African American Master Painters Lesson Plans and Materials

Sereena Hamm LBSC744 St. Stephens and St. Agnes Middle School

African American Master Painters Unit Library Lessons

Lesson: African American Master Painters Course: 8th grade Visual Arts Unit: African American Master Painters Grade: 8th Teacher(s): Jean Lynch and Sereena Hamm School: St. Stephens and St. Agnes Middle School Duration: Two 45 minute class periods (for library instruction)

Collaboration Continuum: Collaboration Library Scheduling: Flexible

Library Lesson Instructional Objectives: Library Lesson 1:

Ms. Lynchs 8th grade art students will Identify three paintings of interest by three different African American master painters, using print books and their text features to locate relevant paintings. Articulate several (at least three) reasons why their selected works appeal to them, using appropriate visual art vocabulary to make observations about the themes, subjects, composition and techniques of the works.

Library Lesson 2:
Ms. Lynchs 8th grade art students will Select and evaluate three reliable and authoritative sources to identify biographical information and art criticism of one African American Master Painter. Paraphrase, quote, and cite biographical information and art criticism about one African American Master Painter using MLA format and structured note-taking procedures to respect intellectual property. Respond to ve meaningful questions establishing information about the artists work, themes and style, using facts from three print and/ or online sources to support answers.

Unit Outline Library Lessons (Two 45-minute class periods): Exploration of African American Master Painters (1 period) African American Master Painters Research (1 period) Art Lessons (Ten 45-minute class periods, with potential to give more time based on student progress): Using an Artists Work as Inspiration (1 period) Planning a Painting (1 period) Selecting a Color Palette (1 period) Original Painting Creation (5 or more periods) Gallery Display and Reflection Discussion (1-2 class periods)

Resources for Students

Online subscription database(s) Web sites Books Reference Nonprint Periodicals/newspapers Other (list): see below

Lesson Materials for Library Lessons Assignment sheet copies Research question copies Post-it flags Print art books and encyclopedias Database access -- ProQuest eLibrary and Gale Biography in Context were used for this lesson MLA note sheet copies Projector Computers for each student

AASL Standards for 21st Century Learner S1.1 1__2__3__4_X_5__6__7__8_X_9__ S1.2 1__2_X_3_X_4_X_5__6__7__ S1.3 1_X_2__3_X_4__5__ S1.4 1__2_X_3_X_4_X_ S2.1 1__2_X_3__4__5__6_X_ S2.2 1__2__3__4_X_ S2.3 1__2__3__ S2.4 1__2__3__4__ S3.1 1_X_2__3__4__5__6__ S3.2 1__2__3__ S3.3 1__2__3__4_X_5__6__7__ S3.4 1__2_ _3__ S4.1 1__2__3__4__5_X_6__7__8_X_ S4.2 1__2__3__ S4.3 1__2__3__4__ S4.4 1__2__3__4__5__6__

Content Area Standards/Goals: VA Visual Arts Standards (http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/ sol/standards_docs/previous_years/2000/ne_arts/visual_arts/ visualarts00k-12.pdf) 8.12 The student will describe and place a variety of works in historical and cultural contexts. 8.15 The student will analyze the effect the elements of art and the principles of design have on the communication of ideas. 8.16 The student will investigate and discuss the use of social, cultural, and historical context as they contribute to meaning in a work of art. 8.17 The student will communicate how personal experiences inuence critical judgments about works of art. 8.21 The student will formulate and respond to meaningful questions about works of art based upon observations and interpretations. 8.22 The student will describe personal sensory responses to the visual qualities of a work of art using appropriate art vocabulary.

Lesson Design Unit Overview: Exploring the diverse range of American art movements, styles, and techniques is a significant strand of the 8th grade art curriculum at St. Stephens and St. Agnes School (SSSAS). To support this curriculum strand, 8th grade students will explore the works of an African American Master Painter and then will choose one painting by one artist as the inspiration of an original painting. Students may be inspired to use an artists subject matter, mood, themes, color palette or other artistic element to create their work. Students will deepen their understanding of the one African American artist painting in the U.S. conducting research into the biography, career, and techniques of their chosen painter. Students will share their results and original work with their peers, and as a full class, students will reect upon their learning and record their observations about African American Master Painters to increase their knowledge base. Preparation: ! To prepare for these lessons, gather the materials and copies of handouts listed above. It will be helpful to pull relevant African American Master Painter resources from the print collection for student review in day 1. Materials can be organized so that students have a few volumes per table to explore initially. For Day 2, setting up a projector prior to the lesson will be important. Scenario and learner context: ! Generally, SSSAS students are intrinsically motivated to succeed academically and are exceptionally procient readers (many reading above grade-level and capable of handling highschool or college-level texts). SSSAS teaching style is typically traditional in the sense that it relies more upon Socratic methods like lecture and discussion than modeling and repeated checks for understanding, and students respond well to this method. It will be important to recognize these students advanced academic skills and provide instructions that are detailed and comprehensive, but assume that students have systems in place for organization and study skills and do not need extra support in those areas. Visual arts classes do not meet every day, but students can be expected to be able to organize materials and stay on track with the assignment as appropriate during times when they dont have class. 8th grade students were described by their teacher as an especially bright and thoughtful group that can be challenged and rise to higher levels of achievement independently.
To prepare for this lesson, the librarian and classroom teacher met to collaboratively plan during a common planning period. This lesson has been taught to 8th grade visual art students in the past and the librarian at the school has always supported the lesson. Students are familiar with print and online research, comfortable using text features like indexes, and have used the note-taking methods introduced in the lesson since 6th grade, so while students will be expected to demonstrate these skills and will receive a brief modeling of these skills, there will not be extensive teaching or re-teaching for the full class. Instead, students who are struggling with these skills will have one-on-one reteaching. The academic content of this unit will be new to students. Prior to this lesson, students learned about color theory and created a color wheel that will serve as a foundation for their original art work and helped them learn vocabulary that they can use to describe the paintings they locate. One challenge of this assignment is that students do not receive homework from visual arts class, so all activity related to the project will need to be

completed during class or study halls throughout the day. Visual arts classes meet twice per week. Lesson sequence: Day 1: Exploration of African American Master Painters Direct instruction ! The art teacher will introduce the assignment to students, using the assignment sheet provided. Copies of all materials for the lesson will be distributed in a packet. She will explain that by studying one African American Master Painter in depth and sharing their ndings with other students, students will collectively become familiar with the range of themes, motifs, techniques, and color palates of African American painting. The art teacher will briey highlight several themes and major artists and art movements (ex. Harlem Renassaince, Washington Color School) to provide context for students individual explorations. She will explain that students have two learning products for the assignment -- an individual painting, which students will discuss more during their art lessons, and an artist statement that will combine research with personal reection on an artists work. She will show students a list of possible artists to investigate, but let students know if they would like to study a different artist, they may do so as well. Choosing an artist and researching for the personal artist statement will be the focus of the library lessons.
The librarian will introduce print materials available for use. Relevant art books have been put on display for students so that they will have ease of access to available materials, since locating materials is not a skill being focused on in this lesson. The librarian will model the process of locating an artist (detailed below) and will show how they should present their selections to Ms. Lynch so that each student will have a different artist to research.
Then, the librarian will explain that for the personal artists statement, students will need to locate and record citation information for all resources used, including the painting that students found. She will model locating paintings and recording their citation information. She will then explain briey that the next step of the process will be to take notes that will help students answer questions #1-5 on the provided sheet. She will review questions, especially the one about art movements, to ensure students are clear on the questions. Students will take notes about their gure rst, then they will submit their questions for teacher and librarian review, and then, once they receive feedback on their question answers, they will begin to draft their personal artists statement.
Next, the librarian will ask students how they would go about nding and recording artist information. Students will suggest the MLA notesheets (attached) that are part of the schools standard research process. The librarian will then review procedures for using the sheets, emphasizing the ethical use of information by reviewing paraphrasing and direct quoting with students. Before they begin to work, students will be reminded that not all painters in their sources are African American (some may be African or may be of a different race) and not all the artists they locate will be painters (some may be photographers or sculptors), so students will need to evaluate their selections before they present them to their art teacher. Modeling and Guided Practice ! The librarian will show students the process of locating a painting, thinking aloud for students as she describes why she has chosen a specic work. She will model the use of art terminology like color palette, and brush strokes, and will give students possible language to

describe the mood, subject, and themes of a work. She will model agging the book with a postit ag, which students will need to do so that they can share the resources available in the library with their peers. She will also model locating and recording citation information for book sources and paintings on MLA notesheets. Independent Practice ! Students will select three paintings that inspire them and defend their choices to the art teacher by giving brief personal reection and using art vocabulary to explain aspects of technique or color that they hope to use in their own work. With remaining time, students will use note-taking sheets to record basic biographical information on the assignment sheet so that they can begin to answer the questions about their gure that will be used for their personal art statement. Assessment ! Students will demonstrate that they have met todays objectives by describing their three artists. The librarian and art teacher will assess student success in meeting todays objectives by providing one-on-one feedback about selections as they assist students with identifying artists and describing their techniques. Assessment for the rst days lesson is primarily formative.
As students work, the teacher and librarian will prompt students to engage in selfassessment and deeper critical thinking by asking themselves Why does the artist Ive chosen inspire me? Can I relate to the subject matter because of personal experience? Do I appreciate a technical aspect of the work like its color palette? brush strokes? Does the mood of the painting resonate with me? Day 2: Digital Research of African American Master Painters Direct Instruction ! Todays instruction will help students take notes and answer questions about their artist introduced in Day 1. The skills of using information from a pathnder, conducting database research, and evaluating online sources will be emphasized. Students will be prompted to select a laptop and login while they wait for class to start, but to close the laptop for instruction. Students will be reminded of the location of the print book display from the last lesson -- a good rst stop for research. Then, students will be shown a pathnder available to them for the unit on Haiku, the schools internal learning management system. The Haiku pathnder for the assignment has links to recommended databases (Gales Biography in Context and Proquest eLibrary), recommended websites, and print resources available in the library, organized by artist. Several videos of interviews were added to Haiku for student research as well, and students will be encouraged to use video interviews (either posted on Haiku or located during research) of their artists as research when available to emphasize visual and auditory learning through the use of these primary sources. The librarian will show each database briey.
Students will need to use at least three sources to locate information, but the types of sources needed will vary based on the artist the student is researching. To decide where to begin research, students will need to create a strategy based on the artist they have chosen. While more well-known artists like Jacob Lawrenece and Romare Bearden will have several resources available on the Haiku pathnder, an extensive presence in print books, entries in databases like Biography in Context, and online resources from museums, galleries, and univerisities, lesserknown artists or artists selected idependently of the list provided by the instructors may have the

greatest amount of information in the books where students started research and online through gallery, museum or university sites. Students will be asked What strategy would you use to research Jacob Lawrence? Where would you begin? How might that be different for Alma Thomas? The librarian will help redirect student responses to ensure that students would select the best strategy for the each artist, rather than simply beginning with a web search. To emphasize research strategies and further model research techniques and resources, the librarian will transition to modeling a search for the artist John Biggers. Modeling and Guided Practice ! The librarian will model a research process for John Biggers for students. As she models, she will ask students to recommend keywords for searches and next steps to take to increase student ownership and engagement durign the modeling process. First, she will locate the original book source where a Biggers painting was found during the last class and recommend nishing notes from the brief, but comprehensive, description accompanying the painting. Then, she will locate information available on Gales Biography in Context, which for Biggers, is available, but short. That would be a great second source, so the librarian shows how to record citation information by copying it from the bottom of the page. Then, she will look for resources on the Haiku page. There are no specic print resources listed for Biggers by artist other than the original book used and no available videos. However, one website source recommended on the page has information about Biggers, so that source is recommended as a third source.
Finally, though its not needed for Biggers since three sources have been located, the librarian will model a web search because it may be needed for several artists. Before searching, she will ask students the types of sites that they typically look for when researching. Expected responses will be .org and .edu sites and sites written by experts. Students know that they are not permitted to cite Wikipedia (though they can use it to nd references and links) so they will probably mention that as well. The librarian will ask what types of experts might have resources about art available online (museums, galleries, art history professors, artists foundations, etc). The search for Biggers turns up Wikipedia and a gallery site in the rst four hits. When the librarian clicks on the Wikipedia page, students will see that the page does not cite any sources, which serves as a strong visual reminder of one reason why Wikipedia cannot be cited for research. The librarian will quickly recap the strategy used for Biggers (original print source used for inspiration, database search, Haiku research, then (only then) a general web search for authoritative sites), remind students that depending upon their artist, their strategy will be different, but this strategy may work well for them, ask for questions, and then dismiss students to begin working. Independent Practice ! Students will use the resources and processes introduced today to locate information about their artists. Students will take notes by paraphrasing or direct quoting on MLA notesheets appropriate for each source. As students complete their notes, they will begin to move from their notesheets to answering their questions. When nished with both note-taking and question responses, students will turn in their work up to this point with a color copy of the painting they will focus on and their citation information attached.

Assessment! ! Students will be assessed on todays lesson based on their submission of research questions #1-5, three MLA notesheets, and image of a painting with citation. They will also be assessed by observation during the lesson.
As an individual assessment of the objectives, Select and evaluate three reliable and authoritative sources to identify biographical information and art criticism of one African American Master Painter, and Paraphrase, quote, and cite biographical information and art criticism about one African American Master Painter using MLA format and structured notetaking procedures to respect intellectual property, the librarian and teacher will provide detailed feedback on each students three note sheets. Students will be required to revise notesheets based on feedback and conduct additional research as needed, before proceeding to the artists statement and paiting. ! As an individual assessment that students can meet the objective Respond to ve meaningful questions establishing information about the artists work, themes and style, using facts from print and online sources to support answers. students will complete questions #1-5 on their research handout. The librarian and art teacher will provide detailed feedback on the question responses to correct student understanding of their artists background and encourage deeper critical thinking and reection. When student answers are revised to reected feedback by conducting additional research if needed, students will be able to begin their personal artists statement and painting.
During lesson itself, the librarian and aide will circulate and conduct formative assessment by observation of student answers to questions, their notesheets, and research process and will provide on-the-spot feedback to help students improve.
As students nish their work, the teacher and librarian will verbally prompt the class to engage in self-assessment using the following questions: Have I used the three best sources for my artist? Are my three note sheets complete with full MLA citation information? Are my questions answered in detailed, thorough complete sentences? Have I attached and cited the painting I am using as my inspiration? Justication of methods and materials: ! The school librarian should support an inquiry-based research process wherein students have agency to learn about signicant topics through the lens of their personal interest and personal experience, rather than by being assigned topics and lectures to learn about. This assignment encourages authentic inquiry because students will choose their research and painting subjects and articulate personal, academic, and artistic rationales for their choices, which will help them take further ownership over their topic. Their learning products, particularly their individual painting inspired by an African American painter, are an example of authentic learning and assessment. Rather than being lectured about African American art, students will be given basic necessary background and will form their own understanding by discussing the ndings of their research and painting with each other. Any gaps in their understanding will be lled in by their teacher as needed. Allowing students this level of choice and experiential learning will increase their engagement and motivation and will improve their retention of learning.
This lesson also supports another important aspect of school library standards, promoting the ethical use of information and respect for intellectual property. Students will use the MLA format to document all sources, including works of art. Students will take notes by either

paraphrasing or directly quoting only. Students may be new to the idea that paintings should be cited when used for academic work, so this will be emphasized throughout the lessons. Student work samples: The two examples below represent student work from Lesson 2. Students used MLA notesheets to take notes about their artists. Students demonstrated varying degrees of skill in locating and recording citation information, but with support were able to do so. Students had some difculty paraphrasing and selecting the most relevant information rst, though.