Origin

Summary:

Introducing the artist Luz Angela Crawford, a Latina artist, we will have the opportunity to study her original ceramic work in the classroom.  Luz Angela is a ceramicist, student will learn that Luz is inspired by the indigenous people of her origin, Columbia.  Taking cues from the tribes and nature, she hand builds her pottery and uses texture and color to give the feeling of a very natural finish.  Students will be learning and conducting interviews with family members about their family’s origin.  Using a T Chart students will writing a paragraph about their own family origin.  It amazing to see the excitement and strength they find from knowing their own history.  In class, students will also learn 3D geometric shape, through building, drawing and measuring paper geometric nets. Also they will use maps and map scales to measure distances between counties and watch National Geographic videos about these different countries.  In art class, students will hand building coil bowls, texturing them, and write the city and country of their origin on the side.  Finally, they will use the use all the information gather to as a final presentation at the end of the unit.

Big Idea: Origin

Essential Questions:



Cultural References: Luz Angela Crawford (visual artist) & Learning the tradition of ceramics from indigenous tribes and discovering family heritage.

Objectives | Students will:

Language Arts:

·      Given the information & examples of how to interview, students will understand & practice giving an interview to their classmate and family members about their origin.

·      Students will be able to compile the information, in a graphic organizer, and clearly write a paragraph about the information collected in the interview.

·       Students will evaluate their piers, by participating in a peer critique of the information collected and written about their family origin.

Art:

·      Shown how to build a coil pot, students will understand and build approximately a 4-inch coil pot with a 3.5”-4” diameter base, effectively using coils and clay connecting techniques.  Finally, students will successfully slip the coils bowl and add texture patterns using natural objects.

·      After completing the project students will wrap up with a self evaluation, thoughtfully drawing their piece, measuring the final diameter, describing their piece, and answering what is their favorite part and what would they change if they could do it again.

Math:

·      Given an example of scale on a map, students will explore and analyze different origins on world maps while measuring distances, using rulers to measure and approximate how far distances are using the maps scale key.

·      Given rulers students will successfully measure their coil bowl’s height & diameter.

·      Given geometric net templates, students successfully build 3D geometric shapes and use rules to measure the length, width, height and diameter.

Overview:

Learning Segment 1

The class viewed Angela Luz Crawford’s ceramic pottery in their classroom.  Prior to talking about her piece we created a graphic organizer that split the paper in to 4 section, draw, describe, discuss and your opinion.  Once the ceramic pot was in front of the room they had 15 mins to work on the graphic organizer.  Once complete, we shared s what student had  written about.  Next, we handed out & read her artist statement, discussed origin, indigenous tribes, what inspired her artwork talking about texture, pattern, color and nature.  We compared and contrasted ceramic from other parts of the world with Luz’s pottery, which deepened the conversation.

Learning Segment 2

Teachers introduced a mini-lesson about ‘interview’ and discussed what a good interview should look like and what a bad interview would look like.   Students practiced an easy interview with a partner, and filled out the graphic organizer like we will do for homework. For homework the students were responsible to interview two family members, preferably one form each side.  The questions were 4 basic questions about their origin; What is your origin? What is that place like? What is your favorite food from that place?  Do you have a memory from that place?

Learning Segment 3

Classroom teachers started the class by discussing what origin means using a visual organizer.  Then they made a smooth transition into a discussion about what the kids found out in their interviews about their family’s origin.  The student’s enjoyed telling what they found about their family origin and some details about that place.  We took all the information they learned in the interview and wrote a rough draft  and final paragraph complete with introduction sentence and conclusion.  These were later mounted and placed next to their hand built ceramic pots.

Learning Segment 4:

Students participated in a pier critiqued their fellow students work.  After they completed their rough draft, students exchanged with a nother and checked for capitals, punctuation and comprehension  Teachers helped with the editing in small group as well as walking around to student’s desks.

Learning Segment 5:

In the classroom, students were shown National Geographic Kids videos about other counties way of living.  They looked at map where those countries were compared to the United States.  Many of the kids asked, “how far away is that?”  Which lead perfectly into our next math section.  The teachers used the overhead and the students had the maps on their desk, everyone found the distance scale map key.  They measure how long it was, and measure pre-marked spots on the map, such as Columbia, Milwaukee, Texas & Brazil.  The students measured then added multiple digit numbers multiple times to find the distance.  Then they were shown a world map with destination previously picked out, relating to the videos we saw, and measured the distances by themselves.

Learning Segment 6 :

In the classroom, the teacher handed out a net pattern for a pyramid.  With little instruction, all the kids were told to try this one first.   They were able to work with people around them to figure it out.   Once completed, we passed out a variety of other geometric shape net pattern.  Kids loved trying to figure them out and working together.  Once they were complete, the teacher showed the 3D math manipulative geometric shapes and compared them.  Then, using the smartboard to draw and rulers to measure, the teacher demonstrated how to draw the 3D shape and the students measured the length, width, height and diameter and labeled them on their drawings.

Learning Segment 7:

In the art room, students review what they discovered looking at Luz Angela’s ceramics.  We review Luz’s inspiration, indigenous tribes of Columbia and how she incorporated nature into her ceramics.  The students were given instruction and clay to start a coil bowl.  First, we started with a 3.5 inch- 4inch diameter disk.  Then, students were shown how to make proper coils, connect, lay and build the walls higher using hand rolled coils.  They had two 45 minute sessions to build their bowl, and we used slip to close and smooth some of the gaps  on their pots.  Finally, with alphabet noodles, they pressed the name of their family’s origin into the side of the clay to spell out the cities or counties, then add texture patterns with objects from nature and simple found objects.

Learning Segment 7:

Throughout the project we reviewed diameter and perimeter.  At the end of the project, the kids reflected on their own work, one segment they measure the diameter of the top and bottom to compare if they were the same.  They also measured the height and recorded our information in the visual journal. After firing, students glazed their pieces using natural colors and were able to use 2 accent bright colors.

Learning Segment 8:

The final day of in the artroom, we wrote a self-evaluation about their own artwork.  Mirroring the same exercise we completed in the gallery about Luz’s artwork, the students drew the same visual diagram.  In complete sentences, they filled out each section.  The categories were draw, describe, what was their favorite part and what would they change if they would do it again.  Finally, some students were able to show their bowl and share what they wrote in front of the class.

Assessment:

Summative Assessment

Students draws upon knowledge of a their heritage/origin to write a paragraph.

Students can thoroughly identify origin and compare and contrast different origins and how they influence artwork, tradition & food.

Students can practice measuring skills while creating their 4 inch bowl, they will learn to gauge a better idea of distance on a map.

Students edit rough draft of persuasive paragraph and final presentation of paragraph.

Teachers check for understanding of math problems.

Students written self evaluation and presentation of their coil pot.

Formative Assessment:

Classroom teacher rubric for rough draft and final draft of persuasive paragraph.  

Rubric for final assessment of brochure cover and coil pot.