EXPLORING AND RESPONDING
Learning Opportunity One: Exploring and Responding
Students will have the opportunity to be introduced to the artwork of Jeannie Baker, through exploring how she creates the illustrations within her picture books. The focus will be on the story Window, by Jeannie Baker, which will lead to the students responding to the work of Jeannie and the story, Window through the completion of a worksheet.
The intended participants for this learning experience will be primary school children who are in the year level of grades 3 and 4.
The AusVELS standard which will be incorporated as part of the learning opportunity comes from level 4 as part of the ‘exploring and responding’ strand, and is ‘students use art language to describe and discuss the communication of ideas, feelings and purpose in other people’s arts works’ (VCAA, 2012).
By the end of the learning opportunity, students will have achieved the following learning objectives:
-Understand the technique used by Jeannie Baker to create illustrations within picture books.
-Analyse and interpret illustrations within particular picture books.
The required resources are: Window by Jeannie Baker, ‘The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet, pencils; grey lead and coloured, crayons, textas, etc.
The activities which will be conducted include:
Whole class discussion: Children will gather as a whole, where the teacher will ask if anyone has heard of Jeannie Baker, including being familiar with any of her picture books. This will lead to the introduction of Jeannie Baker, an artist and author who has been very successful with the creation of many picture books, including Window,Mirror and Where the Forest Meets the Sea (Walker Books). Teacher will inform the class that Jeannie’s picture books are unique because she uses collages to create the illustrations in each of her picture books. Children will be asked what a collage is, being reminded that a collage is a piece of artwork that is able to be made using particular amounts of different pieces, which are then glued together. Usually bits of paper are used; however Jeannie uses a number of different materials (Jeannie Baker). Class are told that Jeannie uses real materials to create her parts of her collages, for example, uses real sand to create sand in the illustration, feathers used for particular animals, etc. (Jeannie Baker, n.d.).
Reading of Window: Teacher will then read Window to the class. Before the story begins, teacher will have children take special interest of the illustrations on each page, as well as if they can notice what is different about this picture book compared to many other picture books, which is that there are no words included in the story. A discussion will be had on these points after the story is finished.
Worksheet activity: Students will each be given ‘The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet to complete which focuses on the work of Jeannie Baker and the story of Window.
The assessment of students includes:
-Consultation: Teacher will ask questions to the class, which will allow for the identification of what the children understood most about the artwork used in Window and how it assisted in being able to understand the story. Teacher will also roam the room whilst the students are completing the worksheet, consulting students in groups about the questions, in order to stretch the children's thinking.
-Correction: Teacher will correct each student’s ‘The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet. This will allow for a thorough assessment of
the knowledge and understanding obtained from each student during this learning opportunity.
+PDF attached contains the above information as well as 'The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker' worksheet.
Students will have the opportunity to be introduced to the artwork of Jeannie Baker, through exploring how she creates the illustrations within her picture books. The focus will be on the story Window, by Jeannie Baker, which will lead to the students responding to the work of Jeannie and the story, Window through the completion of a worksheet.
The intended participants for this learning experience will be primary school children who are in the year level of grades 3 and 4.
The AusVELS standard which will be incorporated as part of the learning opportunity comes from level 4 as part of the ‘exploring and responding’ strand, and is ‘students use art language to describe and discuss the communication of ideas, feelings and purpose in other people’s arts works’ (VCAA, 2012).
By the end of the learning opportunity, students will have achieved the following learning objectives:
-Understand the technique used by Jeannie Baker to create illustrations within picture books.
-Analyse and interpret illustrations within particular picture books.
The required resources are: Window by Jeannie Baker, ‘The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet, pencils; grey lead and coloured, crayons, textas, etc.
The activities which will be conducted include:
Whole class discussion: Children will gather as a whole, where the teacher will ask if anyone has heard of Jeannie Baker, including being familiar with any of her picture books. This will lead to the introduction of Jeannie Baker, an artist and author who has been very successful with the creation of many picture books, including Window,Mirror and Where the Forest Meets the Sea (Walker Books). Teacher will inform the class that Jeannie’s picture books are unique because she uses collages to create the illustrations in each of her picture books. Children will be asked what a collage is, being reminded that a collage is a piece of artwork that is able to be made using particular amounts of different pieces, which are then glued together. Usually bits of paper are used; however Jeannie uses a number of different materials (Jeannie Baker). Class are told that Jeannie uses real materials to create her parts of her collages, for example, uses real sand to create sand in the illustration, feathers used for particular animals, etc. (Jeannie Baker, n.d.).
Reading of Window: Teacher will then read Window to the class. Before the story begins, teacher will have children take special interest of the illustrations on each page, as well as if they can notice what is different about this picture book compared to many other picture books, which is that there are no words included in the story. A discussion will be had on these points after the story is finished.
Worksheet activity: Students will each be given ‘The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet to complete which focuses on the work of Jeannie Baker and the story of Window.
The assessment of students includes:
-Consultation: Teacher will ask questions to the class, which will allow for the identification of what the children understood most about the artwork used in Window and how it assisted in being able to understand the story. Teacher will also roam the room whilst the students are completing the worksheet, consulting students in groups about the questions, in order to stretch the children's thinking.
-Correction: Teacher will correct each student’s ‘The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker’ worksheet. This will allow for a thorough assessment of
the knowledge and understanding obtained from each student during this learning opportunity.
+PDF attached contains the above information as well as 'The Artistic Work of Jeannie Baker' worksheet.
Learning Opportunity Three: Exploring and Responding
In this learning opportunity, students will focus on the particular art elements of shape, texture and colour, expanding their knowledge of these elements. Students will be introduced to the picture book by Jeannie Baker called Mirror, which shows the comparison of two boys and their families, one in Sydney and the other in Morocco. Students will be able to apply their knowledge of the particular elements through focusing on specific illustrations that exist in Mirror as well as their own artwork created in the previous lesson.
The intended participants for this learning experience will be primary school children who are in the year level of grade 3 and 4.
The AusVELS standard that will be used as part of this learning opportunity is from the ‘exploring and responding’ strand in level 4, and is as follows; ‘students comment on the exploration, development and presentation of their arts works, including the use of specific arts elements and techniques. They identify and describe key features of arts works from their own and other cultures’ (VCAA, 2012).
The learning objectives which will be achieved by the students are:
-Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the art elements of shape, colour and texture.
-Identify the specific art elements of colour, shape and texture within particular art works.
The required resources are: Mirror by Jeannie Baker, art book, pencils, glue, whiteboard, whiteboard marker, coloured photocopies of pages from Mirror, the collage of the dream view created in the previous lesson: one between each pair, required activities to complete (checklist).
The activities which will be conducted include:
Discussion of particular elements: Class will come together as a whole, where the teacher writes three elements of art onto the board: colour, texture and shape. As the class have previously found knowledge of the elements, teacher will ask students to explain what each element means in reference to art. This discussion should be colour including the primary and secondary colours, complementary colours as well as warm and cool colours (National Gallery of Art, 2013). Texture will be referred to as how a surface actually feels and looks (National Gallery of Art, 2013). The class will discuss shape as a flat area that is enclosed by the use of edges or through a particular outline to achieve a two dimensional shape, with many different shapes being used by artists (National Gallery of Art, 2013).
Reading of Mirror: Teacher will read Mirror by Jeannie Baker to the class. Before beginning to read, teacher will explain to the class
to take particular note of the illustrations on each page of the book.
Analysis of Mirror and dream view collage: Students will be instructed to find a partner to work with. Each pair will be given a coloured photocopy of a page from the book, Mirror, which includes both a scene from Sydney and a scene from Morocco (the two focuses in the story). Using the page they are given, they are to work together to find particular examples of the three elements. They will also choose to use one of
the pair’s collage that was created in the previous lesson, which was a collage of the dream view from their bedroom, where they will reflect on the artwork. However, teacher will give each student a checklist of what is expected, which can be found on the ‘LO3- Exploring and
Responding’ PDF. Each student is to complete their work in their art books.
Presentation of analysis: Students will gather together, where one by one, each pair will go up to the front of the group, display their particular illustrations that they had to focus on, including from Mirror and the dream view collage. They will then give examples of how both Jeannie Baker and the student incorporated the particular elements of shape, colour and/or texture into the artworks.
The assessment of students includes:
Conference: the whole class discussion of particular elements allows for the teacher to understand how well the student’s knowledge still is
of the elements of art which was the focus of the previous unit of work.
Checklist: students will be given a checklist which will include what they are required to complete in the lesson. This will allow the teacher to then use the checklist as a guide of assessing the students when correcting their art books.
+PDF attached contains the above information as well as the required checklist.