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In The Creative Masters Project, students select a creative Spanish-speaker from any walk of life. They research the cultural and historical forces that shaped the Master and his/her work. Then they re-create or re-express the work in their own way—creative writing, spoken word, digital presentation, sculpture, etc. A written reflection accompanies the project as well, all in the target language: Español.
The Creative Masters project exceeded my expectations. The students’ passion for the work, diversity of products, and heartfelt reflections truly shined. This project reminded me why I teach. When students are given the opportunity to express themselves uniquely, they can fly—and these kids soared.
John Singer Sargent is a great artist. He gives his work feeling and liveliness. He thought that the dancer was not his best work and the world never saw it until 1985, when it was found 55 years after his death. But the dancer has a certain feel to her. She wasn’t meant to be beautiful and her dance wasn’t meant to be elegant. Her dress flows with her every move, her arms move separately from her body, she’s not smiling nor is she frowning. I chose to re-express “The Spanish Dancer” by re-creating the painting in Prismacolor colored pencils.
-James Zvetina, 9th Grade
This was a creatively complex project. I wanted to choose a sculptor from the very beginning because I had some clay at home that I hadn’t managed to use. I had never created a sculpture before, so I thought that it would be a fun new experience. I also created a PowerPoint for my presentation, a poem, and made a collage in PhotoShop.
This was one of my favorite projects so far in Spanish. I liked that I could present what I felt in many forms of art, with people understanding and feeling what I was trying to portray to them. I also felt that this project taught me about the Spanish culture while I still enjoyed doing something that I liked.
—Angelica Orlova, 9th grade
To learn more about this project and others visit the HTH Digital Commons and Tom Gaines’s digital portfolio at
http://www.hightechhigh.org/dc/ and
http://staff.hthnc.hightechhigh.org/~tgaines/
