A GUIDE FOR SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER STUDENTS IN ART EDUCATION
ART WITHOUT BORDERS
Presented to the College of Fine Arts of the University of Florida In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts ART WITHOUT BORDERS: A GUIDE FOR SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER STUDENTS IN ART EDUCATION By Danette Marie Albino August 2015 Chair: Jodi Kushins Member: Elizabeth Delacruz Major: Art Education
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement Introduction Danette Marie Ian Irma Molly A Message to Art Educators Image Index References
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FIRSTLY, I want to thank the participants of this project, Ian,
Irma, and Molly. They trusted me with their stories and, through these stories, have expanded the discussion on immigrant and English language learner students in art education. I want to thank my loved ones for cheering me on and listening to me babble on about this project. I also want to thank my committee chair and supporting member, Dr. Jodi Kushins and Dr. Elizabeth Delacruz, for challenging me throughout this program and guiding me with this project. Lastly, I want to thank every immigrant and English language learner that has succeeded, failed, settled, and persevered. All of their stories matter and we need to hear them.
INTRODUCTION 18 years ago, my family migrated from a small town in Puerto Rico
to a small town in Texas. I left everything that I knew and experienced many different things, some of it good, much of it not so good. With every experience I went through, good and bad, I had little knowledge on how to handle myself, how to handle a situation, or just how to be. No matter what was going, what was natural for others was something I had to force out of myself with great uncertainty and self-doubt. Looking back to that time, I realized I wasn’t the only lost person; the adults in my life were also lost. I remember so many defeated and confused looks I got from adults when they didn’t know how to help me and, with each look, I felt more and more isolated and overwhelmed. With this zine, I will share my story and the stories of three others like me. Immigrants. English language learners. Artists. Along with these personal stories, just four out millions of stories out there in this country, I will provide suggestions for art educators to better support immigrant and English language learner (ELL) students. I’ve been telling anyone who has asked me about this project how this has taken six months of my life but, really, this was 18 years in the making. I’ve carried my story with me all these years; it has driven me to be the type of artist, educator and person I am today. There are many unheard stories that can no longer be overlooked. With the rising numbers of immigrants and ELLs, our country’s demographic is shifting and the field of art education needs to start having more conversations on how we can reflect this shift and best support a new type of student population.
DANETTE MARIE AS far back as I can remember, I was a hyper, confident, borderline
arrogant child. As such a child, I felt no alarm when my parents told me we were leaving Puerto Rico for the United States. My father, a doctor, believed he would find better opportunities in his profession by migrating to the States. At 7, I felt like I was a force to be reckoned with, but I was knocked down when I started 2nd grade in the United States. My classroom teacher was Mexican and could speak Spanish along with many students in my school, but isolation, confusion, and frustration still took a hold of me. Some days I would try to put meaning to words I didn’t understand and other days I would just sit in my chair and mentally check out for the day. Many days I would come home crying, other days I would fake being the child I used to be. I clung onto whatever small victories I could collect, moments I felt accepted or smart. I became an anxious child and that anxiety often came along with depression, resentment, and feeling homesick. I remember one day in particular that showed how low my esteem got. One day, my teacher had us play a Spanish translation game. Throughout most of it, I had fun and got everything right but then my last turn came. I translated a word “wrongly.” Except I didn’t, the word was a Puerto Rican word but my teacher did not realize this and assumed I was “losing” my Spanish. If something like this happened to me before my migration, I would have stomped my foot, arguing up and down that she was wrong and I was right. But what I really did was sink into my chair and wonder if I was truly wrong. I was still struggling with English but I had no trouble believing that I’d lost touch with my native language already.
When I was in the 4th grade, my favorite show was Sailor Moon and I would spend a lot of my free time drawing Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts. I remember being very determined to draw the characters as well as possible; there was a lot of erasing and redrawing. While many people kept telling me how great I was at drawing, a friend pointed out every flaw and that made me more determined to draw better. Eventually, I moved on to drawing other cartoon characters, dolls, and my own characters. This was my ultimate distraction from what was going on around me. I didn’t have to talk to anybody while drawing, so I didn’t have to worry about understanding people talking and vice versa, I didn’t need to think about grammar rules, accents, tripping on words, staring blankly at someone that was expecting me to respond like any other kid, crying and begging my mother to take me back to Puerto Rico. From then on, I haven’t stopped creating art. My experience influenced me to become both an artist and educator, and I hope to someday be the type of educator that creates a safe space for students like me, Ian, Irma, and Molly.
IAN BORN in China, Ian migrated to the United States when
she was 5 years old. Her mother was the first in the family to migrate to earn her master’s degree and, while Ian’s mother originally had no intention on staying in the United States, she became enamored with the country and decided to stay, with Ian and her father joining later on. When Ian started going to elementary school, she was enrolled as an ELL student. It was in elementary school when Ian first became interested in art. While she doesn’t remember what grade she was in, she remembers the event that sparked her interest in art: The school had a “Firefighter Drawing Contest” and I drew a silly picture of firemen saving people from a burning building. Then people looked at it and were like “Wow! That’s so cool! You’re so good!” And I won the contest and won $50. I didn’t think I was good at all, but people really liked mine so on that day, I decided I would become an artist! This interest in art went beyond a beloved childhood activity. Like myself, Ian used art as a means of coping with her experience as an immigrant and ELL student. As a child, I struggled with extreme social anxiety. I was very shy and did not like speaking to anyone, and cried a lot whenever I met strangers. This was further enhanced when I moved to the United States, where people began making fun of me for my language, race, shyness, etc. But when I found art, it was like I found acceptance, because it was the only thing people told me I was good at. I began drawing daily and really liked it, and I suppose it took my mind off a lot of things.
After elementary school, Ian took various art classes throughout middle school and high school and now, at 19 years old, is an illustration major interested in working in the entertainment business. Ian ran into various obstacles to get to where she is in her life as an artist: her middle and high school art classes gave her little challenge, her parents were initially against Ian becoming an artist, worried she wouldn’t be successful, and she has dealt with the stereotypes of being an Asian artist, such as people assuming she is only interested in creating anime. What worries Ian the most right now is discrimination within the entertainment business but she remains tremendously determined to succeed as an artist. I know how it feels like to be the only minority in a group, so whenever I hear stories of how people who aren’t white or aren’t men are treated in the American film/gaming industries, I grow more worried that I won’t be happy in such a field. But it’s really the only thing I like, and the bigger part of me wants to prove these people wrong by succeeding in a field where I’m a minority. Ian wishes art educators knew that while immigrant and ELL students can have their own perceptions of art due to their upbringing, they all want to be treated with equity among native, English-speaking students. And that in an ideal art classroom, all students’ cultures are celebrated.
[But] when I found art, it was like I found acceptance
IRMA COMING from a family involved in the arts, Irma became
interested in art before she migrated to the United States. Irma recalls when she was 10, a few years before she left Mexico, her parents began buying and selling various types ceramic pieces. Her mother also began making stuffed dolls for the family. At the age of 14, Irma and her family followed her grandparents to the United States. For Irma, being a high school immigrant brought various anxieties. While Irma dealt with social and academic anxiety, being able to take an art class was a saving grace, inspiring her as the artist and the educator she is today. I had a math class at the beginning of the day. When I arrived, there was a substitute teacher from Argentina. He was explaining some problems and asking questions. I didn’t speak English at all and the minute he knew I was from Mexico, he put me on the spot asked me go to the board to answer the problem and explained it to the class… I freaked out, didn’t know what to do... I wanted to disappear because everyone was looking at me… I couldn’t even talk so the substitute assumed I didn’t know the answer and started saying that I was an embarrassment to my country, that I should had known the answer… I did know the answer, I just didn’t know how to say it in English. I was crushed... wanted to cry but my next class was Art 1 and when I arrived there I just got to start on an art project and I was able to relax. As I worked on my drawing, I got submerged in my own world where everything else didn’t matter. My teacher was warm and nice... she didn’t speak Spanish but was able to communicate with me visually. She didn’t know but she helped me a lot that day.
I know how it feels like to be the only minority in a group, so whenevShe gave me the chance to recuperate from the embarrassment and gave me chance for a new beginning. That moment was the hardest thing I experience as an immigrant but.... I was a better math teacher and now art teacher because of it. Irma, now 39, is a painter and a teacher of mathematics and art in a Texan high school. Irma wants immigrant and ELL students to have access to an art education setting in which they can express themselves openly. She also wants art educators to understand that we play a key role in the success of immigrant and ELL students. They [art educators] can be the link between their [immigrant and ELL students’] culture and the American culture and provide them with the opportunity to express themselves even with no words. They can build their confidence by providing a safe learning environment where language is learned while doing something they enjoy.
MOLLY ONE of Molly’s uncles migrated to California and the rest of
Molly’s family soon followed, hoping to keep the family strong and to gain opportunities in this country. Originally from Mexico City, Molly was only 10 months old when her family migrated to the United States; while she lived in this country since a very young age, her first language was Spanish and it was her only language until she started going to school. Molly’s working mother found a school with before & after school care; in this school, Molly was the only student that spoke Spanish. No one in the school spoke Spanish for the exception of the school’s evening custodian. I guess you would say that I learned English “afuerzas” because there wasn’t a student nor teacher that spoke Spanish because the only opportunity I had to speak Spanish was in during the evening at daycare. Within 4 months I learned to speak English and was able to carry a conversation. The school’s population that I attended consisted of African Americans and I was the only child that was biracial. Even though I was born in Mexico City, I am considered biracial because my biological father was from France. Molly started using art to combat frustration. At her first school, she had many opportunities to participate in artistic activities but when she transferred to another school, those opportunities were few and far between. However, Molly had opportunities outside of school, through her grandmother and summer camp. Being the first grandchild, my grandmother wanted to spend quality time with me by doing small crafts with her. My grandmother loved painting landscapes and still life. I would watch my grandmother paint and I always wanted to paint like
her. When my grandmother noticed that I had in interest in painting she would give me paintbrush, acrylic paint and a flat gesso panel. I never knew what to paint so she would tell me to look up something in a magazine and do my best interpretation of the picture. As the years went by, I would take an art class every summer and would do it with my grandmother. Most of the time these classes were strictly for adults but my grandmother always found her way with the instructors in letting me stay and observe. When the instructor realized that I wouldn’t disturb the other students, she would give me something to work on. Little did I know that with these bonding moments I had with my grandmother would create a passion in Art. In high school and college, Molly was able to take art classes. When she started going to college, she majored in zoology but eventually switched to majoring in art when she realized her passion truly lies with art. The art Molly creates is heavily influence by her experience and heritage. Within my home, I am surrounded by the richness of color and it created a big impact whenever I’d create any artwork. Whenever I paint, I always think about the color choices and the themes I want to include in my paintings because it always falls back to my Mexican culture. Whenever I visit Mexico, I love to visit the small towns where I can see “los artesanos” do their hard work. I’ve seen how they use “el barro negro” to make those exquisite pots to “repujado en metales”. Besides going to the small towns to view the hardworking women and men, I like to purchase small mementos in support of these talented artists. After my visits to Mexico, I come back home feeling inspired and it is transmitted to my artwork.
Aside from being an artist, Molly is currently a substitute teacher and is working on earning her master’s degree in exceptional student education, focusing on mild to moderate disabilities. She plans on implementing art into her curriculum as much as possible as she strongly believes that art is significant to the education of students from all backgrounds.
“Within my home, I am surrounded by the richness of color and it created a big impact whenever I’d create any artwork. Whenever I paint, I always think about the color choices and the themes I want to include in my paintings because it always falls back to my [Mexican] culture.”
A MESSAGE TO ART EDUCATORS IMMIGRANT and ELL students have unique wants and needs
when it comes to education, including art education. As art educators, we need to make sure our classrooms are a safe space where they can thrive. The following are suggestions on how to work with immigrant and ELL students. Don’t limit yourself with these suggestions, each immigrant and ELL student is different from the next, so what might work for one may not work for another. Peer Tutoring Peer tutoring in general is beneficial for students but it is especially significant to an immigrant and ELL student. Every story you’ve read in this zine mentions anxiety and frustration over social settings in varying degrees, providing an immigrant and ELL student a peer tutor would not only benefit the student academically, but socially as well. It would be ideal if the peer tutor shared the same language and/or culture as the student (Henry, 2007, p. 37). In the beginning of my migration experience, I relied on the classmates that could speak Spanish with me to understand assignments or what was happening. These informal peer tutors were crucial to my success early on. Visual Literacy Visual literacy plays a significant role in how everyone learns a language. According to the American Library Association (2011), visual literacy is “a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media.” Our vision develops prior to our verbal language and is a significant factor to how we learn to communicate (Britsch, 2009). Visual literacy allows students and teachers to communicate and can naturally tie into the art curriculum for its
dependency on images and visual media. Through analyzing and describing works of art in the classroom, during a student critique or studying a historical piece of art, students can learn new vocabulary and have more opportunities to practice the English language. Body Language and Modeling Body language and modeling are other forms of nonverbal communication that can benefit immigrant and ELL students (Henry, 2007, p. 37). Modeling already plays a significant role in the art classroom and can reduce the importance of verbalization, which can be a source for anxiety among immigrant and ELL students. Art educators should also be aware of how body language can be perceived by their immigrant and ELL students. Body language is not universal; for example, while direct eye contact is considered a social requirement here in the United States, it can be seen as disrespectful in other cultures; or, while in some cultures, greeting a friend with a kiss or two on the cheek is considered the norm, it is not considered the norm here. Along with learning English, ELL students work to also learn the acceptable body language and social cues of this country. To learn about a student’s understanding of body language and related social cues, you can consult with the student’s ELL teacher. Basic Communication with Your ELL Student’s Language Along with taking the time to learn how body language works in an immigrant and ELL student’s culture, take the time to learn basic communication within an ELL student’s language. In some situations students with limited English proficiency are encouraged to give up their mother tongue, when in fact, the more they improve in their native
language, the better they will learn English (Schniedewind & Davidson, 2006). The monolingual principle (English only) used in many ELL programs discourages the use of ELL students’ native languages. This practice extends further into the whole school environment, making the immigrant/ELL experience further difficult (Cummins, 2009). Being able to communicate in an ELL student’s language can help the student with their communication skills, reduce anxiety, and feel affirmed. This also helps increase successful parent communication. Art educators can consult with the school’s ELL teacher, use translation phone applications, or ask their ELL students to teach them basic phrases that would be helpful for the student. Educators can also make sure that multilingual and multicultural literature and resources related to the classroom curriculum are available for ELL students to utilize. “Listen” to Your Immigrant and ELL Student Pay close attention to any subtleties or upfront statements about your immigrant and ELL students. Depending on their backgrounds, students might give you significant information that you need to pay attention to, such as a child refugee drawing a burning house. The art classroom is a unique space in which students can express themselves and their experiences, giving students an opportunity to cope with or enhance their experiences as immigrants and ELL students. Art making is an opportunity for an immigrant or ELL students to analyze their own experiences and share them in an environment that is a safe space, helping the student become psychologically resilient and gain higher self-esteem. To further this, educators can consult with school counselors.
IMAGE INDEX Danette Marie
Buen viaje, 1997, personal photo Burnt, 2012, embroidery and graphite on paper Danette Marie, 2015, watercolor and woodburn First day of school, 1997, personal photo Ian, 2015, watercolor and woodburn Irma, 2015, watercolor and woodburn Molly, 2015 watercolor and woodburn Untitled, 2015, photograph Untitled, 2015, ink and watercolor
1 6 3 7 9 13 17 8 X
Irma, n.d., personal photo Irma with her art, n.d., personal photo Untitled, n.d., oil on canvas Untitled, n.d., oil on canvas
15 16 15 16
Irma
Molly
AfroCatrina, n.d., soft pastels and ink on paper
21-22
REFERENCES American Library Association. (2011). ACRL visual literacy competency standards for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy Britsch, S. (2009). ESOL educators and the experience of visual literacy. TESOL Quarterly, 43(4), 710-721. Cummins, J. (2009). Multilingualism in the English-language classroom: Pedagogical considerations. TESOL Quarterly, 43(2), 317-321. Eubanks, P. (2002). Students who don’t speak English: How art specialists adapt curriculum for ESOL students. Art Education, 55(2), 40-45. Henry, C. (2007). Teaching in another culture: Preparing art educators for teaching English language learners. Art Education, 60(6), 33-39. Lefler Brunick, L. (1999). Listen to my picture: Art as a survival tool for immigrant and refugee students. Art Education, 52(4), 12-17. Marxen, E. (2003). The benefits of art therapy in the immigration field. Retrieved from http://www.fhspereclaver.org/migra-salutmental/catala/news/Art%20Therapy.htm Schniedewind, N., & Davidson, E. (Eds.). (2006). Open minds to equality: A sourcebook of learning activities to affirm diversity and promote equity. (3rd ed.). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, Ltd.