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A new course from MoMA: “What Is contemporary art?”

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A new course from MoMA: “What Is contemporary art?”

A view from the fourth-floor collection galleries looking out onto the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. © 2019 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Noah Kalina

What is contemporary art? There’s no single answer. The instructors behind The Museum of Modern Art’s newest course  What Is Contemporary Art? describe what contemporary art means to them, and what they hope you’ll experience in this six week course.

Arièle Dionne-Krosnick, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture & Design

“Contemporary art tells a story about what the artist is living through. It responds to the concerns of the present, whether personal, social, or political concerns, and translates them into form. It transmits a sense of urgency that manifests differently depending on the artist’s materials and process.

After taking this course, I hope you will feel more comfortable visiting a museum without discomfort or the fear of not knowing what you may be looking at. I hope you encounter artists and mediums that are new to you and objects that you didn’t realize could be art. I hope the course demystifies the art process as a solitary or magical act, though there is some magic to it.” 

Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, Department of Architecture & Design

“I imagine architecture through the lens of art, and art through the lens of architecture. Both create and define spaces we could inhabit, always bringing us back to where we are at a given moment. They introduce and excavate ways of seeing and experiencing the world. Architecture and art deteriorate too; in each moment something falls away and something else becomes the contemporary. It is that change and transformation that I am always intrigued by.

In the world today there are so many questions that can’t be answered but that can be responded to. In art, architecture, and design, questions about our world are observed and recounted in innovative ways. As you navigate the artworks, ideas, questions, and propositions in the course, reflect on them through the lens of your own experience. The works in this course present ideas rather than solutions.”

The People’s Studio: Collective Imagination at the Paula and James Crown Creativity Lab. © 2019 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Noah Kalina

Christian Rattemeyer, former Harvey S. Shipley Miller Associate Curator, Department of Drawings & Prints

“Contemporary art is a new voice in an ongoing dialogue of artistic ideas. Every artist working today contends with, looks at, draws inspiration from, and rejects all the art that has come before. It is the topmost layer of a sedimentation of proposals, styles, ideas, images, forms, and vocabularies that have accrued over time. 

Contemporary art is a way of looking at the world and making sense of the questions, problems, joy and chaos that exist all around us and trying to find an expression that gives form to them or makes sense of them. 

I hope that by drawing connections between different contemporary art practices and the world around us, the course allows you to explore the questions that artists are asking, and apply them to your own situations.” 

Sophie Cavoulacos, Assistant Curator, Department of Film

“Contemporary art is alive with possibility because you can pick up a thread that’s meaningful to you in an artwork and follow it. It can also be challenging because it might not tell a story in a way that is immediately recognizable or might not be something that you have a frame of reference for, but I think that challenge is exciting because when you make connections, they’re yours.

I hope you will discover in this course a work of art or design that you fall deeply in love with or about which you make a discovery. I hope you see yourself in some of the works. I had that experience when putting together the course. Contemporary art can be rigorous and illuminating but it should also be enjoyed. Dive into the course and then put it aside—treat it like a book that you can pick up and follow at your own pace.”

Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Associate Curator, Department of Media & Performance

“Ephemeral, rather than physical art forms, such as moving images or live performance, can be considered as a means of visualizing or amplifying an artist’s ideas. These ideas reverberate among viewers in infinite ways, shifting shape as we draw on our own associations and experiences to form an interpretation of the work. In this way, contemporary art is fundamentally open-ended and multi-layered, defying traditional boundaries of medium and genre.

I hope that you will find yourself in active dialogue with the media works in this course while you’re watching them and in turn regard yourself as an important component of the works themselves, which are not complete without the viewer.”

Sheila Hicks. “Pillar of Inquiry/Supple Column.” 2013–14. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Sheila Hicks, Glen Raven Inc., and Sikkema Jenkins and Co. © 2019 Sheila Hicks

Since 2011, Volkswagen Group of America has been a major partner of The Museum of Modern Art, providing crucial support for MoMA’s award-winning educational program and groundbreaking digital learning activities, including online courses presented through Coursera.

Volkswagen of America is proud to be MoMA’s lead partner of education.

 

Word + Quiz: propitious

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Word + Quiz: propitious

: presenting favorable circumstances; likely to result in or show signs of success

_________

The word propitious has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 14 in “Mexico’s Congress Votes to Expand Domestic Workers’ Labor Rights” by Paulina Villegas:

The legislation comes after decades of activism by major figures like Marcelina Bautista, a domestic worker turned advocate who founded the country’s first-ever union of domestic workers in 2015.

“We can only hope it will improve the lives of so many women not only on paper but in reality,” said Ms. Bautista, who has been pressing for better working conditions for more than 30 years.

Recently, she found an unlikely ally in the film “Roma” and in its director, Alfonso Cuarón. The film chronicles the life of an indigenous live-in maid in an affluent household in Mexico City, and won three Academy Awards this year.

In Mexico, it prompted wide debate about the long taboo subjects of class, race and inequality.

… And while the film helped create a cultural moment that was propitious for the bill’s passage, activists argue that the battle against discrimination and the abuse of domestic workers in Mexico is far from over.

_________

What Are You Doing to Change Your School?

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What Are You Doing to Change Your School?

Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

What are things that you think your school does well? What makes you proud of your school and school community? Are there classes, teachers, clubs or events that make you feel connected to your school?

On the flip side, what are things that you think your school could do better? Are there topics you wish you could learn in classes that aren’t being offered? Are there beliefs that you wish were embraced by your school leadership, teachers or peers? Are there policies you think need to be changed, voices that need to be heard or general improvements that need to be made?

In “Lock-Ins and Walkouts: The Students Changing City Schools From the Inside,” Eliza Shapiro writes about New York City high schoolers who are organizing protests, joining student activism groups and fighting for policy changes. The article covers six teenagers’ stories. Here are two of them:

Chassidy Titley, 17, Harlem

Chassidy wasn’t nervous about getting in trouble when she and her classmates locked themselves in a building at her prestigious Riverdale private school, sleeping on an air mattress in her principal’s office for three nights in a row.

She was only worried that her group, Students of Color Matter, would be ignored in their fight against what they believe is a racist school culture at Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx.

But by the second day of the protest, prompted by a video in which white students at a party recorded themselves using a racist epithet, the school was surrounded by news trucks.

Chassidy was in charge of managing the group’s Instagram account and coordinating with the news media. Fieldston’s principal eventually agreed to most of the students’ demands, including racial bias training for staff and more classes about nonwhite cultures.

Now, Chassidy wants to help black and Hispanic students at other elite, mostly white schools push for changes.

“There needs to be a standard across private schools for students of color and the history they are taught,” she said. “Every private school should be progressive.”

Stephanie Pacheco, 15, South Bronx

Stephanie is beginning to understand why she ended up in a high school she never wanted to attend.

She loved going to school and had solid grades, so Stephanie imagined she’d land at one of her dream schools.

But she consulted a hulking high school directory that had incorrect or outdated information. Home was not a peaceful place to get work done, and Stephanie found herself finishing schoolwork and applications in public libraries that always seemed to close too early. She discovered that other students had been studying for the high-stakes specialized high school entrance exam for months before she even found out the schools existed.

“It was so frustrating for me to realize how easy it was to make uninformed decisions,” Stephanie said.

Now, at Teens Take Charge, Stephanie is fighting for what she believes will be a fairer high school admissions process.

Segregation, she said, “is a barrier, no matter how smart you are, no matter how much work you put in.”

Her goal for the next year is to expand the conversation about school segregation beyond progressive pockets of Manhattan and Brooklyn and into her own neighborhood, where she sometimes encounters skepticism about the prospect of more white students coming to school in the Bronx.

“It’s about time that the Bronx starts prospering,” she said.

Choose at least one other story to read based on what interests you most. To help you choose, here are the other students featured in the article.

  • Toby Paperno, who is focused on challenging how New York City views and handles school segregation.

  • Alliyah Logan, who is questioning the role of the police and surveillance in schools.

  • Vicki Zheng, who wants to see more Asian and Asian-American representation in school clubs and academic classes.

  • Obrian Rosario, who wants it to be easier for students to access and apply to specialized schools.

If you have time, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • Did you connect with any of the teenagers’ stories or experiences in the article? Do you think any of the issues they discussed apply to your school as well? The article focuses on the issues of segregation, admission procedures, access to specialized schools, police presence in schools, diverse representation in clubs and ethnic studies. The Times has also covered student activism around gun control and climate change. How do you feel about these issues? Are there other issues that are relevant to your school community?

  • Have you ever taken action to make a change in your school or community? How have you gone about making that change? Have you ever participated in a protest or walkout or joined a student activism group? If yes, what resources and support did you need to make that happen? How did you get access to those resources? Who organized the action and how did they get the word out and get people involved? What was the outcome or response from peers and adults?

  • Do you think students should be responsible for making changes in their schools or community? Why or why not? Do you think there are dangers or concerns with young people being activists? Is student activism something that the adults around you embrace and accept, or is it something that is not allowed or is frowned upon? Why?

  • There is a long history of student activism in the United States and around the world. Why do you think young people in 2020 are interested in activism? Do you think this political and social moment is similar or different from other historical moments? Why do you think it is oftentimes young people who lead movements for change?

  • Who are your student activist heroes? Are there young people in your community, school or around the world who you look to for guidance and leadership? Why are they your role models? What do you admire about their message or actions?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Lesson of the Day: ‘The Census Begins Where It Has Struggled Before: Remote, Frozen Alaska’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘The Census Begins Where It Has Struggled Before: Remote, Frozen Alaska’

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.

Featured Article: “The Census Begins Where It Has Struggled Before: Remote, Frozen Alaska”

Since 1790, the United States has every 10 years conducted a census, a count of every person living in this country. The results of the census determine congressional representation and federal spending on things like education, housing and food assistance. However, getting an accurate count is challenging, often because of language barriers, distrust of the government or remoteness of where people live.

In the featured article, Emily Schwing and Mike Baker write about the official start to the 2020 census in Toksook Bay, Alaska, a village on the edge of the frozen Bering Sea. Their reporting illuminates the difficulties and limitations in collecting data in remote areas and shows how that mirrors struggles across the country. In this lesson, you will not only read about the situation in Alaska, but also look at census data in your community and brainstorm for more effective ways to collect that information.

What do you know about the census? Are you aware of the kinds of questions that are asked? Do you know how the census is conducted?

Watch this two minute video from the United States Census Bureau and then respond to the questions below.

  • Do you think it is important to participate in the 2020 census? Why?

  • Why do you think some people are hesitant to participate in the census?

  • What barriers do you imagine exist in the data collection process?

If you’re curious, you can preview the 2020 census questions so you know what questions are asked and why.

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. What are some of the reasons that it has been difficult to gather census data in places like Toksook Bay?

2. According to the article, why might President Trump’s now-abandoned proposal to ask about citizenship status affect people’s response to the census?

3. What are some of the strategies that the Census Bureau is using to try to get the most accurate count? What are some of the actions that have been taken by Donna Bach, a partnership strategist?

4. What is the connection between census data and resources in Alaska’s Native villages like Toksook Bay?

5. Why was Nicole Borromeo, the general counsel for the Alaska Federation of Natives, “shocked” when she heard the advertising campaign that census leaders prepared? What are some of her critiques and concerns about the process?

6. How have individuals like Kevin Allis, the chief executive of the National Congress of American Indians, and Robert Pitka, a local tribal administrator in Toksook Bay, taken action to ensure an accurate count of their communities?

The United States Census Bureau created a Response Outreach Area Mapper to identify hard-to-survey areas in an effort to ensure accuracy in the 2020 census. Do you think your town or neighborhood was accurately counted in the 2010 census? What makes you think that?

Go to the ROAM app and enter your home or school address. As you navigate the surrounding areas, you will be able to see the estimated Low Response Score for your community.

  • How do neighborhoods score in the area around your school?

  • Why do you think your area is accurately or inaccurately accounted for?

  • Are you concerned about the score in your neighborhood or surrounding areas? What implications does the score have for your community, if any?

Take Action: If you have time, think about how you could educate your family or community about the importance of participating in the 2020 census. What do you think would help people in your community or across the country feel more comfortable participating in the census?

Make a list of resources or tools that you think could be helpful. You can see if any of those tools already exist on the Census 2020 website or decide to create a resource on your own. You might create a video public service announcement, a flyer or a fact-sheet. Or, you might just have conversations with the people you know.

Additional Teaching Resources: Teachers, if you want more census-related resources, take a look at the 2020 Census Statistics in Schools (SIS) program, which offers lesson plans, maps and videos geared to middle school, high school and English language learner audiences.

Unit 4: Informational Writing

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Unit 4: Informational Writing

Welcome to our fourth writing unit of the school year. Below you will find a detailed description of each element, as well as ways to put them together to make your own custom unit. To learn more, visit our writing curriculum overview.

Of the three broad types of writing that the Common Core State Standards emphasize — argument, informational/explanatory and narrative — informational writing may be the category that gets the least love from writing teachers.

Sure, students are writing explanatory pieces all the time, whether in response to questions, in notebooks , in formal papers and on tests. They are also doing this kind of writing across subjects, perhaps in science or history class as much as in English. But as former teachers ourselves, we have found that writing instructors tend to shine the spotlight more brightly on the two sister genres. After all, making a strong argument and telling a compelling story might feel like more interesting tasks than just explaining something clearly and accurately.

But informational writing is the style of writing that dominates The New York Times as well as any other traditional newspaper you might read, and in this unit we hope to show students that it can be every bit as engaging and compelling to read and to write as other genres. Via thousands of articles a month — from front-page reporting on politics to news about athletes in Sports, deep data dives in The Upshot, recipes in Cooking, advice columns in Style and long-form investigative pieces in the magazine — Times journalists find ways to experiment with the genre to intrigue and inform their audiences.

For this unit, however, we are focusing on just one broad area of informational writing — that with a STEM theme. Not only can students find daily models in The Times’s Science, Tech and Health sections, but we have also teamed up with Science News and Science News for Students as a partner for our contest so we can provide an even bigger range of writing examples at different reading levels.

But if you’re a humanities teacher and you’re feeling left out, please know that this contest and our four mentor-text lesson plans are relevant to you, too.

First of all, your students can take on any topic they like under the broad umbrellas of science, technology, engineering, math and health, and we hope they will choose issues and ideas that have real relevance to their lives. But more to the point, the writing skills we want this contest to teach — how to write clearly and engagingly about complex topics — obviously span subject areas. And the specific requirements of the contest — that students have an engaging “hook” as an opening, that they weave in quotations from experts and studies, and that they explain why the topic matters — are elements they will need to master for all kinds of writing tasks.

Below, we provide the core ingredients for our unit, which can be used and adapted whether you are participating in our contest or not.

When reporting on STEM-related issues, journalists often start by asking a question about what’s happening in the world around them:

Just how safe is vaping? Can exercise make us smarter? How does facial recognition technology work? Why are wildfires becoming infernos? If you touched the moon, what would it feel like?

Their articles are answers to those questions — or at least attempts to answer.

To begin this unit, we invite students to brainstorm their own questions by responding to our writing prompt: What Questions Do You Have About How the World Works?

The questions they come up with can serve as starting points for the research and writing of their own informational texts for our STEM-related Informational Writing Contest.

Whether they ultimately participate in our contest or not, we hope your students have fun responding to this prompt — and then enjoy reading the questions posed by other students, commenting on them and maybe even hitting that “Recommend” button if they read a response they especially like.

All our prompts are open for comment by students 13 and up, and every comment is read by Times editors before it is approved.

The goal of our mentor-text series is to demystify what good writing looks like and to encourage students to experiment with some of those techniques themselves.

For this unit, we’re trying something new: Not only will we post three mentor-text lesson plans that focus on the individual elements we’re asking student writers to include in their contest submissions, but we have also invited a science journalist to annotate one of his own articles to take us behind the scenes of his research and writing process and show us how he has woven in those elements.

Here are the pieces we’ll publish. The first is live now, and the other three will publish the week of Jan. 27.

By the end of the unit, your students will have brainstormed ideas for research, gone behind the scenes of one journalist’s process and practiced key elements of informational writing themselves.

Now we invite them to produce one piece of polished writing that brings it all together.

This contest asks students to choose an issue or question in science, technology, engineering, math or health that interests them, then write a 500-word explanation that will engage and enlighten readers.

All student work will be read by our staff, volunteers from the Times newsroom and Science Times, and/or by educators from around the country. Winners will have their work published on our site and, perhaps, in the print New York Times.

While the core of our unit is the prompts, mentor texts and contest, we also offer additional resources to inspire and support teachers, including lesson plans and great ideas from our readers around STEM reading and writing.

Lesson of the Day: ‘How Fast Can a Human Run?’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘How Fast Can a Human Run?’

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.

Featured Article: “How Fast Can a Human Run?” with text and illustrations by Randall Munroe.

“Two legs are good. Four legs might be better,” Randall Munroe writes in today’s featured article.

In this lesson, you’ll explore why there is a limit to how fast humans can run, and what it would take to make us go faster. Then, you’ll come up with your own questions about the world that can be used as inspiration for our new STEM Writing Contest.

How fast is it physically possible for a human to run?

That’s the question Steve from Davis, Calif., asked Mr. Munroe, the writer and illustrator of the Good Question column, which answers readers’ science-related queries.

What do you think the answer is? What evidence supports your prediction?

Now, take it a step further: How do you think humans could be engineered to run as fast as possible?

Write a hypothesis that responds to this question. You might use this sentence stem: “If _________, then humans could run faster.”

Remember, a hypothesis is an educated guess, so consider what you already know about the scientific principles related to speed and human anatomy.

If you’re in a classroom setting, share your prediction with a classmate and explain how you came up with it.

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. Why are humans limited in how fast they can run?

2. Why can humans skate faster than they can run?

3. Mr. Munroe suggests four changes to human anatomy that might make them run faster. Which of these are most likely to have a positive effect, and why?

4. A 2016 paper by Ryuta Kinugasa and Yoshiyuki Usami predicted that by 2048, a person on all fours could go faster than a person running upright. Why does Mr. Munroe say that this is a “bold prediction”?

5. Media literacy. Mr. Munroe cites experts and research throughout the article. Select one piece of evidence he includes and explain how it helps substantiate his explanation.

6. Return to the predictions you made in the warm-up activity. Were your guesses proved or disproved in this article? If so, how? If not, brainstorm some ways you could potentially test your hypothesis to see whether it’s correct.

Option 1: Create an illustration.

Throughout the piece, Mr. Munroe adds illustrations to enhance readers’ understanding of the science behind his explanation — or just to make reading it a little more fun.

Choose a paragraph or two from the article that Mr. Munroe did not illustrate, then create your own stick-figure drawing that helps communicate the main idea.

Option 2: Ask a “good question.”

Mr. Munroe’s Good Question column encourages readers to notice the world around them and ask questions about the things they would like to know more about.

What science, technology, engineering, math or health issues are you intrigued by?

Maybe you want to know if your dog really loves you; what would happen if you ditched your phone for a while; how artificial intelligence can be used in the operating room; what scientific uses there are for bumblebee vomit; if you’ll one day be able to clone your pet; or something else.

Brainstorm a list of your own “good questions” and post them to our related writing prompt: “What Questions Do You Have About How the World Works?”

If you want an additional challenge, you might use one of those questions as the basis for an entry to our informational writing contest, in which we’re challenging students to write an explanation, in 500 words or less, about any STEM-related concept that will engage and enlighten readers.

Lesson of the Day: ‘Rural Montana Had Already Lost Too Many Native Women. Then Selena Disappeared.’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘Rural Montana Had Already Lost Too Many Native Women. Then Selena Disappeared.’

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.

Featured Article: “Rural Montana Had Already Lost Too Many Native Women. Then Selena Disappeared.”

In the featured article, Jack Healy covers the ongoing crisis of Native American women who have gone missing or been found murdered in southern Montana. The article states that in 2019, “5,590 Indigenous women were reported missing to the F.B.I.’s National Crime Information Center, but advocates say the staggeringly high rates of violence suffered by Indigenous people are still not fully reflected in official accounting.”

In this lesson, you will learn about the disappearance and community-led searches for Native American women, and the activism to create awareness and hold law enforcement accountable for locating those women. Then, we will ask you to respond artistically to what you have read, both to process your own reaction and to educate others.

Note to Teacher: The articles linked below contain statistics and detailed information about violence, sexual abuse and disappearances of Native American women. Teachers should review the articles in advance before assigning or presenting the lesson to students.

In the April 2019 article “Native American Women Are Facing a Crisis,” Maya Salam highlights data from various sources on abuse and disappearances of Native American women. Choose one of the statistics below and then answer the questions below:

84 percent

That’s how many Indigenous women have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence in their lifetime, according to the National Institute of Justice.

1 in 3

That’s how many Native American women have been raped or experienced an attempted rape, according to the Justice Department, more than twice the national average.

13 percent

That’s how many sexual assaults reported by Native American women result in arrest, according to the Justice Department, compared with 35 percent for black women and 32 percent for white women.

506

The number of Indigenous women and girls who have disappeared or been killed in 71 urban American cities in 2016, according to a November report by Urban Indian Health Institute.

116

In 2016, 5,712 Indigenous women and girls were reported missing, but only 116 were logged by the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database, according to the National Crime Information Center.

Now, respond to the following questions about the statistic you selected:

  • What was your first reaction to the statistic? Why did it stand out to you?

  • How does the statistic make you feel emotionally?

  • What more do you want to know? What questions are you left asking after reading the statistic?

As you read the article, see if your questions are answered or if new ones are generated.

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. How would you summarize the situation in southern Montana and in Big Horn County? What facts or numbers in the first several paragraphs stood out and helped you to understand the issue?

2. What are some of the reasons that violence and disappearances of Native American people have not been accurately or effectively documented?

3. How do law enforcement officials and families differ in their understanding about why these cases have not been adequately investigated? What are some of the things that families are doing to encourage law enforcement officials and politicians to more aggressively respond to the cases of missing women?

4. The article states, “At 16, Selena already knew the toll of violence too well.” What does that statement mean in the context of the article? What does Selena’s family’s experience with violence illustrate about the larger issues that many Native American communities are facing?

5. Why did Jay Harris, the county prosecutor, declare a state of emergency? Why were some families disappointed about the timing of his declaration?

6. Why have the stories of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places and Selena become intertwined? What were some of the questions and concerns that Kaysera’s family wished law enforcement had asked?

After reading the article, take a moment to reflect and respond emotionally to what you read. Individually, respond with this Color, Symbol, Image activity from Facing History and Ourselves. Choose one idea, concept, quote, statistic or image from the featured article and respond artistically:

  • Choose a color that you think best represents what you selected.

  • Choose a symbol that you think best represents what you selected.

  • Choose an image that you think best represents what you selected.

If you are in a classroom, take a moment to do a gallery walk around your classroom and, without responding verbally, look at the different colors, symbols and images that your classmates selected. Are there any similarities to what you created? Does your classmates’ work evoke an emotional response in you or make you think of any part of the article differently?

Use these questions from Visual Thinking Strategies to engage with the hanging artwork on the left side:

Now, we’ll let you know a little more: The piece is called “Every One” and was created by Cannupa Hanska Luger, an artist who was raised on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Each hanging clay ball is meant to represent one of the missing Native women. The article explains that Mr. Luger’s idea for his artistic creation “came as he contemplated the statistics on the murdered and missing women. ‘I was trying to figure how to humanize that data,’ said Mr. Luger, who lives in Glorieta, N.M. ‘That number of 4,000 is really impersonal.’”

Now that you know why Mr. Luger created the piece, do you see the message he was trying to convey through his artwork? Does the artwork carry any additional meaning for you now?

If you still have time, transform your Color, Symbol, Image piece into a piece of art that could be used to educate people about the issue of the missing Native American women. See if you can rely solely on images and symbols to communicate your message. If you think your message would be stronger with words, you can add some as well, but be intentional about how much text you include. See if you can communicate your message to someone who does not know a lot about the situation through artwork, similar to what Mr. Luger has done.

Heavy Head

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Heavy Head

What story does this image inspire for you?

Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by what you see. Or, tell us about a memory from your own life that this illustration makes you think of.

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to find out what it’s all about.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan. You can find all our Picture Prompts in this column.

Word + Quiz: festoon

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Word + Quiz: festoon

verb: decorate or adorn

verb: decorate with strings of flowers

noun: an embellishment consisting of a decorative representation of a string of flowers suspended between two points; used on pottery or in architectural work

noun: a curtain of fabric draped and bound at intervals to form graceful curves

noun: flower chains suspended in curves between points as a decoration

_________

The word festoon has appeared in three articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 31 in “36 Hours in St. Moritz” by Laura Rysman:

For snacks and hot chocolate, stop by the Kulm Country Club, a storied chalet recently remodeled by Norman Foster, a part-time St. Moritz resident who also designed the timber-shingled blob that is the Chesa Futura private residence (the most arrestingly contemporary architecture in town). The club overlooks the plein-air ice-skating rink in the Olympic Park, which offers skate rentals for 22 Swiss francs. It’s filled with contemporary furnishings and vintage relics of local sports: Wooden bobsleds line the ceiling, old ski poles mark the doors and black-and-white photos of St. Moritz’s Olympic competitions festoon the walls.

_________

Film Club: ‘What a Soldier Killed in Niger Left Behind’

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Film Club: ‘What a Soldier Killed in Niger Left Behind’

5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

6. To learn more about the life and death of Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, read “An Endless War’: Why 4 U.S. Soldiers Died in a Remote African Desert.” Rukmini Callimachi, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Alan Blinder and Thomas Gibbons-Neff write:

Some of Sergeant Wright’s family members did not realize he was in potential danger at all. He had told his maternal grandmother he was in Africa doing “paperwork.” Some now ask who, and what, the sergeant — their sergeant — was sent to fight.

“Are we protecting the United States? Who knows?” asked Ginger Russell, one of Sergeant Wright’s aunts. “You don’t think of your military in Africa. You’re talking to people who didn’t even know how to pronounce ‘Niger.’ We had to look it up on the map to see exactly where it happened.”

The Wright family is well aware of how the military works. It can trace its lineage in the armed forces to the War of 1812. Sergeant Wright’s father, Arnold, had been a soldier, and his mother, Terri, had been in the military, too.

But in a family of military men and women stretching back more than 200 years, Sergeant Wright was the only one who didn’t make it home, the family says.

Now one of Sergeant Wright’s older brothers, Will, who served in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan, is considering joining the military again. The idea pains their father.

“We’ve paid our dues,” he said.

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