Chiaroscuro Study Lesson

Intern: Nik Arnoldi

Date: January 17^th, 2013

Lesson/Activity Title: Chiaroscuro Study

Standards Addressed: Colorado Academic Standards, Visual Arts, Standard 1, Social Studies Standard 1

Purpose: Students will learn valuable sketching skills that they will use in their future projects to capture their observations.

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to use shading to illustrate a light source’s effect on a subject.

Materials: Peach and tan construction paper, charcoal pencils, black colored pencils, white colored pencils, desk lamps, black butcher paper, various classroom objects to be used as a subject

Introduction: I will discuss with students what chiaroscuro is, what it means, and the historical significance of this illustrative style. I will show them examples  of chiaroscuro from the Renaissance and specifically from the leader we are studying, Galileo. We will all create “shading bars”, which will show the shading and highlighting values that can be created with the sketching tools they have available. They will keep these handy with the activity that we will do.

Activity/Procedures: Students will be directed to illustrate one of four still life setups in the classroom. The lights will be turned out and the lamps will be turned on over the still life setups. Students will be guided to use the shading bars to examine the parts that need to be shaded or highlighted to show a full range of values. They will be instructed that they need to use at least four of the values that they created on their shading bar, which will be divided into eight equal sections. Up to six students may sit at a still life setup at one time.

Closure:  We will discuss some of the challenges and successes that we noticed in doing this project. I will share that we will have these mounted and in the hallway, and will do a “gallery walk” the next morning, where we use sticky notes to offer one compliment about each illustration.

Differentiation/Adaptation:

1.      A student may choose which still-life setup they would like to draw.

2.      A student may choose from a couple different colors of neutral-toned paper.

3.      A student may chose to use a black colored pencil over charcoal pencils.

4.      Student B who has trouble with drawing and fine motor control, I will assess him based on his own shading bar.

Assessment: I will use the shading bar to assess whether or not they have used four different values in their composition.

Extensions:

1.      Students will use these skills in their field journals.

2.      Students will use these skills to capture their observations in our upcoming experiments that we will do in studying Galileo

Gathering Information from Multiple Perspectives

Intern: Nik Arnoldi

Date: Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Lesson/Activity Title: Gathering Information from Multiple Perspectives

Standards Addressed: Colorado Academic Standards: Reading Writing and Communicating – Oral Expression and Listening

Purpose: To equip students with the knowledge of how to best collect information from multiple rights-holders for our project on analyzing and treating a school-wide problem.

Learning Objectives: Students will learn and practice 7 strategies to collect information from multiple sources.

Materials: Notebooks/paper, pencil

Introduction: We will discuss the speaker we had the previous day and ask what are some interesting things they learned from her or about her. I will reference the discussion that we had the previous day with our speaker. From there, I will bring the conversation to the topic of interviewing someone with a different perspective on an issue. I will share the seven techniques one at a time, and ask for examples or clarification for each technique.

Activity/Procedures: After dividing into pre-decided groups, each group of students will choose one of the tips to demonstrate in a skit with their group. They will act out an example of a group using the tip successfully, as well as forgetting to use the tip and how that may pan out. I will give them ten minutes to get with their group and decide how they will plan to act out their skit. We will then reconvene and each group will be given five minutes or less to do their skit.

Closure: I will ask students to share why or how these techniques may help them in their process of interviewing these different sources. I will then share that these groups will be the groups that will work together in interviewing each of the rights holders in this school-wide problem.

Differentiation/Adaptation: 1. I will give the students a reminder of some of the different jobs in a group, such as note-taker, leader, timekeeper, and ask for other suggestions. I will explain that they can have combinations of these jobs based on their skills.

2. Students will be able to choose with their group which   tip they will demonstrate for the class.

Assessment: I will check to see if students understood the tips they were given by watching the skit that they performed. I will also read their interview questions that they provide in the extension to this project to see if they understood.

Extensions: 1. Students will use these interviewing skills to actually interview people in the school community to diagnose the school’s problem with the lunch program.

Imagism Poetry

Intern: Nik Arnoldi

Date:  March 7^th 2013

Lesson/Activity Title: Imagism Poetry

Standards Addressed: Colorado Academic Standards, Reading, Writing, and Communicating: 3. Writing and Composition: Writing is a fundamental component of literacy. Writing is a means of critical inquiry; it promotes problem solving and mastering new concepts. Adept writers can work through various ideas while producing informational, persuasive, and narrative or literary texts. In other words, writing can be used as a medium for reasoning and making intellectual connections. As students arrange ideas to persuade, describe, and inform, they engage in logical critique, and they are likely to gain new insights and a deeper understanding of concepts and content.         

Purpose: To look at Georgia O’Keeffe’s work through the eyes of a poetry movement that was in motion as she was starting her career as an artist.

Learning Objectives: Students will learn how to edit their poems to focus on describing an image vividly.

Materials: Whiteboard, previously written analysis of Georgia O’Keeffe painting from last week, computers

Introduction: I will read to the students in meeting area, “In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound and “The Great Figure” by William Carlos Williams, and ask for their reactions. I will ask if the poems made them see a picture in their head, and then read the poet’s interpretation. I will then discuss the Imagists, and what they were trying to accomplish, and read part of their manifesto. After that I will share with them the activity.

Activity/Procedures: Before sending the students to work, I will share a poem that I wrote. I will write it as I first wrote it, and then share what I did to edit it. I will discuss with them the tips for editing one’s own poem, and share that this is what I am looking for in their poetry: evidence of revision and rethinking. They will then start writing their poem based on the O’Keeffe painting that they chose to analyze. With the poem I will ask they start by concentrating on the picture silently for a few minutes before getting started.

Closure: I will reconvene with them in the meeting area and ask them what they may have noticed from creating their poems, and what they may have noticed from revising their poetry. I will ask if anyone would like to share their poetry.

Differentiation/Adaptation –

1.      I will let Student A, who gets frustrated with writing and creative projects talk out some of his ideas with me in private before he gets to work. I will write down the things he mentions so that he may use them in the poetry.

2.      I will ask Student B, who is also an interpersonal learner, to trade poems with Student C to look the revision process objectively. I will give both students suggestions of how to edit each others’ poetry while being tactful.

Assessment: Students will turn in their edits along with their final poem. I will look for evidence of rethinking word choices, line breaks, and specific imagery-related words

Extensions:

1.       When we are on our trip to Ghost Ranch, write an imagist poem. Edit it on the ride home or while we are back home.

2.      Edit each others’ poems at a later date.

Parts of a Flower Lesson

Intern: Nik Arnoldi

Date: March 5, 2013

Lesson/Activity Title: Parts of a Flower

Standards Addressed: Colorado Academic Standards, Science: 2. Life Science  Understand the characteristics and structure of living things, processes of life, and how living things interact with each other.

           

Purpose: To understand what Georgia O’Keeffe looked at and understand the purpose behind the flower.

Learning Objectives: Students will be able identify parts of a flower both on paper and with a real flower.

Materials: Flowers, Flower worksheets, Field journals, pencils, colored pencils

Introduction: With the students, I will discuss why flowers have evolved. I will then draw a flower on the board similar to the one in their worksheet. I will talk about the functions of each of the flower’s parts and with class participation; we will label all the parts on the worksheet and whiteboard.

Activity/Procedures: After we have labeled all the parts of a flower, I will pass out the daisies for the students to analyze. They will choose their flower, and then bring them to work on solo to try to figure out what each of the parts are and sketch them and label them.

Closure:  I will ask the students why this may be important to our unit. When responses are exhausted, I will share that it is helpful for an artist to understand what he/she is looking at to better capture its likeness accurately.

Differentiation/Adaptation –

1.      Drawing pictures for Student B, who is a visual learner, and she will also draw to help her understand the parts of a plant

2.      Student A, who hasn’t the patience to draw, may tape parts of the flower down to his field journal.

Assessment: Full color page of Parts of a Flower notes detailing what each part is that they could recognize, with drawings and/or studies of the flower.

Extensions:

1.      Use Parts of a Flower to further inform their acrylic painting at the end of the unit.

2.      Use the Parts of a Flower to determine the Floral Formula of the plant.