The HeART of All Things Clay - Lesson Plan 3

Title: The HeART of All Things Clay – Week 3 – Anger: Collaborative Sculpture                   
 Level or Course: Grades 8-12
Time Needed: 95 minute sessions

Over all Goals:  Description & Purpose. Include: 

·       What “big idea/concept” is the focus of this lesson? This is the larger theme that is explored in the lesson these are broad ideas such as identity, loss, etc.

o   How to express anger in artwork

o   Working with peers on a single ceramic project

·       Why is it important for students to participate in this experience?

o   Anger can be one of the more detrimental emotions to a teenager, and having a way to safely release that emotion can prove to be very effective.

o   At some point or another in their academic careers, students are going to have to work in groups on a project, so this lesson will help them further their ability to work well with others.

·       What art content/concept or technical skill are the students learning?

o   Wedging different materials into their clay, slab-building, collaborative work

Objectives: What do you hope to accomplish? Include multiple objectives that address content, academic skills, social skills, etc.  Use the following format: TLW (The Learner will). Each objective should include WHAT the student will learn and HOW the student will learn it. The assessment is directly connected to these objectives.

TLW learn how to express anger in their work by discussing the aspects that communicate anger in other works, and then applying those aspects to their own.

TLW work collaboratively with other students by participating in their classmates’ discussion on the design of the piece and helping out in either the construction of the supporting structure or rolling out slabs.

TLW discuss the benefits of using temporary artwork and how it can help convey more of a meaning to their work.

TLW discuss how temporary artwork can relate back to their own emotions.. i.e. temporary artwork does not last forever, and neither do our emotions.

TLW discuss how intentionally damaging and artwork can help convey the meaning they are trying to achieve, and then experiment with different ways of damaging their final product (punching, stepping on, stabbing with tools, etc.)

TLW explore how different textures can be achieved in their clay works, by working with corn-based Styrofoam in their clay, while also using different tools to apply different textures.

NAEA Standards:  Generally a lesson focuses on a few of the standards. 

Creating - Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.

               Proficient: Use multiple approaches to begin creative endeavors.

Accomplished: Individually or collaboratively formulate new creative problems based on student’s existing artwork.

Advanced: Visualize and hypothesize to generate plans for ideas and directions for creating art and design that can affect social change.

Responding - Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work

               Proficient: Hypothesize ways in which art influences perception and understanding of human experiences.

Accomplished: Recognize and describe personal aesthetic and empathetic responses to the natural world and constructed environments.

Advanced: Analyze how responses to art develop over time based on knowledge of and experience with art and life.

Individual aesthetic and empathetic awareness developed through engagement with art can lead to understanding and appreciation of self, others, the natural world, and constructed environments.

How do life experiences influence the way you relate to art?

Responding - Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.


Proficient: Interpret an artwork or collection of works, supported by relevant and sufficient evidence found in the work and its various contexts.

Accomplished: Identify types of contextual information useful in the process of constructing interpretations of an artwork or collection of works.

Advanced: Analyze differing interpretations of an artwork or collection of works in order to select and defend a plausible critical analysis.

People gain insights into meanings of artworks by engaging in the process of art criticism.

Visuals: Art History, Artist, information & examples

Jackson Pollock

Anton Semenov “Society” 

WK Interact “Sebastion” 

http://fading-ember.deviantart.com/ “Abstract: Anger” 

Supplies, Materials and Resources Needed: Materials, Technology websites, youtube, PowerPoint:

Clay, Styrofoam bits, large board, large paper, lumpy slip mixture, PowerPoint, Spotify/Pandora, sketchbooks, drawing materials,  cups of water, variety of clay tools, sponges

Vocabulary: an element or principle of design, or art concept that is being introduced that relates to the lesson.

Texture: Texture refers to the tactile qualities of a surface (actual) or to the visual representation of such surface qualities (implied).

            Form: Form has depth, length, and width and resides in space. It is perceived as three-dimensional.

Definitions pulled from http://www.projectarticulate.org/principles.php

Teaching Procedure Plan (with time needed for each part)

COMMUNITY TIME – SHARPIE CUPS (30 MIN.)

A.  Motivation/Hook/Introduction: Open with an activity that will engage the students, with a technical skill, PowerPoint, introduction to an artist or activity that relates to the lesson. (10 min.)

            A large sheet of paper will be placed along the wall outside, along with a bucket of slip.

            When students come into class, direct them outside to the paper. (1 min.)

Have each student, one at a time, grab a handful of the lumpy slip mixture, and focus on the things that make them angry. (1 min.)

Have each student throw the mixture at the paper. (1 min.)

Direct students back inside. (1 min.)

            For now, do not talk about the activity. Just leave it at that.

Pull up PowerPoint of art works, and have students discuss them. (5 min.)

            What traits communicate to you the emotion of this work? Why do you think those traits do that?

Introduce the project (2 min.)

Collaborative work, exploring different textures, focusing on the emotion anger, creating a large work of art, intentionally damaging/breaking artwork, slab construction

B.  Instruction or Demonstration (5 min.)

            For this lesson, students will be experimenting with texture in the piece.  

Instructor will cut a slab of clay from the block, and then place little bits of Styrofoam onto the slab. (1 min.)

Instructor will then wedge the clay until the Styrofoam is evenly distributed throughout the clay. (1 min.)

As instructor is wedging, explain how when you bisque the clay, the Styrofoam will burnout from the clay, and leave a porous texture behind.

            Instructor will then roll out the slab of clay, which can be used in the students’ project.  (1 min.)

This part needs to include what concept or skill the students are learning and how they will model this in the lesson.

C. Work Period. Supply distribution, task analysis of student-teacher interaction, clean up procedures.  What is happening step by step in the lesson, what are the students doing for each part of the lesson plan and how does it unfold?

            **Optional class music: ANGRY

Have students spend a few minutes discussing/sketching their ideas, and deciding on the form of their sculpture. (5 min.)

            Remind them that the end product has to fit into the kiln.

Ask students to talk about some of the aspects we saw in the “angry” artworks, so those traits are fresh in their mind as they are designing.

Once they have decided on what to do, have students split into groups. (10 min.)

One group should be in charge of setting up the supports for the slabs to lay on, while the other begins wedging and rolling out slabs.

Once the structure is set up, and there are enough slabs to begin working, have all students come together on the project and begin assembling. (30 min.)

            Allow everyone to have a chance to add their own artistic style to the piece. 

Emphasize different textures and forms to communicate to the viewer the desired emotion (anger).

Once the students have decided they are finished with the sculpture, have them get into a line in front of the sculpture. (1 min.)

One at a time, have each student punch the sculpture. (2 min.)

Some artists intentionally damage their work to try and convey a meaning. How does punching our work help convey ours?

D.  Closure: Reflect/Share. What strategies will I use to encourage sharing, complex communication, and critical thinking? What questions will I ask the students to engage them to discuss their art?

            With the last 8 minutes of class, have the students come back to the large piece of paper.

            Talk to the students about how the slip flakes off the paper; how this work is temporary. (5 min.)

Discuss temporary art work. What kind of meaning do you think temporary art work conveys? What kind of purpose do you think it holds?

Art work can be temporary, just like our emotions. Our anger might start out large and all over the place, but eventually it grows smaller and smaller through the passage of time. Sometimes it just disappears completely or we forget why we were even mad in the first place.

Sometimes we become so overly attached to things, such as an art work or a person, that we cannot let it go. But sometimes, that is just what we need to do. We need to get over it, and move on. We cannot control every aspect of our clay pieces, just as we cannot control every aspect of our lives. Sometimes bad things happen to our artworks, and the only thing we can do is learn from our mistakes, and move on to the next project; just like what we have to do with our emotions and lives.

This lesson might bring on a lot of emotion in some of the students, so having some time to cool down and debrief is necessary. (3 min.)

            Have students bring out their sketchbooks and drawing materials.

                        Explain this time will be spent reflecting on their thoughts.

                                    This can be done with doodles, writing, or both. Whatever they want to do.

Begin playing some classical music on something such as Pandora or Spotify.

            During the song, have them doodle or write til the end of class.

E.  Rubric/Assessment/Evaluation: This needs to be measurable and specific. How will the the objectives be assessed? How will I know if the lesson was sucessful and the studentscan demonstrate in their work knowledge of what the lesson covered.

1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Strongly Agree

            I understand the topics presented in class today: 1  2  3  4  5

            Here’s what I thought class was about:

            I felt I did well on the assignment: 1  2  3  4  5

            This assignment was interesting: 1  2  3  4  5, because:

            My favorite part about this assignment was:

            My least favorite part about this assignment was:

            Additional comments/suggestions:

	0	1	2	3	SCORE
Student paid attention during class and participated in class discussion	Student did not participate in the activities	Student participated once or twice in the discussion, occassionally spacing off	Student paid attention during the whole class, and raised their hand in discussion 2-3 times	Student was an avid participator, and contributed meaningful ideas to the discussion
Student presented clean and finished work	Seams were still visible, project requirements not achieved, work seemed unfinished	Work is acceptable, clean seams, but not all project requirements met	Work is finished, but failed to meet one to two of the requirements for the project	Work is finished, and all requirements are met
Student used work time in class appropriately	Did not come to class, or if they did, did not work on project	Did some work during class time, but was goofing around/talking often and not staying on task	Did a decent job of staying on task, occassionally got distracted, but was able to get back to work	Worked hard on their project everyday in class, productive
Student participated in clean up, leaving the room ready for the next class	Left the classroom without cleaning up their space or communal space	Somewhat cleaned up their area, did not help clean communal area	Their area is perfectly clean, minimal help in communal area	Left their area spotless, and contributed a lot to cleaning up communal areas
Student expressed the emotion of the week effectively on their work	Made whatever they wanted, did not meet any of the requirements	Added 1 to 2 aspects mentioned in class discussion onto basic forms	Added 2 to 3 aspects mentioned in class onto an abstract ceramic form	Added 2 to 3 aspects mentioned in class, while also adding some of their own, onto interesting and dynamic ceramic forms
Student worked effectively with others on the class project	Was not there/did not contribute	Contributed somewhat to the project, had issues working with classmates	Contributed quite a few ideas to the project, got along well enough with classmates	Was there for every step of the process, and provided many ideas to the project, while also listening to what others had to say
				Final Score	/12