The Art Teacher:

For several years, I had been using the work of Bernard Palissy--a sixteenth-century French rustic potter--as a model in my high-school ceramic classes.   Palissy was noted for ceramic plates that were busy with applied three dimensional figures.   The students usually chose themes that dealt with their own lives--athletics and school activities, family traditions and popular culture--and fashioned their plates with objects that reflected these themes.

In 2004, I began giving a workshop at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. One of the topics I touched upon was the Palissy-style plates.   I wanted something other than students' personal lives, so I asked one of the English teachers what literary works might offer a rich supply of images.   We decided on Homer's The Odyssey and Tennyson's The Lady of Shallot. The workshops went well. The two pieces of literature offered a wealth of ideas and images, and the English teacher and I agreed that we should try the same with our own students

The English Teacher:

Our ninth grade English classes spend the first quarter reading The Odyssey and using Edith Hamilton's Mythology as a constant resource book. For the past three years, I have assigned a public speaking/research/writing project in which students needed to research a given figure or story in Greek mythology, present their findings to the class, and submit a formal paper and bibliography.

The research was usually well done, the writing samples informative and formatted correctly, but, after three years, I had had my fill of power-point presentations.

This year the ceramics teacher and I decided to do something different, based on a series of workshops that she had given that focused on creating plates that told stories. These plates were adorned with three-dimensional figures that represented important facets in a given story. In fact, as we were brainstorming ideas for her workshop, I suggested that The Odyssey might be a viable example for her to use. The project she was presenting to the art teachers would be ideal for my ninth-grade English class.

Before we brought the classes into the studio, however, there was a lot of prep work to be done, both by teachers and by students. First, I explained the project to the students. They were assigned a particular god, hero , or mythological story , which they then had to research. They needed to choose visual markers that revealed something about their topic. They needed to create, paint, and fire a ceramic plate, and they needed to explain their plate and story to the class as an oral presentation. As examples I showed them a plate that the art teacher had done (very professional) and a plate that I had done (at the far other end of scale ).

Next, we scheduled two days in the library. (The first day encompassed the librarian's routine ninth-grade orientation to the library. Having students with a defined project allows for her to tailor her presentation. The second day was spent entirely on research.) Any additional library work was to be done on the students' own time.

The Art Teacher:

Before the students came into the clay studio, I insisted that they understand what they were attempting to do. First, I had them draw a simple circle and then sketch ideas around it that might pertain to their topic. A student who was doing King Midas drew ingots of gold, a river , and a donkey; the story of Jason had a boat, a golden fleece and crashing rocks; there were many lighting bolts from Zeus and various hearts and arrows from Eros and Aphrodite.

I then walked them through the process so that they would know exactly what the procedure would be and what was expected of them. The entire project (except for final firing) would take about three days.

First we would create a round plate using a pre-cut slab of clay and a plastic "paper-plate" as a plate mold (see fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Placing clay slab on plate mold

Next we trimmed the plates. The trimming needed not be exact so that the overhanging clay could be brought upwards to create mountains, ocean waves, trees, or landscapes along the perimeter (see fig. 2).

  Fig. 2.    Trimming rims of plate

Then, students were encouraged to make figures, either by shaping them by hand or using the many molds and forms we have in the studio.   Naturally, we did not have many that dealt with ancient Greece, so the students were forced to be creative: farm animals and action figures would have to play a part in their tableaux (see figs 3 and 4).

   Fig. 3.   Using pre-shaped molds                                    Fig. 4.   Hand-forming shapes

When the clay was sufficiently dried to a firm wetness (leather hard) and released from the plate molds, the students began painting their plates using underglaze. The plates were then left to dry for a couple days before they were fired overnight (see Fig. 5).

Fig. 5.   Painting with underglaze

After the initial firing, the plates were given a clear overglaze and fired once again.   The finished products were brought over to the English classroom (see figs 6 and 7).

            Fig. 6.   Icarus                     Fig. 7.    Jason and Argonauts

The English Teacher:

After the students had created their plates, they were responsible for teaching the class their particular mythological stories. The presentation had several requirements in relation to the plates. First, they must bring the plate to the front of the room but were not permitted to hold it while they spoke. They had to explain their story/figure in detail to the class. The usual rubric of organization, clarity, presentation, and depth was in play. Only after the informational section of the speech was over, did the student then pick up the plate and explain the particular images on it and how they related to the story. As many of the images were creative and abstract, the audience enjoyed making the connection between the artwork and the story it had just heard. On the day of their presentations, students were required to hand in a three to five paged paper on their topics, complete with MLA bibliography.

In my view, the project was a success for many reasons. The students were well versed in their topics and had opportunity to use our library's research facilities and to write the first large paper of the school year. The plate gave some structure--and some confidence--to students as they made their presentations. Somehow, while the oral presentations were as formal as any others the students had given in the past, the shared experience of making the plates and the uniqueness of each plate seemed to diminish the normal anxiety that students have when speaking in front of the class. And finally, it allowed me to get to know my students more quickly in the early part of the year. Seeing them work in the clay studio--outside of the normal classroom setting--offered me the opportunity to see them in a less formal situation, where a little more of their authentic personalities emerged.

Jackie White is Chair of the Arts Department at Malvern Preparatory School in Malvern, PA. She has a Masters' Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and has taught Art in both public and private schools. As part of the Claymobile Outreach Program, she devised, developed and facilitated an instructional guidebook to integrate the teachings of artists and instructors for the Philadelphia School District.

John Bohannon is the Chair of the English Department at Malvern Preparatory School in Malvern, PA. He teaches ninth-grade Honors English.

To comment on this article e-mail editor@indepependentteacher.org.