Curated OER
Creating Civic Awareness Through Artistic and Literary Forms
Interpret current events using editorial cartoons and other print media. Middle schoolers explore the meanings of literary and artistic terms such as satire, irony, and caricature. They visit internet sites to develop an understanding of...
Curated OER
Exploring Photographs - Writing the Artist's Statement
Students read an artist's statement by Dorothea Lange and write a statement based on their own photographs. In this photograph and writing lesson, students examine the relationship between photography and the artist's statement. Students...
Curated OER
Music Theories
Explore the inception and evolution of hip-hop music as a springboard for writing music reviews and researching other genres of music. Learners will read and discuss the Times' article, From Underground Music to Fashion Statement to then...
Curated OER
Model Community
Students explore what it means to create miniature models, and apply what they create a miniature version of their local community for a class exhibit. They write artist statements explaining their models.
Curated OER
Art: Faith Ringgold Story Quilts
Twelfth graders examine the impact of African American culture on the United States by inspecting Faith Ringgold's story quilts. Working in groups, they create a collective story quilt about current cultural issues. They research their...
Curated OER
Getting Down to Business
Young scholars develop a business plan to serve as a road map that ultimately help them achieve business goals. They create a description of the business and their work.
Curated OER
Reading Paintings, Drawing Words
Students consider an art exhibit comprised of words that tell stories and create their own original pieces of art.
Curated OER
Tell About the South : The Story of Modern Southern Literature
Students, after viewing the video "Tell About the South," discuss and analyze Jean Toomer's mixed heritage and how it affected his artistic voice. They evaluate how the character Toomer was an excellent example of America's melting pot....
Curated OER
Writing Through Art
Examine the works of visual and performing artists with upper graders. Using the works, they identify the comparisons among the techniques used. They will also review the six traits of effective writing and keep a writing journal...
Curated OER
Still-Life Painting: Arranging Nature
Young scholars display the two still-life paintings that they created in previous lessons, along with their artist's statements. They write a review of a peer's work and discuss all of the paintings in a group critique.
Curated OER
Keeping Time
Students compose lyrics to songs for a music festival to promote issues in their community. They write artists' statements explaining the issues they chose to write about.
Curated OER
Creating An Understanding of the Past/Through The Art of George Catlin and Native American Artifacts
Students explore Native American culture. They observe and discuss the paintings of George Catlin. Students examine the lives of the Pawnee Native American Indians during the time period of 1830-1840. Numerous cross curriculum activities...
Curated OER
Political Cartoons: Thinking Broadly, Communicating Succinctly
Students think broadly about the tsunami disaster and its aftermath through studying cartoons. Students critically think about the literary devices the authors/artists use, such as satire, metaphor and personification.
Curated OER
Overcoming Censorship Through Art
Students create an art piece that expresses their opinions while circumventing hypothetical government restrictions in this lesson on art and government censorship. Emphasis is placed upon historical instances of censorship around the...
Curated OER
It's Art ... Naturally
Students consider the ways nature has been used in art, and then design and create their own original sculptures using materials from nature for a class exhibit.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Scrapping the Biomes
Fifth graders investigate biomes of the earth. In this biomes activity, 5th graders explore eight different biomes which include the tropical rain forest, deciduous forest, grasslands, and taiga. They design an artistic scrapbook that...
Council for Economic Education
What Makes an Entrepreneur?
What do the founders of Wendy's and Virgin Airlines have in common? They are both entrepreneurs! Key definitions and case studies help learners brainstorm their own definitions of what it takes to succeed in business. A series of...
Curated OER
Still Life Painting: Arranging Nature
Students display the two still-life paintings they created along with their artist’s statement, write a review of a peer’s work, and discuss all of the paintings in a group critique. In this still life art lesson, students view the...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Expressionism: What's the Deal With These Strange Colors?
Students examine and discuss examples of Expressionist artwork. They create their own expressionistic oil paintings.
Curated OER
Not Just Books
Students consider uses of a library and explore the collections at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, and create proposals for exhibits of various artifacts.
Curated OER
Setting the Stage from the Page
Pupils examine the differences between the portrayal of characters in books and in motion pictures. Using the novel, The Kite Runner, students discuss the ways in which the characters can be interpreted. Pupils create original artwork...
Curated OER
Pop Art: Multiples of Me!
Students discuss major events in the 60's era including conflicts, culture, and history. Students also take a look at artists from this time and discover Pop Art. They then create their own portrait in the Pop Art style using Clarisworks...
Curated OER
Land Use and Lawmaking in California
Students read writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson to analyze transcendentalism and analyze photographic essays depicting environmental issues. In this art and history lesson, students read excerpts of Nature by Emerson to identify...
Curated OER
Environment As Art
Students create an idea for environmental artwork for installation somewhere on school property.