Everyday Arts Lab: Belonging, Lesson 1 Updated 10/5/1610:03 AM

Primary Subject Area and Grade Level: Visual Arts, 1-5 th Grade
Interdisciplinary Connections
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy)

Creating a safe space for children to learn is an essential goal for many educators. It can be difficult to
establish a routine and sense of community in an afterschool setting. Exploring the concept and feeling of
Belonging, allows for the exploration and expression of social emotional skills, building a sense of self in
relationship to others and developing an understanding and appreciation for differences within one another
and their larger communities.

Lesson Duration: State the approximate time frame for this lesson.
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)

120 minutes divided into two lessons: This lesson will introduce the concept of belonging through a
sketchbook making project and series of exercises that will take place over two sessions in week 1. This
lesson is the introduction to an 8 week curriculum.

Relevance/Rationale; Central Focus/Big Idea: Consider how your outcomes and plan will engage students cognitively and build
understanding. Why are the lesson outcomes important in the real world? How is this lesson relevant to students in this class (interests,
cultural heritages, needs)?
(1b: Demonstrating Knowledge of
Students)

Through the concept of Belonging, students will explore their own place in relationship to one another, the
school, their families, and their community. In a diverse school, with students coming from different places,
backgrounds and traditions, we will engage with artists and artistic practices to reinforce that all students
have value and they each have something to contribute to the larger community. This unit focuses on
learning to appreciate uniqueness and forming a creative community through acknowledging and
appreciating difference as an asset. Elementary students are in a position of beginning to recognize, form,
and value their own identity. The artists embedded into this unit are also identifying, investigating, and
expressing their cultural aesthetics through their creative practice. Through a series of projects students will
create work to both express themselves and take action (opportunities for empowerment) in the community,
grow together as a community through appreciating difference, and explore uniqueness and individuality
that makes up this community of learners.

Outcomes/Objectives: What will students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson? Outcomes should be written in the form
of student learning and suggest viable methods of assessment. For teachers of English language learners: What language objectives will
be addressed?
(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes)

● Students will create their own space to organize or express thoughts, write down ideas, brainstorm,
draw, enjoy, practice, explore materials, and collect through making a sketchbook and designing their
own cover with collage.
● Students will explore collage as an artmaking practice looking at the artwork of Vik Muniz and his use
of recycled materials, reflecting on place and environment, and learning how to be resourceful
● Students will learn how to attach pages to their sketchbook cover and learn about artists Christine
Wong Yap and Margaret Kilgallen’s use of text and bookbinding to record and share ideas.
● Students will create Trading Cards/Postcards to build a personal collection of art and develop
classroom relationships by trading artwork they created.
Content Standard(s) and/or Common Core Learning Standard(s): Updated 10/5/1610:03 AM
(1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes)

● VA:Cr.1.2.2- Make art or design with various materials and tools to explore personal interests,
questions, and curiosity
● VA:Cr.2.1.2- Experiment with various materials and tools to explore personal interests in work of art
or design

Use of Formative Assessment to Inform Planning: Describe your student’s current levels of understanding of the content related
to the outcome for this lesson. What are some of the indicators that let you know that these outcomes and the lesson activities represent the
appropriate amount of cognitive challenge for all students?
(1f: Designing Student Assessments)

This is the first lesson introducing this afterschool program and unit to the students. The first lesson will
provide an opportunity to introduce the theme and concept while also providing a space to get to know the
students through conversations during the sketchbook cover making and use of sketchbook pages. This
lesson is designed to provide plenty of choice to design the cover using collage materials and designating the
sketchbook as the student’s space to draw what they want. The primary skill being taught is collage,
choosing colors and images that reflect something about self, and layering images. Formative assessment
would include asking about student choices of color and images and asking about how they are going to
layer pieces rather than putting side by side. Establishing the beginning of class as sketchbook time will
create a routine and place for students to express thoughts and ideas as they transition from the school day to
the afterschool program. Formative assessment will primarily consist of checking in with students, asking
questions about materials and ideas, but focusing in on getting to know students through their choices and
drawings while reinforcing that the sketchbook is their personal space. Establishing relationships and
building trust can only happen over time, but assessing the current level of participation and openness to
engaging with materials and sharing will inform how much time might need to be devoted to establishing
relationships. The free draw time and conversations through drawing together time will provide information
about student experiences and interests to incorporate into future lessons.

Class Information: Describe any unique characteristics of the class (considerations may include: special needs, language levels,
learning styles, etc.). Describe how other adults (paraprofessionals, volunteers, co-teachers, resource teachers, etc.) will support student
learning, if applicable. Also include any other circumstances an observer should know about.
(1b: Knowledge of Students)

Students come from different cultural backgrounds, many students have recently come to the United States
from The Republic of Congo and other regions. There are language and cultural differences that are being
constantly navigated by students and teachers. This is a high poverty school and many students have adverse
childhood experiences and a high ACE score.

Overview: Provide a brief overview of the lesson. The overview should provide the observer with a description of the lesson’s content and
how it relates to the larger unit. Include prerequisite knowledge required to meet lesson outcomes and relationship to future learning.
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and
Pedagogy)

Belonging is a broad concept that will be explored over and 8 week curriculum. The first lesson will provide
an opportunity to find out what students think about belonging, where they belong, why they belong, how
belonging makes them feel. This sketchbook lesson is designed to provide choice of imagery and collage
materials to design a cover and establishing the sketchbook as the student’s own space to draw and explore
the thoughts and ideas that are significant to them when they come in the room. Essential Questions leading
their self-exploration:
How do I communicate ideas and moods through drawing and collage?
How can improvising and free drawing demonstrate my artistic knowledge and personal expression?
How does the use of art in everyday life affect and influence me personally?
Technologies and Other Materials /Resources: List all materials, handouts, resources, and technology tools Updated 10/5/1610:03 AM
that are needed by the student or the teacher to execute the lesson. Technologies may include hardware, software, and
websites, etc. Materials and resources may include physical resources (e.g. books, manipulatives, supplies, equipment, etc.) and/or people
resources (e.g. guest speakers, librarian, etc.).
(1d: Demonstrating Knowledge of
Resources)
● Powerpoint presentation with information about Belonging/artist Margaret Kilgallen
● 15 sheets of 9” x 12” white construction paper, punched with three holes along one of the 12 inch
sides per student
● Hole-punch tool (Manual hand-held hole punches, three-hole punch manual tools, or an electric
threehole punch machine.)
● binder clips
● 9” x 12” thin cardboard or mat board
● Markers and/or colored pencils
● Variety of collage materials, magazines, foam stickers, buttons, feathers etc.
● Glue sticks
● Scissors

Grouping Strategy: Describe how you will group students to facilitate learning of the outcomes of this lesson. What is the rationale for
the grouping strategy?
(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)

Students will sit at tables in small groups of four or five. This will help facilitate sharing materials as well as
conversations about thoughts and ideas being expressed through art making experiences.

Academic Vocabulary: What key terms are essential to this content? What terms are essential to develop and extend students
vocabulary?

(1a: Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy; 1b: Knowledge of

Students)

● Belonging:
● sketch: a drawing without much detail usually completed in a short amount of time; sometimes used as
a rough draft for a later work of art
● sketchbook: a book in which artists’ sketches, ideas and journaling is recorded; a pad or book of
drawing paper for sketching on
● Collage:art made by sticking various materials such as pictures and paper onto a surface
● Layering: to arrange in layers

● Book Binding: assembling a book in an ordered stack of sheets folded together

Lesson Procedures: The procedures should clearly describe the sequence of learning activities and should identify where and how all
materials, technology tools and student-created technology products, and reproducible materials/handouts are utilized in the lesson. Describe
the lesson sequence:

● How will the lesson launch?

● How will the material be presented?
● What questions will be posed to the students? What are the expected responses?
● How and when will the teacher model?
● What opportunities will there be for guided practice, group work and individual practice?
● How and when will you monitor student understanding throughout the lesson?
● What opportunities will there be for reflection and closure?

Include approximate time allocations for each portion of the lesson. Be very precise when explaining the teacher and student tasks during
the learning activities.

(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy; 1e: Designing Coherent

 Instruction) Updated 10/5/1610:03 AM
1. Introduce lesson
2. ice breaker game: Move your Butt! game: one person stands in the middle and says certain statements they agree with and
others that also agree shake their butt. example: shake your butt if...you have a sister. Maria will give the demonstration
3. Introduce Artists through power point: Margaret Kilgallen
4. Teachers model what were teaching
5. Questions: Where is your favorite place to be? What are your interests? What is your favorite animal? What is your
favorite music? What is your favorite sport?
6. Materials: paper, cover: bristol paper, binder rings, glue, magazines,
7. Students talk to one another to create ideas
8. Ask some students what they are thinking of for the project
9. Students work
10. Closing activity: introduce the trading cards

Differentiation: Describe how you will differentiate instruction for a variety of learners, including students will special needs, English
Language Learners, and high achieving students to ensure that all students have access to and are able to engage appropriately in this
lesson. Be specific.

(1e: Designing Coherent Instruction)

We could demonstrate the folding of the paper and construction of the sketchbooks themselves to give a visual for the students who
may not know English. Passing around a premade demo will give students an even closer look at how the sketchbook is put together
and ideas on what they can incorporate into their own collages as well as layout.
Assessment Criteria for Success:
● How and when will you assess student learning throughout the lesson (formative)?
● How will you and your students know if they have successfully met the outcomes?
● What is the criteria for mastery of the lesson outcome(s)?
● Describe any (formative and summative) assessments to be used.
(1f: Designing Student Assessments)
Each student will have created a sketchbook with a front and back cover they have personalized with images of things that interest
them and or enjoy. Each sketchbook cover and back should be quite different from one another with some similarities in things such
as hobbies and favorite foods etc. There is no wrong or right way of creating a collage, students can explore with various images
and colors. In the end every student will look around at what others created looking at differences and similarities.
Anticipated Difficulties: What difficulties or possible misunderstanding do you anticipate that students may encounter? How will
you prevent them from occurring?
(1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and
Pedagogy)
-They won’t know what to collage
-They won’t like what they are making and get frustrated
-Running out of time/ being done early
-Not explaining enough

How to prevent:
-Learn more about the students
-Learn students strengths and weaknesses

Reflections: List at least three questions you will ask yourself after the lesson is taught.
(4a: Reflecting on Teaching)
-What did students take with them from this lesson?
-Were students able to learn more about their classmates and sharing ideas?
- How may they apply what they learned into future projects?