Gathering Blue

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“The Singer’s Robe”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of the gap between Kira’s present experiences of her community and her dreams for its future by creating their own versions of the Singer’s robe.

Kira believes that she can use her threading skills to help create a better future for her community. In this activity, you will show that you understand both the problems with her community and Kira’s perspective on how that community needs to change, by creating your own version of the Singer’s robe.

Gather Ideas

• Get some ideas about how embroidered pictures can be used to tell a story: Check out this site from the Bayeux Museum. This museum is dedicated to the world’s most famous example of embroidered storytelling, the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry.
• Find evidence from Gathering Blue about what kinds of pictures are already on the Singer’s robe.
• Find evidence from Gathering Blue about Kira’s perspective on her community’s present and future.

Create Your Robe

• You can create your robe in whatever medium you like. For example, you might draw it by hand or on a computer, paint it, create a collage, or even create a textile. Whatever format you choose should be something you can complete in the time allowed.
• Your robe should accurately reflect the text’s descriptions. Use the robe’s depiction of the past to show how Kira’s community sees its own history.
• Use the “blank” space Kira talks about on the robe to demonstrate Kira’s perspective on the community’s present and future. Your robe should accurately depict Kira’s beliefs about what her community is like now and how it should change in the future.

Exhibit Your Robe

• Display your depiction of the Singer’s robe in the location your teacher arranges.
• After you have had a chance to view your peers’ work, write a paragraph about which version of the Singer’s robe (other than your own) was your favorite and why.

Teaching Suggestion: The viewing of the Bayeux Tapestry site is not critical to success in this activity; if time is short, you might eliminate this direction and instead make viewing the site and explaining its relationship to Gathering Blue an extra credit opportunity. Students can display their work in a classroom “museum” or in an online space you have dedicated to this activity. Let students know where they will be exhibiting their work when you discuss the assignment directions so that they can choose an appropriate format.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students whose reading fluency prevents them from efficiently searching for textual evidence will benefit from being allowed to gather evidence in small groups or with a partner. Students with aphantasia may struggle to create their own pictures for their project; you might steer these students toward a project format—such as collage—that allows them to use ready-made pictures. Students with visual impairments may not be able to complete this activity as written. A reasonable alternative would be to ask these students to create a three-column chart in which they list textual evidence about how the robe depicts the community’s past, how Kira views the community’s present, and what Kira hopes will change in the community’s future. Then, they might write a brief essay about what pictures they believe Kira will add in the robe’s blank space.