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Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

Crocheting to the Community


Central Focus
Grade Level
Class Size
Time
Class Demographics

Students will be learning about Olek, a contemporary artist who often works collaboratively in
public spaces to bring about awareness.
3rd
9
9:00-10:50
N/A

National Visual Arts Standards Addressed


VA:Cr1.2.3a Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas through the artmaking process
VA:Cr3.1.3a Elaborate visual information by adding details in an artwork to enhance emerging meaning.
VA:Re8.1.3a Interpret art by analyzing use of media to create subject matter, characteristics of form, and mood.
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.
Create a woven section on a handmade loom using at least two found objects. VA:Cr3.1.3a
2.
Orally explain how a specific art medium can affect an artworks meaning by discussing why you chose at
least one found object for your weaving. VA:Re8.1.3a
3.
Collaborate on a woven section of a collaborative sculpture that is at least two square feet in size.
VA:Cr1.2.3a

https://vimeo.com/13
9484051

TEACHER MATERIALS
PRINTED:
images of artist
works
teacher examples
name tags for
students
thumbtacks

STUDENT MATERIALS
traditional weaving
materials: yarn, fabric, natural
fibers
found objects:
plastic bags, leaves, sticks,
cds, corn husks cut into strips,
corn fuzz, flowers...etc

colored pencils
foam
scissors
tacky glue

ARTISTS IN CONTEXT
Key Artists

Olek

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

Large sticks
found objects
large piece of
paper cut and ready for
weaving
acrylic paint
wire
wire-cutters

strips of different
colored papers
wire

Level 3: ART 309 & Student Teaching

Key Artworks

Olek, St+Art Delhi

Olek, Crocheted Time Bomb


Key Critical Questions

Olek
Where are these works installed? Why didnt she just hang her work up
in a gallery? What does the location of the artworks installation have to
do with its meaning? What kind of research do you think Olek does
before deciding what to make?

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

VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION


Vocabulary

Language Functions
Language Demands
Language Tasks and
Activities
Language Supports

Collaborative art- multiple people or artists working together as a team to make work
installation
Installation- three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform
the perception of a space
Syntax
Discourse
Students will analyze Oleks work while using the terms collaborative and installation.
1. Teacher will introduce Oleks work by showing an image of Olek and a
team of three others carrying a large piece of crocheted artwork.
2. Teacher will explain the word collaborative and ask questions such as,
how do you think working with multiple people or artists can help an artwork?
Can more hands get more done? Do you think all artists completely agree on one
idea when they work together?
3. Teacher will show images of Olek as she installs her work in various
places.
4. Teacher will explain the word installation and ask, Why didnt Olek
install this in a gallery? What kind of feelings would you get, looking at this
artwork from the street?
5. Students will say both words out loud as a class.

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES AND LEARNING TASKS


Instruction Methods
Yarn web activity as students are gathering *yarn ball
Hands-on student involvement
-teacher will have students sit in a circle. Teacher will sit with students.
Teacher will share her name, along with one thing that defines herself.
Students will share their names, and one thing they like to do that defines
themselves.
Instruction
Instruction Methods
direct instruction, teacher

Weaving:
demonstration, hands-on student
-students will come back to their weavings from last week. Teacher will give a
involvement, group discussion
demo on how to start a particular material on the loom. Teacher will also give a
demo on how to tie a new material onto one that has ended. Teacher will tell the
students to start with yarn - because its thin - to keep the tension right on the
loom. Teacher will make it clear that students need to have at least two found
objects in their weavings by writing this objective on the board.
-Teacher will go around asking each student to explain what the materials the
student chose mean.
-students who finish early can decorate a strip of paper for the class paper
weaving
Launch

Olek background info *Powerpoint


-Teacher will introduce artist Olek and the vocab term collaborative art.
-Teacher will show images of Oleks work at St+Art in Delhi and explain
significance of Oleks work at St+Art to scaffold students before watching this
video: https://vimeo.com/139484051. stop video at :35 to ask: So we know
Olek crochets things in public spaces, right? So, what does she mean when she
says, people stop staring at the ground or running, and look for a second at the
piece and its going to change them one way or another?
- Teacher will show video on Time Bomb
http://oleknyc.com/gallery/video/103546453 . Teacher will pause the video at
intervals to summarize and ask questions about why Olek is talking about
sharks while making this work. Teacher will explain the term installation art
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

Interesting communities activity


-show images of unique communities
-what about normal makes it cool?

Collaborative Sculpture:
-Teacher will explain that this new work will be displayed as an installation, so
we are going to figure out a way to use our weavings to transform a space.
Teacher and students will leave the room as a class to find a place in the
building to install our work.
-Students will use scraps to weave and transform a space near the CVA.
Students will form a team: two students to cut scraps, small groups of students
to tie knots in scraps to make long strands, one student to pass the strands,
another student to do the weaving
Closure
Yarn web activity (last 5 minutes of class):
- Teacher will ask refresher questions such as, What did you learn today? What did
you make? What new artists do you know?
- Teacher will gather students together in a circle. Students will pass the ball of yarn
to make a weaving of connections by sharing their sentence

Instruction Methods
hands-on student involvement, group
discussion

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR SPECIFIC DIVERSE LEARNERS


Adaptations and Accommodations
Information will be shown on Powerpoint, multiple youtube videos of Olek, and in print on the inspiration board. Students will be
working individually and collaboratively.
Enrichment and Extensions
Students who want to add more to the projects can draw images of what we did in class or something about themselves and
collage it onto the collaborative fabric weaving.
Activity for Early Finishers
Students who finish early can start working on the collaborative sculpture by wiring their individual looms together.
OBJECTIVE-DRIVEN ASSESSMENTS
1. Students will have woven their handmade looms using at least two found objects. VA:Cr3.1.3a
2. Students will have orally explained how a specific art medium can affect an artworks meaning by
discussing why he/she chose at least one found object for his/her weaving. VA:Re8.1.3a
3. Students will have collaborated on a woven section of a collaborative sculpture that is at least two square
feet in size. VA:Cr1.2.3a
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS

REFERENCES
Rojo, J., & Harrington, S. P. (2015, March 25). Gender, Caste, And Crochet: OLEK Transforms A Shelter In Delhi. Huffington Post. Retrieved
from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jaime-rojo-steven-harrington/olek-womens-shelter-delhi_b_6935794.html

Olek- Biography. (2015, July 30). Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://culture.pl/en/artist/olek

Videos. (n.d.). Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://oleknyc.com/gallery/video/103546453


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), 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

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