creating caribbean stories through design
TRANSCRIPT
Creating Caribbean Stories Through Design
Lesley-Ann Noel University of the West Indies
St. Augustine CampusTrinidad and Tobago
Aims: Promote reading among the children of Guayaguayare R.C. School through Art and Design.
Help the children to create stories that could be developed into illustrated books for children.
Allow design students to practice their design skills and project management skills in creating illustrated storybooks.
Allow design students to apply design methodologies and strategies outside of an urban corporate context.
Project Background
Guayaguayare – Rural fishing village in Southeastern Trinidad.
The Visual Arts programme of the University of the West Indies (UWI) – Art and Design undergraduate degree based at the St. Augustine Campus of the UWI.
Bridge Foundation – Port of Spain-based NGO that champions the promotion of reading in several schools in Trinidad and Tobago.
Project Background
Learning Theory Constructivist Learning Theory
We learn best when we actively construct our own understanding.’ (Pritchard, 2013 p.18)
Knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes.
This activity takes into account the prior knowledge; understanding and skills of both the university students and the primary school students, and both groups are able to contribute to the exercise on equal terms. The children contribute the content of the story by sharing their life experiences in the village, the literature that they have read, and their hopes and dreams. The university students contribute to the experience by interpreting and illustrating the stories. They even have the freedom to choose an illustration style compatible with their own skill levels or lack thereof.
Learning Theory Constructivist Learning Theory
Learners need enough previous knowledge and understanding to enable them to learn new things; they need help making explicit the links with new and previous knowledge.
Provision should be made for social interaction and discussion in groups of varying sizes, both with and without the teacher.
Meaningful contexts for learning are very important; (what is meaningful for a teacher may not be meaningful for a child).
Children’s awareness of their own thought processes should be promoted.
Learning Theory Theory of Multiple
Intelligences
(Pritchard, 2013 p.38).
9 levels of intelligence across a range of intellectual areas. (Gardner)
Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic
Spatial /visual
Intra-personal
Logical/mathe-matical
Kin-aesthetic
Natural-istic
Musical
Inter-personal
Exist-ential
Learning Theory
Design StrategiesParticipatory Design
This project also served as a means of introducing the students to participatory design or co-design methodologies.
The application of participatory design practices (both at the moment of idea generation and continuing throughout the design process at all key moments of decision) to very large-scale problems will change design and may change the world. (Sanders and Stappers )
Though this project could be viewed as a ‘small-scale design problem’, it nevertheless provided an opportunity to introduce students to co-design and an opportunity for them to apply participatory design methodologies in the development of their designs, methods that will inform their future design practice.
Learning Theory
Design Strategies Design Process
Design Brief from project partner (and
lecturer)
Engage with
primary school
students
Develop and Edit
the story
Define the conceptual direction
Generate Visual
outcomes
Present to stake-
holders for feedback
Make revisions
and prepare artwork for
printing
Public Launch at Literary Festival
Benefits to stakeholders
University students • developed their metacognitive abilities while executing the required tasks
• gained experience in layout and illustration • acquired skills in lesson / activity planning,
facilitation and delivery, story telling, project reporting, project management, as well as experience in facilitating
Primary school students • practiced skills that were directly linked to their core curriculum such as: story telling, including sequencing, creative writing, reading, writing, and drawing.
• engaged with adults from outside of their milieu broadening their worldview
• inspired other children to create their own books
Bridge Foundation • Will have access to more locally-themed literature for future projects.
• Gained exposure at local book fair.
Visual Arts - UWI • Real-life scenario created better environment for teaching.
• Gained exposure at local book fair.
Phase 1 - Preparation
UWI academic staff and representatives of the Bridge Foundation met to declare and agree on project objectives.
Objectives: • To promote reading in the school, making linkages with books that the
children had already read. • to provide ‘role models’ for the young children, by having them interact with
the university students, the children would have the opportunity to bond with young people who could provide positive role models for them.
• to provide examples of behaviours that could be modeled by the teachers, by providing examples of different ways that art, books and reading could be used inside and outside of the classroom.
• to provide an opportunity for Service Learning, which is one of the ‘themes’ of the UWI.
• To provide an opportunity for students to apply their skills in design, layout, illustration and product development and project management skills to develop strategies to execute the project within a very short space of time.
PHASE 2: - STUDENT BRIEFING
Students were given the project brief in a class devoted to preparing the students to meet the project objectives. In this class students discussed several relevant topics that provided vital background information for the project such as life in Guayaguayare and rural Trinidad and Tobago; how to tell a story; how to promote literacy etc. A general theme for the stories/activity was selected “What is it like to be a child in Guayaguayare”. This theme was chosen so that the child would have a theme that was ‘close’ to their reality that would drive the exercise.
Four ‘trigger’ activities were presented then do an activity that would lead to them telling another story.
– Telling group stories’– ‘Reading stories’ – Drawing stories– Drawing Monsters
PHASE 3: ACTIVITY WITH CHILDREN
The University students worked in pairs with groups of four – eight children from the Standards 1, 2 and 3 classes of the school. Some of the groups had both genders; some groups were made up of boys only.
PHASE 3: ACTIVITY WITH CHILDREN
The university students took their groups to work in different parts of the school. Some worked in classrooms, some in stair wells, some worked outdoors e.g. under a tree or behind the classrooms. This was to ensure that the activity did not feel like a typical day at school.
PHASE 3: ACTIVITY WITH CHILDREN
They ‘broke the ice’ by introducing themselves to the children, and asking them if they like to read, what kinds of books they enjoyed reading and who were their favourite characters. They also discussed parts of the story – beginning middle and end
PHASE 4: REFLECTION
The class session after the trip to Guayaguayare was dedicated to reflections on the activity and decisions on the way forward.
PHASE 5: PREPARATION OF THE FIRST DRAFT
Fay The Fairy Saves the Forest Josiah Duncan
PHASE 5: PREPARATION OF THE FIRST DRAFT
Big Mouth Leann Gill
PHASE 5: PREPARATION OF THE FIRST DRAFT
Island DreamsCorneilia Ince
PHASE 5: PREPARATION OF THE FIRST DRAFT
The Crab Who DaredMarsha Trepte
PHASE 5: PREPARATION OF THE FIRST DRAFT
Iguana RaceJerome Watson
PHASE 5: PREPARATION OF THE FIRST DRAFT
The BeachLee Lutchman
PHASE 6: TESTING OF THE FIRST DRAFT
PHASE 6: TESTING OF THE FIRST DRAFT
PHASE 6: TESTING OF THE FIRST DRAFT
ReflectionsIt is interesting to note the changing preferences for the books according to the audience that was evaluating them, the books that the design lecturers thought were the most successful, were not necessarily the favourites of the Bridge Foundation, nor the children, and the children were at times very attracted to some illustration styles that could be considered very simple, especially if the story was humorous. There seemed to be little difference in preference between the urban and rural children.
ConclusionsThis activity aimed to generate two different types of results.
Firstly it was developed as a way of engaging the children’s interest in reading, and secondly, but by no means of lesser importance, it was developed as a way to get the university students to put into practice their own experience in illustration design and design management in a ‘real-life’ experience.
The project sought to create ‘meaningful contexts’ for learning for both the primary school students and the university students.
Conclusions
The success indicators for this project are the children’s feedback, and their interest in creating more books, and the design students’ professionalism in leading the children through the exercise, successful creation and printing of the drafts. The project aim of promoting literacy was achieved while still fulfilling the pedagogical aims of the Design programme at the University of the West Indies, and the design students were able to apply their knowledge of graphic design, layout, illustration to the project, as well as to practice their skills as project managers and education facilitators, as they lead the co-design process.
Conclusions
The project was also useful since it forced students to reflect on their work, actively interact with their stakeholders, and make changes based on the feedback of the stakeholders. The project also moved the design project into a real-life scenario which allowed students the opportunity to engage with many stakeholders of the project such as the client, the children who provided the content, the printers and the test market, and to understand in a real way the complexity of the design development and production of an illustrated storybook.