Curriculum Connections

Language Arts/English
Elementary and Middle School – Family Traditions
Quiltmaking is a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation in Loretta Bennett’s family. Have a class discussion about traditions. What traditions do the students have in their families? Do they do anything special on particular holidays, or did a relative teach them to do something like bake, paint, or play a sport or musical instrument? Have students write about a family tradition that has passed from one generation to the next. Ask them to include details such as when the tradition began, how it feels to be a part of that tradition, and what makes the tradition special.

You may also want to listen to an interview with quiltmaker Lucy Mingo and her daughter, Polly Raymond, to learn about their family tradition of quiltmaking. The interview can be found on the website arts.state.al.us/actc/1/radioseries.html.

Social Studies
Elementary, Middle, and High School – Oral History
After discussing Loretta Bennett’s quilt and how she took inspiration from her ancestors for its design, begin a discussion about family and community history. What questions do the students have about their own family or community history? Have students conduct oral history interviews with a family or community member. Questions to ask during the interview could be brainstormed by the class or taken from those developed by NPR for their StoryCorps project, which can be found on the website storycorps.net/record-your-story/question-generator/list. You could also record these stories for StoryCorps.

Math
Elementary and Middle School – Enlarging Images
Bennett is known for enlarging one quilt block to the size of the entire quilt. Have students find an image from a magazine, newspaper, or art reproduction and draw a grid of one-inch squares on it. Next, have them draw a larger square on a blank sheet of paper, perhaps a two-, three-, or four-inch square. They can then choose an interesting square from their gridded image to reproduce in this larger square. A discussion of ratio and proportion can follow.

Art
Elementary, Middle, and High School – Visualizing History
After conducting an interview with a family or community member, have students draw, paint, or collage a visual interpretation of their family or community history. It can be abstract, like Bennett’s quilt, or include representational elements.