Piven Portraits

Integrating art into our curriculum seems like it might be low on the list of items a teacher needs to make sure gets included in lesson plans.  I’m realizing the connection between integrating art and integrating technology into the classroom—both should be utilized as an enhancement of pedagogy and content.  In other words, plan for the content and how you want to teach it, then use art as a way to enhance how you teach and what you teach.  Often in the middle grades it is easy to overlook.  This week, with the 5^th grade focusing on Tall Tales and the 6^th grade writing poetry, there has been a lot of figurative language being thrown around.  I am always entertained by how literal most 5^th and 6^th graders can be but once they are asked to write poetry, the metaphors and personifications start flying!

Retrieved from: http://www.pivenworld.com/

After reading millions of figurative language drenched poems this week, I was reminded of the work of Hanoch Piven, specifically his children’s books like: MyDog is as Smelly Sock and My BestFriend is as Sharp as a Pencil which both deal with fun similes.  Since my mind was so focused on the idea of integrating art into Social Studies curriculum, I quickly started thinking of how much fun it would be to create “Piven” like portraits for historical figures.  

Hanoch Piven is known for portraits that are simply drawn and almost collage-like in the fact that they incorporate objects that represent the person into the actual portrait.  For example, a portrait of Barbara Streisand that has a microphone for her nose, or a portrait of Charles Darwin that has bird feathers for hair, a toy ape for a nose, and seashells for eyebrows.

A project that incorporates LA curriculum, focused on Tall Tales and figurative language, with Social Studies curriculum, dealing with early American history, could easily be created using an historical figure from that time period.  After studying a certain time period (not necessarily early American history) students could create their own Tall Tale based on the life and history of the historical figure.  In doing so, they would be practicing their figurative language skills yet they would still be basing their story on the real life events of the figure.  Creating a “Piven” portrait of the figure could tie both curriculums together.