zarco Guerriero, mask-maker, met with the students before mask workshops to discuss masks as expressions of identity and as ways to explore differences. He helped students to consider what they would put on their masks and talked about performance with masks as well. During the workshops, the History-English students made masks that represented their conception of their individual socioeconomic classes. This was in conjunction with personal writing. As they shared their masks, they shared their writing and talked about the issues inherent in the masks they created. The second set of students were from a Humanities 108 class¬–Contemporary Humanities. Zarco initially met with the students to discuss masks in several different historical and cultural settings and to explore masks as art form. During the workshops, students created masks. Their sharing involved writing about the masks as a contemporary art form. The project concluded with Zarco performing with his masks on campus to get the audience to consider the stigmas diverse people experience that can lead people to reconsider the stereotypes they hold as well as reflecting on their own identity. Outside of the theater where Zarco performed, there was a public display of masks and poems from students from the History-English Learning Community. ------------------------------------------------------------ How did the project improve, advance, or enhance student learning? Please provide specific examples. ------------------------------------------------------------ History-English students wrote a poem, made a mask related to the poem, and then revised the poem based on the mask. This art-influenced writing process helped students in the following manner: added creativirty, made it more real, added detailed description, led to more things to say, helped get to more depth about social class, inspired revision, helped become aware of the point of the writing, and led to deeper understanding. ------------------------------------------------------------ How did you evaluate your project's success? What did it tell you? ------------------------------------------------------------ Reflective writing for the History-English students told us that the process of writing a poem, making a mask related to the poem, and then revising the poem based on the mask was beneficial to most students as detailed in the response to Question 2 above. A few students, thought, felt like the process led them to create a final poem that was too general or vague or not what they really wanted to write about. ------------------------------------------------------------ What is your plan to share this project with others? ------------------------------------------------------------ MLX posting and article in Diveristy Digest. We have already shared the grant work at a Multicultural Conference for K-12 teachers held in Phoenix and at a MCCCD Convocation Learning Grants sharing session. ------------------------------------------------------------ What, if anything, will happen in the future with this project? ------------------------------------------------------------ The mask-making portion of this project may be repeated drawing on the skills of a staff member at CGCC who is learning how to create masks and lead mask-making workshops. ------------------------------------------------------------ What, if anything, would you do differently? ------------------------------------------------------------ For the History-English students, we would give more explicit instructions about the mask making process prior to the students writing their first versions of their poems. Note! As a professional courtesy to the owner of this package, if you use some aspect of this package or have some thoughts about it, please share your feedback via the comments form below. |
web links |
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/learngrant/ http://www.diversityweb.org/DiversityDemocracy/vol10no3/schnick.cfm |
supplements |
Instructions for Initial Class Poem (document) Worksheet to Help Prepare Students for Making a Mask (document) student wearing mask (image) student wearing mask (image) student holding mask (image) student reading poem with mask (image) History-English students' feedback (document) Note! As a professional courtesy to the owner of this package, if you use some aspect of this package or have some thoughts about it, please share your feedback below. |
shareback |
A "Shareback" cites the places on the web that mention, reference, or use this MLX package, and "shares" that information back here (more about shareback...) Sharebacks can be generated automatically by weblog tools. |
extra |
Last modified: Oct-25-2007 Date created: Jun-06-2007 Visitor count: 2565 Dublin Core Metadata record  This package is included in the Maricopa Learning Grants special collection. |
Maricopa Learning eXchange
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/slip.php?item=1963
