Unit Summary:
The objectives of this unit are to teach students how to tell stories visually through model making and sculptures. Students will reflect on how to analyze and deconstruct folktales, myths and legends through visual art. Students will also learn how interviewing family members can generate new connections for storytelling about origins. This unit is centered mainly around the collection of African folktales by Ernest Balintuma Kalibala that was first published in 1946. Students will make wearable capes from textiles, make clay sculptures, create unicorn puppets and design dioramas for storytelling.
Lesson Plan I : Storytelling Cape
The anchor of the first lesson is for students to relate personal experiences to make art. The enduring understanding is that students will enter the role of storytellers and artistic creators. This July it occurred to me that I can sign my artworks as NAK in homage to my uncle Kakooza who signed artworks with the name KAK. Spoken aloud NAK sounds like the English word knack which means an innate or learned skill at doing something. Knack also has a silent letter k in it which reminds me of my first name which is Kasalina. In the past I kept a commonplace book and did not sign it. Using this signature is a development in my artistic life where I mark myself as the creator of an artwork with a reference to another artist I was formed by. Ideally students will present stories to each other using their artwork and will learn about how to utilize the qualities of materials to enhance their artwork. Students will create wearable capes that like superheroes in myths. The goal is to empower students with wearables that they will design with their names. The essential question is how does art help understand ourselves?
Procedures:
1.Students will create wearable art that encourage them to tell stories and be creative.
2. The objective is that students are able to make a cape with their name that they design to set the stage for the unit.
3. After completion student can see themselves as artists and storytellers.
Evaluation:
The learning target is that students develop a work of art based on observations of surrondings. (VA:Cn10.1.3)
Extension:
Advanced students can create works of art that reflect community cultural traditions. (VA:Cn10.1.4)
Lesson Plan II : Wakaima and Br’er Rabbit Clay Figures
The anchor standard of lesson 2 is relating cultural understanding to deepen understanding of art. In the second lesson students will make clay rabbit figures. The enduring understanding is that students will connect the story of Wakaima and the Clay Man with Br’er Rabbit in the story Tar Baby. Both rabbits playing tricks on another character get stuck in scarecrow like figures which trap them as they struggle to extricate themselves.(36) The second lesson introduces Wakaima from the African folktale collection by Kalibala and links it to Br’er Rabbit in the African diaspora. The essential question is how does art help us understand different cultures and history?
Procedures:
1. Students will make clay figures of rabbits as they are introduced to folktales with Wakaima the rabbit and Br’er rabbit.
2. The objective is that students make meaningful cross-cultural connections between the stories and the artworks they create with clay.
3. After completion the students will be able to describe how the rabbit symbolizes a trickster animal character in the folktales they heard.
Evaluation: The learning target is that students recognize that art changes depending on the time and place in which it was made. (VA:Cn11.1.3)
Extension: Advanced students can make inferences about the time, place and culture in which an artwork was made.(VA:Cn11.1.5)
Lesson Plan III : Soft Unicorn Puppet
The anchor standard of the third lesson students is developing artistic ideas. Students will make soft unicorn puppets. The enduring understanding of this lesson will be for students to learn how artists can experiment with form. The teacher can introduce the connection between Wakaima and the King’s Cow to the whimsical figure of the unicorn which is broadly appealing and like Br’er rabbit has become an iterative figure in stories beyond a single specific cultural origin. Last year I observed puppets were popular with third grade students. The idea for this unit started there and this year when a student expressed interest in a soft puppet I began to consider the material qualities of lessons. A 4th grade student knocked on my classroom this past June and shared a robot made outside of class and requested that it be displayed for other students to see in the art classroom. That day kindergarten students responded to it spontaneously creating wearables like a crown and bracelet out of paper and a drawing of the robot. Later in the day I gave the 4th grader a robot I had left over from teaching at the STEM summer. Unicorns are usually bright and colorful and it is an opportunity to use visually appealing and tactile materials that excite students and cause them to be engaged like the response they had to a robot. The essential question is how do artists decide what direction their work will go in?
Procedures:
1. Students will listen to a retelling of Wakaima and the King’s Cow animated by the instructor with animal puppets and do drawings inspired by the story.
2. Students will look at examples of unicorns in artworks and picture books and design their own with a blueprint drawing.
3. Students will choose mixed media materials and be guided in construction of a soft unicorn puppet.
4. The objective is that students will be inspired to experiment with new materials as they create unique unicorns.
5. After completion students will have an individualized puppet that they can use to enact a play.
Evaluation:
The learning target is that students will create personally satisfying artwork using a variety of processes and materials. (VA:Cr2.1.3)
Extension:
Advanced students can explore and invent art-making techniques and approaches. (VA:Cr2.1.4)
Lesson Plan IV: Create a Setting for a Play
The anchor standard for the 4th lesson is refining and completing artistic work. The enduring understanding is that artists refine their work from reflection In this lesson students will make individual dioramas with boxes for play acting with their puppets. The first and last lesson are inspired by lessons from the book, Collage Workshop for Kids, by Shannon Merenstein.
Procedures:
1. Students will design dioramas to create a setting for the puppets in storytelling.
2. The objective is to teach students about how a background helps tell a story or artwork.
3. Students will be able to create a world for their puppet to help develop their sense of space and ability to describe stories through artwork.
Evaluation:
The learning target is that students elaborate artwork by adding details to enhance emerging meaning. (VA:Cr3.1.3)
Extension:
Advanced students can enact a play using the puppet from lesson 3 b attaching it within their diorama for display in classroom and also write a few sentences that describes what is happening in their story. Students will be able to revise work in progress based on feedback from peers. (VA:Cr.3.1.4)
