ESPrit de Corps

Bookmaking and Non-Fiction Narrative
Flushing Council on Arts and Culture with JHS 189Q

Educators: Helen Robinson
Teaching Artist: Karen Fitzgerald

Grade 6
December 2008

Fire, Kate Kim
An origami Book consisting of 3 pages, illustrated and with text.  What to do if there is a fire!

More Recess Please, Kenny Zhou
An origami Book consisting of 3 pages, illustrated and with text.  Persuasive text and images regarding the issue of more recess time for students during their school day.

Paper, cardboard and found images

This unit engaged students in writing personal/persuasive narratives.  Students identified a topic and then created an origami book to inform someone of the topic, or to persuade them about an issue.  As educators, we were surprised by the experimentation and excitement the students exhibited in the choices and effort they went through to create their books.  They responded very strongly to the lush colors of the pages, and used basic color selection to set the tone for their book contents.  Using collage as a basic technique, they exhibited great creativity in finding commercial images and re-purposing them in their books.

Listen to Teaching Artist Karen Fitzgerald talk about the making of this project. JHS189Q-Flushing-Orig.mp3 (5522 KB)

Listen to ELA teacher Helen Robinson talk about the making of this project, including the curricular connections.
Flushing_Origami.mp3 (3451 KB)