September 6, 2010

By: Brittain V. from Washington , DC
Comments: 29

Posted By: Brittain Villaflor
On: 4/10/2008 4:57:58 PM

As a 1st/2nd grade teacher a lot of our day revolves around learning to read. I was wondering if anyone had ideas about using design to explore areas such as how letters were "created" (why they look the way they do) and how different images can represent the same thing (the long e sound can be ea, ee, e similar to the way that a circle can represent the sun, a ball, or a head).

Posted By: Jill Granberry
On: 4/10/2008 6:59:41 PM

That sounds like a really interesting concept to explore. I, myself, know nothing about that, and I think kids would really enjoy figuring that out.

Posted By: Daarina Abdus-Samad
On: 4/12/2008 11:05:08 PM

Have you heard off the movie 'Helvetica'? 'Helvetica' is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture directed by Gary Hustwit. He looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which celebrates its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. It may not be exactly 1st/2nd grade material, but you can get great insight to explain to them on their level... Daarina Abdus-Samad Pasadena, CA

Posted By: Judith Stroman
On: 4/13/2008 3:08:22 PM

Thanks for the info on the movie "Helvetica". I teach art and one of the subjects I often teach my upper-grade students is typography. I would love to add this to my collection of resources. Should I just google it to find more info. about the movie?

Posted By: Brittain Villaflor
On: 4/13/2008 3:24:00 PM

It's funny how things come together. I guess I got to thinking about the design of letters because my husband is a graphic designer. Well, just yesterday I looked in the mailbox and in the NetFlix package was 'Helvetica.' He must have ordered it. I'll definitely check it out. Maybe I can find some smaller parts of it that would be appropriate snippets to show my 1st/2nd graders.

Posted By: Jacalyn Moss
On: 4/13/2008 11:46:27 PM

I'm not familiar with the movie "Helvetica," but I definitely plan on checking it out. It sounds ver interesting.

Posted By: Jon Twersky
On: 4/14/2008 11:00:07 AM

My high school students are currently working on a micrography lesson; using words and letters to create images related to the text. I'm not sure if looking into micrography can help with 1st and 2nd graders but a link can surely be made and the visuals can be very stimulating. Check out https://www.lapopart.com/index.asp for some good examples. I will be checking out "Helvetica" to see if I can incorporate it into my lesson.

Posted By: Elizabeth Roszak
On: 4/15/2008 9:56:03 AM

I do a lesson with my 4th grade students about illuminated letters. This year I just started to read up on how type styles came to be. It's fascinating! I think we just take the different fonts you can select on a computer for granted. We forget that people were involved in the type design process. Let me know if there are any resources beyond what has been posted. I don't even know where to begin looking for info about this. I search the internet and that is just a maze to me! I would like to do a lesson where students create their own font/type style. hmmmm......

Posted By: Cynthia Eaton
On: 4/15/2008 7:13:42 PM

Dover Press books which also come with a CD Rom is a great resource for many different lettering styles!! Dick Blick art supply catalogue--Spring 2008 also has a great lesson plan on lettering illumination, as well as inexpensive gold foil as well as other supplies for such a project!! Google Dover Press for a list of books on lettering and lettering styles!

Posted By: Cynthia Eaton
On: 5/22/2008 1:01:45 AM

This is confusing!! The first comment on this conversation site--actually the top one--is my response to Brittany V. from D. C. The last posting is mine w/ the authentic date. Cynthia Eaton How does this happen?

Posted By: Amanda Turner
On: 6/9/2008 1:37:28 PM

The thought of using design to explore how letters were "created", and how different images can represent the same thing seems extremely interesting to me. I teach 6th grade social studies and one standard I cover deals with how early writing forms in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley influenced life. I think I can make a design lessons work, but I'm just not sure what direction to head in. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Posted By: Kelley Oxley
On: 6/9/2008 11:26:13 PM

I really like all of these ideas (and the video). I would also love to see students develop their own written language and then associate sound with each letter (or graphic). I think about how many times I've heard about siblings (especially twins) developing their own language and I find that fascinating!

Posted By: Jesse Todd
On: 6/17/2008 10:36:34 PM

That Helvetica film sounds very interesting! As a language teacher, this is a very interesting concept to me. Sort or related to your original post, you could also teach your students about our numbers, which came from the Arabic system. The symbols for 1-4 represent those numbers by having the corresponding amount of angles. This website is a good reference: https://www.geocities.com/rmlyra/Numbers.html -- I teach high school though, is this concept too advanced for your students? Jesse Todd

Posted By: Amanda Turner
On: 6/18/2008 10:16:16 AM

Jesse, thanks for the website. The upper numbers would probably confuse my 6th graders, but I could definitely use 1-5. I think this would be another great way to integrate numeracy into my language arts and social studies curriculum.

Posted By: Nancy Eason
On: 4/30/2009 11:52:21 AM

Dick Blick is a great teacher resource for lessons. I appreciate the lesson procedures, as well as how they state exactly how much of each material you will need to complete a project with your class.

Posted By: Ken Foster
On: 4/30/2009 9:01:59 PM

Helvetica is a really great film--amazing to see how this incredibly familiar typeface was designed and how it became the standard for signs everywhere. You wouldn't imagine it could be so fascinating. I think it may be a bit much for younger audiences, but perhaps an excerpt would work.

Posted By: Emily Gula
On: 4/30/2009 10:30:42 PM

Helvetica was the inspiration for a lesson I did at the beginning of this year. My kindergarten class helped design a bulletin board with each student's picture. Students chose the font that would be used to display their name underneath their picture.

Posted By: Gwynne Richards
On: 12/1/2009 11:58:30 PM

The title of this conversation The Design of Words really caught my attention because my grade level partner used to design his own words like disengumulate and idiocity and happify...he actually swore that happify was really a word! The great thing was that everyone knew what these "words" meant and after a while, they seemed like real words. I now find myself adding to his list. In the last few years, I have read articles about these "new words." The process actually has a name that I can't remember at this time of night...I had to laugh a year or two back when Snickers candy bar advertisements started using those exact kinds of words...like “peanutopolis” and “nougatocity.” Although much of the conversations here revolve around the design of letters and fonts, I couldn't resist sharing my experiences with redesigning words. Sorry for the digression! Gwynne Richards

Posted By: Nick Britton
On: 12/2/2009 2:38:13 PM

I recently heard a story on NPR about the Oxford English Dictionary's decision to add "defriend" to their lexicon. This is what happens when you drop someone on a social networking site like Facebook. The most interesting part of the story was the raging controversy and protest from people who prefer the term "unfriend." I played the radio story for my students and it ignited a lively conversation about the way language is transformed by users. Cool!

Posted By: Nick Britton
On: 12/2/2009 2:46:33 PM

Reading through some of the other replies clarified the direction of this conversation. On that note, I recently learned about the history of the runes. Fascinating! The rune that transliterates to our modern g is represented by the symbol X, meaning gift. It was designed to show an even exchange, such as a kiss. We still use this meaning when we sign letters with an x!