This best practice, Icons, is one of our favorites because of how simple it is to implement, how aesthetically captivating the results are, and how many different ways there are to integrate it in any subject area. We first learned about using icons in the classroom from the work of artist Bernard Williams in Chicago. Read about Mr. Williams work and see how Arnold Aprill, the founding and creative director of Chicago Partnerships in Arts Education, and Kurt Wootton, the director of Habla, describe the use of the icon best practice in different educational settings.

To read more about Icons and to download the PDF click here:  Icons

Our work using physical sculptures has been influenced by numerous educators and performers including Augusto Boal from Brazil, Shakespeare and Co in the United States, and artist educator, Jan Mandell. We used physical sculptures as a staple of our work at the ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University.

Learn more about using physical sculptures for literacy development:  physical sculptures

Every year Habla hosts a summer arts lab school for a mix of students who live in the Mérida area and visiting students from around the world. The lab school is taught by an international team of artists and educators. Mexican teaching artist Karla Hernando Flores and United States teaching artist Sarabeth Berk developed a layered process for students to use photography, drawing, sculpture, and writing to create self-portraits.

Download the PDF and read more about the process: junkyard-portraits

Wikipedia defines Milagros as “religious folk charms that are traditionally used for healing purposes and as votive offerings in Mexico, the southern United States, other areas of Latin America, as well as parts of the Iberian peninsula. They are frequently attached onto altars, shrines, and sacred objects found in places of worship, and they are often purchased in churches, cathedrals or from street vendors.”

Visiting teaching artist Sarabeth Berk used the essential ideas behind Milagros to create a new best-practice. She and Habla Director Maria del Mar Patron Vazquez piloted Milagros at an ecological park, Park Aak, in the small town of Xcunya outside of Merida.

Click here to download the guide for using Milagros in your classroom: milagros

In Daniel Soares’s school in Inhumas, Brazil the teachers and students have a permanent cordel hanging in the hall. Daniel explains, “I teach three different classes, and anything they produce, instead of handing it in for a grade, they hang it on the cordel in the hallway of the school. It has become a ritual. It allows for conversation between classes.”

To learn the theory and practice behind the cordel click here: The Cordel

Read more about how our partner SmART Schools used the cordel in their arts education programs: smart-schools-cordel

Borrowing the popular practice of chismógrafos from Mexican youth culture, the Habla team created an arts activity that encouraged the teenage students to write stories about their own lives. These stories were “published” together in books that were the individual and the community’s creative product.

Download the Chismógrafos PDF here:  chismografos

While in Chicago we had a chance to visit two or our partner organizations, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) and Project AIM at Columbia College. Working with several schools, and a cadre of teaching artists, these organizations were exploring the concept of mapping with students. We took this idea of mapping and began applying it to literature. In Santa Monica we worked with elementary school teachers and mapped the life of Frida Kahlo through symbols and images.

Download the PDF and read more about Mapping Literature:  mapping-literature

When Habla partner Break Arts from Chicago visited Habla, Amanda Lichtenstein and Leah Sobsey presented this practice at a workshop called “Speaking Through the Sun” for the local community. They then worked with our local partner schools to pilot this process with students in two small towns near Mérida.

Download a PDF of the process here:  cyanotypes and poetry

We developed this approach at our  lab school in Mexico. Students interview each other and write biographies using only a few words. This activity connects the “word with the world” in Paulo Freire’s terms and helps to build a classroom community.

Learn more about this Habla original activity: 28-word-bio