Collaborate in the Community
Community Arts Gallery
What is Empathy?
By Class 801
View the Online Gallery
In a collaborative effort, Mount Royal Elementary/Middle’s Class 801 worked with Baltimore Partners and Baltimore Clayworks to answer the question: What is Empathy? While learning about abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, the students first created a "word picture" to put themselves in touch with the atmospheric language of the writings. Then the students constructed a clay shoe that investigated the turmoil of slaves escaping to freedom. And to complete the pair, the students then created a self-portrait shoe, which allowed them to express themselves and their place in the world. These two shoes enabled them to see both the differences and similarities between the modern world, and the world of slavery. Trezeline Ireland, a teacher at Mt. Royal, and Ariel Plantz, a Clayworks Community Arts teacher, co-taught the unit.
