The Tell-Tale Diptych Day 1
Project/Unit Description/Expedition
In the first day of this lesson series, we will be tasking the students with the creation of illustrations for a story. The idea behind this project is to have them create connections between stories as a second illustration will be made next week using a second story that is intertwined with the first. Once they have the two illustrations, we'll put them side by side and have them reflect on aspects that they recognize between the two.
Essential Understanding
Students will learn about how artist create art from the stories around them.
Students will learn to explore different ways to interpret stories and how they're told.
Students will learn to explore different ways to interpret stories and how they're told.
Inquiry/Learning Target
Introduction to the Story:
- "I have been having trouble lately with making sure my images are clear for this short story I've been working on. I've thought and I've thought and I've thought with no success."
- "What I need are some fresh minds to bring their ideas to the table and that's what I've come to you all for! I am desperately in need of illustrations and I believe you are the ones able to do so."
- "All I need for you to do is listen to what I have and create an illustration of what comes to mind. I'm looking for anything that comes to mind to see anything and everything you have to offer."
Key Concept(s)
Concepts
- What does it mean to be a story illustrator?
- Why is it important to illustrate stories and sketch how they make you think/feel?
- Line
- Color
- Shape
Skill(s)
- Synthesizing details from literature and turning words into imagery.
- Exploring materials to create different meanings and texture within the work.
- Discovering similarities and how stories and interconnect with one another.
Art Focus
We will be creating two illustrations synthesized from two stories that are connected and details. They will be shown together as a diptych where students will be able to see any and all connections that made between the two.
Literary Focus
Literacy will be integrated into the lesson through story-telling. Joel will be writing a story and that is how we are going to integrate literacy into the lesson. There will, also, be times for use during the break gallery walk and end of class discussion.
- Markers
- Colored pencils
- Pastels
- Composition
- Color
- Line
- Shape
- Representation
- Illustration
- Expression
This week, we decided to shake things up a bit for our students. At the beginning of class, we once again showed them the blog. The great part about showing them the blog every Friday is watching them point out their pieces to each other. It's exciting for them to see their work displayed and I believe they're starting to feel more comfortable with it. After we showed them the blog, we decided to go back over our norms and systems before diving into the assignment intro. We realized last week that we might not have been as thorough as we could be with systems, so we took some extra time today to go over them. This proved very successful and led things to run much more smoothly, especially the cleaning at the end of class.
Our lesson today was focused on ideation and literacy within art. We asked the students to illustrate a story that Joel wrote. They seemed to enjoy the story and had a great time drawing illustrations for it. Our purpose this week was to see how our students interpreted the story and to show students that every artist creates different art that may be based on the same story. We also wanted to give students an ideation project to see how they handled idea generating. This was a very interesting lesson and gave us a lot of information on how to move forward in the coming weeks.
Our lesson today was focused on ideation and literacy within art. We asked the students to illustrate a story that Joel wrote. They seemed to enjoy the story and had a great time drawing illustrations for it. Our purpose this week was to see how our students interpreted the story and to show students that every artist creates different art that may be based on the same story. We also wanted to give students an ideation project to see how they handled idea generating. This was a very interesting lesson and gave us a lot of information on how to move forward in the coming weeks.
Today, Joel's story was about a courier who was delivering a package. The story had other elements to it, but Joel chose to keep certain things (like location, gender, etc) vague so students had the chance to use their imagination for those things. This resulted in many creative interpretations.
For example, the student on the left decided to draw a messenger and message receiver. When asked why she chose yellow she said, "yellow is for the desert, because he has to go through the desert to deliver the package". This interpretation proves the amount of creativity in this student and was exactly what Joel and I were hoping for. Although Joel never mentioned a desert specifically, that's what this student thought of. |
This student chose to draw a courier, a message receiver, and a block of houses behind them. For this student, the story took place in a neighborhood similar to hers. When asked why she chose those colors, she said she used the colors on Joel's flannel. This was interesting because it showed Joel and I how students translate the information around them into their creative process.
For this lesson, we once again asked students to color the entire page before they could start another piece. This student in particular had trouble with that. It was hard for her to describe the image beyond the houses and two people. This just showed Joel and I that we need to delve deeper into scene building and how to develop the background of a piece. |
These are two more examples of students who drew a person. However, the people in these two drawings aren't the courier in the story. Instead, these are two different depictions of princesses. Although they are both drawings of princesses, they were done at different tables, so the students had no influence on one another. That means that two separate students thought of a princess when they heard the story. The student on the left said she thought of a princess because "the messenger had to deliver to someone, why not a princess?". The student on the right said she thought of a princess because "[she] likes princesses and wants to be one someday". This was interesting to Joel and I because the reasons for thinking of a princess were so different. It also gave us a clue as to something that these students may be interested in.
Although these particular students had a similar subject, they handled the materials very differently. One student listened to our challenge to fill the whole page with color. This student was able to think of a setting and depict that setting along with the subject. The other student in this comparison, had a lot of trouble thinking and creating a setting. This was a good indication to Joel and I what the different levels of skill may be. This information will definitely help us moving forward.
Although these particular students had a similar subject, they handled the materials very differently. One student listened to our challenge to fill the whole page with color. This student was able to think of a setting and depict that setting along with the subject. The other student in this comparison, had a lot of trouble thinking and creating a setting. This was a good indication to Joel and I what the different levels of skill may be. This information will definitely help us moving forward.
This student approached our challenge differently than many others. Instead of filling the entire page by making a background for her subject, she chose to fill in the page with color. She used large blocks of color to fill in the page behind her subject. Her subject was a messenger who "is delivering a flower to his love". Because she used blocks of color instead of a background, it gave her piece a completely different meaning.
When asked why she chose to use color, rather than a background, this student replied, "these colors are really pretty and I don't like backgrounds". This was interesting to us because it gave us an indication of what this particular student enjoys doing. If she has more fun with color than backgrounds, other students might as well. This can help Joel and I plan to keep these students interested if we do develop a lesson about backgrounds. |
This student was one of the many that chose to draw the courier specifically. One thing unique about this student is he was one of the few that chose to use several different types of medium. For this lesson, we provided colored pencils, markers, and oil pastels. Most students chose one medium and stuck with it for the entire work time. Although we didn't say they could only choose one, most students seemed to feel more comfortable only using one medium. However, this student explored with several and ended up creating a more in-depth piece.
When asked why he chose several mediums he simply said "I couldn't make up my mind". I thought this was interesting because it shows us that this student is interested in every medium we have offered so far. He enjoys using them all so much, he literally can't decide which he'd rather use. This information will help Joel and I moving forward because it tells us that we are doing well by giving the students many choices. We will continue doing that throughout the coming weeks, and hope more students try combining mediums.
When asked why he chose several mediums he simply said "I couldn't make up my mind". I thought this was interesting because it shows us that this student is interested in every medium we have offered so far. He enjoys using them all so much, he literally can't decide which he'd rather use. This information will help Joel and I moving forward because it tells us that we are doing well by giving the students many choices. We will continue doing that throughout the coming weeks, and hope more students try combining mediums.
This student had a very interesting idea from the story, and an interesting way to depict it. The messenger idea made him think of Christmas. So for his piece, this student drew a Christmas tree with a stack of delivered packages underneath. It was interesting the way he depicted this idea because this obviously isn't a traditional Christmas tree. It seemed like he drew the tree this way because it's how he is comfortable drawing trees. He didn't push himself outside of his comfort zone as much as we would have liked, but he still created a successful piece that shows his thinking during the story.
This week was extremely successful. Our idea do create an ideation lesson was well thought-out and we learned a lot about the students that will help us moving forward. Next week, we want to tell the students another story and have them create another illustration. Then, we will create individual diptychs of both illustrations, which will be the final piece for this particular project. Joel and I are excited to continue to broaden our students and learn more about them along the way! |