Culturally Connected Crafts Workbook for the Art Educator: Scaffolds, Worksheets, Assessments & Rubrics for Classroom Use

Respecting and understanding cultural crafts are really important because they carry deep meanings from the past and help connect us to our history. This workbook will allow you to understand your population, its diversity, and provide you with opportunities to make deeper connections between you, your students, and their peers. It will allow students to explore their own backgrounds and understand the richness of their heritage and appreciate that of their peers in a meaningful and personal way. Inviting master cultural crafters to visit our schools is the best way to teach authentically, but that is not always possible. What if we survey our students to see what cultural backgrounds are represented by our population and use that as the basis for our explorations of craft? What if a student with Mexican or South American roots researches the traditions of the Ojo de Dios, shares their discoveries with the class, and then THEY (with the help of the teacher) lead the class through an exploration of this craft tradition? Not only has the student learned more about themselves, but they have been empowered to share their knowledge with their peers, deepening cultural understanding within our communities. This workbook provides scaffolds, worksheets, surveys, assessments, and rubrics that can be used for any cultural exploration. These are not craft "how-to" directions but rather foundations to help you uniquely meet the needs of your specific population. Although this workbook is in black and white to save you money, you can copy everything for your students, and there is a full-color PDF available for download to use in your classroom.