In this learning opportunity, students will focus on the particular artelements of shape, texture and colour, expanding their knowledge of these elements. Students will be introduced to the picture book by Jeannie Bakercalled Mirror, which shows the comparison of two boys and theirfamilies, one in Sydney and the other in Morocco. Students will be able toapply their knowledge of the particular elements through focusing on specificillustrations that exist in Mirror as well as their ownartwork created in the previous lesson.

Are any of the characters or objects connected with each other through colour choice? Are different characters associated with different colours? All of the rich, cultural details can be found within the pictures. The Americans travel to stores to buy food whereas the Arabians use their farming and bartering skills to survive. The Arabians are able to keep themselves busy through the struggle to survive yet they have the same technologies as Americans. Direct students to conduct an internet image search to locate pictures of Sydney and the Valley of the Roses in Morocco, creating a digital collage of these images to compare to the text.Initially I put the two parts of the book together in a more complicated way. I tested it on a friend and watched as he just couldn’t work out how to open it. Correction: Teacher will correct each student’s ‘The ArtisticWork of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet. This will allow for a thorough assessment of As a child I’d have carefully poured over these pictures, over and over again. The story of the differences and similarities of the two families is interesting. Readers are invited to see the two cultures as different but equal. Does the obviously unfinished nature of the western home (as it is undergoing renovations) suggest that a Moroccan home is only comparable to an unfinished or incomplete western one? Furthermore, the fact that the western family is seen to make home improvements to their abode might be seen as evidence of agency, implying the Moroccan family’s inability to enact similar development.

We pass the country trekked the previous day and on to a series of caves, the home of a family of nomads. A woman is weaving in one. I am told she will sell her weaving in one of the local souks … her husband will take it to sell there.When Islam arrived with the armies of Arabia in the 7 th century, the Berbers became Muslims and remain so today. But they still retain many pre-Islamic customs, such as reverence for saints, whose shrines dot the countryside. Belief in the evil eye and the power of magic, also endure side by side with Islamic teachings. What I see, is the sheer richness of different nationalities and cultures, a richness that will no doubt diminish as our western culture spreads. We really need to celebrate these differences and diversities while we can. Ask students to consider how the constructed appearance of Baker’s images, as opposed to a photographic representation, has implications for the reader’s acceptance of their accuracy. From my very first books I have worked in collage. For me this medium evolved from a love of texture … a love of the tactile qualities of things. Text to world connection- Since this book has two stories about different places/cultures that relate to real world events I think text to world connection would be accurate.

Students should submit a portfolio that includes research, drafts showing their experimentation with visual language for effect, notes and draft of their pitch. The required resources are: Windowby Jeannie Baker, ‘The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet, pencils; greylead and coloured, crayons, textas, etc. Pin up a world map in the classroom. Use coloured push-pins or flag-pins with students’ names to identify connections with other cultures, such as through ancestry, marriage or migration. Use this as the basis of a class discussion of the cultural interconnectedness that already exists within the classroom. Conduct a class discussion on the issue of multiculturalism and the value of texts such as this to help promote intercultural understandings. Have students identify other well-received texts that also contribute effectively to the project of multiculturalism in Australia.A young girl searches for meaning and hope when her family is relocated to a WWII internment camp. Told in both Japanese and English.