ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: For all artists, their life experiences play a role in defining their art. Art can express a person’s feelings in virtually any medium.
Goal(s): Students will be able to answer basic questions on the background and life of the artist Vincent van Gogh. Students will be able to explain the correlation between an artist’s life experiences and how these experiences affect their work. 

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. Who was the man/artist, Vincent van Gogh? 2. How did his life experiences shape his art? 3. Where do artists get inspiration for their work?
Objectives: 1. Students will be able to gather information on van Gogh from the resources used or given in class. 2. Students will write about a meaningful experience in their life that could be the subject for their own art.  3. Students will be able to identify and recognize van Gogh’s paintings by his color pallet and unique brush stroke style.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
Worksheet that coordinates with the teacher-provided van Gogh website where students will demonstrate understanding by filling in the appropriate answer.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
Students will write a paragraph describing how van Gogh’s life experiences affected his work. This will be done after navigating the teacher-provided website and viewing a video.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
Students will create a van Gogh-inspired sunflower still- life, using oil pastels.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
Students will be challenged to identify the two van Gogh paintings out of a “gallery” of five total paintings, using what they have learned regarding his subject and painting style.

Instructional Strategies

The project-based assignment of creating a van Gogh-style sunflower still life will allow students to demonstrate their accumulated knowledge of his color use and unique style. The process of how the students: 1)gather information (inquiry-based), 2)view artwork, and 3)create their own interpetation mirrors how other artists work through the creative process in making art.