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>Hello!
>I am actually a college student who is looking for some ideas for a
lesson
>plan that explains how art can address the social and political
messages
>of the world. If anyone has any lesson plan ideas or artists for art
>histroy exemplars that would be great (this is for a five day sixth
grade
>lesson by the way!) Any help would be great!!!!
>N. Koss, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
What I am giving here is not a typical lesson plan, but a way to think
about teaching art. What are your social and political
concerns? How would you go about getting art ideas to
express your concerns?
I believe as teachers we need to give sixth graders the same challenge.
I think they need to be asked - not told what they should believe. They
should be asked to make lists of their concerns. If I were the teacher,
I would encourage them to include things in their lists that are close to
home, their neighborhoods, their age group, and so on. They can form
advocacy teams with students joining the teams whose advocasy position
interests them the most. The teams could name themselves and make a
series of sketches to develop their artwork ideas within the media and
art forms you can provide as a teacher. The sketches would be done
individually, but the final products could be either individual or team
produced, depending on the medium, art form, etc. Once they each sketch
a series of ideas the teams could decide on the ones with the most
potential and produce them. The work is then exhibited in the classroom
and discussed in terms of what and how it communicates along with a
discussion of the design and aesthetics of the work. Then the class
decides if it is to be exhibited in a more public place in the school or
even in a public library or store front. Finally, each team does a web
search or a library search to find work by famous artists that was
created for social or political reasons. They briefly share with the
class what they find. (note: If you quote from this in for your college
assignment, you realize that you must give attribution credit. Those of
you who are teaching, feel free to steal these ideas for your classroom
--Marvin - a college teacher)
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