21st Century Ideas for Art Lessons, Art Journal Entries and Risk Pods

Artist/Educator: Emily Brewer

Week 5

ADAPTIVE ART
Minimalist
Readymade
Rhythm
Surrealism
Theme

1) Principle: Surrealism
Lesson
Story by Chance - Student artists will create a narrative color drawing or collage either individually
or in a small group. From a hat they will choose a setting, 2 characters, and a problem/conflict.
This will help with the juxtaposition of realistic objects for a surreal artwork. They will then create
a narrative that involves the chosen items plus their own ideas and conflict solution. They will
create a 16x20 surreal scene using color pencil, pastels, collage materials, stencils, cutouts etc. to
tell their story.
2) Principle: Theme
Lesson
As a class we will talk about big ideas and how people can interpret words differently while
showing examples of artwork within the same theme. Students will then vote on theme for a free
choice project, meaning they choose what materials (2D or 3D) they want to use. Some
suggestions could be: voice, freedom, play, values, etc.
Cognitive impairment: Have questions to ask students on various levels to help them think about
what they want to represent:
5 - Whose voice are you going to represent?
4 - What does voice mean to you?
3 - What do you want people to know?
2 - What do you like to talk about?
1 - What things do you like?
3) Principle: Minimalist
Risk Pod Exploration
Minimalist Movie Posters Minimalist movie posters will be shown on the screen one at a time,
in teams, students will try to guess what movie is being represented. They will then create their
own and quiz their peers. This helps student artists understand the power of shape and color and
the meanings people associate with them.
4) Principle: Readymade
Risk Pod Exploration
We will look at the work of Marcel Duchamp and then discuss Is this art? Have a table full of
everyday objects. Students will choose one or more and give them a new purpose. Students will
then need to defend whether or not what they created is art while the teacher play devils
advocate.

Brewer | 1

21st Century Ideas for Art Lessons, Art Journal Entries and Risk Pods

5) Principle: Rhythm
Risk Pod Exploration
Students will watch Jay Silvers Ted Talk: Hack a banana, make a keyboard! Afterward they will get
a chance to play with a MaKey MaKey and experiment with actual sound rhythm. They can then
make a painting that they can listen to using the MaKey MaKey.

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LESSON CRITIQUE
Becoming One with Your Fear
The most compelling thing(s)...
The overall idea is compelling. This could help students understand what it is they fear and
possibly why, which could potentially lead to them facing it or overcoming it.
What is fear?
What do you do when youre afraid?
What does being fearless look like?
How could you defeat you fear?
One thing I might change...
I would make sure that my students feel safe doing this project because it could be very personal
and they could be uncomfortable sharing it. Fear is a power thing. If I had students that were not
comfortable sharing their own, perhaps there could be a list of common fears or phobias have
that they could choose from.

Brewer | 2