Unit 4: Celebrations
Artist: Nick Cave
- Finger Puppets: Modeling Compound
Artist Norman Rockwell
- Celebrating 21st Century America: Graphic Design
Artist: Miriam Schapiro
- Lesson Plan Example: Torn Paper Collage
Unit 4: Celebrations Reflection
This unit we had two studios that reflected the celebrations big idea and I also created an example project that goes along with my lesson plan. The first studio we did was based off the ideas of Nick Cave. Cave’s creations are a very good representation of our big idea of celebration. His costumes are all very bright and many times are being danced in. Daniel Pink makes the point that “There is no question that a playfully light attitude is characteristic of creative individuals. (p. 198)” From what we learned about Nick Cave, I feel like this quote is very fitting for him and our future students. The finger puppets we made were objects or traits that celebrated something about ourselves. I created a ladybug because ladybugs have always been very cute and cuddly to me. Our second studio was a magazine cover celebrating an aspect of the 21st century. I chose to celebrate the St. Louis Cardinals on my cover. I have grown up being around baseball and I have spent a lot of time at Busch Stadium celebrating the Cardinals team.
There are so many different integration possibilities using these two studio lessons in the general education classroom. One that really stands out to me is using the finger puppets to allow students to recreate characters of a story. I think this would be a great activity to accompany a real aloud book. Read alouds are always very relaxed and there isn’t a whole lot of thinking that has to go on. I think that after finishing a book, creating finger puppets to represent the characters would be a great was for students to be a little more involved and be interested in finding out new traits about each character throughout the story. It would be very interesting to see all the different varieties of the same character you would end up with. According to Eisner (2002), “The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. (p. 70). This would teach a student that many times there is not a right or wrong answer and they can let their imagination take control. I also think there are many ways that the magazine covers could be used. Literacy is a big subject area that comes to mind. This would be a very different and engaging way for students to display their writing over a certain topic.
References:
Eisner, E. W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University.
Pink, D. H. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.
There are so many different integration possibilities using these two studio lessons in the general education classroom. One that really stands out to me is using the finger puppets to allow students to recreate characters of a story. I think this would be a great activity to accompany a real aloud book. Read alouds are always very relaxed and there isn’t a whole lot of thinking that has to go on. I think that after finishing a book, creating finger puppets to represent the characters would be a great was for students to be a little more involved and be interested in finding out new traits about each character throughout the story. It would be very interesting to see all the different varieties of the same character you would end up with. According to Eisner (2002), “The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. (p. 70). This would teach a student that many times there is not a right or wrong answer and they can let their imagination take control. I also think there are many ways that the magazine covers could be used. Literacy is a big subject area that comes to mind. This would be a very different and engaging way for students to display their writing over a certain topic.
References:
Eisner, E. W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University.
Pink, D. H. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.