Colonial Middle School students find meaning in the ordinary

Inspired by the book “The 7th Most Important Thing,” Colonial Middle School students used everyday items like cardboard, foil, and magazine clippings to create meaningful projects in teacher Susan Gondek’s English/Language Arts class.

The book tells the story of a boy who must fulfill community service hours after throwing a brick at a man collecting garbage on the street. Through this service, he learns that the “Junk Man” is not just randomly picking through people’s garbage, he is looking for specific items to use in his artwork. The “Junk Man” is artist James Hampton. Hampton was a real artist whose work is displayed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and was crafted from items including foil, cardboard, mirrors, lightbulbs, and wood.

After reading the book, students selected three quotes from it and analyzed their significance, chose a personal “word of the year” to reflect their growth and aspirations, and selected a meaningful word from the novel as well. Then they identified their own “7 Most Important Things” - items that hold personal value and significance in their lives. The lesson encouraged them to reflect on what truly matters and how ordinary things can carry deeper meaning. 

The students also wove all of these items into their own art project, using materials similar to Hampton’s. The unique and intricate displays were made of toilet paper and paper towel rolls, plastic bottles, plastic light bulbs, tissue boxes, and even toothpaste boxes, yarn, and molding clay. Students took a gallery walk to look at each other’s creations, leaving a positive comment about each person’s work.