Length of Lesson:
60 minutes or longer (this lesson may take two sessions)
Content Objectives:
Students will be able to observe and evaluate four self-portraits by famous painters - Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso; students will be able to create self-portraits.
Language Objectives:
Students will be able to incorporate vocabulary describing voice; students will be able to interpret their partners' self-portraits using sentence starters.
Materials Needed:
Frida Kahlo's
Self-Portrait
(1937)
and
Frida and Diego Rivera
(1931); Picasso's
Self-Portrait with a Palette
(1906) and
Self-Portrait
(1907); lists of vocabulary words on big posters; an observation chart on a big poster; paper; paints; crayons.
Sequencing of Activities
Initiation: (5 minutes) Students will be asked to ponder over the question: Why do people paint self-portraits? This question will initiate students' prior knowledge, give them an opportunity to express their opinions, and also will help to set the scene for the lesson.
Development:
(45 minutes) I will display the four self-portraits for students' observation. After they take their time to examine them, I will present a chart on a big poster, where together with students we will record their responses. Before working on this observation chart, I would like to provide students with two lists of descriptive words and adjectives pertaining to voice and a person's personality (voice:
angry, silly, sad, scared, grateful, personal, convincing, sincere, welcoming, amused, encouraging
; personality:
honest, serious, funny, nice, kind, sweet, determined, original, optimistic
, etc). These lists have to be written on poster paper and hung on a bulletin board in the classroom during the whole time of working on the unit. They will probably be expanded in the course of our study of the unit. Students will refer to them repeatedly. We will review this vocabulary and identify meanings of unknown words. Then we will discuss and characterize the self-portraits in the following chart (for our mutual convenience, I will number the paintings):
Questions | # 1. Self-Portrait (Kahlo) | # 2. Frida and Diego Rivera (Kahlo) | # 3. Self-Portrait with a Palette (Picasso) | # 4. Self-Portrait (Picasso)
Who is
the person
on the
painting?
What kind
of person
is he or
she?
To what
culture
does he or
she belong?
What did
the painter
intend to
show about
himself or
herself to
the audience?
This activity is based on students' observations and points of view and is meant to arouse students' critical thinking. The next part of the lesson involves painting or drawing self-portraits. Students should be encouraged to make their self-portraits identifiable in terms of the voice they possess. After their works are completed, they will interpret the other student's self-portrait in a pair.
Closure:
(10 minutes) Students will have a chance to evaluate another person's self-portrait and give it a short characteristic. For this purpose, I will provide them with the following sentence starters: "This self-portrait has . . .voice, because. . .," "I think that the painter is. . .(a kind of person)," "He or she belongs to . . . culture," "I think the painter wanted to show us that he or she is/does . . ." The other student in a pair is welcome to give some support and make corrections if they are needed. Volunteers will present their interpretation of the partner's self-portrait to the whole group.
Methods of Assessment:
informal -
on-going monitoring of comprehension, circulation among pairs of students, "think aloud" for response, peer evaluation of self-portraits.
Note: Students will also exhibit their self-portraits during the culminating activity, when they will present their best piece of writing with voice to the audience.