Mini Lesson 1- Abbey

Name: Abbey
Title of Lesson: In the Shadows
Big Idea: Fear
Essential Questions:

• Why are we scared of the dark?
• What are we afraid of?
• Why do shadows play tricks on us?
• Why are silhouettes more frightening than fully detailed figures?
• How can we tell stories with shadows?
• How can we represent our shadowy fears with paper?

Objective: The student will explore the big idea of fear and what scares us through the medium of negative figure drawing. The student will create “shadows” of their fears in a life-size format as to create a semi-installation piece. During this the student will explore the ideas of positive and negative space, silhouettes and figure drawing. They will explore shape and contrast extensively in creating these shadows.
Lesson Vignette:

• Anticipatory set:
• Start with a clip from an age-appropriate horror movie that shows a scene with shadows.
• Discuss the scene and cinematography. What made this successful? How are they playing on our fears? Why are shadows scary?
• Look at artists such as Kara Walker and her work with silhouette stories. Also explore artists that use fear in their work such as, Joshua Hoffine, a horror photographer that creates scenes from childhood fears, urban legends and scary stories.
• Of Walker: How does she use silhouettes to tell a story? How is she including details for the viewer, but with only using black silhouettes? How could these be transcended into shadows that we fear?
• Of Hoffine: What ideas is he exploring? How is he capturing our fears? What details does he include to push those fears? How is he telling stories in a single image? How can we combine his work with Walker’s?
• Body of lesson:
• Students, maybe in groups or with partners, will brainstorm characters or figures that provoke fear, considering the attributes and characteristics that make them frightening. Then they’ll practice drawing outlines of these figures. Once they’ve practiced and created a mock of their life-size figure(s), they will draw it out on black paper to create the shadows.
• Students will then use props to create a scene for their shadows. (I envision this developing further into a photo project, installation piece, digital work or combination of these).

• Closure:
• A great summary would be a gallery walk of the shadows created and asking the students to create stories of each in their journal. This will give them an opportunity to decode the visual cues and explore the story-telling aspect of the lesson further by creating their own.

Mini Lesson 1- Anna

1.     Name: Anna Weston

2.     Title of Lesson: Mass Production of Fear

3.     Enduring Big Idea:

a.     How does fear manifests itself in your eyes?

b.     How past and current artists visualized/ showed fear in their work?

4.     Essential Questions:

a.     What do you fear?

b.     Do you have a certain phobia or inner struggles?

c.     What past experiences have played a part in the things you fear?

d.     Are some of your fears based on movie or urban legends?

e.     Is art that is mass produced less significant because of its numbers?

5.     Objectives:

a.     The students will…

                                               i.     Explore what fear means to them

                                             ii.     Think about ways to portray their fear visually

                                            iii.     Think about how their fear could be turned into a cinematic film

                                            iv.     View artwork such a prints and movie posters

                                             v.     Create their own relief print movie poster

6.     Lesson vignette:

a.     Anticipatory set- I will introduce me students to the idea of fear. I will have each pod/table write down on a large piece of paper their definition of fear and some examples. I will then hang these pieces of paper in the front of the class room for the class to discuss. After that, I will show the students artwork that is mass produced such as Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup print and John Alvin’s movie posters and ask my students if they believe that mass produced artwork is less significant because it is mass produced. I will then have my students write in their journals their biggest fear and how this fear can be transformed into a movie.

b.     Body of lesson- Students will create relief prints. These prints will be scary movie posters. The prints should represent their fear as if it were the main idea behind the making of a movie. The poster should include a visual representation of their fear as well as a title for their movie. The students can create their prints using photos they find off the internet or their own drawings. We will transfer the images to the linoleum and the students can begin carving away. Finally, the students will be able to decide what color(s) they want their print to be.

c.     Closure- Students will choose their best print to hang on the wall. We will view each other’s work and decide if the fear was portrayed well through the poster. Students will be given extra credit if they turn their poster into a short film (around 5 minutes). We can then close the lesson off by discussing the posters, watching the short films, enjoying popcorn, and having a pARTy. Grading will be based on craftsmanship, time spent during class, portrayal of their fear, and extra credit will be awarded for creating movies.

Mini lesson 1- Kelly

Exploring Your Fears

By: Kelly Mills

Enduring Big Idea: “Fear”

            How fear manifests itself in your eyes

            How past and current artists visualized/ showed fear in their work

            Internal fears

Essential Questions:

            What do you fear?

            Are there different intensities of those fears?

            Are some fears more superficial than others?

Objectives:

            The students will…

                        Explore what they fear

                        Think critically about how to express their fears and what symbols may                                     best represent them

                        Investigate artists that use mixed media art: Joseph Cornell and Joseph                               Giunta in particular

                        Construct a mixed media artwork of their fears

Lesson Vignette:

            Anticipatory Set:

                        To start off the lesson, students will be asked to create a list of the things they fear. These lists will then be shared with the class, either by white board or overhead. Students will then find objects and physical representations of these fears as homework. While students are brainstorming about the fears they might want to embellish on, I will provide a short powerpoint showing Joseph Cornell’s shadow boxes and Joseph Giunta’s mm collages.

            Body of Lesson:

                        Students will create mixed media collages of their fears, using layers to emphasize the depth of the fear (ex. A more superficial fear of arachnids would be on the top layer). Students will ultimately decide the final display of their fears (shadow box, box, collage, etc.) but will have to use at least five different media/objects in their work.

            Closure:

                        Students will have a mock gallery show to display and discuss their work. Grading will be based on craftsmanship, completion, execution, time-spent and overall depth of work. 

Mini Lesson 1- Nikita

Exploring Fear

By: Nikita Luedke

Enduring Big Idea: “Fear”

            How fear manifests itself in your eyes

            How past and current artists visualized/ showed fear in their work

Essential Questions:

            What does “fear” mean to you?

            Are there different types of fear? Internal, cultural, learned, phobias, etc.)

            What are your biggest fears?

            How does scale, color, texture, media, etc. impact what art conveys?

            What artists worked with the concept of fear? How did they interpret it?

Objectives:

            The students will…

                        Explore what fear means to them

                        Think critically about what that fear could look like

                        Investigate the work of other artists’ interpretations of fear

                        Construct a 3 dimensional sculpture

Lesson Vignette:

            Anticipatory Set:

                        I will introduce the idea of fear and have an open discussion about what “fear” means, and what various types of fears there are. After that we will look at the art of Joshua Hoffine (a photographer whose work is all about childhood fears), Martin Mikolajczyk’s sculpture “fear”, Katherine Howard’s sculpture “friend of foe”, and the Roman sculpture “Laocoon and His Sons”, and talk about how all of these are representations (formally and conceptually) of the different types of fears. Finally, the students will be  asked to journal about their fears or cultural fears they feel strongly about.

            Body of Lesson:

                        Students will get in pairs and photograph each other (preferably after bringing in props), acting out the fear they have chosen to work with in a dramatic way. They will then be asked to create a sculpture using any material of their choice (a list of said materials will be provided so that this is not too overwhelming of a choice for them) to create a sculpture based off of their photograph and what it was trying to get across. There will be no scale limit/ requirement as I want this to be a critical part of their working process, to decide how the fear they are trying to show would manifest itself (multiple small pieces, one oversized piece, intermediate sized, etc.)

            Closure:

                        Students will do a critique (“pow wow”) where they will show both their photos and their sculptures side by side. The critique will focus on the other students talking about what possible fears they see in each piece, followed by the artist explaining the pieces. Grading will be based on craftsmanship, completion, execution, and overall, how well it shows the fear they are working with (which will be decided by the class during the critique).