Visual Art lesson using the three-part lesson format
Image and Narratives, Visual Art lesson, addressed to 8th graders
What relationship does an image invest in a narrative?
Sequence's objectives:
- Be able to consider different contexts to the same scene;
- Contextualizing and detailing an action;
- Connect narratives and images;
- Produce a singular setting through disparate elements’ collage.
Use of technology:
-The lesson and references can be presented with an interactive white board if available in the classroom. The PowerPoint presentation is designed to keep the students involved in the presentation.
Principles of differentiated instruction included in the lesson:
- Students must keep track of the lesson’s presentation through a document they must complete. The lesson’s sheet enables the teacher to observe if every student follows and understands the lesson.
- The main ideas of the course are explained through multiple references and students are given multiple means of action and expression through the assignments, giving them many opportunities of questioning, learning and practicing.
- The lesson’s objectives are meant to engage the students, and the lesson’s presentation to keep their interest.
Methods used to assess students’ learning:
- Self assessment and assessment for learning: Rubrics are designed for each assignment. They include more criteria as the lesson goes on but re-use some to serve as benchmarks for the students. That way, the rubrics can be used as a tool for the students to visualize their strengths and weaknesses and to target the objectives that they must work on.
- Assessment of learning (summative): As I find particularly difficult to be objective and impartial regarding the evaluation of visual art works, I have always favored “collective assessment”: all works are presented and evaluated by the whole class, the teacher as well as the students, accordingly to the criteria previously defined.
- The document through which the students recorded the lesson could be assessed in a summative way if needed be.
1st session:
Getting Started: Introduction to the assignment and personal practice:
“What’s happening?”
Offer a graphic context to the proposed silhouette to describe a specific scene.
Define the character and his environment; imagine clues to make us
understand what is happening. Material: black pen
It is recommended that students make a draft before drawing on the final sheet.
For next week: Finish drawing and complete the rubric associated with the assignment.
2nd session:
Collective assessment according to the following criteria:
Originality of the scene /7
Care given to details and lines /7
Management of space /6
Presentation of sequence’s problem and objectives.
Presentations and analysis of contemporary artistic references showing the transposition of a story to a picture. The course focuses on narrative figuration. Students must keep track of the presentation in their notebooks.
3nd session:
Working on It: Introduction to the assignment and personal practice:
“How to tell a narrative through an image?”
This car was crashed. Show the moment of the drama (8 marks)
using various techniques (6 marks).
The final image will be neat and colorful (6 marks) .
For next week: Finish drawing and complete the rubric associated with the assignment.
4th session:
Collective assessment according to the announced criteria. Presentations and analysis of contemporary artistic references offering two readings, one obvious, and a second calling for a more detailed analysis of the image. Students must keep track of the presentation in their notebooks.
Reflecting and Connecting: Introduction to the assignment:
“One image, few stories”
On a single sheet, gather different components (7 marks)
to show and make us understand a complex story.
You will present a finished and neat image (6 marks).
Constraint: only collage and drawing are allowed.
The surface must be completely covered (3 marks).
An explanatory text should be written
on the back of your assignment (4 marks) .
For next week: Draw a first draft for this assignment and bring the material that you think is necessary for its production.
5th and 6th sessions:
Personal practice and formative assessment during the sessions.
Course’s appraisal: What were the challenges? What are the characteristics of a narrative? Those of an image? What solutions have you found to make the image talk?
For the following week: Finish assignment complete the rubric associated with it.