Art Experiences.
Cooper Home and Fossil Ridge Lesson Two: Super Villains and Heroes
About the lesson:
In this lesson the students used a variety of mediums to create villains and superheroes. The students came together, at their table groups, to create a villain on a big sheet of butcher paper. Folded into four sections, each student took turns creating a different section of the villain without seeing what the other students had added (the head, torso, legs, and feet). In addition to exploring a collaborative design process, the students simultaneously created a superhero of their own on a standard sized sheet of drawing paper while waiting for their turn to draw their portion of the villain. Students also decided what superpower their hero has and what its weakness is. Then as a group they decided what power and weakness the villain has. Ultimately this exercise was to give the students a “behind the scenes” look into the creative processes that go into creating the characters they see in movies, books, comics, and television series. |
Essential Understandings
Outcomes
Students will be able to:
Skills
In the second lesson with Cooper Home and Fossil Ridge, the students explored the prompt of character design and collaborative art making techniques. Students went through the process of ideation by identifying characters they like and the traits that make them special. The lesson served as a window into the kind of processes professional studios use to come up with the characters we have come to know and love. Through the process students shared ideas and expanded upon their initial thoughts. This also served to establish a positive community setting in which everyone was committed to enjoy art together.
To start the creative process, the teachers re-introduced themselves and showed examples of their favorite television, movie and book characters to the class. Then as a class they discussed their favorite characters, and identified what they liked about these characters and why. From this discussion the teacher illustrated and listed these characteristics on the board as a starting point to aid in the expansion of similar concepts and the exploration of new ideas. Students began creating their individual superheros with whichever drawing medium they preferred the most from the previous lesson (markers, colored pencil, crayons, graphite) or a combination of mediums. Meanwhile, at each table group a large sheet of butcher paper, that was folded into four sections, was passed around the table as students worked in collaboration to create a large villain/monster for their heroes to fight.
- Artists use critical thinking and organizational techniques to follow lesson guidelines
- Artists learn to enjoy the intrinsic value of art making
- Artists are productive and on task
- Artists create and innovate using the ideation process
- Artists establish a sense of comfort with the studio, materials, staff, and working collaboratively with peers
Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- Students will be able to create their own rendition of a superhero/character, and work in a collaborative effort to create a villain/monster with their table groups. Students will leave with an insight into what goes into the creative processes of creating the characters they see in television shows, movies, books, and comics.
- Using their artwork, students will be able to enjoy making artwork that relays their personal style, developing a sense of intrinsic value, artistic identity, and community in the classroom.
- After a short Introduction, students will be excited to see the artwork of their peers and establish connections by discussing their creative process with the class.
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
- Drawing Techniques
- Introduction to collaborative art making
- Critique Etiquette
In the second lesson with Cooper Home and Fossil Ridge, the students explored the prompt of character design and collaborative art making techniques. Students went through the process of ideation by identifying characters they like and the traits that make them special. The lesson served as a window into the kind of processes professional studios use to come up with the characters we have come to know and love. Through the process students shared ideas and expanded upon their initial thoughts. This also served to establish a positive community setting in which everyone was committed to enjoy art together.
To start the creative process, the teachers re-introduced themselves and showed examples of their favorite television, movie and book characters to the class. Then as a class they discussed their favorite characters, and identified what they liked about these characters and why. From this discussion the teacher illustrated and listed these characteristics on the board as a starting point to aid in the expansion of similar concepts and the exploration of new ideas. Students began creating their individual superheros with whichever drawing medium they preferred the most from the previous lesson (markers, colored pencil, crayons, graphite) or a combination of mediums. Meanwhile, at each table group a large sheet of butcher paper, that was folded into four sections, was passed around the table as students worked in collaboration to create a large villain/monster for their heroes to fight.
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 our ability to navigate conversations, we defused conflicts, and redirecting off-topic conversations back towards creative thinking and problem solving. We were also successful at learning more about each student on a personal level, establishing connections, and improved at helping the students that were shy in the previous session feel more comfortable and contribute at a higher level. Through the lesson students addressed their inner critics, developed story telling techniques, and transferred the skills they learned from the previous lesson into today's. In that regard our lesson was successful. At the end of class we had every student share their artwork. They discussed elements of their work, their initial goals and how they changed throughout the process, and shared their methods for problem solving to accomplish the lesson objective. They discussed their inspirations and talked about how they shared ideas and techniques between their table members.
What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why? I felt very confident in our lesson in the weeks leading up to the class, the topic seemed relevant and engaging. I also believed we made the adjustments needed to combat the pacing problems we had experienced in the first lesson. Our first lesson relied on a step-by-step format in which the differences in working speeds of the students was exposed. We aimed to correct this by having students draw a super hero/character of their own, on an individual piece of paper while they passed around a large sheet of butcher paper at their tables, in which they each contributed a body part to create a super villain/monster as a group. In the beginning this was successful however the lesson itself was not able to keep the interest of half the class. When the students became disinterested it was very hard to retain their focus, their conversations became off-topic, and this attitude began to spread. This also created a divide between the students that where engrossed in the lesson, and some of them made remarks against the students that were not interested in the topic, and vice versa. It was disappointing that our lesson was not as successful as we would have hoped, however it gave Anna and I a chance to work on our abilities to be adaptable, use conversation and personal connections to reestablish student engagement, and ultimately make it through the lesson successfully overall.
What would you do differently? Why? For the next lesson I believe it would be better to pick a central theme that is more universally enjoyed. We can accomplish this by designing a lesson with an emphasis on the intrinsic value of mark making, exploration of colors and emotions. If students can establish a personal connection with what they are making they will be much more engage and open to exploring these artistic techniques. Many of the students seemed to lack the desire to create their own superhero, struggled with designing their own characters, and ultimately became frustrated. A task that is more expressive and tied to their emotions might be a better choice with an emphasis on enjoying the process of applying marks. This could be carried out effectively through the introduction of painting as a medium. This will give the students a chance to explore new techniques, and enjoy a more therapeutic process. Introducing this new medium would interject excitement into the lesson and give the students access to materials and techniques they might not have outside of the classroom.
What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why? I felt very confident in our lesson in the weeks leading up to the class, the topic seemed relevant and engaging. I also believed we made the adjustments needed to combat the pacing problems we had experienced in the first lesson. Our first lesson relied on a step-by-step format in which the differences in working speeds of the students was exposed. We aimed to correct this by having students draw a super hero/character of their own, on an individual piece of paper while they passed around a large sheet of butcher paper at their tables, in which they each contributed a body part to create a super villain/monster as a group. In the beginning this was successful however the lesson itself was not able to keep the interest of half the class. When the students became disinterested it was very hard to retain their focus, their conversations became off-topic, and this attitude began to spread. This also created a divide between the students that where engrossed in the lesson, and some of them made remarks against the students that were not interested in the topic, and vice versa. It was disappointing that our lesson was not as successful as we would have hoped, however it gave Anna and I a chance to work on our abilities to be adaptable, use conversation and personal connections to reestablish student engagement, and ultimately make it through the lesson successfully overall.
What would you do differently? Why? For the next lesson I believe it would be better to pick a central theme that is more universally enjoyed. We can accomplish this by designing a lesson with an emphasis on the intrinsic value of mark making, exploration of colors and emotions. If students can establish a personal connection with what they are making they will be much more engage and open to exploring these artistic techniques. Many of the students seemed to lack the desire to create their own superhero, struggled with designing their own characters, and ultimately became frustrated. A task that is more expressive and tied to their emotions might be a better choice with an emphasis on enjoying the process of applying marks. This could be carried out effectively through the introduction of painting as a medium. This will give the students a chance to explore new techniques, and enjoy a more therapeutic process. Introducing this new medium would interject excitement into the lesson and give the students access to materials and techniques they might not have outside of the classroom.
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.