Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

Week 1: STORYTELLING
Central Focus
Grade Level
Class Size
Time
Class Demographics

Students will be learning clay techniques while also gaining knowledge about historical Native
American culture and how it relates to contemporary social and artistic culture.
1st
10-25 students
9:00-10:50
N/A

National Visual Arts Standards Addressed

VA:Cr2.1.1a Explore uses of materials and tools to create works of art or design.
VA:Re.7.1.1a Select and describe works of art that illustrate daily life experiences of ones self and others.
VA:Cn11.1.1a Understand that people from different places and times have made art for a variety of reasons
Forms
Frames
Conceptual
Framework

2D
Cultural

Subjective

3D
Structural

4D
Postmodern

Artwork

Artist

Audience

World

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
1.
Orally identify various historical and contemporary methods of sharing knowledge by matching teachergiven examples with their descriptors: visual, verbal, and text. Cn11.1.1a
2.
Using paper and pencil (no color), visually illustrate a 3-scene story on paper, following a narrative style
exemplified by Diego Romero, Roxanne Swentzel, and Jeff Lamire. Re.7.1.1a
3.
Using clay and drawing inspiration from your own experience and culture, create at least two characters
based off of the sketches. Cr2.1.1a

Artifacts

work

pencils

Native American
Posters of artists
printed maps

Crayons / Colored
Pencils

TEACHER MATERIALS

Keepers of the
Animals book

Teacher examples

Pencils

clay portioned for

students

notes

paper

Projector
Artist information
Ball of yarn
sharpie
big white sheets of
tape

STUDENT MATERIALS

clay

paper templates

artist handouts
ARTISTS IN CONTEXT

Key Artists

Jeff Lamire, Roxanne Swentzell, Diego Romero, Norman Rockwell, Maurice Sendak

EE = Early Elementary grades K-3 LE = Late Elementary grades 4-6 MS = Middle School grades 6-9
EHS = Early High School grades 10-11 LHS = Late High School grade 12

Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

Key Artworks

Jeff Lamire, Sweet Tooth, 2009

Roxanne Swentzell, The Emergence of the Clowns, 1988

EE = Early Elementary grades K-3 LE = Late Elementary grades 4-6 MS = Middle School grades 6-9
EHS = Early High School grades 10-11 LHS = Late High School grade 12

Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

Diego Romero

Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild Things Are, 1963

Key Critical Questions

Vocabulary

Language Functions

1.
Diego Romero:
When do you think this was made? What is he wearing; does he look like someone you
see everyday? Whats different about him?
2.
All:
What is the story happening here? Does the story relate to your life, and how? Whats
happening in the story that you dont understand? Why do you think the artist made
this?
VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Culture - The beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time
Additive- joining a smaller piece of clay to a larger piece
Subtractive- taking away or carving clay
Indigenous- original inhabitant of land
Interpret a story in an artwork, describe your own story

EE = Early Elementary grades K-3 LE = Late Elementary grades 4-6 MS = Middle School grades 6-9
EHS = Early High School grades 10-11 LHS = Late High School grade 12

Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

Language Demands
Language Tasks and
Activities
Language Supports

Syntax
Discourse
1.
Students will orally share a story from his/her life experience.
2.
Students will talk about the differences and similarities between telling a
story through pictures, words, and text.
1.
The projector will be used to show images of artwork, and the text
Keepers of the Animals will be used to tell stories.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AND LEARNING TASKS

Launch
Instruction Methods
Name Game activity as students are gathering:
Hands-on student
- Teacher will assign student accompanying animal names. Teacher will explain
involvement
cultural difference of the phrase, all my relations
Game of Telephone (5 minutes):
- Once all students are in the classroom, the teachers will guide students through a
game of telephone. One teacher will begin the chain, and the other teacher will be in
the middle of the chain. The last student will share the sentence.
- The teacher will ask: how did we share this story?
Instruction
Instruction Methods
direct instruction, teacher

Set Introduction - Story-telling (10 minutes):

demonstration, hands-on student
- Teacher will tell a story, How Grandmother Spider named the Clans from Hopi
involvement, group discussion
tribe
- Teacher will have students lie down on their backs with their eyes closed.
Teacher will encourage the students to picture the scenes in the story as she is
telling it.
- Teachers will talk about the idea of culture: way of thinking shared by a group.
could be religious, artistic, a way of life.etc
-Teacher will ask, who can give an example of a culture?

History/Native American Culture (8 minutes):

- 1880 - 1932 the Allotment Era. Reservation system established. Closing of the
frontier. late 1870s boarding schools. cultural practices outlawed (sun dance, use
of tribal medicines and medicine men..etc).
- One of my cultures is being an artist. When I was your age, if my parents
took away my culture it would mean they took away my paint and crayons and
sent my to my room. What is culture to you?
- How do you remember things? Do your parents take pictures? What important
events do they take pictures of you? Your birthday? Your first day of school?

Contemporary Artists (8 minutes):

- (Roxanne Swentzel, Diego Romero, Jeff Lamire)
While showing students images of artwork on a Powerpoint, the teacher will ask:
How is the artist telling a story? Is he/she explaining the story to you? Is she
reading a story to you? Is she letting you see the story? If he/she is letting you
see a story, what makes it different than a posed picture? Are there important
items in the scene? Are the characters doing something?
-mind map of roxanne swentzell

Draw own story (15 minutes)

- Teacher will explain that we will be drawing our own stories, which relate to our
own cultures and lives. Teacher will encourage students to think about a specific
event. Teachers will share their own stories and drawings for
inspiration/examples. Teacher will ask, Does anyone want to share their idea for
a story before we start drawing?
- Students will draw on dark worksheet paper (with 4x4 guidelines) with white
EE = Early Elementary grades K-3 LE = Late Elementary grades 4-6 MS = Middle School grades 6-9
EHS = Early High School grades 10-11 LHS = Late High School grade 12

Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

pencils/crayons.

Describe story orally to peers (3 minutes)

- Students will describe and share their drawings out loud.
- Teachers will use this opportunity as an assessment to make sure each
students drawing can be easily transferred to the tile.

Bathroom break (5-7 minutes)

Transfer story into 3D characters (1 hr)

-Teacher will perform a demonstration on how to create hollow clay forms
-Teacher will demonstrate how to use carving tools
-while students are working, teacher will record them speaking about their stories
Closure

Teacher will explain methods of cleaning clay carving tools,

working areas, and hands.

Instruction Methods
hands-on student
involvement, group discussion

Yarn web activity/name reminders (last 5 minutes of class):

- Teacher will gather students together in a circle. While saying their names,
students will pass the ball of yarn to make connections between sharing stories
about what their favorite parts of class were...etc
- Teacher will ask refresher questions such as, What did you learn today? Can
you remember a friends story from class?
ACCOMMODATIONS FOR SPECIFIC DIVERSE LEARNERS
Adaptations and Accommodations

For students who are visual learners, all larger, temporary images from the Powerpoint will also be posted
on the bulletin board for future inspiration.

For collaborative learners, we will have group discussion on their stories.

Enrichment and Extensions

Students who are more technically advanced can push the boundaries by also using additive sculpture,
and scoring and slipping. If any students are able to read yet, they can read stories from Keeper of the Animals
Activity for Early Finishers

Students who finish early can draw out a comic-book-like scene, with a more elaborate story. They can use
colored pencils to get more detail.

1.
2.
3.

OBJECTIVE-DRIVEN ASSESSMENTS
Teachers will assess students, who will have orally identified various historical and contemporary methods of sharing
knowledge by matching teacher-given examples with their descriptors: visual, verbal, and text. Cn11.1.1a
Using dark paper and white crayons, students will have sketched a 3-scene story on paper, following a narrative style
exemplified by Diego Romero, Roxanne Swentzel, and Jeff Lamire. Re.7.1.1a
Students will have used clay and inspiration from their own experiences and cultures to create at least two characters based off
of the sketches. Cr2.1.1a
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS

History, Literature
REFERENCES

Caduto, M. J. (1997). Keepers of the Animals. Fulcrum.

Mithlo, N., W. Wilson, P. Phillips. (2012). Manifestations: New Native Art Criticism.. Museum of Contemporary Native Arts.
EE = Early Elementary grades K-3 LE = Late Elementary grades 4-6 MS = Middle School grades 6-9
EHS = Early High School grades 10-11 LHS = Late High School grade 12

Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

* Developed and written by (Whitney Johnson and Emily Lowman), Art Education, Illinois State University, 2015 *

EE = Early Elementary grades K-3 LE = Late Elementary grades 4-6 MS = Middle School grades 6-9
EHS = Early High School grades 10-11 LHS = Late High School grade 12

Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

EE = Early Elementary grades K-3 LE = Late Elementary grades 4-6 MS = Middle School grades 6-9
EHS = Early High School grades 10-11 LHS = Late High School grade 12