Program Purpose

Program Learning Activities Overview 

The program was divided into four parts according to skill: creative writing: writing an “I Am” poem, word processing and keyboarding, introduction to typography, and digital image manipulation: my self-portrait. WASC has a small computer lab consisting of 10 IBM PCs, and the software used for the program included Adobe Photoshop Elements and MS Word. The final outcome, which tied all four parts together, consisted of printing out the poem and self-portrait on two separate sheets of paper. The students then mounted each sheet side-by-side on a larger sheet of black construction paper, giving the project a finished appearance. 

Activity Description: The “I Am” Poem 

For this activity, the students began by participating in a discussion prompted by the question, “What is a poem?” After approximately ten minutes of discussion, they were then given an “I Am” poem worksheet in which they were to complete every sentence in each stanza, for a total of eighteen descriptive sentences. As they wrote, the instructor put up a word wall to assist with the spelling of unfamiliar words. 

Activity Description: Word Processing and Keyboarding 

The second activity consisted of the students typing out their “I Am” poems in Microsoft Word using proper keyboarding techniques. In addition to learning keyboarding, the students also learned how to create a new file, open an existing file, use the cursor to highlight and correct spelling errors, use MS Word to identify misspelled words, create a file name, and save their file regularly. The first graders and a few second graders had some difficulty staying focused on the activity, while nearly all of the third graders completed this activity easily. 

Activity Description: Introduction to Typography 

This activity, despite its unfamiliarity, was very enjoyable to the students. The first graders began the activity by reading Lauren Child’s I Will Not Ever Not Ever Eat a Tomato and the second and third graders began with Rene Siegfried’s The Serif Fairy. The purpose was to draw students’ attention to the author’s use of various typefaces and the impact different typefaces have on the mood of the story. This led to the next part of the activity, which consisted of showing the students a series of large flashcards displaying a word written with two different typefaces and asking them to explain which typeface they believed to be a better “fit” for that word.  

The students then had the opportunity to apply what they had learned about typefaces by opening their “I Am” poem file in MS Word and changing the fonts of any words or phrases of their choosing, provided the font “fit” with the word or phrase. While most of the third graders grasped the concept of choosing fonts for individual words and phrases in order to accentuate their meaning, the younger students generally chose fonts based on how much they liked their appearance.  

Activity Description: Image Manipulation 

While the students were working on their “I Am” poems, they each had their picture taken by the instructor, who then downloaded the images into their personal folders. Before drawing on their self-portraits with Adobe Photoshop Elements, they practiced using the application’s drawing and painting tools, eraser tools, selection tools, and filter tools and created an image on a blank canvas. The image itself could be of anything they wanted; the one requirement was that they had to use at least five different tools and five different colors. As with the previous activity, the older students and students who had access to a computer at home had an easier time meeting expectations and were considerably more comfortable experimenting with their images and achieving the results they wanted. 

Recommendations 

By all accounts, the program was a success. Despite varying skill levels and comfort levels with the computer, every child was able to satisfactorily complete the project according to the program coordinator and participating educators’ assessment tools. In addition, the participating educators were able to learn the software applications well enough to replicate the program themselves. 

Fortunately, this program can be replicated and expanded at very low cost if there are already existing personnel to execute it. While a small grant was available to purchase the proprietary software applications in this case, open source software applications such as OpenOffice (a word processing application similar to MS Word) and GIMP (an image processing application similar to Adobe Photoshop) can be used instead toward the same ends without diminishing learning outcomes or the final project result. Educators who wish to replicate the program but are unfamiliar with these applications will need some training, albeit minimal. A 4- to 8-hour training session is sufficient for learning the applications’ functions and basic troubleshooting, although an educator working with upper elementary or middle school students may want to learn the applications in more depth.

Alison Colman is the founder and Executive Director of the Fuse Factory Electronic and Digital Arts Lab in Columbus, Ohio.