English Students Learn about Syntax by Creating Modern Art

This week, Peter Donahue’s Upper School English students learned about the rules behind sentence structure by creating their own “modern art” out of custom laser-cut geometric shapes. 

The students had freedom about how to arrange the four different shapes (referred to as Steves, Veras, Ophelias and Connors) into chains, yet they also had to follow a set of rules that mimicked English language sentence structure. A Steve must always come first and must always be followed by a Vera or a Connor, while a Connor can follow any shape except a Connor, etc.

The students carefully drafted their chains and sought feedback from Mr. Donahue before gluing down their patterns and creating their final works of art.

“Many of the students found that the fun part is finding ways to test the limits of the rules,” said Mr. Donahue.

To create a large amount of colored shapes for the activity, Mr. Donahue sought advice from MBS faculty member Matt Martino, who will be in charge of the critical making/design space in the new Center for Innovation & Design (CID).

“I consulted with Matt to design and troubleshoot shapes that both met the requirements of my activity, and were laser-cutter friendly,” explained Mr. Donahue.