II. Unit topic and Ratoinale
Relevance of the Topic to Content Standards Within Curricular Sequence: For specific details about how the lessons in this unit address the Prepared Graduate Competencies and Grade Level Expectations see the document below.
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Topic Taught:
Building a humane zoo! Historically, zoos are places where collections of exotic animals from all over the world are held and displayed as entertainment for zoo visitors. In more recent years, the issue of weather or not it is humane to keep wild animals in captivity has become a controversial topic. Some argue that captivity is wrong while others argue it is necessary to avoid extinction. In this unit, students explored how they could create the best possible habitat for animals so exotic they are out of this world! The main focus of the unit is relationships, more specifically the relationship between form and function. Given what you know about your six-headed dragon or unicorn, how can you create an environment that best meets all of the creatures needs? Lesson 1: Breaking Ground To begin, students get their unique imaginations rolling by sketching ideas for their creature/ mystical animal in their sketchbook. After a bit of brainstorming, Students will look through books that focus on natural biology while sketching down their ideas and building upon previous knowledge. Research done by each student will depend on the creature they choose. The students will be able to use traditional resources for ideation of new art. One visual element we will ask students to focus on is how the texture of their creature is influenced by the environment it lives. We want students to understand how physical features of their creature are related to the environment they live in. This art lesson is focused on developing ideas and showing students the importance of understanding your subject matter when creating a work of art. To assess what the students have learned, the teachers will collect a ticket out the door consisting of a quick write that explains what the creature eats, where it lives, and how big it is. Lesson 2: Feeling it out This lesson focused on visual elements of 2-D texture and how they relate to creating texture in a 3-D form. This lesson is also geared towards getting the students to experiment with and explore the new material of clay. Whether they are building it up, scratching away at it, or imprinting things into it, students will work towards replicating textures they recognize from the world around them with. Through this process, students will explore a variety of tools that can be used with clay. This will be one of the guiding steps towards figuring out which direction they want to take their zoo enclosure. This time will also be spent thinking about connections between the creatures physical traits and their environment. For example a creature that is purple and scaley probably would not live in the arctic. Lesson 3: Creature Creation In this lesson students will begin to actually build their creature out of clay. The beginning of this lesson will focus on traditional clay building techniques such as slip and score, coil building, use of armature, and pinch pots. In this lesson we will also emphasize how to transfer drawn 2-D plans for the animals into 3-D clay creations. Once students have become more comfortable with the material of clay we will focus on deepening the relationship between the creature and its environment by reiterating the importance of physical features such as texture and animal anatomy. Lesson 4: Art of planning The overarching theme of this lesson is how to take an idea in your head and bring it to life by creating an art object. In this lesson we will look deeper into the planning process by focusing on how artists use 2-D mediums to create 3-D works of art. Students will look at how several artists plan for 3-D production by drawing from several perspectives. Students will then plan for their own 3-D production by drawing their enclosure from 3 different perspectives: that of a zoo visitor, of the creature they created, and of a bird flying overhead. After creating 2-D plans for their creatures environment students will bring their ideas to life using a wide variety of mixed media materials. Once they have finished their individual enclosures we will talk about the importance of presentation by putting the enclosures together to prepare for the “big opening” of their zoo. Students will reflect on their design decisions by putting together informational brochures that are intended to let visitors know more about their animal. To see photos and detailed documentation of this unit follow the link below: http://artedufall.weebly.com/ Globally: Our unit, “building a humane zoo”, allowed students to identify relationships through exploring the creative process and materials. ‘Relationship’ was a great focusing lens for students to practice making connections between prior knowledge and new information in every element of their artwork. It is important for students to explore different creative routes they may take while still keeping their intention to express a specific idea the same. This unit also allows students to master several tools that can be transferred to other content areas. Students worked collaboratively with each other while creatively problem solving on their own to enhance their 21st century skills. Through ideation, research, planning, and articulation students fulfill the literacy component. Personally: When my team of teachers and I were creating this unit, we were very excited about the idea of incorporating a non- art related context that most of the students had experienced before. Being personally fascinated by zoos and exotic animals I knew there were many ways I could use this familiar context, which is not normally associated with art, to help students realize that art is really all around us. I am also very attached to this lesson because, with all of the room we left for creative choice, I was excited to see how students would justify the creative decisions they were making during the process. For this population: Animal captivity is increasingly becoming a highly debated topic in this generation, and it is often associated with the abuse of exotic animals for human entertainment. Regardless of a students stance on this issue, animal rights issues are quickly making there way into the public eye. Either way if students have a personal connection to lessons, then they are more likely to be engaged and passionate about their artwork. A child’s attitude towards their world tends to be greatly influenced by what they have direct access to. With this project students were able to explore the impact of their own creative decisions, thus encouraging them to continue to independently make decisions about their own world. |