Instructional Strategies And Lesson Plans
Each lesson is designed for a sixty minute or more studio art class. For some lessons, you may find sixty minutes is not enough time due to student engagement or clean up delays. For other lessons, you might find your students are ready to move on. Students can always work on artist statements if done with art early. Students will go through many steps to create artwork. Students will plan, make, refine, upload, present, and exhibit their popcorn triptych art. Students will demonstrate practicing the process of using varied art materials or specialized materials in the way that they are designed to be used. Students will not have mastery level; yet student experimentation will enable them to become masters at knowing where all art materials exist in the art studio and how to clean up after themselves. Students will embark in the art studio on a deep S.T.E.A.M. dive. Students will learn about art history, as well as how S.T.E.A.M. has supported many art ideas well before it became an acronym. Students will be introduced to S.T.E.A.M. principles through a guided teacher slide show, peer share, turn and talk, guest speakers if possible, and other academic experiences that are designed to raise awareness and insight. Students will learn about drawing, painting, illustration in conjunction to other styles and historical art periods. Students will learn the value of how Art has supported science and history for many years. Students will learn about the power of art as with social emotional connections. Students will come to see how scientific illustration art was needed to classify plants, animals, and used in understanding science. Students will learn how artists and anatomists worked together to investigate the human body through dissections. Students will see how together they produced images of the human body that were supporting science by combining medical knowledge with an artistic vision. Students will also see how art was used in conjunction to support history and spread information or be a communication platform with propaganda posters given there was no internet years ago to spread information. Students will gain skills in researching, layout, graphic design, public speaking, and skills in creating art renderings that depict popcorn and the transformations. Students will see how art supports science, science classifications, science labeling, science findings or science documentations, solving crimes, and more.
Lesson One
Students will be introduced to the final triptych art project and to the final artist statement.
Students will create three single cohesive artworks that are all connected to popcorn.
Students will learn about still life drawing and value scale.
Students will be introduced to the vocabulary word of triptych.
Students will be introduced to the many gray tone shades that a pencil can create.
Students will be asked ten essential questions of popcorn.
- What is popcorn?
- Are popcorn kernels seeds?
- What is the process of a kernel turning into popcorn?
- When do you think popcorn was invented?
- What is popcorn lung?
- What is the popcorn theory?
- Do you eat or like popped popcorn? Either way I want students to share other things they like in this world, be it food, sports, music, books, or anything.
- What is the culture of popcorn?
- What is the science of popcorn?
- What are some popcorn uses?
Students will work together as a pair to come up with answers to these ten essential questions. Students will discuss answers at the end of class on day one as part of the introduction wrap up.
Some possible answers include:
1. What is popcorn?
Popcorn is a whole grain maize (Zea mays everta) with a hard outer shell and a starchy center, that makes a healthy snack when heated.
2. Are popcorn kernels seeds?
Yes, a popcorn kernel is a seed and a cereal grain; it contains all the parts of a seed needed to grow a plant an embryo (baby plant), starchy endosperm (food) a hard outer shell or coat (hull).
3. What is the process of a kernel turning into popcorn?
Popcorn is made by heating up the kernels. The water that is hidden inside the seed gets hot and softens the starch shell. The water wants to escape or boil to make steam so, as it gets hotter, the pressure builds up. The pressure gets so high that the seed coat bursts and we are left with fluffy popcorn.
4. When do you think popcorn was invented?
The earliest archaeological evidence was found in northern Peru 6,700 years ago.
5. What is popcorn lung?
It is a rare, irreversible respiratory disease. It occurs when the smallest airways in the lungs become scarred or inflamed which then restricts airflow. This name came from the early 2000’s when there was an outbreak of factory workers who inhaled the artificial butter flavoring chemical diacetyl.[9]
6. What is the popcorn theory?
The popcorn theory is a term to make an analogy to humans and popcorn. The idea that kernels pop when the temperature or popping rates are just right for each kernel. America’s favorite snack of popcorn is being used as an analogy in the world of science or psychology to encourage students to stop caring about what others do. Using the popcorn popping process as a way to hook students to stop worrying about others and focus only on their own timing and the knowledge that they will pop when time is right just like a kernel of popcorn when the time is right. I also want students to not care about social media “likes” through this popcorn unit of study.
7. Do you eat or like popped popcorn? Either way I want students to share other things they like in this world, be it food, sports, music, books, or anything. Students will share about themselves and maybe this conversation can help when students are considering or brainstorming their transformation art compositions.
8. What is the culture of popcorn?
Various cultures enjoy popcorn around the world. Popcorn is one of America’s favorite snacks.
9. What is the science of popcorn?
Kernels turning into popcorn.
Heat creates steam inside and the pressure builds up and eventually the kernel pops.
10. What are some popcorn uses?
Holiday tree trimming
Movies
Kernels used for stuffing to make corn hole baggo
Decorations
Lesson Two
Students participate in a class discussion reviewing what students together came up with and they share the essential questions they discussed the day before. Students participate in a class discussion reviewing what students together came up with. Then, students are introduced to the assignment. Students view the teacher’s Google slideshow on popcorn. This slide show introduces art history, surrealism, and pop art. The slide show will include still life art and how food is often included in still life subject matter. Students will see surrealism and how this art style can possibly inspire or help students develop the next popcorn transformation composition. Students will take the pencil, use a value scale of black, medium gray, gray, and light gray to create realistic value scaled popcorn creations. The next day or lesson three students will transform realistic pieces of popcorn into colorful popcorn transformations. Lesson two students will learn about shading with pencil to see how many gray tones can come from one tool. Students will make crosshatching and stippling lines to establish tone range. The colored pencil and turning the fluffy popcorn image into something entirely colorful and that is entirely new is a transformation using colored pencil will be another day. Students will consider three different popcorn compositions in total. First in pencil, a realistic drawing of popcorn. The second art is in colored pencil; however, the composition is a transformed popcorn image. The third composition is in crayon, watercolor, and markers. The third composition can be the same composition design idea or same transformation as the second one in the colored pencil creation; however, the third is done with new materials. Students will come to understand the physical changes of popcorn unless the popcorn is burned or turned into caramel or kettle corn. Students will come to see how different tools make different marks on the paper.
Lesson Three
Students learned about still life drawing yesterday when they created a realistic popcorn drawing art piece. Students are reminded that yesterday students considered creating realistic still life drawings, using value scale, smudging, cross hatching, stippling when creating pencil, and charcoal drawings of popcorn. Students learned drawing art vocabulary when creating popcorn black and white drawings. In lesson three, students learn about transforming again into a mixed media transformation. From these art transformation processes, students will learn about shading with pencil to colored pencil and turning the fluffy popcorn image transforms into something entirely colorful and that is entirely new and transformed. Students will consider three different popcorn transformation compositions in total as well as the science properties of popcorn. Students will come to understand the physical changes of popcorn unless the popcorn is burned or turned into caramel or kettle corn.
Lesson Four
Students will be asked to look at completed pencil drawings and consider what they see when looking at a drawing of a popped piece of popcorn. Students are asked to transform realistic pencil drawings and then turn them into something else on a new piece of paper. Students will transform, shift or change the still life into a colorful pencil drawing that is filled with imagination, surrealistic, or clever realistic inspirations to make a new transformed popcorn drawing. Students will draw a new image of popcorn. This new image will be created twice, once in colored pencil and then in crayon, watercolor, and markers. The colored pencils will give students who prefer controlling the art medium with color when drawing popcorn transformations.
Lesson Five
Students are either finishing edits to colored pencil rendering, doing final touches, or they are starting a third art creation which is also a popcorn transformation but this time using crayons, markers, and watercolor. The third image idea will not change, only the materials used to create artwork number three will change. Students will be learning about wax resist and watercolor. Students will be doing some color mixing. Students will come to better understand mixtures as changes from seeing colors mix. Students will learn chemical changes vs. mixtures through watercolor discoveries. Students will learn about primary and secondary colors and some basic color theory principles.
Lesson Six
Continue working. Reflecting the goal of these three works of art is that students see transformations, growth, and have an exploration with a variety of art materials. Students see transformations of drawings as well as physical and chemical changes. Students see mixtures and color mixing changes. Students should consider artist statements. The artist's statement needs to explain the drawing that transforms from a pencil drawing or popcorn to something entirely different, and then how the same transformation with different tools is different.
Lesson Seven
Continuing working, reflecting, adding details to the whole composition now that all three images are glued side by side next to each other on one 12 by 18-inch piece of paper. The goal of these three works of art is that students see transformations, growth, and artistic explorations of using food as an art subject matter. The variety of art materials allowed students to experiment with different tools. Students can begin narrative or artist statements. The artist statement will help tell the viewer the direction the student went in when making a transformation. There will be three composition images that are showing the unique creative transformation of the popcorn process: one drawing showing the full value scaled pencil or charcoal drawing of the popcorn image, next the realistic drawing transforms into a colorful pencil drawing of that piece of popcorn that transformed into something entirely different, and the third creation will be the same transformed image recreated in the previous artwork, however this time using different materials. The third composition uses crayon, watercolor, and markers. The idea of three compositions is that students can see how a basic food item like a kernel can transform to a piece of popped popcorn and then allow creatively to turn or transform pencil popcorn drawing into something else while also learning about art vocabulary: value scale, line variety, cross hatching, stippling, color theory, watercolor techniques, wax resist, and how markers create a unique color tone. The triptych popcorn compositions will impart a visual narrative, create a sequence, and show different art materials of the same subject matter. Students will gain skills in working with different materials. Some students might master the value of knowing how life can transform so easily and how we are all precious kernels popping at the just the right time that is right for each of us!
Lesson Eight
Students glue finished art onto a black piece of paper, take photos of the art, and upload the photo into a popcorn portfolio with name on the bottom right-hand corner of a google slide. Students need to use craftsmanship when uploading art to digital portfolios. Students will participate in a very brief introductory oral critique sharing how visually their pencil drawing of popped popcorn transformed into something else and share what was their personal inspiration was for this visual transformation. I want students to gain skills in public speaking, evaluating, critiquing, and analyzing artwork using basic art vocabulary.
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