Tunnel Book Update & Summer Institute!

by Elizabeth Van Allen  for scribblesbyartteachervanallen.blogspot.com

This student chose to shift the space
ship forward from the middle- to the
fore- ground while he was working.

A few brief hours after posting my Tunnel Book lesson, I received my acceptance letter/ invitation to attend the ABC Teachers Institute at the National Museum for Women in the Arts.  To say that I am excited would be a total understatement.  Having the opportunity to spend one whole week in DC learning about book arts in the classroom with other enthusiastic educators is like a dream.  What better way to refresh my educational and personal book making practices?  It's as if this professional development opportunity was tailor-made just for me!

The student who made this book
decided to change his topic mid-
project. He really had to focus 
in order to finish it on time!

In light of this fabulous development, it seemed like just the right time to showcase some of my current students' finished tunnel books.  We had quite a few really nice projects this year that covered a variety of topics.  A few that really stood out were pac-man, non-representational patterns, minecraft, and math.  I love finding out which students follow their plans exactly and which ones re-configure their designs on the fly to better fit the tunnel book format.  

This student artist knew exactly
what she wanted her tunnel
book to look like from day 1.

Being pushy with my students about doing their pre-project planning really paid off this year.  About halfway through our project we were interrupted by standardized testing.  In my school testing occurs in the morning, exactly when the older students are scheduled for my class.  So while I started the project in late March, it couldn't be finished until early June.  It's a good thing I made my students plan their projects first, otherwise we might have been stranded on the archipelago of interrupted & unfinished projects!  (For those who don't know, the archipelago of interrupted & unfinished projects is located southwest of the island of misfit toys and due north of never land.) 

This student came up with the idea
to use a partial frame as a foreground
on her own.  I only showed examples
that utilized a full-frame foreground.

With summer break just coming into view, it's nice to wrap up the school year with a surprisingly successful lesson.  Crisis averted and lesson learned: I won't doubt my instincts when they tell me to do a little extra planning with students, even on a lesson that I've taught for years!

What routines do you use to keep projects from self destructing when the unexpected occurs?