ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

While achievement in the arts is difficult to measure in percentile growth, its importance in a well-balanced curriculum cannot be disregarded. Fargo Public Schools has recently included the Arts in their strategic plan: “As a result of our efforts, students will experience a variety of the visual and performing arts through appreciation, creation, or performance. Paths to accomplish this end/result: *Develop, enhance and implement curriculum, activities and programs that address this result, including both specific, required curriculum, as well as integration of the arts into teaching and learning of all curriculum areas as appropriate.” The instructional need at his point is in the integration of current technology and art techniques that have changed very little. After all, drawing and painting have always required some kind of mark-making tools, brushes and paint! It’s up to the art teacher today to bring the visual arts into the 21st century reality of technology that is a large part of education, as well as making the art experience fresh and interesting to our young artists. My goal is to combine the available technology in my school and the artistic and creative energies my students are already exhibiting. Currently, self portraits facial features and proportions are explored in our 9th grade drawing curriculum. In this lesson plan for grades 6-8, I propose a self-portrait that is created digitally using a digital camera and a computer, but then enhanced using the traditional art methods of painting and collage.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: The Arts are the most enduring legacy we can leave behind to show the future who we were and what we believed to be important and true in our lives (think of cave paintings, for example!) It’s a way to communicate and make a statement that is uniquely our own. The beauty of art is that there are no strict right or wrong answers, and that within that freedom one must take risks to be different. Goal(s): Use art to better understand themselves and their view of others Understand the relationship between artistic images and the other creative arts such as writing, drama, and music.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: Who is an artist and what do they do? How can an artist tell a story, an event, or communicate a feeling with their art? Why can two people looking at the same piece of art see or feel two different things? Objectives: Students acquire the skills necessary to use the digital camera and also to teach others. Then they will convert their portrait to a high contrast B/W image in Word. Students experiment within the given perimeters, producing an expressive self-portrait using different materials and techniques. Students will write an accompanying piece of creative poetry to help describe their self-portrait. Students critique their own work of art in terms of how effectively the work of art communicates their intended ideas.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? Vocabulary quiz (matching and short answer) will show students have a grasp of the new art terminology. 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 start the self-examination process (“Who am I?” and “What do I want others to know about me?”) by writing a letter to an imaginery pen pal. This will get them thinking ahead of time about what they would like to include in their self-portrait. 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? The students will digitally create their front facial likeness and then enhance that output by combining it with a more artistic, individual mixed media representation of their interests, likes, dreams, goals, etc. What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? To help communicate their intended ideas, the young artists will complete a short creative writing assignment to be displayed beneath their mixed media self-portrait. Rubrics can be used for individual assessments of their overall project.

Instructional Strategies

The learning roles the students initially take on are problem-based in that the teacher guides the students as they work in their groups, writing their personal letter of introduction. They will work cooperatively in their groups as they help each other refine their ideas for their self-portraits. Also in these same groups, they will be learning how to use the digital camera together. Students are empowered because they have done the initial work themselves. No one else can decide for them what’s important enough to include. The learning environment obviously moves into a project-based strategy, as the artists create their self-portrait art project. Along the way they will have many decisions to make regarding the content, theme, colors, composition, and art materials. At the conclusion, the artwork and creative writing will be displayed in the school hallway display cases and the artroom to share with everyone. There cannot be any duplication, or right or wrong answers. That’s why I love to teach art, everyone can be successful!