Grade Five Arts Education
Strand: Visual Art
Big Question: What does art tell us about the world?
Creative/ Productive
CP5.7 / Create à visual art works
Express à ideas about pop culture
Draw à inspiration from pop culture
Justify à choices / · Pop art – 12 squares
· Pop art – photocopy and mixed media
· Installation art and photography
· Flash mob, planking, perching and photography
· Portfolio and structured reflection
· Journals
CP 5.8 / Create à visual art works
Use à visual art concepts, forms and media
Explain à choices
Reflect on à strengths and challenges
Critical /Responsive
CR 5.1 (formative only) / Examine à influence of artists
Investigate à work of artists / · Michael Snow
· Andy Warhol
· Flash mobs, planking, perching
· Journals
· Art critique
CR 5.2 / Respond to à pop culture expressions
Support à responses
Cultural/ Historical
CH 5.1 / Examine and share à perspectives on contemporary life
Give à examples / · T-chart
· Journals
CH 5.3 / Analyze à connection
Describe à connection
Essential Questions – should frame the lessons everyday and students should be trying to answer them
· How do the arts reflect the values of a society?
· What does art say about a society? How does a society impact art?
· How does knowing about how, when and why art was created help us to understand the art better?
· How have artists affected mainstream culture (fads, fashions, trends)? Why does it matter?
· How have Canadians contributed to the popular arts scene?
· How can I justify my choices and opinions and why should I bother?
· How can I look at art critically and why should I take the time?
· How can I use the art of others to create my own art?
· How is art about relationships?
· How do the elements of art affect our overall impressions?
· How can I get better at art?
· How do I recognize pop art?
· How is art a process?
· How can pop culture inspire art?
· How is art about solving problems and asking questions?
· How can accidents be good?
· How can I remember my ideas?
Learning Strategy Focus
· Making connections
· Making predictions
· Identifying key ideas and supporting details
· Evaluating creator’s message
· Consider purpose and audience
· Conferring with others
Possible cross-curricular connections
· ELA – viewing and representing
· ELA Before, During and After Learning Strategy instruction and reinforcement
· Pragmatics – Audience and purpose
Assessment note
We are formatively exploring CR 5.1 but will summatively assess it when we have delved into more than one strand. At that time, it will be entered into SA under all applicable strands (students will support their ideas will examples from our studies over time.)
Essential question(s) / Hook / Materials / Learning experiences / AssessmentPart One / How do I recognize Pop Art?
How can I look at art critically and why should I make the time?
How can I describe art well? / Concept attainment – Pop Art is…
Pop Art is not…
*bolded words may need vocabulary work either before or during the activity / PowerPoint containing images – for concept attainment and for description activity
Graphic organizer / 1) Review concept of popular culture
2) Explain that Pop Art is a specific art movement, influenced by popular culture
3) Explain that we will view some examples of “Pop Art” and “not Pop Art” and, on their own first, they have to try to clarify the characteristics of pop art (graphic organizer).
4) Have students quickly pair up and share their ideas and then discuss as a whole class. Be sure to get to: saturated colour, popular images, repetition/ pattern. Have a student write these characteristics on poster paper for future reminder. Also talk about the idea that what makes Pop Art unique is its “tongue in cheek” and “in your face” commercial tone.
5) Practicing looking at Pop Art – Essential questions 2 and 3. Today, we will focus on stage one of looking at art – Describing what we see. We will eventually be assessed on this, so we need to practice. Pair students up and have half the students facing the screen and the other half facing away. Those facing will describe what they are seeing to their partner, focusing on creating enough detail to be able to allow their partner to recognize the image when shown the image when shown it later. Switch and repeat.
6) Talk about how students described their art (bring back up on projector for everyone to see). How did they decide what order to share details. Discuss possibilities (near to far, order of impact, overall impression first, colour, texture, etc.)
7) Repeat the activity, only this time their partner has to sketch what they are being told. Did this affect how they chose to describe? Did they notice things they didn’t in their first impression? Why should we take time to really look at something?
8) Exit card – What is Pop Art? How do we describe art well? / Formative – exit card, observation of description activity (who needs extra support with describing? With understanding Pop Art?)
Part Two / How have Canadian artists contributed to the popular arts scene?
How can I use the art of others to create my own art?
How can pop culture inspire art?
How can I analyze art works well?
How is art about relationships?
How do the elements of art affect our overall impressions?
How can I get better at art? / Put up the picture of Michael Snow’s “Walking Woman” – first slide on yesterday’s PP.
Tell students they have two minutes to write down as clear a description of this work of art as possible (point form, think about order, etc.)
Share descriptions / · 11X17 paper for every student
· Pencil crayons and/ or small markers
· Poster paper cut into small rectangles
· Rulers
· Pencils
· Erasers
· Internet or magazines for students needing inspiration
· Michael Snow “Walking Woman” image (PP)
· Journals/ Blogs for students / 1) After the description hook – review why describing art works is so important. (Learning strategy link – predictions, identifying all details). Write analysis/ analyze on the board. Have students jot down what they think analyze/ analysis means. Share ideas and clarify the definition (Exploring all the parts of something and figuring out how things are related or connected.)
2) Together, analyze the “Walking Woman” – Think aloud an example first (I see that there are several versions of the same drawing but each is different. I can see that each piece can be viewed separately but also as a whole.) Prompts: 1) I think the patterns are related to the colours… 2)The colours in…are similar to… but different from… 3)When I compare the textures in the women to the backgrounds, I can see…4) The squares that are the most active are…because… Explain the importance of exploring these relationships (Learning strategy Making Connections)
3) Review the three characteristics of Pop Art that we focused on yesterday: Saturated colour, repetition or pattern, image from popular culture.
4) Explain our version of the “Walking Woman.” We will take an 11X17 piece of paper and divide it into 12 equal rectangles (a lesson in itself! Think of strategies for doing this). We will choose a recognizable image from popular culture (brainstorm a list if needed for some – differentiate) ex. Coke symbol, McDonalds, Nike swoosh, etc. We must be sure it is a closed shape; not a drawing. We will draw it onto a rectangle of poster paper the size of one of our 12 rectangles. We will cut it out and trace it twelve times into each rectangle. We will then use pencil crayon (or marker if we have the small ones and can be careful) to design different versions of each image. Think about patterns, colours, lines.
5) Differentiation – for those who would like a challenge, they can try to turn their shape into something different each time and build a picture around each interpretation (ex. The Nike swoosh becomes a water ski in one rectangle and a boomerang in another).
6) As students get along in their work, invite them to look at it from a distance and make sure it is balanced as a whole. This way, they can think about colour placement (black on one side means black on the other). They should also be strongly encouraged to fill the space with colour or pattern because white is such a strong colour, it can overpower their artistic efforts.
7) Journal/ Blog – How can I get better at art? How do the elements of art affect our overall impressions? How do we create balance and interest using colour, patterns, line and shape? – Practice thinking about the art they are seeing and creating so they can reflect in their final portfolio. Offer feedback. / Formative – Yesterday’s exit card – may indicate that the Hook activity be scaffolded for some – maybe they need a prompt sheet for the description
Classroom observation during analysis practice (could take in their descriptions if needed)
Summative – their final Pop Art piece will be part of their final portfolio and reflection (Picture and Reflection– rubric CP 5.7 and 5.8)
Each time students ask for help/ feedback from teacher or others – record in their journal their question and the feedback they received (will be needed later for portfolio work).
Part three / How does art impact society?
How can I look at art critically and why should I take the time?
How can I remember my ideas?
How is art about solving problems and asking questions?
How have artists affected mainstream culture?
How is art a process? / Hand out the photographs of the Walking Woman in public.
Have students work with a partner to try to figure out what is going on. Have them start by describing what they see, analyzing how the sculpture is relating to its environment, etc.
Encourage pairs to move onto interpretation (How do these pictures make you feel? Why did the artist create this art? What was he trying to tell us?) (Learning strategy – Evaluating creator’s message)
Additional information – Michael snow photographed and video-taped people interacting with the art. He then displayed the photos and videos. Why? / Copied versions of the “Walking Woman” sculptures and installations.
Cameras (phones, etc.)
Materials for student artwork – 3-D, 2-D etc.
Printer
Internet access and projector / 1) Explain to students that they have no worked through three of the four stages of strong art critique – Description, Analysis, Interpretation. Now it is time for the final skill (and this is the one we usually jump to first) – Judgement. Have students reflect on the images they looked at and Michael Snow’s “Walking Woman” concept – do they like it? What does it remind them of? How does it make them feel?
2) Clarify that when we describe, analyze and interpret before judgement, our opinions might change. Or we might still like or dislike something but it out response is fuller and more reflective. We start to think about technique and choices the artist has made instead of just whether we like it or not. We can start to think about the work. Explain that by the end of this unit, they will be able to critique art works on their own and support their ideas. They have been practicing already!
3) Michael Snow was creating Pop Art that was part of an environment (streets of Toronto). He wanted people to interact with the art and then he recorded their interaction. He chose an image that blended into the environment somewhat. This was part of his process. The responses to the art became part of the art itself. Modern day artists do this all the time – Planking, Perching, Flash Mobs. The art is important but so is how people respond to the art. Look at examples of this kind of art.
4) The students are going to work in pairs to a) create a work of art that will blend into the environment at first but is unique enough to eventually come to the attention of others b) photograph the responses of people when they notice the art – they will have to “hide” from people. Emphasize that we do not want to embarrass or offend or scare anyone. We just want them to notice.
5) Brainstorm ideas together for what to create – walk around the school and grounds and talk about where art could be placed (ie, paper leaves in a tree, a sculpture of a garbage can with no opening, next to a real garbage can, etc., a clay pencil lying in the hallway)
6) Discuss and practice effective partner work – what does it look like? Sound like? (Handout “How Proficient Collaborators Think and Act”)
7) Partners then get together to brainstorm and plan in their journals/ blogs. Emphasize that they need to record their thinking and planning as part of their assessment (CP5.7, CP 5.8) (Learning strategy – Activate prior knowledge, generate ideas)
8) Create art
9) Display art and photograph (take in two photos). Display.
10) As a group – share process and responses. Talk about successes and challenges. Have students go to their journals/ blogs and record their own successes and challenges in preparation for their portfolio. / Formative – observation of interpretation
Journals of process – take in each day to see how things are progressing. Also monitor final reflection of successes and challenges. Help those who need it to reflect. Prompts may be necessary. Invite students who are ready for a challenge to really focus on details to support their ideas.