Educational Content
I teach at a New Haven neighborhood and students are mostly Hispanic or from Afghanistan. This lesson will be taught in English and Spanish. This visual arts unit was written for visual art teachers like to me who want to bridge art and science to empower students with the skills that will help them be successful in high school. The notetaking process of this unit will teach mindfulness. The ways in which moss adapts to different conditions such as in the differences between aquatic and terrestrial moss can be used as a metaphor for resilience to help students practice mindfulness in challenging circumstances such as when under pressure to perform during testing.
With this unit 8th grade students will build on previous knowledge of drawing, painting and collage. Students will also create artworks using text and create short artist commonplace books. Last spring students in grades 7 – 8 learned about composting in science class and worked in small groups to separate school lunches to create compost as part of a district recycling program. For that initiative students created artworks that were displayed in the cafeteria that illustrated the composting process with text and images.
This unit meets the needs of the students because it strengthens their observational and critical thinking skills. Student will experiment with new art materials and science tools such as foldscopes that are accessible modifications of microscopes which enable close looking of moss. This unit fits within the rest of the visual art curriculum because students will learn how to use new materials and approaches to making meaningful art. This unit is important because students will learn how something seemingly small has an impact on the environment and students will use artistic composition.7 This visual arts lesson develops observational and critical thinking skills. Students will document their creative process visually with artist commonplace books. (VA:Cr1.1.8a ). Students will also innovate in designing artist commonplace books with text and images related to their observations of moss. (VA:Cr2.1.8a) Students will demonstrate visual material culture representing and incorporating natural elements like moss can enhance the classroom environment and empower their ability to design visual material culture (VA:Cr2.3.IIIa)
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