Art Experiences.
Cooper Home and Fossil Ridge Lesson Four: Painting to Music: Exploring Emotion
About the lesson:
In this lesson, the students continued to expand on experimentation with materials. They also focused on making art that was personal, pertinent, and elicited passion for the creative processes, using techniques transferred from the previous lessons. Students created an acrylic painting based on the emotions that they felt while music was playing. They submitted a few song choices that we compiled into a playlist, which was played while they worked. Allowing the students to pick their music served as an immediate hook, and made the lesson pertinent, created personal investment, excitement, and engagement to the art making process. Students were evaluated on how engaged they were during this process and if they were working appropriately with the other students, by listening respectfully to everyone's song choices. Connecting with human emotions and translating these feelings into painting is an effective way to communicate and share personal experiences. We pushed them to think about how to use their imagination and connect with the music in their own way. |
Essential Understandings
Outcomes
Students will be able to:
Skills
In the fourth lesson with Cooper Home and Fossil Ridge, the students focused on making art that was personal, pertinent, and elicited passion for the creative processes. Students created an acrylic painting based on the emotions that they felt while music was playing. At the beginning of class they submitted a few song choices that we compiled into a playlist, which was played while they worked. Allowing the students to pick their music made the lesson pertinent, created personal investment, excitement, and engagement to the art making process.
After a short Introduction of the medium, the students began practicing with the acrylic paint. By connecting with their peers and utilizing the ideation techniques they explored in the previous lessons, the students demonstrated an ability to manipulate the medium and explore emotion through mark making and color. The emphasis of the process was on intrinsic value and the relevance of painting in relation to their emotions. Through intrinsic mark making students brainstormed ideas directly on their canvas and intimately reflected, and adjusted, their paintings throughout the creative process. They re-imagined new feelings and continually evolved their paintings as the tonality of the songs varied. Through continued layering they expanded their thought process, and coupled this experimentation with thought provoking discussions among their table groups. They shared ideas and learned from one another.
- Artists address problem-pose and critical thinking
- Artist explore their emotions through painting techniques
- Artists experience music as a tool for art making
- Artists receive intrinsic value from art making
- Artists establish a sense of comfort with the studio, materials, staff, and peers
Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- After a short Introduction, students will begin practicing with acrylic paint. By connecting with their peers and utilizing the ideation techniques they explored in the previous lessons, students will demonstrate an ability to manipulate the medium and explore emotion through color and mark making that gives them a sense of intrinsic value and relevance.
- Through intrinsic mark making students will continue brainstorming ways to intimately reflect their emotions. Through the creative process, students will be able to explore methods of representing mood on their canvas with continued layering and expand their thought process by discussing, painting, or using written word.
- Using their artwork, students will be able to reflect on their piece; by presenting and discussing their artwork to their table groups and class.
- In reflection, students will enjoy the process of making their artwork, developing a sense of intrinsic value, development of painting skills through relevant and personal subject matter, and transfer of techniques into other aspects of their lives.
Skills
- Critical thinking and organizational techniques
- Creative problem solving and exploration through ideation
- Establishing a sense of comfort with the studio, materials, staff, and peers
- Acrylic Painting Techniques
- Introduction to exploration of mood, and representing emotion in art work
- Critique Etiquette
In the fourth lesson with Cooper Home and Fossil Ridge, the students focused on making art that was personal, pertinent, and elicited passion for the creative processes. Students created an acrylic painting based on the emotions that they felt while music was playing. At the beginning of class they submitted a few song choices that we compiled into a playlist, which was played while they worked. Allowing the students to pick their music made the lesson pertinent, created personal investment, excitement, and engagement to the art making process.
After a short Introduction of the medium, the students began practicing with the acrylic paint. By connecting with their peers and utilizing the ideation techniques they explored in the previous lessons, the students demonstrated an ability to manipulate the medium and explore emotion through mark making and color. The emphasis of the process was on intrinsic value and the relevance of painting in relation to their emotions. Through intrinsic mark making students brainstormed ideas directly on their canvas and intimately reflected, and adjusted, their paintings throughout the creative process. They re-imagined new feelings and continually evolved their paintings as the tonality of the songs varied. Through continued layering they expanded their thought process, and coupled this experimentation with thought provoking discussions among their table groups. They shared ideas and learned from one another.
Documentation
Complete documentation for this class can be found here. |
Lesson Plan
The Lesson Plan for this lesson can be found here. |
Reflection.
What worked well for this art experience? Why? What worked well for this art experience was the lesson’s ability to hook the students and immediately capture their attention. This was done, not by anything that pertained to artistic techniques, but by allowing each student to select a few songs to be played for the class while they worked. It opened my eyes to the realization, that capturing student focus and engagement can often come from incorporating non-art related activities to the lesson, which will indirectly benefit the lesson prompt because students will have a personal connection and desire to be in the classroom. Through its entirety the students were actively engaged with their projects, and worked vigorously as they were excited to hear their songs come over the speakers. Since the students wanted to listen to the music, the timing of their conversations was more appropriate, nobody got “out of hand”, and the music served to redirect non-pertinent conversations because it was providing the entertainment. The students also engaged more actively with their peers and with the staff. By sharing information about their favorite songs to each other they established connections and were in a better mood, were energized, more receptive to instruction, and more responsive to sharing techniques they discovered as they painted with their peers. They also asked more questions among their table members in regards to successfully following the guidelines of the lesson because they felt a sense of comfort with each other. The overall energy and mood of the class was beneficial for a positive learning environment and I believe listening to music while working could be a practice I incorporate into other lessons moving forward.
What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why? Overall, the lesson was a success, all the students spent the entire class period painting and experimented with color mixing in a practical manner. However, I had hoped the students would explore the depiction of their emotions more intimately than what ultimately occurred. There were many students who essentially painted what they wanted, without any relation to the lesson guidelines. I talked with Alison after the lesson about this, and she explained that for this age group and demographic that them not following the lesson prompt, in this manner, was perfectly fine. I agreed, but it did make me reflect on ways that I would possibly rework the lesson plan, and change the measurable assessments and outcomes for this particular group, and for other classes in the future. Also, some of the areas that Anna and I had struggled with, from previous lessons, persisted. We are improving with each lesson, however there were still a few instances were we didn’t command attention and project with enough confidence and authority.
What would you do differently? Why? In the reflection of the previous lesson we discussed that we needed to incorporate more time for clean-up at the end of class. We made this adjustment, however there were many more paintbrushes and pallets used in this lesson and the acrylic paint was more difficult to wash off than the watercolors, so the sink became very congested and cleanup took much longer than expected. Anna and I spent about 10 minutes cleaning up after class again. For the next lesson we will address clean up at the beginning of class and instill a system were the students clean messes as they go, instead of piling on new pallets and new brushes when their first set is covered in unwanted paint. In regards to adjusting the lesson plan, I will make sure that the outcomes for the next student service learning class will focus on the intrinsic value of art making, as well as effort, positive classroom behavior, and involvement in the creative process. Assessing what topic or narrative the students addressed successfully will not be measured. Also, with each lesson we hope to continue to improve our body language, mannerisms, and overall presence as authoritative figures, while keeping a warm and productive learning environment.
What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why? Overall, the lesson was a success, all the students spent the entire class period painting and experimented with color mixing in a practical manner. However, I had hoped the students would explore the depiction of their emotions more intimately than what ultimately occurred. There were many students who essentially painted what they wanted, without any relation to the lesson guidelines. I talked with Alison after the lesson about this, and she explained that for this age group and demographic that them not following the lesson prompt, in this manner, was perfectly fine. I agreed, but it did make me reflect on ways that I would possibly rework the lesson plan, and change the measurable assessments and outcomes for this particular group, and for other classes in the future. Also, some of the areas that Anna and I had struggled with, from previous lessons, persisted. We are improving with each lesson, however there were still a few instances were we didn’t command attention and project with enough confidence and authority.
What would you do differently? Why? In the reflection of the previous lesson we discussed that we needed to incorporate more time for clean-up at the end of class. We made this adjustment, however there were many more paintbrushes and pallets used in this lesson and the acrylic paint was more difficult to wash off than the watercolors, so the sink became very congested and cleanup took much longer than expected. Anna and I spent about 10 minutes cleaning up after class again. For the next lesson we will address clean up at the beginning of class and instill a system were the students clean messes as they go, instead of piling on new pallets and new brushes when their first set is covered in unwanted paint. In regards to adjusting the lesson plan, I will make sure that the outcomes for the next student service learning class will focus on the intrinsic value of art making, as well as effort, positive classroom behavior, and involvement in the creative process. Assessing what topic or narrative the students addressed successfully will not be measured. Also, with each lesson we hope to continue to improve our body language, mannerisms, and overall presence as authoritative figures, while keeping a warm and productive learning environment.
Slideshow.
This slideshow presentation highlights some of the student artwork from the lesson. A complete analysis of the images shown and how they correlate to the students' learning can be found through accessing the documentation link above.