Language Arts Approaches

Note to educators:

Our intent here is for students to experience the Lowriding Virtual Exhibition and accompanying educational activities. The goal is to heighten their sense of identity and community as they learn about this expression of Chicano and Chicana culture. As always, we encourage you to view these activities as suggestions and to incorporate your own materials, ideas, and approaches. Enjoy!

Target audience: older elementary school students

Key Themes and Terms

• Personify
• Using the cars to develop a narrative and/or poem

Guiding Questions

• What does it mean to personify a thing?
• How can we “express” ourselves using objects and our own stories?

Approaches

• Ask students to surf through the virtual exhibit and choose a car.

Suggested guiding prompts

• Write down a list of words and phrases that come to mind as you observe this car.
• Take another five minutes and write down the qualities, emotions, and traits that go with this car.
• Now imagine this car come to life with part of your personality, maybe a side of you that few people know about.
• Using the words and phrases from your list, tell a story or write a poem about the car.
• Present the car visually. For example, draw it, paint it, or create it with paper mache or as a collage from magazines.
• Think about driving through your neighborhood. Who do you see? What do you see? How do people feel when they see you as a car?

Student presentations

• The students present their final stories with accompanying visual.