Chiffon Thomas
week 2 lesson by Lily Rice

Big Ideas:

Building personal connections, respect for peers and others, community building

Overview and Essential Questions:

In this lesson, students will work in groups of  4 to create 4 Build a Body drawings that everyone contributes to. Each student will create one head, a torso and arms, legs, and feet/ground for the zombie, but they will rotate papers with their group members in between each section. This will show the students how their individual work and ideas are essential for community creation and innovation. EQ: Why is my individual art important to others, and why are others’ art important to me? Why is it important to engage in community projects? 

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Relevance/Rationale:

After this lesson, each student will have a drawing that has both their own and their peers art. Students will see the value of their work in other people’s project, as well as see the value of other people’s work in their own project. This connects to the themes that Chiffon Thomas brings up in their work about enjoying each other’s stories and valuing others’ narratives and ideas. Assessment of this lesson will be in the form of proper execution of instructions, submission of 4 zombie projects per group, and respect for their peers and materials. Spending time with people’s stories and seeing the value in making work. 

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Content Standard(s): Use the Illinois or National Art Education Standards, they are the same. See resources on compass.

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VA:Cr1.1.1a  Engage collaboratively in exploration and imaginative play with materials. 

VA:Cr2.1.2a Experiment with various materials and tools to explore personal interests in a work of art or design. 

 

Artists:

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Class Information:

• powerpoint introduction and explanation 

• markers, crayons, colored pencils 

• pre-made drawing paper that is divided 4 sections  

Academic Vocabulary:

• personal connections  

• Community 

• “appreciation of peoples stories”

Lesson Procedures:

1. Students walk in at 2:20pm. First someone will read out the name of the first student on the attendance list, and that student will line up on the line first and we will give them their nametag. We will continue this with the second, third, and so on until every student is on the line with a nametag. We will tell students to look and remember who is in front of them and who is behind them. 2:30 done. 

2. Marching outside to recess! 

3. Tables separated in groups. (groups of 4, 5 tables)   

4. Communal agreements presentation: students suggest a class values, class agreements: when someone is speaking make sure you aren’t talking over them, be an active listener to show respect to their opinion, just like how you wanna be heard, keep your hands to yourself, you wouldn’t want someone touching you, ask questions because someone else may have the same question and we all can learn something, no question is a bad question. Raise your hand to ask a question. After reviewing all class values, hold a blind vote to see if everyone agrees. If someone does not agree, talk with them later to discuss what’s going on. 

 

1. Students will listen to a brief presentation about Chiffon Thomas and community art, as well as an explanation for the instructions for the upcoming activity: “Each person in your group is going to get a sheet of paper. In the very top section draw a head. It can be a person head, a fish head, a tree head, a monster head, whatever type of head you want. Here is an example (show example of project just with head done) make sure that you draw a tiny bit over this line. Next, you are all going to fold your head drawings back so that we just see 3 sections, and pass your paper to your neighbor. Now you are going to draw a torso and arms for your friend’s zombie, and then you'll pass that to your neighbor. We are gonna keep going with this until everyone has a full drawing and there are no sections left” (I am going to repeat specific instructions after each timed section is up.) 

2. Students will gather together and get settled seated, sitting in a pods of 4 (predetermined based on age group) (if uneven number, class instructors will join groups if needed) A set of crayons, markers, colored pencils, and collage materials will already be set out at each table. 

3. Each instructor will lead a small group discussion about respect for other people’s art. Using the ketchup bottle analogy, they will explain how you can say mean things (squirt ketchup on a drawing) but you cannot take it back. 

4. When everyone is ready, we will begin a 10 minute timer for everyone to draw the head. 

5. After that 10 minutes, I will instruct everyone to fold their paper back and pass it to the person next to them. Then I will start a new 10 minute timer for the torso and arms to be drawn. 

6. I will repeat this until everyone is finished with their drawings. 

7. We will then go group by group and let each pod show off their drawings, talk about their favorite section they drew, and what their favorite overall zombie is. I’ll ask questions (Why is that one your favorite? What inspired you to draw that? What was hard about this project?)

8. We will then return materials to proper containers and clean up (1. return all the materials to the proper container 2. make a pile of all of the collage scraps. 3. stay in your seat and wait for a wet wipe) 

Differentiation:

Each group will have a supervising (or participating if they are short a member) instructor who will be able to closely guide and help the students who are having trouble during the activity. If students don’t want to draw or don’t want to draw, they may be prompted to draw the head/body etc of a favorite TV show character or even themselves. 

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Assessment Criteria for Success:​

I will assess student learning by observing whether or not each table is respectful of each others’ work and collaborate smoothly as a small community. A student will successfully meet the standards of this lesson if they can respect their group members’ work and fully contribute to each drawing (meaning they complete all 4 sections of the drawing). 

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Anticipated Difficulties:

I anticipate some students may not want to pass their drawing to the next person, or someone will get confused and draw on top of someone else's work. To avoid this, we are working in small groups so that each student is under close supervision and can be guided back to the task at hand by their table leader. 

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