Bronze Age Jewellery Catalogues by sixth year art pupils

Time Travel Pedagogy
Sifting through the Christmas direct mail, I spotted a small brochure from the the Local Jewellery shop. We were just about to start the Bronze Age in Art History, and I had been sketching up ideas for a class project. Staring at the pages of the sparkling items for sale, it seemed so obvious: Bronze Age Jewellery Catalogues.
 

A daily challenge faced by designers is the need to see a problem from a client’s perspective. In so doing, they form a meaningful, personal, and relevant inner narrative. This was the challenge presented to a sixth year group, asked to imagine that they were Jewellers from the Bronze Age. Briefed to design, illustrate, and write catalogues to sell their artefacts, they replied with compelling sales blurbs, wittily incorporated facts and figures, and even a personal invitation for persons of status and wealth! The catalogues allowed pupils to showcase their knowledge in intricately detailed and decorated craft pieces, each one both a vehicle for learning the course material, and a helpful pedagogical tool for the assessment of that learning.

(more to follow shortly…)