Kimberly Cortez: SENSE OF SELF

Sense Of Self: Lesson Plan 

Sense of Self is a writing exercise for Creative Writing students from OCAD University attending the Bata Shoe Museum. In navigating the various shoes at the Bata Shoe Museum in the Art and Design Education Lab’s virtual tour with Angie Ma, the various categories that the displayed shoes can fall under, such as function, material, stories, people, and culture, among many more (Patterson and Ma) (MacQuarrie), creates a sense of self for these shoes. Though not always associated with people, the shoes on display have their unique character as objects (“Visit Us”), similar to that of the concept of “animism” ( “Animism”, 28). Sense of Self invites Creative Writing students to write on the Sense of Self on a pair of selected shoes in a collaborative poem, based on the “Exquisite Tanka”, done by OCAD U Student group Vernacular, a creative writing collective, in 2018 (see figure 4) (Csunyoscka). 

The collaborative poem creates a piece that brings together the students’ perspectives through the Think Pair Share method (Patterson and Ma) (MacQuarrie, 31:46-32:27, 2:06:29-2:08:07) (Ritchhart, 145-147), to experiment with possible cohesion in meaning throughout the piece and with editing. 

 Activity Steps: 

1. In viewing the Silver pair from the Ancient India Exhibit in ‘All About Shoes’ (MacQuarrie, 17:27-18:21) (see fig. 1), discuss the question: What words may have informed the design of this Cortez 2 shoe? (3 minutes) → Discussion may include: Expensive material, culture, style (based on Angie Ma’s description (MacQuarrie 17:27-18:21)) 2. In viewing the Ballet Shoes and their description in ‘All About Shoes’ (MacQuarrie, 33:00- 33:36) (see fig. 

2), discuss the question: What makes the simple design of ballet shoes so versatile? (3 minutes) → Discussion may include: Different levels of ballet shown, Shade inclusivity context (Patterson and Ma) (MacQuarrie, 33:00-33:36). Additionally, I could add my own impression of these shoes from personal experience as a ballet dancer (the shoe’s delicacy, simple design, soft soles, etc), to engage class like Ritchhart’s explanation of “Modeling” (Ritchhart, 144-145). 

3. In viewing the Steel Heel pair in ‘Obsessed’ (MacQuarrie, 40:40-41:03) (see fig. 3), ask the question: Does this shoe carry the same weight as it used to? → Discussion/Thoughts may include: Changing gender norms, and femininity, shift in material after WW2 (Ma, 10) (MacQuarrie, 40:40-41:03) 

4. Introduce the Sense of Self collaborative poem exercise: 

     Divide the group of 16 students into groups of four 

     In their groups, each student discusses some of their thoughts on the pair 

     Using their thoughts on the pair, each group member creates and writes a line each for a stanza of four lines, mindful of the previous line, as described in the “Exquisite Tanka” (10 minutes) 

     When the group finishes their stanza, regroup with the class and hand in the copies of the stanzas Cortez 3 

     As a group, put together the various stanzas together to find an order that makes the poem flow (can be abstract or free rhyme in nature)  Read the poem out loud and discuss the impressions about this pair created in this poetry format (Eisner, 27-28) Cortez 4 

Sense of Self: Teacher’s Resource 

When looking for a theme for this activity, I made a list of the various categories the shoes of the Bata Shoe Museum fall under, some of them being mentioned by Angie Ma: function, materiality, culture, origins/ancestors, stories, production, people (such as Marylin Monroe’s shoes (MacQuarrie, 26:07-26:19) and race, shown by the ballet slippers making note of “shade inclusivity” (Patterson and Ma) (MacQuarrie11:46-58:35) (MacQuarrie, 33:00-33:36). 

 When reflecting on function, however, it leads me to think about how many shoes have been made with the tools displayed in “Obsessed” (MacQuarrie, 36:38 – 37:31), which then let me reflect on the different “lives” of the many shoes in the museum’s collection. However, “lives” or “livelihood” did not feel like enough to describe the quality I meant to capture as a theme. 

I then thought of the phrase “Sense of Self” to best describe the character that each shoe at the Bata Shoe Museum seems to carry, based on its appearance (‘New Colours is an example' (“Visit Us”)(MacQuarrie, 37:56-38:27)), materiality, function (Patterson and Ma) and presence in the museum; the many categories that the Museum’s shoes fall into (MacQuarrie, 11:46-58:35). In later reading Ritchhart’s article ‘Cultivating a Culture of Thinking in Museums’, the Ritchhart also describes an identity-themed approach towards a tour in the Guggenheim museum (also with a different work related to Marylin Monroe) (Ritchhart, 140-148). 

Sense of Self differs in that it aims to allow participants to reflect on a Sense of Self created by the Museum’s shoes, as their sense of self exists whether they are related to a specific person or not, and many of these shoes are not related to anyone. As a creative writing minor student, writing was the medium I wanted to explore in this activity. 

The writing exercise in Sense of Self is based on a collaborative poem done in 2018 by an OCAD U Student Group I was once a part of and co-lead called Vernacular, a creative writing Cortez 5 collective. Done with Calum Csunyoscka (and introduced to us by Calum), Zeddy Chevron, Joyce Jodie Kim and myself, this “Exquisite Tanka” (see fig. 4) as described in the post’s caption, is built upon each participant, using the syllables of a tanka poem, however, hiding the last line of the participant’s previous stanza (Csunyoscka). 

Although done in this lesson plan without the structured syllables and the hiding of previous lines (though separating the stanzas in groups could be seen as similar) to allow the writing to be more manageable, this poem was chosen as an example of a collaborative piece (as I mentioned in my Critical Pedagogy #2.5) because I found it to be an interesting way to experiment with writing collaboratively, and the possibility of cohesion in meaning in the overall piece (such as in this Tanka (see figure 4) is a unique quality that brings a sense of accomplishment. As Richhart describes: “In museums, collaborative learning has been shown to enhance the meaning students make of objects in museums”, the collaborative poem allows for a sense of a collective understanding of the shoe discussed. (Ritchhart, 149-150) 

Additionally, other influences for this project include: the discussion approach I shared in in Critical Pedagogy #2.4, as it also informs my decision on the short length of the stanzas, and Shakinah Hofler’s TED Talk titled ‘How to Use Creative Writing to Bear Witness’, which allows writers to see the breakdown of writing of what one is experiencing: the order of events, the details, and how they made one feel (“How to Use Creative Writing to Bear Witness”). As mentioned in November 1st’s lecture and Richart’s article, Sense of Self also utilizes the Think, Pair Share method in that groups of students first collaborate on a 4 line stanza. This “pairing” for 10 minutes allows for the writing of meaningful lines that answers the question. 

As referenced in the Lesson Plan, Eisner’s statements on “the limits of language”/”poetic language” complement this goal: “Language used in the service of the poetic is Cortez 6 quite different from the language used in the service of the literal. ...Each form of literacy provides another way to be in the world, another way to form experience, another way to recover and express meaning” (Eisner, 27-28). Such practice in “poetic language” (Eisner, 27-28) as used in the lesson plan allows students to elaborate more on their thought in a creative tone. Sense of Self is meant to create a reflective and creative space to write about their thoughts on the three shoes included in the activity. it creates a keepsake the way the Exquisite Tanka was, of multiple writers’ perspectives. To conclude, this project allowed me to see how a writing form can be applied in a space such as the Bata Shoe Museum, as it had initially felt like two opposite mediums combine with each other.