Curated OER
Group Product-Pitch Presentation
Are you just about to teach persuasion in your class? If so, you should consider this short unit. In small groups, learners create a product, develop a magazine ad for the product, and pitch this product to the class using a visual...
Curated OER
Telling Stories in Art: Symbols of a Life
Through a series of activities, learners are exposed to how artists use symbolic imagery to create the narrative of a subject’s life. They study The Birth of Alexander and some manuscripts kept at J. Paul Getty Museum. They then draft...
Curated OER
My Story and History: Peeking into the Past with Paintings
Consider how you can use a visual source, such as a painting, to learn about a historical time or event. Young learners discuss primary sources and how they differ from secondary sources, then analyze the painting Mother and Child by...
Curated OER
The Function of Music
Explore concepts of audience, purpose and symbols in this lesson from Media Smarts that asks young scholars to consider all the functions of music. Through a series of discussions and activities, your class will brainstorm possible...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Portraits That Capture Character
One of the great things about technology is that it lets youngsters visit museums that may be many miles away. With this resource, middle and high schoolers can visit the portrait galleries at J. Paul Getty Museum, located in Los...
Curated OER
Lesson: Mathias Poledna: Crystal Palace
Film analysis takes critical thinking, connections, and context. Upper graders look at the film installation, Crystal Palace in terms of the film makers choices, presentation, and perspective of truth. After an analytical discussion of...
Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation
Marc Chagall / Magic Realism
Surrealistic painters like Marc Chagall and Wendy Rouse show viewers an expansive world in a small area. Young artists have a opportunity to create their own surrealistic paintings in response to a study of works by Chagall and Rouse.
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: How Coyote Came to Shuffle Off to Buffalo
Creative kids read, discuss, play-act, and sketch to examine the cultural significance of Old Man Coyote. They listen to several stories involving Coyote, analyze the Harry Fonseca painting Shuffle Off to Buffalo, and write Coyote...
Media Smarts
Marketing to Teens: Gender Roles in Advertising
Young learners explore gender roles in advertising by taking an ad campaign they have seen which is specifically directed to one gender, and redesigning the campaign to target the opposite gender. After leading a guided discussion about...
Sargent Art
Improvisation: Dada and Surrealism
Images of works by Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, and Man Ray launch a study of Dada and Surrealism. After critiquing works by these and other artists, class members gather their own images and arrange them into a cohesive composition.
Curated OER
Camera Shots
Understanding how visual codes such as long-shots, close-ups, and camera angles affect meaning helps prepare young filmmakers to plan their own productions. The concepts embedded could also be used to analyze photographs and paintings.
Curated OER
Photo Opportunities Lesson plan 3: Cropping
Students study the concept of creating art outside the frame. In this art instructional activity, students finish artwork as they add their own details to cropped photographs.
Curated OER
Visual Composition
Students study how elements of visual composition and group storyboards for a one-minute videotaped commercial.
Sargent Art
Color Value Study
I love geometric art because it applies mathematical reasoning to an artistic endeavor. Creative kids use scale values to highlight their complex, repetitive, geometric designs. Symmetry, angles, and congruence are three concepts that...
Curated OER
Media Awareness: Key Concepts in Advertising
Learners examine the basic concepts of advertising. In this media awareness lesson, students discuss target audience, art, and purpose in advertising to determine what makes an advertisement effective or ineffective. Learners evaluate...
Curated OER
Communication Technology
While working in groups, learners refine the negative prints, floppy disks, and photographs they've been working on. They rotate to different stations on paper cutting, airbrushing, and computers. Special attention is placed on the...
Curated OER
Keys and Scales are Sets
Music theory lessons can be very tricky for some people. Children with a basic understanding of musical concepts take on the task of transposing music and identifying scale sets. This would be a good topic to address prior to discussing...
Curated OER
Lesson: Unmonumental: Yesterday's News
Upper graders are tasked with developing a social consciousness as they analyze the impact of the news media. They view a presentation depicting various media events in order to understand threshold moments in history. There are three...
Curated OER
Lesson: Paul Chan: Alternumeric Fonts
Learning to analyze language, symbols, and codes is part of becoming a deep and critical thinker. Young analysts consider their ability to see hidden messages as they analyze the work of Paul Chan. There are two fully developed...
Curated OER
Finding Meaning in the Badge
Children who are three to five years old study two rank badges from the Qing dynasty to develop an understanding of social rank, language skills, and symbolism. The lesson is discussion-based and requires learners to compare and contrast...
Curated OER
The View From Here
Study the beauty of the landscape around you with an innovative art lesson. After discussing the foreground, background, and middle ground of landscape art, kids work on making their own piece of landscape art. The lesson provides...
Curated OER
Expressive Self Portrait - Mixed Media
Students create self-portraits using prior artistic knowledge and personal experiences. Emphasis is placed on the works of Albrecht Durer, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Romare Bearden, and Chuck Close for inspiration.
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building Through Visualization of Word Meanings to Create Digital Art
Use online dictionaries to define vocabulary words and create a visualization of word meanings through digital art. Middle schoolers go online to define assigned vocabulary words. They visualize the meanings of the words in photo...
Smart Museum of Art
The Making of a Superhero
Thor, Loki, Iron Man, and Captain America. As part of their study of Greek and Roman gods and heroes, middle schoolers compare the characters in The Avengers to Greek counterparts. Individuals then create their own superhero, describe...