Day 1
Project/Unit description/Expedition.
In the unit plan Let’s Get Steampunk’d, the students will be doing 3 lessons which investigate drawing, planning, collage, 2D and 3D projects. It will expose them to the work of some assemblage and collage artists. The unit is focused on the idea oftransformation, found object work and deconstruction/reconstruction in making art. The students will experience how to uses mechanical tools to disassemble everyday objects and reform them into a creature which means something to them. Through this process over 4 or 5 class periods, they will learn the importance of planning and contemplate the reasons artists use found objects in relationships of artistic inspiration and cultural significance.
In today’s learning experience students… began by getting to know a little more about us as teachers and they shared some about who they are and what they liked about art. The lesson started and we covered some important learning concepts and skills;
Essential Understanding
The Essential understandings of our first lesson plan are;
Explore what it means to be an artist working in a shared work space and define and explore collage as an artistic form of expression.
Key Concept(s)
Compare and contrast; Planning in art, Collage
Skill(s)
Expressing and defending personal aesthetic decisions; Planning for art making
Art Focus
Collage; Drawing and Ideation
Literacy Focus
Explain and defend artistic choices in drag and drop activity; document in sketchbook
Documentation
After introductions and a game which involved each student remembering a fellow students name and what they liked about art as well as sharing their own we introduced the lesson with a short fun interest generator.
Click CURIOUS? to watch it.
The students were engaged and interested in answering questions about the lesson. Jason explained to us that the term “Steampunk” was about a period in history where things were powered by steam.
In the unit plan Let’s Get Steampunk’d, the students will be doing 3 lessons which investigate drawing, planning, collage, 2D and 3D projects. It will expose them to the work of some assemblage and collage artists. The unit is focused on the idea oftransformation, found object work and deconstruction/reconstruction in making art. The students will experience how to uses mechanical tools to disassemble everyday objects and reform them into a creature which means something to them. Through this process over 4 or 5 class periods, they will learn the importance of planning and contemplate the reasons artists use found objects in relationships of artistic inspiration and cultural significance.
In today’s learning experience students… began by getting to know a little more about us as teachers and they shared some about who they are and what they liked about art. The lesson started and we covered some important learning concepts and skills;
Essential Understanding
The Essential understandings of our first lesson plan are;
- Artists compare/contrast ideas for inspiration to create art.
- Media properties are explored during the planning process to create successful work
Explore what it means to be an artist working in a shared work space and define and explore collage as an artistic form of expression.
Key Concept(s)
Compare and contrast; Planning in art, Collage
Skill(s)
Expressing and defending personal aesthetic decisions; Planning for art making
Art Focus
Collage; Drawing and Ideation
Literacy Focus
Explain and defend artistic choices in drag and drop activity; document in sketchbook
Documentation
After introductions and a game which involved each student remembering a fellow students name and what they liked about art as well as sharing their own we introduced the lesson with a short fun interest generator.
Click CURIOUS? to watch it.
The students were engaged and interested in answering questions about the lesson. Jason explained to us that the term “Steampunk” was about a period in history where things were powered by steam.
As Asia was explaining vocabulary terms such as abstract, form, compare, and contrast as well as examples of artists John McHale and Nicolus Lampert, we created a list as a class to write down later in our sketchbooks.
They began to think about what they would like to make their image look like by planning and drawing out ideas in their sketchbook. Then, students started to look through magazines to find images. Today was about collecting and categorizing images as opposed to actually creating the collage. Students engaged with their own ideas by laying out magazine image and combining them with their sketches. Some chose to work with just the images that they found, while others began thinking about combining their sketches with their images. Since students were not actually gluing a collage today, they stored their found cut-out images in a sketchbook pocket that they created and spent there time planning what they could create and defending their choice of images they were going to use .
In the images below we can see the process these students made making initial decisions about the cutout images. They did some drawings of ideas for creatures. By moving the cutouts around and working the ideas together in their sketchbooks with the magazine parts they created some very successful images of imaginary creatures.
In the images below we can see the process these students made making initial decisions about the cutout images. They did some drawings of ideas for creatures. By moving the cutouts around and working the ideas together in their sketchbooks with the magazine parts they created some very successful images of imaginary creatures.
Reflection and Findings
As the students were going to the smartboard and making choices about which part to put where and on which animal, they were making connections to aesthetics, form, function and composition. They explained, “I put the gear here on the wing because the shapes of the gear teeth match the tips of the bird’s feathers” or “I chose the wheel because the bear could go faster if he had wheels for legs”. They were demonstrating planning and thoughtful decisions as they constructed their pockets to keep the pictures they had already cut out. One student explained to me that she was finding all the animal parts she wanted first so she could, ”compare their body parts to mechanical pieces that would not only look cool but work like they should”.
As the students were going to the smartboard and making choices about which part to put where and on which animal, they were making connections to aesthetics, form, function and composition. They explained, “I put the gear here on the wing because the shapes of the gear teeth match the tips of the bird’s feathers” or “I chose the wheel because the bear could go faster if he had wheels for legs”. They were demonstrating planning and thoughtful decisions as they constructed their pockets to keep the pictures they had already cut out. One student explained to me that she was finding all the animal parts she wanted first so she could, ”compare their body parts to mechanical pieces that would not only look cool but work like they should”.