Lecture: Using the Studio Habits of Mind to Help Students Create Ceramic Works The teachers of Bruce Guadalupe Community School created a parallel curriculum that used the work of ceramist Luz Angela Crawford as inspiration for students to create various ceramic pieces. During this presentation I will share with you examples of parallel curriculum planning, student work, and student success.

1. Using the Studio Habits of
Mind to Help Students
Create Ceramic Works

2. In this presentation we will
share with you the following.
•What the Studio Habits of Mind are.
•What the ALMA project is.
•An example of how teachers at the
Bruce Guadalupe Community School
use these two ideas to impact
student achievement.

3. THE ALMA PROJECT
Advancing Literacy and Math through Art

4. ALMA is Spanish for “soul” and the acronym for
Avansando Lectura y Matematicas pormedio del Arte
(Advancing Reading and Math through the Arts).
ALMA is a partnership between the Bruce-Guadalupe
Community School, a K3-8th Grade charter school
operated by the United Community Center, the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Latino Arts, Inc.
The aim of this project is to increase student
achievement in Literacy and Math through the integration
of culturally appropriate standards based Arts into
Reading, Language Arts and Math subjects.

5. THE STUDIO HABITS
OF MIND

6. What are the Studio Habits
of mind?
The Eight studio Habits are an education
model created by Lois Hetland. The model
focuses on different aspects of learning a
student uses during an art lesson.

7. Develop Craft: Learning to use tools, materials, artistic
conventions; and learning to care for tools, materials, and space.
Engage & Persist: Learning to embrace problems of relevance
within the art world and/or of personal importance, to develop
focus conducive to working and persevering at tasks.
Envision: Learning to picture mentally what cannot be directly
observed and imagine possible next steps in making a piece.
Express: Learning to create works that convey an idea, a feeling,
or a personal meaning.
Observe: Learning to attend to visual contexts more closely than
ordinary “looking” requires, and thereby to see things that
otherwise might not be seen.

8. Reflect: Learning to think and talk with others about an aspect of
one’s work or working process, and, learning to judge one’s own
work and working process and the work of others.
Stretch & Explore: Learning to reach beyond one’s capacities,
to explore playfully without a preconceived plan, and to embrace
the opportunity to learn from mistakes.
Understand Arts Community: Learning to interact as an
artist with other artists i.e., in classrooms, in local arts
organizations, and across the art field) and within the broader
society.
Studio Habits of Mind from Studio Thinking, Hetland, Winner,
et al, Teachers College Press, 2007.

9. THE ART LESSON
Working with the ideas of Luz Angela Crowford

10. Luz Angela Crawford
As a native of Colombia, South America I was inspired to create
clay pots and plaques in the style of the primitive cultures. While
visiting some of the indigenous tribes from Colombia, I
discovered their old traditions and techniques of working with
clay. At this time I was even more inspired to be part of the long
history of people making things with their hands. My work reflects
the ancient artistic traditions from South America. When working
with clay, I am totally immersed in it. Making pottery is pure joy.
The process of making pottery is very old. Each piece I create is
molded by hand just as was done in ancient times without the
use of a potter’s wheel. I incorporate natural elements such as
seeds, rocks, wood, leaves, and shells to make the textures that
predominate in each piece. Using earthy colors and textures,
with attention to detail, I mold nature in a unique way. After
working many hours each piece is allowed to dry before being
fired. Glazes are then applied to the surfaces using minerals
such as copper, iron, cobalt, and various types of clay. These
minerals give the art an earthy, natural finish.

12. Project’s Big Idea: Time, is the sequence of past,
present, and future. A time can be a specific moment or
particular period considered as distinct from others.
Art:
•Students will use their visual journals as a reference tool
for building their vessel.
•Students will explore the idea of ceramics through hand-
building, soft and hard-slab, and glazing techniques.
•Students will be able to understand the idea of vessels
and how Crawford creates them.
•Students will incorporate various natural elements into the
building of their vessel.

13. Language Arts:
•Students will develop their expository writing skills by
expressing what the artifacts in their time capsule
represent and why they were chosen.
•Through their writing students will explain why they
choose the specific natural elements present on their
vessel.
•Students will organize their object explanations within
a T-Chart.
•Students will develop their expository writing skills by
expressing what the artifacts in their time capsule
represent and why they were chosen.

14. Math:
•Students will use their time capsule objects
to determine their vessel’s volume.
•Students will use their knowledge of
measurement to design a vessel to hold their
time capsule objects.
•Students will show the sequence of time
using natural elements.

15. The fourth grade went to the Latino Arts Gallery to
view Crawford’s ceramic work. Before going to
the gallery the fourth grade team created a
question sheet for the students to answer in their
visual journal that involved both written and drawn
responses. Once the students were in the gallery
they were paired up and asked to discover the
gallery, answer the response questions, and be
prepared to report their answers back to the
group. The students were given an hour to
complete their tasks. After they had finished we
gathered in an open space in the gallery and
shared what they had discovered.

16. In their classrooms students worked with the art
specialist and their classroom teacher to learn more
about Crawford and why she creates art. Students
discussed what about her art work was important to
her and talked about why it might be important to
them. Students learned what a vessel is. They then
discussed what a “Time Capsule” is. Students were
asked to find objects for their time capsule that they
would be building. They were asked to choose items
that would represent important times in their life.
When students brought their objects in they were
asked to write about why they chose these three
objects.

17. During Math, students learned about volume.
They learned how to find the volume of a
cube. Students estimated the volume of the
objects that they brought in for their Time
Capsule. Using the estimated volume of their
objects students worked in their visual
journals to create a blueprint of what size
their cube will need to be. Using card stock
students created a mock cube so they could
realize the size of their vessel and find out if
their objects would fit.

18. In the art room students built their ceramic
time capsule. They were instructed as to
what a slab was and how Luz Angela
Crawford uses slabs to build a vessel. They
received instruction from the art teacher
about how a ceramist carefully rolls a slab.
Using their paper model as a guide students
worked in pairs to roll all five slabs they would
need to build their cube. Once all students
finished rolling slabs they received instruction
on how to assemble their cube. Students
worked in teams to assemble the vessel.

19. In all three subjects students used brainstorming
and graphic organizers to design four sides of
their vessel. They were asked to draw a plan for a
sequence in time or nature in their visual journal;
for example the rain cycle or a volcano erupting.
This concept was supported with time laps videos
that showed them a sequence over time. These
videos were used to inspire them. Once they had
a plan and their vessel was ready students
painted their sequence on their vessel.

20. The last part of this unit was to have students
reflect on the vessel they created as well as the
objects they had placed in it. Their rough draft
was written in their visual journal and shared
and critiqued with peers in their class. From
this critique students revised their writing and
put it into a final draft to accompany their art.

21. Avanzando Lectura y Matematicas a traves del Arte/ Advancing Literacy and Math through Art (ALMA)
is an ongoing research project through the U.S. Department of Education’s Development and
Dissemination Grant Program. PI/Project Director 2012-2014: Christine Woywod, Ph.D., PI 2010-
2012: Laura Trafi-Prats, Ph.D.,Co-PI: Cindy Walker, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
Please do not reproduce or distribute these materials without permission of the authors. For further
information, contact woywod@uwm.edu.
Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education [Paperback]Lois Hetland (Author), Ellen
Winner (Author), Shirley Veenema (Author), Kimberly M. Sheridan (Author), David N. Perkins
(Foreword)
http://luzangelacrawford.com/