Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy

UNIT PLAN OVERVIEW

(Revised 2017)

Teacher Candidate Daniel Higuera

School Elementary School
Grade 3-5

UNIT TITLE Home Party

Length of Class Period 45 Minutes
Approximate Number of Students in Each class 20-25
Beginning Date for this Unit
Ending Date for this Unit

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS (FROM ODE STANDARDS)

Personal Choice and Vision: Students construct and solve problems of personal
relevance and interest when expressing themselves through visual art.

Authentic Application and Collaboration: Students work individually and in groups to

focus ideas and create artworks that address genuine local and global community needs.

PROGRESS POINTS (FROM ODE STANDARDS)

The student will at the appropriate developmental level:

Identify and apply universal themes and processes to communicate meanings, moods and
visual effects in personal and collaborative artworks.

Express personal responses to artistic works giving reasons for their interpretations and
preferences.

Demonstrate technical skill, craftsmanship and reasoning abilities in solving visual art
problems using appropriate tools, media and technologies.

CRITICAL ISSUE / BIG IDEA

A).Anticipatory Set (what do the students already know)
B). Rationale (why is this lesson relevant?)
A) At this age, students should be familiar with essential arts and crafts. This includes
painting, drawing, gluing, pasting, and cutting out. They should have a good grasp on
simple shapes in 2-D and 3-D. At this point in their education, they should have had
many experiences with group activities/projects. I suspect that they will also have an
established, yet expanding, sense of family. I assume that they might not have a sense
Page| 1
 of how art is integrated into, and affects, family life.
Starting the lesson, I will attend to ideas of what a modern family looks like, and where to
find art in the family. I will present new perspectives that will challenge the students to
expand their definitions of family. Doing this I can help to create an open atmosphere in
the classroom. This is key to the success of this unit. The students must respect each
others home lives. Doing this might help them question their ideas, and accept other
students.

B). This theme is extremely relevant to young children, because family is something that they
already know a lot about. Not only that, this is a topic that they absolutely love talking about.
This topic is not to negate any students that are homeless. Actually, I intend to have an
atmosphere that not only embraces students with harsh living conditions, but helps them
develop a sense of community/support system. The fact is that students with families have a
much higher success rate in education. Only 2% of families that live below the poverty line are
complete families. This meaning that there are two parental figures at home, if they even have
a home. Thats less than 30,000 couples with children. Students that live below the poverty level
have a much harder chance to succeed in schools. This suggest that families help to foster
success in children for many different reasons. Support being one of the leading reasons. My
contention is that if we can change how our children and society define family through
expression in art then we might be able to effectively improve the self-perception our students
will have. This will also expand their sense of community, and widen the number of resources
that students have access to. Exploring this through art will help students think creatively,
critically, and consciously about what and who their family is. Along with this, they can learn to
construct a support system unique to them that will help them take ownership over their
success.

Central Focus (creating, presenting, interpreting, responding, and/or relating art to context)
Exploring, and Expanding Family Through Art.
There are so many ways to define family, and thatll be great for discussion. There are also so
many different elements of art that speak to the topic of family; Both fine art, and more
commercial art- in the form of television shows, cartoons, and animations- open up discussions
about this. Exposing the students to that art, and having them think critically in how they
interpret it is a very important part of this unit. Exploring this idea through art is just as important.
Students have to create and express something that reflects their sense of family, as well as
responds to how others view family. Hopefully expanding their ideas in creative ways, such that
it has a positive effect on their self-efficacy.

Essential Questions (provocative, engaging, critical)

What is family?
Do all families look the same?
What role do you play in your family?
Page| 2
Is there art about family?
What are some examples of art in your family?

Possible Integration
Literature: Read books about fictional families that also incorporate art into the stories.
Learn about character development.
Write simple character roles.

History: Examples of what families did, and looked like in the past.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ESSENTIAL EDUCATIONAL CONTENT OF THIS UNIT

Lesson One
Title Modern Family
Lesson Description I will introduce the lesson with a presentation that includes art discussing
families. Opening a dialogue, and creating a safe/brave space for the
students. I probably will share about my family here too.

Students will work independently on their definition of family, and

examples of art in their family. Students will gather in small groups
afterwards and share with each other. Students will continually change
groups sharing ideas they got from their old group in order to create a
jigsaw classroom. This will create a deeper learning experience for the
students.

The children will produce three paintings.

1) What does your family look like?
2) Pick three people outside of class to add to your family.
3) Self-portrait. (I will collect all the self-portraits to make a family
portrait displayed in the class)
Lesson Two
Title Your Role
Lesson Description Students reflect on their family and what their own role is.
They will journal and take notes on their reflections.

Students will get into small groups and discuss their reflections. In that
same group students will discuss what role they want to fill in their adopted
extended family. By this I mean their friends, teachers, classrooms, and
anything that they might want to consider family. Each student in the group
has to make two different sketches of characters that they would like to
play in a skit. Each drawing should be different from anybody in their
group.

All the students will get together to learn about each others sketches
Page| 3
 through a very short presentation done by each student. This could be
digital or on paper. The students should have a small friendly critique. Of
course, I will be supervising and guiding the critique and presentations.

Students will pick one of the sketches, and make a clay model based on it.
Along with this, they will write a short description of responsibilities that
their character has in the family.
Lesson Three
Title Build A Home
Lesson Description Ill introduce the final lesson to the unit.
In this unit, I task the students with the responsibility of building their idea
of a home using cardboard, scissors, glue, and paint.

The classroom will decide together on 10 elements of a home. Each

student should have at least one idea to contribute. Once everybody has
contributed an idea then we will vote on the 10 that we want.

The class will be divided into 5 groups of 4. Each group will take
ownership of building 2 elements of the home. First, theyll start with a
sketch. Once I approve it then they can start building it.

After all the elements of the home are finished then we can assemble our
constructed home. After the kids assemble the home, then I will just let
them have a fun indoor recess. The catch is that they have to act as their
character from lesson 2 would act in a family. It would be nice to take
photos and video, so that they have memories to take home with them.

Explain how technology has been used in this unit

I have used technology for introducing each lesson through the use of some sort of PowerPoint.
Also, I have used a camera for documentation. The painting and drawing projects are open to
students working in digital media. Especially since schools are gradually jumping on the one I-
pad per students bandwagon.
LESSON PLAN

Be sure to attach to the full instructional unit

Page| 4
Page| 5