Another great teaching opportunity I got to experience while in the art education program at UTA was at a local museum. We were invited to teach a group of middle school students at The Kimbell in Ft. Worth. WE were given a set of artworks to choose then create a lesson around it. My group chose the sculpture Cociyo (pictured to the right)
After researching the work, we developed a clay sculpture lesson inspire by it. We decided to have students create an original anthropomorphic sculpture that combined both human and animal characteristics as well as a weather element to reflect Cociyo being the god of lightning.
First, we led a student discussion about the work to familiarize students with work and the culture that created it. Next, to help students plan their sculptures, I created a worksheet for students to fill out at the beginning of their lesson.
Once students filled out their worksheets, We demonstrated a few different techniques for creating clay sculptures. Finally, they began sculpting their design out of the terracotta air-dry clay. (We chose terracotta colored clay to relate to the age of the sculpture.) It was a great experience, and it taught me how to center a lesson around a specific artwork. Some student examples can be found below.
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