Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Color My World: Expanding Meaning Potential Through Media

Subject Area

Arts Education
English Language Arts

Grade(s)

3, 4, 5, 6

Overview

This lesson is not about markers over pencils; it is about developing a relationship between students and media and how such nurtured connections can support students' ideas in what they write and how they write it. Through in-class discussions about writing/drawing materials and carefully observing how an illustrator uses media to communicate ideas, students will see how materials can extend knowledge. This lesson provides opportunities for students to explore and experience the meaning potential of everyday writing and drawing tools in their own writing. The lesson can (and should be) adapted for older students.

    English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

    ELA21.3.27

    Read prose, poetry, and dramas, identifying the literary devices used by the author to convey meaning.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:ELA21.3.27

    Vocabulary

    • Prose
    • Poetry
    • Dramas
    • Identifying
    • Literary devices
    • Author
    • Convey meaning

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • Literary text often includes literary devices, such as personification, imagery, alliteration, onomatopoeia, symbolism, metaphor, and simile.
    • An author uses literary devices to convey meaning within the text.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Identify the literary devices when reading prose, poetry, and dramas.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • Literary devices are a special type of language that an author uses to convey meaning in literary text.
    • Literary devices are language that carries meaning other than the literal meaning of the words or phrases.
    English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

    ELA21.3.33

    Write personal or fictional narratives with a logical plot (sequence of events), characters, transitions, and a sense of closure.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:ELA21.3.33

    Vocabulary

    • Personal narrative
    • Fictional narrative
    • Logical plot
    • Sequence of events
    • Characters
    • Transitions
    • Closure

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story.
    • A personal narrative tells about an event that was personally experienced by the author, while a fictional narrative tells a made up story.
    • A narrative story describes a sequence of events in a logical order (beginning, middle, end) and provides a sense of closure as an ending.
    • A narrative story describes the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters.
    • Narrative transitions indicate when and where the story is occurring.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Write a personal narrative that recalls a personal experience or a fictional narrative with a made-up story.
    • Write a narrative with a logical sequence of events and details that describe how the characters feels, acts, and thinks.
    • Use appropriate transitions in narrative writing.
    • Write a narrative that ends with a sense of closure.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • Narrative writing includes predictable elements, like a logical sequence of events and an ending that provides the reader with a sense of closure.
    • Because narrative writing describes a chronological sequence of events, it includes transitions that indicate the time and place in which the story is occurring.
    • Narrative writing can be used to tell about something that happened to them personally or it can tell a story they made up.
    English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 4

    ELA21.4.16

    Describe how authors use literary devices and text features to convey meaning in prose, poetry, and drama.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:ELA21.4.16

    Vocabulary

    • Literary devices
    • Text features
    • Prose
    • Poetry
    • Drama

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • Literary devices are language that carries meaning other than the literal meaning of the words or phrases.
    • Text features are items other than the main text that provide additional or clarifying information about details in a text.
    • Poetry is a genre of text that uses distinctive style and rhythm to aid in the expression of feelings, while prose is written in ordinary language.
    • A drama is a story with dialogue that can be read by different people.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Describe how literary devices and text features convey meaning in prose, poetry, and drama.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • Authors use literary devices and text features to further explain and enhance specific details in prose, poetry, and drama.
    English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 4

    ELA21.4.32

    Respond in writing to literature and informational text, including stories, dramas, poetry, and cross-curricular texts, both independently and with support, demonstrating grade-level proficiency.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:ELA21.4.32

    Vocabulary

    • Respond
    • Writing
    • Literature
    • Informational texts
    • Stories
    • Dramas
    • Poetry
    • Cross-curricular texts
    • Independently
    • With support
    • Grade-level proficiency

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • Responding to text in a written format demonstrates comprehension of the text.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Independently and with support, create grade-appropriate written responses after reading literature and informational text.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • To respond in writing to literature and informational texts, they must read critically, have a deep understanding of the text's content, and use appropriate writing skills.
    English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 5

    ELA21.5.19

    Interpret how authors use literary elements throughout a text, including character, setting, conflict, dialogue, and point of view.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:ELA21.5.19

    Vocabulary

    • Interpret
    • Literary elements
    • Character
    • Setting
    • Conflict
    • Dialogue
    • Point of view

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • Authors use literary elements, such as character, setting, conflict, dialogue, and point of view, throughout a text to develop and drive the plot.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Identify literary elements in a text.
    • Interpret how authors use literary elements throughout a text.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • Interpreting the author's use of literary elements in a text supports their overall comprehension of the text.
    English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 5

    ELA21.5.32

    Respond in writing to literature and informational text, including stories, dramas, poetry, and cross-curricular texts, independently and with grade-level proficiency.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:ELA21.5.32

    Vocabulary

    • Literature
    • Informational text
    • Stories
    • Dramas
    • Poetry
    • Cross-curricular texts
    • Independently
    • Proficiency

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • Responding to text in a written format demonstrates comprehension of the text.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Independently create grade-appropriate written responses after reading literature and informational text.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • To respond in writing to literature and informational texts, they must read critically, have a deep understanding of the text's content, and use appropriate writing skills.
    English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 6

    ELA21.6.4

    Describe the use of literary devices in prose and poetry, including simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, tone, imagery, irony, symbolism, and mood, and indicate how they support interpretations of the text.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:ELA21.6.4

    Vocabulary

    • Literary devices
    • Prose
    • Poetry
    • Simile
    • Metaphor
    • Personification
    • Onomatopoeia
    • Hyperbole
    • Tone
    • Imagery
    • Irony
    • Symbolism
    • Mood

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • Authors of prose and poetry often include literary devices and figurative language in a text to create a particular tone and mood.
    • Analyzing literary devices that are used in a text can support a personal interpretation of a text.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Identify literary devices in prose and poetry, including simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, tone, imagery, irony, symbolism, and mood.
    • Describe how an author's use of literary devices in prose and poetry supports their interpretation of the text.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • Authors use figurative language and literary devices to develop tone and mood in their writing.
    • Analyzing an author's use of literary devices in a text can help them interpret and comprehend the text.
    Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Visual Arts

    AE17.VA.3.2

    Demonstrate skills using available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas through the art-making process.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:AE17.VA.3.2

    Vocabulary

    • Creativity
    • Criteria
    • Critique
    • Design
    • Media
    • Mixed media
    • Monochromatic
    • Principles of design
      • Rhythm
    • Technology
    • Visual image

    Essential Questions

    EU: Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with traditions in pursuit of creative artmaking goals.
    EQ: How does knowing the contexts, histories, and traditions of art forms help create works of art and design? Why do artists follow or break from established traditions? How do artists determine what resources and criteria are needed to formulate artistic investigations?

    Skills Examples

    • Use a variety of materials to create a three-dimensional mask showing a student's personality.
    • Use torn paper scraps to create rhythm in a landscape.
    • Plan a community/city; then, build a model of it with recyclable materials, such as cardboard, boxes, containers, and tubes.
    • Collaborate with a group to demonstrate how to care for tools used in class (such as paintbrushes).
    • After looking at Vincent van Gogh's painting, Bedroom, create a narrative painting depicting a memory of a student's personal bedroom.
    • Use appropriate visual art vocabulary during the art-making process of two-and-three-dimensional artworks.
    • Collaborate with others to create a work of art that addresses an interdisciplinary theme.
    • Read and explore books like Imagine That by Joyce Raimondo or Dinner at Magritte's by Michael Garland and then create a Surrealistic style artwork.
    • Recognize and identify choices that give meaning to a personal work of art.
    • Create a drawing using monochromatic colors (paint, oil pastels, etc.).
    • Explore individual creativity using a variety of media.
    • Understand what effects different media can have in a work of art.

    Anchor Standards

    Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
    Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 4 - Visual Arts

    AE17.VA.4.3

    Generate ideas and employ a variety of strategies and techniques to create a work of art/design.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:AE17.VA.4.3

    Vocabulary

    • Constructed environment
    • Cultural traditions
    • Digital format
    • Engagement
    • Tertiary color
    • Preservation
    • Proportion
    • Principles of design
      • Unity
    • Shade
    • Style
    • Tints & shades

    Essential Questions

    EU: Artists and designers experiment with forms, structures, materials, concepts, media, and artmaking approaches.
    EQ: How do artists work? How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?

    Skills Examples

    • Create a list of multiple ideas, sketches, or thumbnail-sketches before beginning the final version of an artwork.
    • Identify, select, and vary art materials, tools and processes to achieve desired results in their artwork.
    • Brainstorm (alone or with others) potential art styles for a given piece of art, such as Monet's Water Lilies.
    • Create an artwork from direct observation (still-life, self-portrait, figure drawing, etc.).
    • Design a two-dimensional drawings of a futuristic art room, town, or planet
    • Use wood, found objects, wire, paper, or clay-based materials to construct a three-dimensional form.
    • Locate business logos in the community and explore the visual arts skills and materials that were used to create these works.
    • Engage in group critiques of one's work and the work of others.
    • Experiment with art materials by using them in unusual and creative ways to express ideas and convey meaning.
    • Use and care for materials, tools, and equipment in a manner that prevents danger to oneself and others.
    • Mix equal parts of a primary and a secondary color located beside each other on the color wheel to create a tertiary color.
    • Use the design principles of repetition and alignment to add visual unity to an artwork.
    • Create a painting using a monochromatic color scheme by using one color (red) adding white to create a tint (a lighter value--pink) and adding black to the color (red) to create a shade (darker value).

    Anchor Standards

    Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
    Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Visual Arts

    AE17.VA.5.3

    Communicate personal ideas, images, and themes through artistic choices of media, technique, and subject matter.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:AE17.VA.5.3

    Vocabulary

    • Cultural context
    • Formal & conceptual vocabulary
    • Genre
    • Linear perspective
    • Preserve
    • Principles of design
      • Movement
      • Emphasis
    • Relief
    • Vanishing point

    Essential Questions

    EU: Artists and designers experiment with forms, structures, materials, concepts, media, and artmaking approaches.
    EQ: How do artists work? How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?

    Skills Examples

    • Use a variety of materials (wood, found objects, wire, paper, clay, etc.) to construct a three-dimensional work of art.
    • Have students keep journals to reflect on and combine ideas for their works of art.
    • Draw a still life of students' favorite objects, while adding color with a variety of media (paint, pastels, collage, etc.).
    • Draw an object or other images (landscapes, hallways, etc.) in linear one-point perspective.
    • Create tessellations in connection with interdisciplinary subjects such as mathematics.
    • Write a short story and illustrate the story with original drawings.
    • Draw and transform two-dimensional shapes into three-dimensional forms.
    • (squares to cubes, circles to spheres, triangles to pyramids and cones)
    • Write a personal artist statement to accompany an original work of art.
    • Draw a landscape including foreground, middle ground, and background.
    • Create an artwork integrating observational and technical skills to solve a problem or address contemporary social issues.
    • Create a bas-relief by carving into a clay slab.

    Anchor Standards

    Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
    Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 6 - Visual Arts

    AE17.VA.6.2

    Formulate an artistic investigation and discovery of relevant content for creating art.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:AE17.VA.6.2

    Vocabulary

    • Artistic ideas and work
    • Formal and conceptual vocabulary
    • Innovation
    • Investigation
    • Two-dimensional
    • Three-dimensional
    • Experimentation
    • Conservation
    • Craftsmanship
    • Linear perspective
    • Environmental responsibility
    • Prior knowledge
    • Museum
    • Gallery
    • Curator
    • Digital
    • Horizon Line
    • Brainstorming
    • Research

    Essential Questions

    EU: Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with traditions in pursuit of creative artmaking goals.
    EQ: How does knowing the contexts, histories, and traditions of art forms help create works of art and design? Why do artists follow or break from established traditions? How do artists determine what resources and criteria are needed to formulate artistic investigations?

    Skills Examples

    • Make, share and revise a list of ideas and preliminary sketches.
    • Use introductory skills, techniques, and elements of art to create a composition
    • Demonstrate drawing techniques, such as hatching, cross-hatching, shading, and stippling.
    • Create a group project about a current or world event.
    • Examine careers and identify and role - play various jobs of artists.
    • Research a subject or idea that has personal meaning to create a work of art.
    • Use the elements of visual arts to create an artwork that depicts emotions.
    • Use a variety of media and techniques in two and three dimensions to create imagery from experience, observation and imagination.
    • Demonstrate proper clean-up and/or disposal of equipment and materials.
    • Demonstrate art room safety and procedures.
    • Design an environmentally area for the school such as a library or other multi-use learning area.
    • Engage for the purpose of personal reflection and ongoing revision, in group critiques.
    • Reflect through journal writing artist intent.

    Anchor Standards

    Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
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