Lessons & Curricula
Scope & Sequence
My secondary-level scope & sequence, encompassed by the overarching theme of metamorphosis, covers a minimum of one 2D dry media, 2D wet media, sculpture, digital, and book/paper art project per year. Each project aligns with state and national visual arts standards, and is designed with a balance of structure and open-endedness to encourage students to create an original solution to each artistic prompt.
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Metamorphosis is the process of change. Each grade level includes seven units:
Emergence
Movement
Disruption
Variation
Adaptation
Transformation
Continuation
Each project coordinates with its corresponding unit theme.
Paper Dolls
This is a mixed media collage activity in which students will create literal representations of themselves as paper dolls and juxtapose these onto a metaphorical representation of how they see an environment (home, school, or another community) that is significant to their lives. The pieces will be laminated and have added magnets for durability (and to put on the fridge!).
Past, Present, and Future
This project is heavily inspired by this agamograph project. Students will be divided into 3 groups by drawing numbers 1-3 from a hat. Each group will work on one large composition collaboratively; one group for each- past, present, and future, referring to the past, present, and future of the world through their perception. Once the three pieces are finished, they will cut and assemble the three pieces into a collaborative agamograph/lenticular art piece.
Neurographic Art
Students will draw curving, intersecting, overlapping lines from edge to edge of their paper until they are satisfied. Then, they will “round” any sharp angles and edges to ensure that every shape is organic. They will then fill in each “cell” with a color and/or pattern. The final result is a dynamic piece of art that was therapeutic to create, sort of adjacent to Zentangle.
Monoprinting
Sudents will apply ink to a sheet of Plexiglas and use additive and subtractive techniques to create their compositions. Four monoprints will be hung up (2 by 2) for a class-wide critique, emphasizing the ways that different compositional choices lead to different solutions to the same creative problem.
Collaborative Mobile
Students will each create two air-dry clay forms to affix to the end of a wire– the one hanging on the top hoop will speak to how they saw themselves as artists before my Saturday Art class, and the one on the smaller/lower hoop will speak to how they see themselves as artists after my Saturday Art class. They will also string beads and charms onto the wire. A collaborative mobile with two pieces by each student will be displayed, after which students will be able to take their individual parts home.
Fashionality v. Functionality
A three-day, air-dry clay lesson for high school. Students will create a functional piece that represents their identity by building either a cup, bowl, or plate with air-dry clay, adding details that describe their identity. This lesson was developed in collaboration with Hal Loomis, Amy Tangeman, Brooke-Lynn Clark, and Jocelyn Taylor.