Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Computer paper
• Cardstock
• Cardboard or additional cardstock for background
• Scissors
• Glue sticks
• Pencils
• Crayons or oil pastels (teacher tip: soak oil pastels or crayons in warm soapy water overnight; paper labels will easily come off the next day)
• Informational text that describes a geographic location students are studying in Social Studies such as the Sahara Desert (7th grade SS, GA)
• Optional - colored pencils

 

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Project a landscape painting such as Landscape from Saint Remy by Vincent Van Gogh. 
  • First, students will identify what they see in the image. Emphasize that they should make objective observations about the painting (i.e. physical features, colors, textures, etc.). 
  • Next, ask students to identify what they think about the image. Emphasize that students should be creating inferences using visual evidence from the painting. 
  • Finally, ask students what they wonder about the image. 
• Ask students to work collaboratively to engage in the See, Think, Wonder protocol (Harvard University Project Zero - Artful Thinking Strategies). 
• Facilitate a class-wide discussion around students’ observations, inferences, and questions.

 

Work Session

• Explain that the artwork students are looking at is an example of a landscape painting. Landscape paintings show a wide expanse of land–usually a countryside–and show depth through a background, middle ground, and foreground. 
• Show students the diagram of a landscape. Explain that the background is what is farthest away from the viewer, the foreground is directly in front of the viewer, and the middle ground everything in the middle. 
• Ask students to try to identify the background, middle ground, and foreground in Landscape from Saint Remy by Vincent Van Gogh.
• Explain to students that texture in art is how something feels or looks like it feels. Ask students to identify textures in the landscape painting.
• Tell students that they will be creating their own landscape artwork based off of an informational text. Provide each student with a copy of the informational text that connects to a region students are studying in Social Studies (if applicable). 
• With partners, have students annotate the text as they read, looking for details that describe how the region looks such as landforms, colors, etc. 
• Facilitate a discussion with students around what details they might include in the background, what details they might include in the middle ground, and what details they might include in the foreground. 
• Instruct students to locate and research an additional informational text on the same region. 
• Students should use their knowledge of research practices to identify a reliable source. Students should annotate the text as they did previously. 
• Students will synthesize the details that they found in the two sources to create their landscape artwork. 
• Introduce students to the term Collagraph Printmaking. 
• Printmaking is a process by which the artist creates an image that has texture and transfers that image repeatedly onto another surface like paper. 
• Tell students that the printing press is an early example of printmaking. 
• Explain the process of creating their artwork. 
• Students will draw a rough draft of their landscape on blank paper using evidence from both texts. Students’ rough drafts should have a background, middle ground, and foreground.
• Out of cardstock, students will cut out landforms like mountains and physical features like forests that they included in their rough draft. 
• Students should glue the landforms down to a piece of cardstock or cardboard starting with the background and moving to the foreground. 
• Students should use overlapping as they glue each layer down.
• Once they have created their landscapes, students will create a rubbing by placing a piece of computer paper over their landscape. Using a crayon or oil pastel, they will rub across the surface to pick up the texture of the landscape.
• Students can then add in details and additional texture using colored pencil, crayon, or oil pastel.

 

Closing Reflection

• Students will write a one paragraph artist statement about their work. They should include a relevant title for their landscape and what they showed in their artwork citing text evidence from both sources.
• Allow students to conduct a gallery walk within small groups to compare and contrast how they and their classmates visualized the text. Emphasize that students should look for similarities and differences in artwork and how that reflects the sources that students used.

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess learning by determining whether students are able to identify the background, middle ground, and foreground in the example landscape and whether students can identify all the important supporting details from both texts that describe how the region looks.

 

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students’ landscapes included a background, middle ground, and foreground. 
• Students’ landscapes visualize the details from both texts that describe how the location looks.
• Students’ artist statements include a relevant title for their landscapes and what they showed in their artwork citing text evidence from both sources.

 

 

Differentiation

Acceleration:  Allow students to research the landscape paintings of Vincent Van Gogh or another landscape artist. Students can create their artwork in the style of Van Gogh (Post-Impressionism) or another artist of their choice.  Remediation:  Allow students to work with partners to create their landscapes. Each partner can create their own rubbing.  Provide students with an “answer key” of the passage to use to check their annotations.  Have students only use one text rather than two. Provide students with a graphic organizer to fill out with landforms, physical features, and agriculture as they read the text.

 

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Diagram of a landscape The Turning Road, L'Estaque by Andre Derain

 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by:  Katy Betts 

Revised and copyright:  2023  @ ArtsNOW

 

 

Georgia Standards

 

South Carolina Standards

 

Key Vocabulary

 

Materials

• Cards with math problems and answers written on them
• Cards with word problems written on them

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Classroom Tips: This lesson is meant to be a supplement to the concept being taught. The students should be able to complete the task in their groups. 

 

• Start with a general physical warm-up to get the students' bodies ready. Use exercises such as:
  • Stretching: Stretch all major muscle groups.
  • Shaking Out Limbs: Shake out arms, legs, and the whole body to release tension.
  • Energy Passes: Stand in a circle and pass a clap or a simple motion around to build group focus and energy.
• Explain that students will explore different characters by changing their walk and physicality. Encourage them to think about how their character’s age, status, mood, and personality influence their movement.
  • Use simple prompts to get students thinking about different ways to embody a character. Call out various types of characters and ask students to walk around the space embodying those characters. Examples include:
    • A friendly dog
    • A suspicious cat
    • A sneaky mouse
    • A graceful dancer
    • An exhausted construction worker
• Have students return to their seats.

 

Work Session

Side by Side

• Show the class a stack of cards. On each card is either a math problem or solution.
• Divide the class into two groups. Pass out problem cards to one of the groups and answer cards to the other.
• Tell students that the goal of the game is to find the person with the corresponding card (if they have the problem, they are searching for the solution).
• Students are not allowed to show the card to anyone until they hear, “Go!”
• Tell students to hold their cards out in front of them when they hear, “Go!”. They cannot talk to each other. Students’ task is to find the person with the corresponding card.
• When they find their partner, students should stand side by side.
• Once all students have found their match, direct students to look around the room to check that each problem is matched with the correct solution.
• Switch groups and repeat the process with a different set of problems and solutions.

 

Don’t Tell Me, Show Me!  

• At the conclusion of Side by Side, divide students into groups of four or five.
• Give each group a card with a word problem written on it.
• Tell students that they will create a short scene to demonstrate understanding of the word problem and its solution.
  • For example:  Tim picked 22 pears and Fred picked 27 pears. How many pears were picked in all?  The students would act out picking pears, with one of the students counting all of the pears to determine the total.
• Provide the following criteria for students:
  • Students should think back to the activator and consider how they will use their bodies (and voices) to create the character in the word problem.
  • Every student must play an active role in the scene (this could be as a character, part of the setting, or the director).
  • The scene must show both the problem and the solution.
• Allow students time to solve their problem and decide how they will show their problem through a scene.
• Circulate to work with students and assess understanding.

 

Closing Reflection

• Each group will act out their scene for the class. Discuss appropriate audience participation and etiquette prior to performances.
• The audience should be able to determine what is occurring in the word problem (addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.).
• After each performance, debrief with the class asking what the actors showed and how they showed it. Then, the performing group should share their word problem with the audience.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, ability to find the problem/solution in Side by Side, and collaboration with group members to solve and act out their given word problem.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

• Students can solve a given word problem.
• Students can determine what type of equation is being acted out.
• Students can use their bodies and voices to accurately act out a given word problem.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: Challenge students to write their own word problem to act out for the class. Remediation:  Scaffold the lesson by asking several student volunteers to assist the teacher in acting out a sample word problem for the class before having students solve and act out their word problems in their groups. Help students identify the components of the equation in the word problem by breaking the word problem down as a class and translating it into a standard equation.

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Mary Gagliardi. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: July 2024 @ ArtsNOW