Overview
Students will reflect on their art making using close-looking, speaking, writing, and/or sketchbook prompts.
Grade Level
6-8
Media
Sculpture
Theme/ Big Idea
Artists can express ideas by using different materials to make lines, shapes, and
forms.
Essential Question
How can we use everyday materials to make expressive face assemblages?
Materials and Tools
- Pencil
- Sketchbook or one to two pieces of paper
- Photos of arrangements from Lesson 3 (if possible)
Activities
Note: The following activities are written with sample language you may use with your students. Following the art-making lesson, you may choose as many reflection activities as desired for students to work on in class or independently.
Step 1: Discussion (5-7 minutes)
Hello, artists! Today we are going to reflect on your experience of making expressive faces by arranging found objects.
- What did you like about working with found objects? What did you dislike?
- What was a challenge you had when making your arrangements? How did you overcome it? What was a success?
- Is there anything you would change about the arrangements that you made?
- Did some objects show certain emotions or expressions better than others?
Which ones, and why? - Did any of your objects surprise you? How?
If students need prompting, describe your own experience by answering one or more of the questions above.
Step 2: Writing Activity (10-15 minutes)
Look at the documentation photos you took, or just remember your assembled faces from the last class.
Give students one to two minutes to look or recall.
Write and/or sketch your responses to these questions:
- Which of your objects seem to have a personality?
- How would you describe their personality?
- What details and materials help express the personality?
- If you could swap out any of the materials that you used for different ones, what would they be? Why?
Step 3: Sketchbook Activity (15 minutes)
Choose one object from your collection of objects and draw it.
Imagine that this object could be different somehow.
- How would it look with a different size, shape, or texture?
Transform your object in your imagination and draw what it looks like. Imagine and draw two to three different ways that this object could be transformed.
Step 4: Close Looking (10-15 minutes)
Watch the three-minute clip from the film Rivers and Tides about the land-artist Andy Goldsworthy.
- What stands out to you in this video?
In the writing exercise, you reflected on the difficulties and frustrations you’ve experienced making art so far.
- How do you think Andy Goldsworthy felt when his art broke and fell apart? How did he respond?
- In what way are challenges and frustrations part of the art-making experience?
Vocabulary
Arrangement
Expression
Resources
Examples of Facial Expressions
Andy Goldsworthy clip from Rivers and Tides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7sZv4_0Fxg&feature=youtu.be