Project 1: HomegoingMy first project was based on a book I read over the summer. It was so well written and such an intriguing story that I decided to create a painting that symbolizes the importance of family roots. Since the book bounces around in time I wanted to make an explained timeline to really understand the meaning of each character and why they made certain decisions or actions. To show how deeply involved I was in the book I wrote 3 poems, two were from the perspective of the two sisters. The final one was comparing and contrasting the perspectives in a single poem.
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Final Products
Art
After reading the book I felt a need to paint, so I started with a tree that branched off into subparts which the branched off into smaller parts. To me, this represents how so much can grow from one seed. The seed, in this case, is Esi and Effia's father. The two branches are the sisters. The higher branch is Effia, showing her life on the high road. Esi's low hanging branch shows her life of being locked in the dungeon, but when she gives birth to her daughter her she starts to regain hope and becomes stronger.
The following generations are represented but the sub-branches stemming off from the originals. The tree looked odd all alone so I added hills. The hills symbolize the ups and downs of life. Some are jagged while others are resentful. For the background I thought it would be nice to have a sunset, this is to show that even though life can seem bad, the sun will always set and rise again: a new day will fan on us and we will be given another chance to better our lives and grow from our past. |
Social Studies
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The book starts in the early 18th century and ends in the late 19th century. Since that is such a large amount of time, I really wanted to fully understand what was going on. I focused on American history aspect because once Esi is sold into slavery her family is shipped to America which is vastly different from Ghana. Through my research, I gained a much better understanding of not only the book as a whole but each character (each chapter is a new character, the chapters alternate between Esi and Effias family) and their actions and decisions are now justified.
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English
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I wrote poems in the perceptive of both sisters separately, each poem describes the inner thoughts and feelings that you cannot tell just by looking at them. Then I combined the two poems into one large compare and contrast poem with the style of Tom Wayman. I revised the poems many times, asking not only my peers to edit but other teachers.
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