Who Am I? Unit | Sarah Brown Art

Learning Goals for Entire Unit:
The goal of this unit is to allow students to understand who and where they are in relation to the larger context that surrounds them. The unit is sequenced to move the students from an intrapersonal focus, understanding themselves, to an interpersonal focus, critically analyzing and internalizing the diverse perspectives that make up the world around them. Through the process of reflection on the self (who are we, where do we belong, where are we headed in life), culture (what are my values, do they align with the values of the dominant culture, how did I come to hold the values that I do) and art (how does art reflect life, how does life reflect art), students will learn to see the connections that exist between all things. In the process, students will:

Familiarize themselves with the classroom atmosphere and the teachers.
Discuss life experiences and visually express them using various media.
Demonstrate knowledge of color relationships and color symbolism, and its social and cognitive effects through informal discussion.
Create large-scale abstract expressionist paintings based on the feelings they get when they recall a significant memory or favorite/least favorite song or poem.
Analyze visual culture images specifically logos/clothing labels, in terms of their projected values, messages.
Use silk screening to create personal logos based on a message, which they want to communicate with the viewer.
Examine visual culture images from various cultural viewpoints.
Demonstrate physical expression/body language by designing posed silhouettes expressing a certain mood or a personal characteristic.
Recognize and solve the use of positive and negative space.
Explore gender identity and gender bias throughout history in various contexts (art, media, society)
Sketch ideas for the final project and will explore techniques for creating a sculptural dress.
Combine aspects of each project to compose a thoughtful designed collaborative final project.
Use informal critique to evaluate their overall artistic and personal growth by comparing and contrasting their first and final projects.