Lesson+Plan,+One+Student's+Story

=** A Sample Lesson Plan for High School Work and Examples of the Resulting Work **= Sometimes it is difficult to get a student to "take ownership" of what they create. Sometimes it is difficult to encourage a student to think for themselves. But sometimes you just get lucky!!! Some students will take a suggestion or an idea and really begin to create pieces that really explore a thought process in a personal way. Last year, one of my AP Studio students did exactly that. And she was so successful that she won numerous awards from her work and gathered a sizable amount of scholarship money as a result. This year she is a freshman at the Art Institute of Chicago. I am posting several examples of her work, along with an explanation of the assignment, in order to allow you to see the level some students will achieve in high school.

This lesson plan was presented in an AP Studio Art workshop for experienced AP teacher. It was given at the University of Texas in Austin in the summer of 2009. The presenter of the workshop was Charlotte Chambliss. I specifically attended that workshop to hear her speak. It was worth the trip!

**The lesson plan:**
The students were asked to think about a specific childhood memory and begin writing about it. (When you ask them to be personal, they may hesitate. But if you ask them to reflect on a past memory, that is often less "threatening".) When their story was written, they were asked to gesso a large piece of drawing paper. This gives the paper much more strength and substance. Then when the gesso has dried, they are to take a pencil and begin writing their story on the blank "canvas". They can write in any direction, any size. They should try to get as much of the story on the page as possible. Next, they should take an eraser and start taking out the parts of the text that they feel is non-essential. The words that remain should be words that conjour images. These images will be worked into the painting. The erasure marks can become a part of the final image. So erasure marks should be made purposefully. They can create a feeling of direction or movement. They can also contribute a feeling of depth or space or value on which you will build. So once all the erasing has been done, you will go back into the drawing and begin to sketch in the images you have in your mind. They should start to develop a composition of several things that are all related to the event. How you are choosing to combine these images may not have originally been how you would have drawn the event if you were asked to draw what happened. But the images will fade in and out of the background and "dance" in and out of the text. As you are developing the images, you should also be enhancing the text of those words that you want to be focal points within the piece. They can be enhanced with color, texture or values. To finish the piece, make transitions between the edges of the word areas and the image areas so that there are no distracting or harsh divisions that would break up the total composition. Make it flow smoothly in all areas.

Having gone through the process of creating her first piece, this particular student found that this was an exercise that was fascinating to her. She decided to create a series of pieces - a concentration - that explored her experiences senior year. Each piece is based on a specific event or happening in her life. Each one helped her work through a problem, conflict or dilemma she was wrestling with as she got ready to graduate and leave school. I am posting 6 of the pieces below.