HOIC Lesson Plan
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 3 - Planning for Differentiated Instruction – The competent teacher plans and designs instruction based on content area knowledge, diverse student characteristics, student performance data, curriculum goals, and the community context. The teacher plans for ongoing student growth and achievement.
The Heart of Illinois Conferences is hosted annually and creates an opportunity for high school students to display their art in a gallery space and learn new arts they might not in a typical classroom. Along with another Art Education student I created a lesson on representational felt art. In this lesson we introduced the students to three contemporary artists Erin LeAnn Mitchell, Sam Sidney, and Naima Almeida. All three artists use fabric or felt in their art to make depth through layers and create representation for themselves and their respective communities. After the students interpreted and discussed the artists techniques and purpose we shared our own artwork based on the lesson criteria. Then I did a short demonstration on building and safely gluing felt layers. Before starting their final project the students brainstormed representational images and chose one to make. The students then sketched out the image, planning the different shapes, layers, and colors. We went over their sketch with them before they could move on to felt. With the felt they traced, drew, and cut shapes arranging them to create their composition. Once everything was arranged the showed a teacher and began gluing it all together. With the time left the students walked around the room to look at what their classmates had done. It was interesting to see what each student chose to represent themselves.
Lesson Plan
Presentation
The Heart of Illinois Conferences is hosted annually and creates an opportunity for high school students to display their art in a gallery space and learn new arts they might not in a typical classroom. Along with another Art Education student I created a lesson on representational felt art. In this lesson we introduced the students to three contemporary artists Erin LeAnn Mitchell, Sam Sidney, and Naima Almeida. All three artists use fabric or felt in their art to make depth through layers and create representation for themselves and their respective communities. After the students interpreted and discussed the artists techniques and purpose we shared our own artwork based on the lesson criteria. Then I did a short demonstration on building and safely gluing felt layers. Before starting their final project the students brainstormed representational images and chose one to make. The students then sketched out the image, planning the different shapes, layers, and colors. We went over their sketch with them before they could move on to felt. With the felt they traced, drew, and cut shapes arranging them to create their composition. Once everything was arranged the showed a teacher and began gluing it all together. With the time left the students walked around the room to look at what their classmates had done. It was interesting to see what each student chose to represent themselves.
Lesson Plan
Presentation
How-to -Video
I recorded a how-to-video on the process of cutting out the felt shapes, layering them, and safely gluing it all together. In the video I demonstrated how the students could use their original sketch to create stencils, a tip that became helpful when they were creating their own works. The video showed how to cut and arrange layers of felt to create your desired image, demonstrating different problem solving techniques that could come up due to color choice or the size of details. At the end I glued my felt together, displaying safe ways to handle hot glue guns.
How-to-Video
How-to-Video
Representational Felt Unit Plan
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 5 - Instructional Delivery – The competent teacher differentiates instruction by using a variety of strategies that support critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, and continuous growth and learning. This teacher understands that the classroom is a dynamic environment requiring ongoing modification of instruction to enhance learning for each student.
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 7 - Assessment – The competent teacher understands and uses appropriate formative and summative assessments for determining student needs, monitoring student progress, measuring student growth, and evaluating student outcomes. The teacher makes decisions driven by data about curricular and instructional effectiveness and adjusts practices to meet the needs of each student.
To create my unit plan I extend the representational felt lesson created for HOIC. I enjoyed the lesson and knew that students could get more out of it with time. In this unit we still learn about contemporary artists Erin LeAnn Mitchell, Sam Sidney, and Naima Almeida. This time we can spend an entire discussing their work in small groups to interpret meaning and study techniques. The students will then brainstorm ideas for their own representation. Once this is done they will discuss ideas with both their peers and teacher. For a day or two they will sketch this idea, thoroughly breaking down the image into shapes, layers, and colors. The students will have to take their time on this process to ensure depth and detail. During this step in the process there will be lots of problem solving. After a completed thorough sketch and a discussion with the teacher they will switch to working with felt drawing and cutting shapes in preparation for assemblage. When everything is glued together they will write an artists statement that addresses their process and how the work connects to the unit's big idea of representation and the unit's artists. Once everyone is finished we will have a gallery walk to learn about our classmates art.
Unit Plan
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 7 - Assessment – The competent teacher understands and uses appropriate formative and summative assessments for determining student needs, monitoring student progress, measuring student growth, and evaluating student outcomes. The teacher makes decisions driven by data about curricular and instructional effectiveness and adjusts practices to meet the needs of each student.
To create my unit plan I extend the representational felt lesson created for HOIC. I enjoyed the lesson and knew that students could get more out of it with time. In this unit we still learn about contemporary artists Erin LeAnn Mitchell, Sam Sidney, and Naima Almeida. This time we can spend an entire discussing their work in small groups to interpret meaning and study techniques. The students will then brainstorm ideas for their own representation. Once this is done they will discuss ideas with both their peers and teacher. For a day or two they will sketch this idea, thoroughly breaking down the image into shapes, layers, and colors. The students will have to take their time on this process to ensure depth and detail. During this step in the process there will be lots of problem solving. After a completed thorough sketch and a discussion with the teacher they will switch to working with felt drawing and cutting shapes in preparation for assemblage. When everything is glued together they will write an artists statement that addresses their process and how the work connects to the unit's big idea of representation and the unit's artists. Once everyone is finished we will have a gallery walk to learn about our classmates art.
Unit Plan
Erin LeAnn Mitchell Handout
Erin LeAnn Mitchell is a multimedia artist from Birmingham, Alabama. She works in different media and techniques, including murals, collage, and textiles. For this unit I focused on her textile work, taking inspiration from the Gee's Bend Quilters and other textile artists such as Faith Ringgold. Her work is largely portraits in which she breaks down the figure into shapes and creates form through values. Mitchell serves as a great example of the artistic expectations I seek from my students. She also exemplifies how one can create representation for themselves and their community through art. The handout introduces the students to Mitchell and other artists and then asks them to think deeply about the subjective, structural, and cultural aspects of art.
Artist Handout |
Unit Rubric
To create my rubric for the unit I looked to my objectives. With the objectives in mind I broke them down to the key, measurable parts that I could grade each student on. This way both the formative assessments of discussions and sketches as well as the summative assessments of artwork and artists statements are evaluated.
Rubric
Rubric
Example Artwork and Artist Statement
My own representational felt art took the form of a Claddagh Ring. A Claddagh Ring is a traditional Irish ring where the bands forms two hands holding a heart with a crown, symbolizing friendship, love, and loyalty. This ties to my Irish heritage and my family. I built layers of color to create the shapes as well as highlights and shadows. I used my artists statement to explain the piece in detail, answering the same questions I will pose to my students.
Artist Statement |
Literacy Lesson
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 6 - Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication – The competent teacher has foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and oral communication within the content area and recognizes and addresses student reading, writing, and oral communication needs to facilitate the acquisition of content knowledge.
Throughout the unit the students will be tasked with discussing art whether verbally or through an artist statement. To properly prepare them I created a literacy lesson that promotes the use of descriptive adjectives when discussing work. They will work in groups and first come up with three adjectives for three specific parts of an artwork. This will encourage them to closely analyze artwork. Once they have their adjectives they apply them in a short description of at least two sentences. With this practice they will be able to successfully write about any artwork.
Literacy Lesson
Throughout the unit the students will be tasked with discussing art whether verbally or through an artist statement. To properly prepare them I created a literacy lesson that promotes the use of descriptive adjectives when discussing work. They will work in groups and first come up with three adjectives for three specific parts of an artwork. This will encourage them to closely analyze artwork. Once they have their adjectives they apply them in a short description of at least two sentences. With this practice they will be able to successfully write about any artwork.
Literacy Lesson
Teaching Philosophy
7M: articulates a logical rationale for the role of the visual arts in the school curriculum, including philosophical and social foundations for visual arts education.
School should offer as space for students to grow educationally and personally, encouraging exploration and creativity. The visual arts lend themselves to self-expression allowing students to communicate to their peers, teachers, and community through creative means. They can explore their culture, relationships, social/political beliefs, and much more. The visual arts are also beneficial across disciplines. Arts Based Research is a theory that asks students to create based of an idea and a question. Through this process they become better thinkers and problem solvers. Arts Based Research can be used to investigate any question under any disciple, challenging students to think outside the box. I will apply this process in my own classroom.
School should offer as space for students to grow educationally and personally, encouraging exploration and creativity. The visual arts lend themselves to self-expression allowing students to communicate to their peers, teachers, and community through creative means. They can explore their culture, relationships, social/political beliefs, and much more. The visual arts are also beneficial across disciplines. Arts Based Research is a theory that asks students to create based of an idea and a question. Through this process they become better thinkers and problem solvers. Arts Based Research can be used to investigate any question under any disciple, challenging students to think outside the box. I will apply this process in my own classroom.
Professionalism, Advocacy, & Leadership: PAL 1s
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 9 - Professionalism, Leadership, and Advocacy – The competent teacher is an ethical and reflective practitioner who exhibits professionalism; provides leadership in the learning community; and advocates for students, parents or guardians, and the profession.
Central Illinois High School Art Exhibition: At ISU's own Julian Hall Gallery there was an exhibition for the high schools of Central Illinois. I always enjoy an art exhibition but it was even more enjoyable to see student work as a future educator. I was amazed by the wide range of mediums and and subject matter. I am excited be teaching this next generation of artists.
Panel of Queer K-12 Teachers: Queer Educators is an RSO at ISU that creates a safe space for Queer ED students and a place for future teachers to learn about the Queer community. One of their events this past Spring was a panel of Queer educators from the area. One was a middle school English teacher, another a high school math teacher, and the last one was a high school librarian.
It was interesting to hear about their different experiences, they all acknowledged that it is better in Illinois than most states but that they still face microaggressions and threats to their livelihood. They all stressed how important we can be as educators to create a safe and welcoming environment for our Queer students.
Central Illinois High School Art Exhibition: At ISU's own Julian Hall Gallery there was an exhibition for the high schools of Central Illinois. I always enjoy an art exhibition but it was even more enjoyable to see student work as a future educator. I was amazed by the wide range of mediums and and subject matter. I am excited be teaching this next generation of artists.
Panel of Queer K-12 Teachers: Queer Educators is an RSO at ISU that creates a safe space for Queer ED students and a place for future teachers to learn about the Queer community. One of their events this past Spring was a panel of Queer educators from the area. One was a middle school English teacher, another a high school math teacher, and the last one was a high school librarian.
It was interesting to hear about their different experiences, they all acknowledged that it is better in Illinois than most states but that they still face microaggressions and threats to their livelihood. They all stressed how important we can be as educators to create a safe and welcoming environment for our Queer students.
Professionalism, Advocacy, & Leadership: PAL 2s
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 9 - Professionalism, Leadership, and Advocacy – The competent teacher is an ethical and reflective practitioner who exhibits professionalism; provides leadership in the learning community; and advocates for students, parents or guardians, and the profession.
7N: advances his or her knowledge of current developments in the field by participating in professional development activities (e.g., coursework, professional organizations, and workshops).
All About Art Ed: My first PAL 2 experience was very exciting. Together the Senior Art Ed students created a gallery show of our own artworks. We filled out a proposal and submitted our chosen artworks. Once it was approved we got into setting up the gallery space. This included painting the walls and podiums, arranging a layout, measuring the space between artworks, and figuring out how to properly hang/display each work. The opening night was very fulfilling as we watched visitors enjoy our hard work. The one thing we wish we did differently is to have cards with artist statements next to the work. It was great looking at each other's art but we all wanted to know more and it got repetitive explaining the meaning and process behind each piece. The cards would also benefit viewers who visited when we were not around.
The Student Annual: My second PAL 2 experience was another gallery show but under slightly different circumstances. The Student Annual at University Galleries is open to all ISU students and the work that gets in is determined by tow outside judges. For the Art Ed show we did not have to worry about whether or not our work got accepted because we were running it. I submitted two artworks and only one got in, I was still very pleased. Once again it was exciting to see my art displayed in a professional setting for others to enjoy.
7N: advances his or her knowledge of current developments in the field by participating in professional development activities (e.g., coursework, professional organizations, and workshops).
All About Art Ed: My first PAL 2 experience was very exciting. Together the Senior Art Ed students created a gallery show of our own artworks. We filled out a proposal and submitted our chosen artworks. Once it was approved we got into setting up the gallery space. This included painting the walls and podiums, arranging a layout, measuring the space between artworks, and figuring out how to properly hang/display each work. The opening night was very fulfilling as we watched visitors enjoy our hard work. The one thing we wish we did differently is to have cards with artist statements next to the work. It was great looking at each other's art but we all wanted to know more and it got repetitive explaining the meaning and process behind each piece. The cards would also benefit viewers who visited when we were not around.
The Student Annual: My second PAL 2 experience was another gallery show but under slightly different circumstances. The Student Annual at University Galleries is open to all ISU students and the work that gets in is determined by tow outside judges. For the Art Ed show we did not have to worry about whether or not our work got accepted because we were running it. I submitted two artworks and only one got in, I was still very pleased. Once again it was exciting to see my art displayed in a professional setting for others to enjoy.