RachelHR02

I just realized I did the wrong reading.

I learned a great deal from this reading, much of which is helpful to my field of art education. I just recently finished teaching an 8 week unit at Hartford University School on "Community and Personal Mapping." The unit was integrated with an 8th grade Language Arts class and to satisfy National Standards in Language Arts we included multiple writing components where students were to utilize multiple typefaces. We spent time looking at various typographic styles and we explored several maps from traditional to experimental. The part in this reading that was particularly relatable to the lesson was the 4 diagrams of the Rhein River where text was placed poorly on the first three and most correctly on the last diagram. Before this reading I had never really looked at a map to admire the careful placement of labels and how vital that placement is in terms of reading and understanding the map. A map filled with rivers, roads, and hundreds of other landmarks could get quite confusing if the text is haphazardly placed. At Hartford, the students made blind contour maps of Milwaukee and filled the interior with memorable landmarks using various styles of type; however, I did not even think to teach that the placement of the text is just as important as the font that you choose. Now after reading this article I think I have a lot better understanding and awareness of text placement and proportion, particularly in conjunction with graphics or images. I plan on incorporating aspects of this reading into this unit for my student teaching as it will make it richer and even more multidimensional.

In the teacher samples and bulletin boards I will inevitably produce I now know keys and rules to making the information easier for students to understand by using techniques of layering and separation.