Rationale
This unit has relevance for my students, because beyond the production of artwork in class, my students are also challenged to analyze, critique, discuss and write about the work that they view and create. My third grade students are emerging writers. Once these students enter this grade level, they begin to participate in writing assignments that have more rigor and technical requirements than they have experienced in earlier grades. Most of my students struggle with the basics of writing. The creative writing and sequential summary skills are also a challenge for most. This unit plan hopes to guide students through the mental process of telling a story, as well as the technical aspect of summarizing and sequencing that is involved with comic strip illustrating. The focus on exploring how the combination of text and images can change the reading experience, can assist me in creating brainstorming activities to help my students investigate how their artwork mirrors the written text that they use when creating literary narrative from their illustrated images. The images created by my students will serve as visual cues to drive the process of developing their writing skills. The hope is for outcomes that produce detailed and descriptive writing.
Overarching understanding
I hope to use these ideas to bridge the interpretation of art with the comprehension of content, and other story elements present in graphic novels, literary text, film and other media. The process and techniques of analyzing imaginative illustrations and text, is parallel to that of interpreting, creating, and analyzing Art. In the same way that students can derive a story from their interpretation of art work. By viewing a painting students can describe the events, mood, setting and the artist’s purpose. This skill is shaped by what they see and how they feel about those images. They create stories in their heads that are varied. This same process takes place when students view illustrations. This skill of interpreting art impacts my students by helping them develop an appreciation for art work, an understanding of the artist, recognition of the time period in which artwork was created, and the purpose for creating the art. These skills also help the students to better understand themselves and develop as individuals
Using Greek mythology as a platform to develop inspiration and background knowledge will connect Visual Arts curriculum to core subjects such as language arts, history, and writing in a cross-curriculum approach. Introducing students to multi-media imagery for the purpose of developing a creative process and approach towards art, creative writing and comprehension skills that will help my students’ better express ideas through their art and writing. This focus on creating individual stories by students that are illustrated and developed into graphic novels works double duty.
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