In this art history video discussion Beth Harris and Steven Zucker look at Albrecht Durer's "Self-Portrait, 1500." (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).

Date of this Version
Spring 2019

Document Type
Portfolio

Citation
Chavez, Lizbeth and Martinez, Karen. "Creative He(arts)." After school club lesson plans. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2019.

Comments
Copyright 2019 by Lizbeth Chavez and Karen Martinez under Creative Commons Non-Commercial License. Individuals and organizations may copy, reproduce, distribute, and perform this work and alter or remix this work for non-commercial purposes only.

Abstract
The goal of the club is for students to explore different areas in the visual arts–including drawing, painting, printmaking, and pottery– and gain knowledge about a variety of materials and skills. By the end of club, students will have expanded their knowledge in art history and have learned about the components, elements, and principles of art. At the same time, the projects planned will allow students to apply what they learn to their own creativity and ideas.

This art history video discussion examines Albrecht Dürer's "Self-portrait", 1498, oil on panel, 52 x 41 cm (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid).

The 12th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 12th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Language study is embedded in every 12th grade unit as students use annotation to closely review aspects of each text. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

This project unit—a multimedia self-portrait published in digital form—is the capstone of your students' high school careers. It is a chance for them to pause and reflect on where they've been, where they're going, and who they are as a person. Students will reflect on what they want others to know about them: what they want their message to be and what types of media they might use to convey that message. Students will have the opportunity to express themselves in many different formats—through writing, of course, but also through other media of their choosing. Students will be able to convey your message through visual art, photography, a graphic novel, audio, poetry, or video—practically any type of media they want!

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students will complete a multimedia self-portrait, capturing important aspects of the essence of themselves.
Students will contribute one chapter from their multimedia self-portrait to a class anthology.
Students will present one chapter from their multimedia self-portrait to the class.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How is late adolescence a moment of internal and external change?
What are the most important qualities of your character—past, present, and future?
How can you portray these key aspects of yourself using multimedia?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will take the third in a series of three Cold Write assessments in the narrative genre. The Benchmark Assessment (Cold Write) is an unassisted and unrevised piece of writing with the purpose of providing a quick gauge of the student’s mastery of the characteristics of a given genre. Today’s Benchmark Assessment (Cold Write) measures and provides a benchmark of students’ mastery of narrative writing. Then, they’ll consider the choices artists make when deciding how to portray someone. They’ll also do web research to explore different types of self-portraits.

Students will examine Charles-Antoine Coypel's "Self-Portrait" and understand what he shows in this work.

Serial Storytelling examines the ways the passing and unfolding of time structures narratives in a range of media. From Rembrandt’s lifetime of self-portraits to The Wire, Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers to contemporary journalism and reportage, we will focus on the relationships between popular culture and art, the problems of evaluation and audience, and the ways these works function within their social context.

Designed to help middle school students begin to answer the important question: "Who Am I?", these lessons use self-portraits from the National Gallery of Art's collection to inspire students to create their own self-portraits, poems, speeches, and letters. Artists studied in these lesson plans include Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Judith Leyster, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Andy Warhol.