3P

a Path
Purposefully
Planning
Unit Planning Tool

Unit Title: Pre-existing Image, Emergent Narrative

Teacher: Jaymie Karn (TC) Kris Janssen (MT)

Grade: 7

Why do creators use their art to escape?

1
Looking at the surrealist movement and fueled by recent violence in the media, students create surreal and fantastical images.
Using found imagery, students create and discuss collages and narratives that emerge.
What images are presented to us in media?
Looking at what bodies are typically presented in print media, students explore non-figurative representation through the act of drawing around and recontextualizing body parts
How do we approach art? How can we read and talk about it?
Students will be given several opportunities to share their work and give feedback to that of their peers.
They will be provided with terminology and tools to further their artistic literacy and evaluate appropriate language use when discussing imagery.
How can our lives reflect our environments?
Research conducted by the students will enable them to write and make m ultimedia collages reflecting the importance of the natural environment as being vital to their physical selves
Examine how m edia/society can influence how we see ourselves. Begin to reject those projections by focusing on the importance of the physical planet and our innate connection with that natural
sense of self.

Accommodations/Modifications

Writing/Language Skills
While writing is a major component of this unit, if there is a lack of confidence with
writing (ELL, IEP, etc) then these students will be assessed based on their oral
communication of their intentions behind their work. Although they will be expected to
write about their work, this will not be the primary source of evaluation.
Art Confidence
There are students who struggle with their artistic expression. These students will be
provided with extra time and teacher assistance to foster confidence and scaffold self-
direction
Cognitive Processing
Final product of activities can be more straightforward and simple. More teacher one-on-
one support to help get key concepts across. More of a focus on technical skills and
broad ideas rather than complex, intricate written feedback.

Resources

If book by Sarah Perry

Artist examples of surrealism and
collage (Magritte, Dali, Miro, Merve

Ozaslan, Sarah K. Byrne, etc)

Computer lab
Projector
Digital camera (for silhouettes)
Printer

Supplies
Sketchbooks (made from
repurposed art room supplies)
Manila paper
Magazines
Glue sticks
Scissors
Pencils/erasers/sharpeners
Pencil crayons
Oil pastels
Envelopes

Curriculum Areas: Visual Art, Media Literacy, Writing

Grade Curriculum Expectations
Visual
Art 7

Visual
Art 7

Media
Literacy

Writing
7

Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process to produce art works in a variety of traditional 2-
and 3-dimensional forms, as well as multimedia art works, that communicate feelings, ideas, and
understandings, using elements, principles, and techniques of visual arts as well as current media
technologies
D1.2 Demonstrate an understanding of composition, using multiple principles of design and the rule of
thirds to create narrative art works or art works on a theme or topic
D1.3 Use elements of design in art works to communicate ideas, messages, and understandings for a
specific audience and purpose
Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: apply the critical analysis process to communicate feelings,
ideas, and understandings in response to a variety of art works and art experiences;
D2.4 Identify and explain their strengths, their interests, and areas for improvement as creators,
interpreters, and viewers of art
Identify some media forms and explain how the conventions and techniques associated with them are
used to create meaning
1.2 Interpret increasingly complex or difficult media texts, using overt and implied messages as evidence
for their interpretations
1.5 Demonstrate understanding that different media texts reflect different points of view
2.2 Identify the conventions and techniques used in a variety of media forms and explain how they help
convey meaning and influence or engage the audience
Generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience
(artist statement)
1.3 Gather information to support ideas for writing, using a variety of strategies and a wide range of
print and electronic resources
1.5 Identify and order main ideas and supporting details and group them into units that could be used
to develop a multi-paragraph piece of writing, using a variety of strategies

Assessment for Learning:

Through what authentic performance task/open question will students be able to demonstrate their prior knowledge?

Grade Diagnostic Task

Anecdotally respond to If by Sarah Perry and think about the concept of surrealism and connect it to ideas they may be more familiar
7
with (Picasso, fantasy, other subjects)
Contribute to group discussion about media, access prior media literacy knowledge and understanding of advertising and dominant
social scripts
Speak to their own personal perspectives of environmentalism and where they stand in the physical world aside from a societal
perspective

Robert Durocher and Salima Kassam 2014

Assessment of Learning
Grade Summative Task
7
Visual Statement Natural Body

Students will research an
environmental issue of
their choosing (during
school hours), that is
important to them, and
collect a bank of key words
and facts associated with
this issue.
Based on their research,
they will create a layered
and rich multimedia collage
that will be used to make
the students silhouette
They will produce two
statements: one visual and
one written. The works will
be presented together in a
gallery setting in the school
for others to see.

Success Criteria
How do students clearly understand that these criteria are to be
present in their work?

The students visual essay contains images of the key words they
copied down and used in their written essays and vice versa. They
reflect one another and are presented hand-in-hand.
Students write according to their selected subject and reflect on
their reliance and connection to the planet.


Minds On:
1) Introduce If by Sarah Perry. What do you see on the cover? Predictions?
2) Slowly read through, asking about what students see and polling reactions.
3) What images stood out? How did images make you feel? What category of literature would this
fall into? Why do people write fantasy?
4) Surrealism: cultural movement that emerged as an artistic reaction to the senselessness of war.
Why would artists or writers want to escape?
Action:
5) Introduce sketchbook, model effective note-taking structure and explain what sketchbooks will
be graded on (creativity, effort, not skill).
6) Write your own If statement and draw a representation of that in your sketchbook. Students
draw until 10 minutes before end of class.
Consolidation
7) What ideas have we come up with so far? Would anyone like to share their ideas?
8) What are good methods to use to heighten and further these drawings? What tools can we use
if you feel like you cant draw? Google? Books? Have these mostly complete with an If
statement for next week.
Minds On:
1) Ask for volunteers to share If statements and drawings. What did you find challenging about
this assignment? How did we overcome creative block? What strategies can we use?
2) Group discussion about what meanings can be created when images are put together. What
story emerges when you see a persons head replaced with a clock?
3) Model and show example surreal collages.
Action:
4) Collage challenge 10 minutes, each table group gets 3-4 magazines. You have to find and put
together 2-3 images that create a story in your sketchbook, you only have the magazines in
front of you to work with, no swapping
5) When time is up, students will bring sketchbooks to the teacher and they will be taped up on
the board. Silent gallery walk for 5 minutes.
Consolidation:
6) What stories do you see here? What techniques stand out to you? What do you think makes an
effective or striking collage? Have group discussion about the work in front of them.
7) Talk about what it means to give positive or constructive feedback. Give each student a
sticky note, their exit slip is giving some positive feedback to others by writing on the note and
putting it on a sketchbook.
Minds On:
1) Hand back sketchbooks from prior class and distribute rubric for sketchbooks.
2) Start to build Critique anchor chart. What does the word critique mean? Feedback? What are
examples of constructive feedback? Whats unhelpful feedback?
3) Show examples of bodies/people in magazines. What kinds of people do we usually see in
magazines? Access prior knowledge, what kind of bodies get photographed and advertised?
Write on board the different types of people that are underrepresented (people of colour,
religious groups, body types, hair types, etc)
Action:
4) You have 5 minutes to find an image of a human body. Write about this person in your
sketchbook, how theyre posed, what they look like, what ad they were in. Then, cut an
appropriate body part or body section from the image.
5) Show examples of collage-drawings. The image is then glued on their good paper and they can
start to sketch.
Consolidation:
6) What seems to happen when you remove a section of a body from its original image? Is it
shocking? Does its story change?
7) Ask for volunteers to discuss what they have started to draw into the original image.

Robert Durocher and Salima Kassam 2014

2
Learning Goal:
Social Justice Framework:

Understand why artists and writers
Senselessness of
would create fantasy/surreal work as a
response to reality
war/gun violence

Historical revolution

of surrealism as a

response to war
Success Criteria:
Disrupt the expected,
Start to create drawings in sketchbooks
create new narrative
responding to idea of surrealism with an
accompanying one-sentence statement.

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

For
Students try to categorize and apply
meaning to the illogical illustrations in the
book, see what prior knowledge they have
depending on how they respond.

As
As students draw and write their If
statements, they can be challenged to make
a more compelling story and rework their
ideas.

Learning Goal:
Social Justice Framework:

Explore the new meanings that are
made when different images are put
together in the form of a collage.



Success Criteria:
Make a simple collage using 2-3 different
pre-existing, non-original images.

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

As
Students are challenged to heighten and
elevate the stories that can be interpreted
from their art work.
Introduction to peer critique, students give
each other oral and written positive
feedback to assist artistic growth.

For/Of
Sketchbooks are collected at the end of
class and assessed observationally to gauge
students grasp on what a visual story can
look like.
Assessment As/For/Of Learning

As
Co-creating an anchor chart about critiques
and how the students themselves would
want to conduct them.
Of
Writing for homework about the image they
found in the magazine

Learning Goal:
Talk about and analyze medias
intentions behind advertising certain
bodies and images
Develop skills in talking about art.

Success Criteria:
Students contribute to co-construct an
anchor chart with guidelines as to how
to give feedback/discuss peers work
Start to work on body-disruption
collage/drawings

Social Justice Framework:

Body politics and
issues of
representation
Ableism
Disrupting societal
perceptions

Minds On:
1) Class directs teacher to draw. Have a body part pre-pasted on a piece of paper. What can I
add? Draw and add to the picture based on their suggestions.
2) Ive drawn everything just using line, how can I add some life to the parts Ive drawn in to make
them look more convincing? Tone, shading.
Action:
3) Continue drawings from last class, emphasize tonal exploration and post a handout with a tonal
scale for reference. Dont be afraid to use pressure with your pencil.
Consolidation:
4) Gallery walk with whole group regardless of how finished the work is. Students partner up and
do one-on-one critique. What do you like about your partners work and whats an area that
they can improve on or rework. Remember to be constructive.
5) In your sketchbooks, write about your partners work. What were they trying to do and what
do you like about it? Write at least 4 sentences.

Learning Goal:
Start to consider shading as a
component in a finished drawing.




Success Criteria:
Students start to incorporate darker
tones in their collage/drawings.

Social Justice Framework:

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

For
Asking about what techniques can be used
to heighten the drawing will let the teacher
know what technical skills have been
introduced already.
As
Peer-assessing and critiquing for artwork for
personal growth and understanding.

Minds On:
1) Admit slip: Why is environmentalism important in your life? Place answer in the parking lot.
2) Collect and print a variety of newspaper articles about pollution/the environment/climate
change that are placed thematically around room. Start class with a silent gallery walk.
Encourage students to walk around room and read.
3) What do you see? Discuss the nature of the articles.
Action:
4) Number off students from 1-4, depending on their number they go to a corner of the
classroom.
5) Each group scans and skims through their articles and writes down key terms on chart paper
and in the form of a mind map shares them with the class. This is how youll research and
approach your final work for this unit.
6) Students write down project outlines in sketchbook. Pick an environmental issue, that concerns
you, you can use one of the ones posted here or preferably research your own. We will be
constructing visual essays. What might that look like? Show examples.
Consolidation:
7) Why do you think its important to connect our bodies to nature?
8) Begin to compile images that might be used later on, no gluing yet.
9) What would be some reasons to make a self-portrait like this? What are you saying about your
body?
10) Exit slip: Whats an environmental concern you have?

Minds On:
1) Class takes place in computer lab.
2) Go over grouped responses in Admit and Exit slips, themes and ideas that may have come up.
How do you think we can go about researching these issues and addressing these concerns?
What were some resources we looked at yesterday? How can this relate to art?
3) Create an anchor chart about different environmental-related issues. You can use this as a
starting point.
Action:
4) www.googlejunior.com. What kind of terms can we search? Environmental issues, Canadian
issues, overfishing, climate change, polar bear, bees disappearing, deforestation, etc. Model
this researching skill and view a
5) Make sure that students understand their purpose in searching for key terms and information
associated with their selected subject. They write these key terms in their sketchbooks on a
page dedicated to research.
Consolidation:
6) What were some good websites or resources that we stumbled upon?
7) If you didnt write down very much information, whats a good strategy we can use to return to
this later? Write the name of some websites. Type on document to be projected for students.
8) Your ticket out today is to write a key term you learned today on this chart paper with your
name, we will return to this next class.

Learning Goal:
Improve skills to Skim and scan media
articles for key terms to practice
research skills to use towards the final
artwork of the unit.



Success Criteria:
Group-based collaboration that distils
key issues and terminology of select
environmental issues.
Orally connect human, physical bodies
to the well-being of the planet

Social Justice Framework:

Environmentalism
Bodies in the world,
rejecting societal
expectations in
favour of physical
connection with
earth

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

For
Admit and exit slip data collected and noted
to see where students stand on
environmentalism pre and post lesson

As
Peer-based work to understand and
summarize a given issue.

Robert Durocher and Salima Kassam 2014

Learning Goal:
Social Justice Framework:
Research an environmental issue and be
Environmentalism
able to discuss its impact in the world
and in our lives.



Success Criteria:
Researching and recording key terms
and ideas associated with the students
selected subject in their sketchbooks.

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

For
Reviewing Admit and Exit slips
independently and then as a class provide
the teacher with a starting point as to
where this project can and should be
directed.
As
Guided research and discussion on the
subject of environmental concerns,
students discover facts and ideas they may
have no prior knowledge on and build on it.
Of
Exit slip with one singular key term that
students came across in relation to their
subject.

Minds On:
1) Review chart paper with key terms on it from last class. Did your research last class surprise
you? Can you remember any interesting facts off the tops of your heads? You can look at your
sketchbooks if you cant remember.
2) Model thematic collage techniques. Lets say my subject was the disappearance of bees. Whats
something related to bees/pollination? Flowers? Model cutting a flower shape out of colourful
paper and pairing that with images of flowers. Did anyone use a technique like this in their
sketchbooks?
Action:
3) Students may continue to compile useable images for their themes and place it in their
envelopes that have their names and their name written on it.
4) While students are compiling relevant images, start to take their photos in profile for later use
when they reach the silhouette-cutting stage.
5) Distribute 12x18 manila paper. You can start to glue your images on but try and collect first.
Consolidation:
6) Ask for volunteers to share images theyve found and compiled, what techniques theyve
started to use.
7) If our silhouettes will be cut out of this page, where should we be gluing our images down? Be
aware that some parts of this collage will be lost. Subtractive, reductive collage.
Minds On:
1) Each student receives a photocopy of a Sarah K. Byrne artwork. Describe what you see. Take 3-
4 volunteers. What separates the subject from the background? Start to construct anchor
chart.
2) Are the terms positive and negative space familiar to anyone? Discuss and write definition
on anchor chart.
3) What could you draw in the background to add to the image? You dont have to fill the whole
page, but start sketching to put this person into a space.
Action:
4) Those who are finished their collages can start to cut out their silhouette. And move on to the
final stages of this assignment.
5) Other students will continue to collage.
Consolidation:
6) Homework this week is to write a paragraph with at least 4 full sentences that discuss your
collage. What terms should we include in our artist statements? Foreground, background,
inspired, collage, images, portrait, any other relevant key terms.

Learning Goal:
Pair up key terms with pictures that can
be used in collages and continue to learn
about a variety of environmental
concerns.




Success Criteria:
Students cut representational photos as
well as create shapes from irrelevant
photos and compile them towards their
visual statements.

Social Justice Framework:

Environmentalism

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

For
Review key terms from last class to provide
a basis for further group discussion.

As
Students independently evaluate the best
options to use towards creating a
representational image.

Learning Goal:
Learn language about positive and
negative space to use towards
improving their final pieces.


Success Criteria:
In pairs, students contribute to the
Byrne image and discuss their thinking.

Social Justice Framework:

Environmentalism

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

As
Co-construction of anchor chart about key
art terms.
In pairs, students begin sketching and
adding to explore how to
contextualize/heighten pre-existing image.

Minds On:
1) Practice exhibition: Tape up the unfinished statements and collages on the walls of the
classroom. Silent gallery walk 5 minutes.
2) Stand in front of your own work, the person next to you will be your critique buddy. Together
you will review one anothers statements and pieces to see what there is left to add. Give
constructive feedback to one another and offer suggestions of extra key words.

Action:
3) Students use remainder of class to finish up their collage silhouettes and statements based on
the feedback given to them by their peers.

Consolidation:
4) Exit slip: What is your favourite thing about YOUR collage?

Learning Goal:
Further develop critique skills and wrap
up studio work.



Success Criteria:
Partnered discussion about each others
artwork and statements inform revising
and reworking the assignment

Social Justice Framework:

Assessment As/For/Of Learning

As
Peer-based discussion allows students to
see where they can improve on their work
and feel supported in their effort.
For
Exit slip provides information as to have
confident students are in their work after
speaking with their partner.

Robert Durocher and Salima Kassam 2014