Welcome Teachers! You are essential to the success of The Domiciles Project. Without you, without the students you teach, without each other, there would be much less potential, much less incentive for The Domiciles Project. And of course, without your participation in The Domiciles Project, there would be much less opportunity for students to learn and grow through your guidance. We want you to be the very best teacher you can be…the kind of teacher that students will remember when they look back on the influences that made a positive difference in their lives. The Domiciles Project is teaming up with teachers like you to make a significant contribution in the development of communication skills as they manifest themselves through language and the arts.
Let’s get started. If you are requesting your students to post their stories/creative works on The Domiciles Project site, we ask that you initiate the process by signing in and posting your lesson plans. They can be formal and include all of the state standards that you are integrating, or informal ideas describing your general approach including some specifics on implementation. Keep in mind that these may become the guidelines that your students look to when completing their assignments. When your students sign in they will have the opportunity to input the lesson plan number you have been assigned. This will enable readers such as other educators and students to identify the assignment and better understand the basis upon which the Response Submissions, ie. the stories or works were created.
We encourage brainstorming with and among teachers about ways in which this program can be integrated into their classrooms. Here is a great opportunity for cross curricular activities.
These are just a few of the ideas we have generated for various curriculums… We know that as teachers you have even better ideas, but this will help you get started.
English Department:
Write Stories/Prose/Poetry/Monologues. It is critically important that you instruct your students not to write a description of the door. The doors and the paintings which appear upon them are intended to inspire a story or other creative Response Submission that would stand on its own merit with or without the doors as a catalyst. Charge your students with becoming detectives. Each door has a story…every worn handle, lock, scratch, crack, patina, layers of paint has a story behind it. The paintings within the spills often have concealed details that may or may not contribute to the story. Your students could the occupants, know the occupants, or be neighbors of the occupants of a chosen domicile. Past, Present and Future can all be time platforms. Remember. Inspiration is the purpose of The Domiciles Project. The Response Submissions may have little to do with an actual visual image.
Art Department:
Have teams complete their own doors. Pour your own spills or let your students pour them. Readily available 2 x 4s, screwed to the bottoms of your “doors” provides supports. Instruct your students to design and cut out (good project for shop students) their own spills using 1/8” masonite, sand the tops of the edges to round them; coat both sides with Gesso to prevent warping. Assign themes such as current social issues. Glue matte board hangers to the back and display them on walls. Group several spills together to form the basis for one Response Submission. Perhaps collaborate with the English Department to write stories suggested by these groupings. This is a wonderful way to share the variety of interpretations from each grouping as well as a perfect opportunity to open a discussion about symbolism in art, iconography, storytelling through art, observing and interpreting art…
Drama Department:
Could a play be created using fragments of a painting to tell a story? Leave the audience to put the pieces of the puzzle together? Monologues created and performed based on characters behind selected doors—are they real or imaginary? (Examples enacted during our first pilot at Cape Henlopen High School, Lewes, Delaware, under the direction of Martha Pfeiffer are currently on YouTube under “The Domiciles Project by Alan B.Tuttle”. Dance and Movement classes have already created performances based on a door’s theme. Small group portrayals of stories suggested by paintings on the doors are especially feasible. One cast of “door characters” could even interface with a set from a different door! Door towns or cities? The potential for stimulating communication through the art of creativity in all its myriad forms is limitless. And best of all, what is learned and remembered through The Domiciles Project is entirely up to you.
Music Department:
Instrumental music and lyrics written to tell the stories within the domiciles could be presented solely as a music department endeavor and performed live at school and civic programs or taped for future showings, or as accompaniment to Drama department performances.
Videography:
Create a documentary of the various projects within the school coupled with student interaction in response to The Domiciles Project. The Domiciles Project site is set up to link to your YouTube postings making it an extraordinary showcase for videography students to capture, edit and present performances or to create their own “short” domicile story.
Social Studies:
How does artimpact history, politics, religion and other social issues or current affairs? Does art mimic society or is it the other way around? Teaching societal introspection through art just got easier and perhaps more appealing through a new tool—The Domiciles Project.
Business and Graphic Arts Departments:
Alan B. Tuttle, founder/creator of “The Domiciles Project” has had rewarding experiences with Business and Graphic Arts programs at the college level in which they created marketing plans and promotional materials for The Domiciles Project. At the high school level, the creation of the materials for your school’s program could be delegated to your very own students. Budgets, promotional materials, advertising, fundraising, press releases, etc. can all be an invaluable “real life” lesson in starting a business for profit or as a volunteer organization or charity.
Whole School Involvement:
Why not read and share stories via the public address system and school newspaper? Local newspapers could print a story each week with an image of the door upon which it was based as part of the promotion for an event. Invite parents to participate in writing stories after school with your students as their teachers. Create an event in which all disciplines present their works to the public as a showcase of your students’ talents.
Before assigning a lesson to your students, please sign in below to post your lesson plan. We will assign you a Lesson Plan Number for your students to input when they register their Response Submission. This will offer site visitors a better understanding of the basis for the creation of your students’ Response Submissions.