My High School Art Lesson Plans
(also suitable for Middle School)
Level 3
Click here if you haven't seen level 1.
Click here if you haven't seen level 2.
Hi, I'm a high school teacher and artist. I was fortunate enough to be able to teach one year of the subject I'm most passionate about---art, before I was transferred to other disciplines, currently Algebra and Geometry. Below are the lesson plans that I created for my high school art level 1 students during the 2003-2004 semester. Teachers --- feel free to use them as a resource in your classroom.
You may also find some ideas for your class by perusing My Artwork.
Click on each link to view the document in Microsoft Word. Some documents are in jpeg format because parts were created by hand. You can also see larger views of the student artwork by clicking on each thumbnail. All lessons are presented in the order in which they were taught. Not all lessons of each unit are present on these pages. My lessons also sometimes accompany reading material found in the book, Art Talk, by Rosalind Ragans.
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Unit 1: Still Life in Charcoal with Texture
Students learned how to tell the textures of objects by the way in which the light reflects. This helped them to draw a still-life in charcoal pencils that had at least three different textures present.
Textural Object Drawings Project Sheet
Textural Object Drawings Assessment Sheet
Textural Still-Life Drawing Project Sheet
Textural Still-Life Drawing Assessment Sheet
Student Artwork (object drawings and final still lifes):
Unit 2: Watercolor Painting
Before beginning their final painting, students were taught the basics of watercolor painting through a series of short activities. The entire unit is presented below.
Introduction to Watercolor Text
Introduction to Watercolor Reading Questions
Watercolor Final Project Sheet
Student Artwork:
Unit 3: Pysanky --- the art of Ukrainian Egg Dyeing
This unit involved the creation of two designed eggs. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of student work, but if you would like to see some examples of this art form, you can look at some of my own pysanky.
History of Pysanky Reading Questions
Unit 4: Textural Acrylic Painting
Students learned of ways to create texture in an acrylic painting such as through brush strokes, collage, decalcomania, frottage and grattage. Unfortunately, the files for this unit have been lost, but I can at least show some of the student artwork from this unit. The requirements were to show at least three textures in the final painting.
Student Artwork:
Here you can see the drumsticks, hair, eyebrows and strings on the right side
are all real, three-dimensional objects that were attached to the canvas.
This artist attached "clothes" cut from fabric, hangers made from
paperclips and a real flower for the "painting" hanging on the wall.
This portrait of Shrek shows him wearing a vest made of indoor/outdoor
carpeting. Different brush strokes were used to create the background and
two types of fur on the donkey.
This "Dumb and Dumber" painting achieves the look of varied textures
through differing brush stroke techniques.
Level 4 --- Independent Study
A couple of my students chose to help decorate the walls of the art room for their independent study project. They knew how much I loved music, so they definitely chose some appropriate subject matter. Notice Frank Zappa in the bottom left corner of the second mural! Also pictured were their choices of Elvis Presley, Jack White, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia, and Bob Dillian. For the following school year, I was needed at the middle school, so I didn't get to enjoy them for very long. For 2005-2006, I was transferred back to this very room, so I got to see them all the time. My assistant in 2006 created the last mural that is painted underneath the whiteboard. Unfortunately, I am once again changing teaching schedules and moving to a different room.
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