Lesson Sequence

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Lesson Introduction/Set: (20 minutes)

 

We will begin this lesson by gathering on the carpet. I will first talk about the filming aspect. I will talk to students about why my mentor teacher is going to be filming. These students love to help me out with my projects for my own homework so I knew they would be excited about doing this project as well. I will explain to the children that we are going to read a story, one that they may have already heard before. It is called A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. After reading the story, we are going to create an art project inspired by the story.

 

Sharing Objectives: (10 minutes)

 

At the beginning of the art lesson, I will explain to students that today we will be creating our very own self-portraits. I want students to know that the purpose of this lesson is for students to be creative and unique. No two self-portraits will look the same. Students will outline their self-portrait and will then color their portrait to have their own bad case of stripes. Students will be encouraged to create their own designs on their portraits, using the pictures from the story as inspiration. Together, we will work on the outline portion of the project, focusing on facial features and their position on our faces, in relationship to each other. We will also use this time to talk about unique characteristics of us all. For example, some students wear glasses, students have different colored hair and different colored eyes.  

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Ideas to say to students:

“Camilla was unique in her own way, just like all of you are unique in your own ways. Some of you have blue eyes, some of you have green or brown. Some of you have blonde hair or brown hair. Some of you like lima beans and some of you don’t and that’s okay. It is great to be unique. If everyone is the same, how would we know you are you?”

 

“Today we are going to be drawing our own self portraits. And what is really fun is you are all going to have a bad case of stripes or polka dots or swirls, just like Camilla in the book. First we are going to draw all of our features: eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair. And then you all get to color your skin and show us what your pattern would look like if you had a bad case of the stripes. Remember, Camilla had rainbow stripes, stripes and stars, checkerboard, polka dots, all kinds of different patterns.”

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Learning activities: (time for each)

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• Outline Segment (20 minutes)

  • During this time, students will be at their desks with a white piece of paper, pencil, and handheld mirrors. I will be at the front of the classroom so that students can see my example. The students and I are going to do this part together as a step-by-step process. This is to ensure students who need extra assistance can see a visual and hear instructions while creating their own portrait. For students who need a challenge, they will be allowed to move ahead of the group if they would like so that they do not get bored or become disengaged. I will explain to students that for a self-portrait, we will draw our faces and some of our shoulders. We will make our portraits pretty big on the piece of paper so we are able to see all of our faces features. I will ask students which facial features we should draw next and where the feature is located in reference to other features on our faces. The facial features we will focus on is our eyes, nose, mouth, ears, eyebrows, and hair. I will explain that when we begin coloring, we get to decorate our skin with a bad case of stripes. Students get to choose however they would like their skin on their portrait to look. They can use the pictures from the story as inspiration for their own design but they will be encouraged to come up with their own unique design. However, I want them to keep their hair color and their eye color the same as they actually are. This will help me to see that it is them, even though their skin will be colored differently.

  • Ideas to say to students:

    • Which feature should we start with?

    • What shape is our face? (oval, round)

    • How do our eyes look? (Symmetrical, in the middle of our face)

    • Something interesting is that our ears are in line with our eyes so when we draw our ears, we can use our eyes that we have drawn to help us.

    • You all get to choose whatever you want your skin on your self-portrait to look like. I want you to keep your hair and eye color the same as it really is. But you get to color and decorate your skin with any design you would like. I want to be able to kind of tell it is still you even though your skin will be all different colors and patterns.

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• Designing & Decorating (25 minutes)

  • After the outline section, students will pull out their crayons from their supply box and begin designing and decorating their portraits. I will explain that students can pick any pattern, design, or color they would like to color their skin.

  • During this time, I will be walking around observing and assisting students who need help. I will be able to have one-on-one and small group interactions to help encourage and motivate students with their artwork. I will ask them questions about their artwork and prompt them if they are stuck on what to draw next.

  • Ideas to say to students:

    • ​Tell me about your portrait...

    • What made you choose those colors?

    • What made you choose those designs?

    • If you aren’t sure what to draw next or what color you want to use, you could look around at what other friends are doing or you can look at the pages from the story again to get ideas.”

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• Cutting & Gluing (10 minutes)

  • Once students have finished designing and coloring, the next step is to cut out their portraits and glue it onto a colored piece of paper. I will have students take a break from their coloring and designing to watch my demonstration on how to cut out and glue their self-portrait onto a colored piece of paper. Once I have demonstrated this, students can go back to coloring or move onto the cutting and gluing part of this project.

  • Ideas to say to students:

    • Make sure when you are cutting out your portrait, you cut all the way around your entire head. I want to make sure we can still see all of your facial features and designs!

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Closure: (15 minutes)

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At the end of this lesson, I will have students gather back on the carpet with their finished self-portraits. Students who are not quite finished can stay at their desks and work as the students on the carpet are sharing. Depending on time, I will have students share their portraits with the group one at a time. If there is not a lot of time left, I will have students turn and share with their peers. During this, I will be able to hear students explanation of their portrait and why they chose the colors and designs that they did. Students can talk about what they notice on their friends’ portrait, maybe something that is unique and different than their own. After sharing, I will collect students artwork so that I can take a picture of each one and then I will return them back to the students to have them take home.

 

Ideas to say to students:

“I would like us all to share our portraits with each other because I want everyone to see our awesome artwork. I think we should turn and talk with a partner and share our artwork with them. Everyone find a partner and share, ready, go!”

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Student Evaluation:

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Because I do not want to formally assess students on their artwork itself, I will be assessing students on their effort on their portraits. During the outline section, I will be able to informally assess students’ knowledge about facial features and their placement in relation to other features. During the lesson, I will be able to come around and interact with students, discussing their portraits and encouraging their artistic expression. During the sharing portion, I will also be able to observe students as they present to the group or share with a partner. This will allow students to verbally express themselves and discuss their artwork, using their portrait as a visual aid.

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Teacher Self-Reflection:

 

• Before this lesson is taught:

  • Before this lesson takes place, I anticipate that this lesson may take quite a bit of time. There are many different parts to this lesson that I will need to make sure I am watching the time carefully so that I do not take time away from other activities during the day. My mentor teacher and I have discussed and decided that I will read the story during the students’ snack and story time in the morning. After lunch, we will begin the art project. This will help break up the project into two smaller chunks to ensure that students have enough time to finish their artwork. Something I have wrote into this lesson is to discuss the filming aspect of this project. I anticipate the students will be curious about the filming portion and I want to be sure this is addressed so that it does not cause too many distractions. Another element that my mentor teacher and I discussed is students who are perfectionists in our classroom. These students may get frustrated that their portrait is not turning out “good” or how they wanted it to. It will be my job to monitor students’ emotions and encourage and motivate the students to keep working on their project. This is something that I plan to address during the outline section on my own example. I am not the best artist but I am trying my best. When I draw my portrait, I will be sure to mention that it may not look exactly like me or exactly how I want it to but that’s okay because it doesn’t have to be perfect.

 

• Reflection after the lesson was taught:

  • Overall, I thought the lesson went really well! Students seemed to enjoy the process of creating their own self-portrait. They especially liked the handheld mirrors because they were able to look at themselves and then draw what they saw. One thing that I did not anticipate happening was students being scared of the book. One student in particular was terrified of the book. During their morning work, I shared that I would be reading A Bad Case of Stripes. The poor student was freaking out and begging me not to read it. I was able to talk to him about it in length, asking him what we thought we could do so that I could still read the story and help him to not be scared. We came up with a plan together: during snack and story, he would sit at his desk and lay his head down while I read to the class on the carpet. He was still close enough to hear the story but did not have to look at the pictures that scared him. I was really happy that this turned out as well as it did. I am glad I was able to talk with him about it and make a plan that allowed him to still feel comfortable in the classroom as I read the story. He was still willing to do the portrait piece, and even designed his own portrait with a bad case of stripes. One thing I would change in this lesson is to copy pictures from the story to have at each table group. I found that many kids were asking to see specific pages from the story and I had to take time to walk around and show students those pages. This took time away from interacting one on one with more students about their portraits during the design and decorating section. I also wish I could have had a better display of my example as we were going over the outline together. The white piece of paper that I was using was taped to a white SMARTboard which made it difficult to see. Also, the way the desks are arranged in the classroom, it was hard for some students to see from where they were sitting. The way that I had it displayed was the best arrangement my mentor teacher and I could come up with so that the majority of the students could see. This would be something to keep in mind for next time.

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