Study Guide

The learning goal:

This lesson is designed for a second-grade art class. The specific learning goal for this lesson is that students will work as part of a collaborative team to design a mural depicting the life of a butterfly in an imaginative way. This goal will enable students to explore artistic choices, such as color, shape, texture, line, space, and form, both individually and in conjunction with their creative teams throughout the mural making process.

Activity:

To introduce the students to the visual imagery of the butterfly, I will show them some pictures by Salvador Dali and Nellie Mae Rowe depicting butterflies. Students will also watch a couple of brief videos about butterflies in flight. Throughout the presentation, the teacher will comment on and encourage students to describe wing patterns, colors, dimensions, and perspective viewpoints. Students will hone their observation skills with this activity as well as understand how butterflies move. Before dividing the class into four mural making groups the teacher will provide instruction on the mural making process, including how one goes about working collaboratively (for example, introducing roles and tasks to be decided on by the group and be completed by each member). They will discuss planning questions such as: Where should our butterflies be placed on the mural? How can we incorporate each student's ideas into our butterfly mural? What additional art materials will we need to paint the mural? How shall we designate roles (for example, sketchers, materials preparation, painters, clean up etc.) and give everyone the opportunity to participate in the actual art making portion in our group? Using sketchbooks and drawing materials, groups will brainstorm, where no idea is wrong, about how they will sketch and create their group mural, trying out and modifying the composition as they go. For example, which way shows best how butterflies move, or might a combination of ideas show it better? Once they have come to consensus and chosen their plan, they will be ready to transfer it to the mural paper. Throughout the lesson the teacher will continually monitor and offer suggestions to aid and assist student discovery in the creative process, reminding students of what they observed in the video if they need help generating ideas.

Supporting the learning goal:

This activity supports the learning goal because all students are responsible for individual contributions to the collaborative finished product. The use of tools, including brainstorming and specific and various roles as listed above, assist students in their need to collaborate and plan effectively.

The assessment process:

Upon completion of the four ( 6'×8' 6 foot by 8 foot ) murals, students will individually respond to their completed murals answering questions about both their creative and collaborative processes. Some sample questions may include:

1. Using appropriate art vocabulary (The elements of art; such as color, shape, texture, line, space, form), what do you see represented in this mural?

2. How did working with others help you to get ideas about your mural?

3. How did the group project differ from working on an art project by yourself?

4. What did you learn from working as a team?

5. What would you do differently or change about the project?

Students can reflect on what they learned about the collaborative process and how it expanded their knowledge of both art and nature. The mural making art project encourages collaboration and cooperation within the creative team while encouraging individual risk taking through group responsibility. The teacher would use this feedback to inform planning for future collaborative lessons.

The goal of this lesson is for 8th grade students to recognize how elements of art are used to create meaning in works of art and apply that understanding in their own work.

The lesson begins with a review of vocabulary used in a formal analysis of art work. The class will view works such as The Starry Night by Van Gogh, Munch's The Scream, Dali's The Persistence of Memory, one of Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series paintings or perhaps something by Banksy projected on the whiteboard. We will look at each piece and discuss each artist's composition. Key questions asked will focus student attention to how the artist used line, shape, space, value and texture in their work to communicate meaning to the viewer. This is just one form of critiquing. I will guide the class through the discussion by asking questions that probe and extend their responses.

The class then will be given a teacher made checklist to use as a guide in analyzing works. It might include the following questions: Why has the artist used shapes to guide the eye into the work? How does the piece show variations in texture? Are they implied? How are light and shade used in creating a three-dimensional effect? They will be asked to describe the elements of line, movement, light and space and what they might express. Artwork can elicit feelings, communicate ideas, and tell stories that the artist has used in their pieces. In addition, they will be asked to describe how the piece as a whole makes them feel. I will go over the checklist with the class, ensuring that they understand critiquing is not criticizing, it is constructive and not destructive. Students will join preassigned groups where they will practice critiquing a piece of art. After the group work, the students will be asked to pair-share using the same process to evaluate a sample each has selected from their own portfolio. Using each other's feedback, students can consider ways of improving their piece based on discussion and make note of ways they might change their piece, given the feedback.

In analyzing their own artwork, the students would apply what they have learned in the lesson and demonstrate their understanding of how to critique a piece of art. The students will begin to learn that critiquing individual work is an essential skill for developing and refining artistic growth.

The teacher could measure and evaluate student achievement of the learning goal by how successfully students were able to complete the checklist using the art terminology in their critique and apply it to their own works. To be successful, students would have to give evidence for their opinions, in addition to using vocabulary. For example, this painting makes me feel anxious because of the intensity of the dark colors. This will help the teacher to know how well the students know and are able to use this language to communicate and exchange ideas concerning works of art.