Part of our student teaching experience is to develop lesson plans and teach them at our placement. We also have to align one of our projects with a separate assignment. This was the lesson I chose to create for that project. The lesson needed to serve a mini-unit with two lessons which (for art) could be one project that teaches two separate skills. The object of the assignment was to perform informal and formal assessments, collect data across classes and different demographics, and determine the effectiveness of teaching ability as well as the lesson. When my cooperating teacher and I were discussing possible directions, we figured out that we were both (super) interested in doing a Louise Bourgeois lesson!!! And we decided to have our fifth graders try it out :)
You can find the full lesson plan on my lessons and demos page here! But I'll break it down for you here also. I also have to give credit to BLick for inspiring the art-making process for this lesson. You can find the original here. I simply changed the process bit to fit our needs for the project.
Lesson one: I administered a pre-test to assess prior knowledge of Louise Bourgeoise (art history), sculpture (art Making), symbolism (enduring idea), and spider anatomy (Science connector) that reflected the objectives of the mini-unit. Next, I led the students through a guided discussion about the lesson using before building an armature for our spider sculpture.
Lesson two: paper mache technique and symbolism. Students used the paper mache technique to cover their sculptures. They were instructed to choose colors based on an emotion of their choosing. Afterward, they completed a post-assessment that was identical to the pre-test so I could gauge understanding of the objectives. Their projects would be assessed based on a rubric as well.
Disclaimer: As everyone is aware, 2020 has thrown us some curveballs :/ and as a result, my students did not get to finish the projects before schools closed down. So I don't have any finished projects to show other than my demo. However, I strongly believe that the process is just as if not more important than the final artwork.
tip: plan in advance how to store all these spiders! keeping in mind that they need to dry overnight before you can stack them. We used an empty table most days then stored them in boxes by class. But some days we had to use the floor (as you can see to the right LOL) and not gonna lie, sometimes seeing all those spiders could get a bit creepy lol. (just kidding they were awesome)
reflection: This lesson was a great learning experience. It taught me to constantly evaluate my lessons on a daily basis and adjust to fit the needs of your class. It also taught me despite every effort, some lessons do not get finished on your timeframe lol. I learned that students who are struggling with behavior can rise up when challenged and presented with an engaging lesson and you can (in fact) get 80 students to get excited about spiders :)
The amazing thing about this lesson is introducing the idea that art can change public opinion. Louise highlighted the protective nature of spiders by connecting them with her mother. I also introduced them to Lucas the Spider created by animator Joshua Slice. He created this animation to help viewers see the good aspects of spiders. You can find Lucas on Youtube HERE. (or coming soon to Cartoon Network and Boomerang)
Here are some of my results from the data collecting: It shows the improvement from the pre-test to the post-test. Overall there is an improvement, (with the exception of one student who missed the entire second lesson due to absences) although I feel I have some room to increase the lesson's effectiveness.
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