I discovered the assessment by accident. It was actually meant for a brain break for my honors students. We had just finished up The Great Gatsby, but throughout the week I had noticed mental fatigue setting in. Most likely, it had been a week filled with calculus and AP Chem tests with some kind of athletic and band competition added in.
A few months earlier, I had attended some K – 12 PD with Dyane Smokorowski, instructional coach for my district at the time. She had introduced Awesome Squiggles. Awesome Squiggles is a global art challenge for classrooms of all ages. Students create art using four predetermined lines and then share it with other students across the world.
It’s a fun activity, but I remember thinking at the time that I couldn’t imagine using it in any kind of effective way in my senior high ELA classroom. However, on this Friday, a fun, creative, hands-on activity was just what these brain-weary kids needed. Connecting our current novel study to it satisfied my teacher-need to not waste precious class time on “busy” work.
We had previously studied the alternative titles Fitzgerald had considered for The Great Gatsby. We also had done a quick study of the iconic book cover illustration. I decided to follow up on those conversations. The brain break assignment was to create a new cover with a new title using Awesome Squiggles. I handed out the pre-printed papers and whatever markers or colored pencils I had on hand. I encouraged students to use color imagery, symbolism, visual metaphors, etc. They were to display their artwork on the wall for a fun gallery walk at the end of the hour. No points. No grade. Just old-fashioned drawing and coloring with a little lit analysis thrown in.
The designs and titles the students came up with blew me away. Some students created beautiful images, some were more basic, but all of them demonstrated their knowledge of characters, theme, plot, symbolism, and much more. (I reminded them repeatedly that it wasn’t an art competition. It was simply doodling.) On Monday, when the wall was filled with covers from all my honors hours, the students engaged in pop-up lit analysis.
Pop-up lit analysis is my term for those unplanned discussions about literary elements that pop up naturally from students’ authentic curiosity for or connection to a text with no teacher guidance or involvement. Students spent half the class period discussing how the new titles and covers effectively or ineffectively interpreted the novel. Some students who hadn’t participated came in later to add their Squiggles to the wall. We kept the gallery up for weeks because it continued to spark conversations. The images even worked their way into the analysis of other works. What cover would you design for The Scarlet Letter or Walden?
In case you’re thinking, yeah, but that’s what honors kids do, I tried the same activity with an on-level class. It was every bit as successful. By the way, if you do have those thoughts about honors versus on-level kids, stop. Seriously. On-level kids can and will connect with classic lit. To assume otherwise is unfair, and, frankly, wrong.
The new cover/title assignment is nothing new, but something magical happens when you use a predetermined set of lines as the starting point. Students immediately ask new questions and rethink their understanding of the text. What do these loops represent? How about the waves? How are sharp angles depicted in the story, literally or figuratively? The fact that everyone starts out with the same four lines, but no two finished products are the same mirrors the way we approach and receive literature–similar to how we approach and receive life. I wonder what would happen if you supplied half the class with all four lines but erased one line for the other half. Would the deleted line create inequity or liberation?
While essays, tests, and projects assess certain important elements of student knowledge and understanding, this Awesome Squiggles title/cover assignment allowed me to see how students connected with a text. While this might not be on any ACT exam or state assessment, I think it’s just as important. We all know about the studies that show how reading builds empathy and emotional intelligence. Katie Priske blogs about that very thing on the Reading Partners website. She reminds us “by supporting kids’ literacy development and a love of reading, you will in turn foster their emotional growth.” Multiple-choice tests and analysis essays don’t always support a love of reading.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting we get rid of traditional testing completely. These kinds of tests absolutely have their place and their importance. What I’m advocating is making sure we also check in on how our students are connecting emotionally and personally with texts. I’m also advocating that that kind of check-in doesn’t come with a grade. Use participation points if you must, but I’m not even sure those are necessary. There’s inherent value in pop-up analysis, in activities that connect the creative mind to the story, even in viewing a gallery of someone else’s interpretation.
Ultimately, I’m not sure if I succeeded in giving my students a brain break. A few stared at the lines and couldn’t come up with a thing. Most of those students, however, came back later with a cover even though the assignment was optional. Several dove right in, enjoying the soothing nature of this color book-esque activity. Who knows, maybe simply offering an opportunity to analyze literature using a different tool was break enough. The bonus for me, of course, was the ability to truly see their personal connections to this classic novel.
I hope you consider using Awesome Squiggles in your classroom. By clicking here, you can download a PDF for printing or a PNG for creating digital artwork. On the Project Extensions tab, you’ll find a ton of ideas for incorporating various tools you probably already use in your classroom or for remote learning such as Buncee, Padlet, Flipgrid, and more. Most of the ideas are geared toward younger grades, but my experience shows that teenagers dig it, too. The website also showcases work from previous years. Sharing your art using the social media hashtag #awesomesquiggles is a fun way to enter a global conversation.
BONUS: Adding a quick lesson on the title of the novel can spark creativity. For Gatsby, I use this easy worksheet. I don’t always use the questions, but I do always use the paragraph to begin the analysis of each title, culminating in a vote on what would have been the next best choice.
BONUS 2: I hope your classroom copies sport the original cover art. If not, expose your students to this famous cover. You can find plenty of images online. This Smithsonian Magazine article offers interesting info on the creation of it. I like to use the first couple of sentences as a bonus mini-lesson. Before reading the article, have students write a description of the cover art using a participle, a simile, and active voice. You can always throw in a few vocab terms or punctuation mandates like the use of a colon. Compare/contrast their descriptions with the one from the article.
I like to remind students that it’s okay not to like the cover. After all, in her book So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures, Maureen Corrigan tells us that Fitzgerald’s friend and colleague hated it. Ernest Hemmingway described it as “a book jacket for a book of bad science fiction”. Of course, this is Hemingway we’re talking about. Could we expect him to love a cover so vague and mystical and feminine?
While Gatsby lends itself well to this activity, many other stories would work, too. We’d love to hear how you use art to connect students to literature. What are your students’ favorite artsy projects or activities? Also, if you end up using Awesome Squiggles, don’t forget to share with the hashtag on social media.
Be well. Read well. Live Well.
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