You are the Artist: Integrating Visual Literacy across the

Curriculum

UDL Unit on the Holocaust

Middle School ELA Class

Part 2;Integrating Images

A Few Elements of Visual literacy

color choice

shape

scale

juxtaposition

COLOR

Shape

Comedian and cabaret artist Ursus Wehrli is on a crusade to tidy up art.

Juxtaposition/Symbolic

Holocaust Unit

• Not Me

• Lonely, cold. Nazi • is part of me. I • am a stranger to• myself. • I am a • T• R• A• I• T• O• R • Who knows why? • Not me. Not me. • NOT ME.• I feel • empty and heartless. • Destroying my • motherland. • This person really isn’t me. • My heart is • dying. • Frozen, • shattered. • No. • This is not me. • I am gone…

Illustrator's Note:My illustration was supposed to represent sorrow and grief. I used colors to describe how I felt about the war. How I felt about the war is kind of like how I feel when people are making fun of me, it hurts. It does not hurt nearly as much as what the Jews were put through. But I want to make it clear to people that even though others are different don’t pick on them.

"Midnight Tears"Illustrator's Note For my piece of artwork, I did an abstract picture that I call Midnight Tears. In the

center is a teardrop with a lightning bolt hidden within it. The tear represents how people would so often cry in a concentration camp, and the sadness that would unite many people as friends and allies. The lightning bolt demonstrateshow quickly the Nazis would take people away, quick and without warning. In the back-ground, you see three colors, red, brown, and black. The red represents blood and death, both of which were common in camps. The black and the brown show that the camps were not a good place to live, and that you would be killed if you didn’t watch your step. Ichose all of these colors because Ithought that they were powerful colors that showed the death, and the destruction of many peoples’ lives that came with living in a camp.

Hannah’s PoemI stand here before you,Not as a girl,But as a hero of the Holocaust,Now let’s watch history unfurl.

You’re in a concentration camp,Without your family or friends,Your fear is like the thunder of guns,It seems to never end.

As the days drag by,Your life is the same,Your bunkmates and new- found friends,Are killed and maimed.

But is there anything you can do,To make your life all right?For all that you can hope right now,Is that you’ll survive the night.

Poet’s Note

As I read The Devil’s Arithmetic, I noticed that, like Hannah, not many people would understand what life would be like if they were in a concentration camp. When I wrote my poem, I wanted the reader to fall into the past for a few brief moments, for them to imagine what life must have been like knowing that you were truly alone in the world. To incorporate the story into my poem, I wrote it as if Hannah were telling it. Another thing that I wanted to do was to have Hannah say what she felt during her experience in the past

Illustrator’s NoteI created an oil-pastel drawing because you can show many different moods with the different colors. In the first section I have red yellow and orange lines, which show her life before the war where it was fast, fun, exciting, energetic and bright. For the middle section which was during the war, I used dark colors and sad colors and I also trapped colors which showed how they where either trapped by the Nazis or by the concentration camps. Then I added at the end bright light cheerful colors with random bad spots and unknown pieces to show all the happiness and question in the time period after the war when everyone celebrated.

Poet and Illustrator's Note:

I got the topic of my poem from A Traitor Among Us. I thought of terror and fear when I started reading the book. But near the end of the book I thought of hope and bravery. I imagined dark times and light times, so that made me think. When I went to write my poem I tried adding in terror and happiness.

The artwork I painted is water colors [mostly black color]. The dark figures are the shadows and traitors that have appeared. The lava bursting out of ground is the tormented places that have been destroyed and are left to nothing but dust. But the sky is still partly clear symbolizing that there is still hope.

Poem

All is happy Until darkness comes.Shadows spread with fear.The Holocaust begins.Danger spreads.Destruction leaves ruinous

places. Separation begins in families.Fighting starts.Traitors start to appear. People are tormented.The war, casualties.But pride isn’t lost. There is still hope.