Students will explore how cultural background and personal experience shape belonging by listening to community stories and drawing what they hear. They will interview a community member, then apply oil pastel techniques, color, imagery, and composition to create an artwork that communicates the person’s journey, strengths, challenges, and community connections. Midway and final peer critiques, along with self-reflection, will help students strengthen their listening, collaboration, problem-solving, and visual storytelling. Students will exhibit their artwork, interview summary, and artist statement in the hallway, with each component assessed using a teacher-created rubric.

Students will listen empathetically to a chosen community member and summarize how cultural background and personal experiences shape belonging. They will use oil pastel techniques, color, imagery, and composition to create a drawing that communicates the interviewee’s journey, community connections, strengths, and challenges. Through midway and final peer critiques and self-reflection, students will collaborate, solve visual storytelling problems, and revise their work. Students will present the artwork with an interview summary and artist statement in a hallway exhibition, demonstrating how art records and builds understanding of diverse cultural and community experiences.

Students will create interview questions, audio or written notes, and a concise summary of a chosen community member’s cultural background, experiences, and sense of belonging. They will develop thumbnail sketches and a color plan, then revise their composition through a midway small-group critique, final peer critique, and self-critique. The culminating products are an oil pastel drawing and artist statement explaining how color, imagery, and composition communicate the interviewee’s journey and community connections. These pieces will be assessed with a teacher-created rubric and exhibited in the hallway outside the classroom.

Play short, permission-cleared audio clips of community members describing cultural traditions, challenges, and moments of belonging without showing their identities. As students listen, they create quick oil pastel sketches using color, imagery, and composition to represent each story, then compare interpretations in small groups. Groups discuss how personal experience and culture shape belonging, how visual choices communicate a journey, and how sharing one story can deepen understanding of a community’s strengths and diversity. Close by inviting students to identify a community member they may interview and generate respectful, open-ended questions.

Create a hallway gallery featuring each oil pastel drawing with an artist statement and a brief, interviewee-approved story summary. Invite interviewees, families, and school community members to attend a gallery walk where students explain how color, imagery, and composition communicate culture, belonging, and community experiences. Provide visitor response cards with prompts about what they learned, appreciated, or wondered, then let students share selected feedback with their interviewees. Conclude with a self-reflection on listening, collaboration, artistic choices, and how presenting another person’s story shaped their understanding of the community.