By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
In a creative project combining art and literacy, Whitewater Middle School students recently painted the risers on a staircase in the school. The stairs are visible from the Elizabeth Street entrance to the school and feature titles of books.
The art integration project, under the guidance and mentorship of Kristen Monday, a local artist and associate lecturer in the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, helps to promote a culture of literacy and to encourage reading for pleasure.
Although the stairway to the second floor located near the Main Office is not used often, students, staff and visitors walk past it frequently as they enter the building from the circle drive and for students, throughout the day as they move between classes.
The 30 titles displayed include classics like “Treasurer Island” and “Lord of the Flies,” along with recent works such as “Tuck Everlasting” and “The Hunger Games.”
Spanning the top of the staircase is “One Child, One Teacher, One Book and One Pen Can Change the World,” the title of Shabbir Hazari’s 2014 book about Malala Yousafzai.
As a young girl, Yousafzai defied the Taliban in Pakistan and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012, but survived.
The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was shared between Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Yousafzai is a Muslim from Pakistan and at the age of 17, the youngest winner of a Nobel Prize in any field.
This coming spring, through another literacy partnership with Ann Ruff, a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at UWW who specializes in reading, 7th grade students at WMS will work with a professional muralist to create four scenes from a diversity book study unit.
The purpose of the arts-literacy integration projects is to strengthen students’ literacy skills, foster creativity and support the visual aesthetics of the building.
