Lesson #1: Human Emotion (Ideation and Planning)

Project: During our first learning experience together, students were instructed to complete ideation worksheets and experiment with different materials, in order to visually represent emotions that they experience daily. We began with a discussion about using art to express emotions and a demonstration of how to complete their ideation sheets. Then I let students create as many ideations/plans as they could in a 40 minute window. To end, students gathered in a circle, and showcased their favorite worksheet that they completed.

Essential Understandings:

I can use art to express my emotions.

I can use different materials and colors to communicate emotion.

Learning Target:

Students will try to create visual representations of their emotions using colors, lines, forms, and symbols. Students will be able to explain how their art represents a particular emotion.

Key Concepts:

Color (associative color)

• Students will access their previous knowledge on how different colors demonstrate different emotions.

• Students will be invited to discuss this openly with their teachers and peers.

• Students will be asked to explain their color choices in their final ideations and relate this to their own experiences.

Line /Form

• Students will be asked to draw lines and forms that represent different emotions.

Ideation/Planning

• The teacher will explain to students that “good artists plan their work before they start working on a project.”

• The teacher will also explain that it is important to experiment with lots of different materials so that students know which materials they might want to use for their final project.

Skills

• Planning/Experimenting

• Manipulating color to express emotion

• Reflecting on choices in color, medium, and overall concepts

• Transferring previous knowledge and ideas about emotion to a visual representation

• Expressing feelings and emotions with differentiating materials

Art Focus: The main focus or idea behind this lesson is to encourage students that art can be an outlet to express your emotions. Students should also be encouraged to use planning ideation in all of their future projects.

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Documentation:

As stated above, the lesson began with introductions and a conversation about how we can use art to express our emotions.

In this image, I am demonstrating how to complete the ideation sheet using the emotion: anxiousness.

I loved how the students were able to effectively communicate how to use art as a facet to express their emotions. I asked the students what kinds of emotions they feel and how they would express those. One student noted that when he thought of jealousy, he thought of pink. When I asked why, he replied saying that pink makes him uncomfortable and so does the feeling of jealousy. Overall, most of the students were both and motivated to start their ideation worksheets.

In these images, students are in the art-making process. They are experimenting with different materials, all the while explaining their choices to Brady, Claire, and I.

Throughout the art-making process, I was thoroughly impressed with how students the students steadily grew more comfortable experimenting with color and the different materials that I provided them with. I also loved how they followed the worksheets EXACTLY how I showed them. Some students completed several ideation sheets and experimental pages.

Student Work

Student #1

Student #1's idea or emotion was how he feels when "he has too much homework" and when he's "mad." I though it was notable how the student incorporated the symbols that the associates with homework into his art. I also like how he made sure to incorporate color, forms, and symbols into his final idea.

Student #2

Student #2 utilized sponges to create the emotion, happy. I especially like how she wrote, "feel good" at the bottom of her work. When I asked her why she wrote that, she responded saying that the sponges and these colors just made her feel really good.

Student #3

Student #3 executed an excellent study of how the intensity of colors can make us feel. When I asked her what sadness made her think of, she responded that it made her think of a "giant pool of water with water dropping into it." I also admire the forms and lines that she associates with happiness and sadness and how these forms connect to nature.

Student #4

Student #4 did an excellent job of considering how colors make you feel when you combine them and mix them. I also love how she wasn't afraid to create abstract depictions of her emotions and how (like Student #1), she successfully combined all of the elements of color, line, form, and symbol.

Student #5

Student #5 paid special attention to how his colors communicated different emotions. I admire his abstract symbology and lines that he used to communicate these ideas.

Student #6

Student #6 did an excellent job of using form and intensity to also communicate the feeling of "having too much homework." One can tell that he used personal experiences to create this work.

Experimentation with materials:

Several students asked if they could experiment with the paint and materials as they worked on their projects. The images above showcase their desire to explore mixing colors and brush techniques.

To end things...

Overall, I felt that the students created excellent plans that will help them in Project #2. Next time, I will have students do more experimentation with materials before they complete the ideation sheets. I will also design an activity to do as a "brain break" halfway through their work time so that they can stay motivated. I am also going to allocate more time to discussion and show the kids how to manipulate different materials to get different results. Lastly, I will come up with some better “back up” activities to do in the event that students finish early or need a different creative outlet.