Alexa Marie Gryga
Art Educator | Fine Artist
middle school lessons
UNIT PLAN: Emotional Expression
Teacher Exemplar
COMPLETE NARRATIVE OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION: Throughout our lives, people search for ways to express their emotions. Some people may use writing and speaking, and others may use art. Whatever device a person chooses to use, every person’s emotions lead to different stories. Artists create works of art to express themselves and to tell their stories. Whether or not they use realistic or abstract methods is up to the artist. Within this unit, students will interpret realistic and expressionistic art. Students will learn about how line and color can relate to emotions, based off of abstract expressionism. Students will also learn how realism can relate to emotions, with the help of looking at realistic art. In the end, students will develop opinions on a variety of art and discover new ways to express themselves and tell their own stories. The following overview will explain this unit plan in more depth:
COMPLETE NARRATIVE OVERVIEW
LESSON ONE
Big Idea: Throughout time and across culture, artists have expressed emotions through abstract art.
LESSON TWO
Big Idea: Throughout time and across cultures, artists have expressed emotion through abstract art.
LESSON THREE
Big Idea: Throughout time and across cultures, artists have expressed emotions through realistic art.
Documents Below
Enduring Idea: Artists are inspired by everyday objects and experiences.
Lesson Title: Larger-Than-Life
Grade: 7th grade
Time Allotment: 8-10 days, 60 minutes each
(Students have art twice a 6 day cycle for half of the school year).
OVERVIEW:
Lesson Summary: The students will start of the lesson by viewing the art of Claes Oldernburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s, Rómulo Celdrán, and Jeff Koons. The teacher will talk about different types of sculpture along with a short meaning behind the artists pieces. Like the artists, the student will create sculptures there are larger-than-life, but the will use newspaper and plaster gauze techniques through the process. Throughout the lesson they will be able to better understand vocabulary terms through worksheets and prompts, and they will be given the knowledge to create realistic 3D forms of their choice.
Teacher Exemplars
Enduring Idea: Throughout time and across culture, people have seen one-point perspective in many ways: Artists use perspective to create illusions.
Lesson Title: Illusions in Art
Grade: 7th grade
Time Allotment: 8-10 days, 60 minutes each
(Students have art twice a 6 day cycle for half of the school year).
OVERVIEW: The students will have knowledge of artists and people who create and use one-point perspective and trompL’eoil. They will additionally complete worksheets with vocab words related to artists and concepts along with a practice sheet creating one-point perspective. For their final project they will created a drawing of a piece of paper on a paper with a pencil drawing on it in one-point perspective. The students are require to use 4-5 shapes all using correct tools and procedures for the duration of the project. Throughout the lesson they will discuss in groups and reflect upon their work and others through writing time in class for deep thinking and understanding.
Teacher Exemplar