In these pages you’ll find lessons around specific topics. These can cover one class, several, or even lay out the scope for cyclical learning. Where possible I have provided exemplars.
Chinese Calligraphy for Spring Festival
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For Spring Festival (aka Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year) I revisited a lesson that I once did between my Art One class (grade nine) and our buddy class, Grade Two. Inn this case I had my eighth grade students working with me as teachers to lead a workshop with the Chinese second language learners. It differs from the buddy class in that I am in school in Korea now and this is more of a culture lesson. While we were in China there was more focus on the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL.) Below is the slide show I used to present and a couple photos. Feel free to use and don't forget to cite your source - Mr. Allen is Cool.
Content Objective: I can use ink and wash to write art.
Language Objective: I can use the written word as art. Culture Objective: I can engage with an art form from East Asia. Thinking Skill: How are the word and the image linked? 1. Introduce students to materials for ink and wash. 2. Show students how to hold the brush and the three types of strokes. 3. Allow students to practice making strokes. 4. Show student pictures of ink and wash calligraphy and art. 5. Students make art and share. 
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It all began when I developed a unit on interdisciplinary learning; Mathematics and Symbols in Art. I welcomed a calligraphy to discuss the idiomatic nature of Chinese calligraphy. Over the years this evolved into different types of classes. Below you can see Zhang Haoxin who works i learning support and studied calligraphy. she was always keen to teach with me.
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I've added some photos from over the years. Some of these will be when we suddenly had to go online and so the lesson took place with three teachers and four students in the room (they are teacher's children so they were allowed into class) as well as many more (my Art 1 class) in internet land.
Above is student work from the Art 1/Grade Two Buddy Class. The Art 1 students were studying the Math and Symbols unit, the grade two students were there to visit their buddies.
The slide show I used from the Year of the Dragon.
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Concept Attainment Model for Fauvism and Symbolism
The concept attainment model is designed to create the opportunity for students to construct meaning about a topic. Here is one I developed for my eighth grade students about Fauvism and Symbolism. Show the students each slide indicating which states are true and false. In this case, what is and is not Fauvism and Symbolism. The students then use what they have seen and read and write a definition. Feel free to use as here or download the slide show to make your own. Don't forget to cite your source - Mr. Allen is Cool! For a deeper read, check out Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun's book Models of Teaching.
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Function and Purpose IBDP Visual Arts
Function and Purpose is part of the current IBDP Visual Arts and one of the critical analysis required for the comparative study. I have found it can be somewhat confusing for students and mine often have very specific questions about what should be reported on, the extent they can draw conclusions (report what they think,) and how to format the screen. I address Function and Purpose three times throughout the school course. It gets a very superficial overview right at the beginning of the course as we are getting a feel for the work. Then again in more detail at the end of the first year, and then readdressed at the beginning of the second year.
Content Objective: I can understand the meaning of function and purpose and report on them.
Language Objective: I can use visual and verbal research to draw conclusions.
Culture Objective: I can find the function of an artwork in respect to its place and time.
Thinking skill questions:
Symbolic – How is the artist communicating through a visual experience?
Symbolic – What do aspects of a work of art tell us?
Salient: What information from my research is relevant in this situation?
Content Objective: I can understand the meaning of function and purpose and report on them.
Language Objective: I can use visual and verbal research to draw conclusions.
Culture Objective: I can find the function of an artwork in respect to its place and time.
Thinking skill questions:
Symbolic – How is the artist communicating through a visual experience?
Symbolic – What do aspects of a work of art tell us?
Salient: What information from my research is relevant in this situation?
In the first and second session (months apart) I give the students and overview of function and purpose and provide examples of each from the Visual Arts Guide. The students then take individual functions and purposes printed on strips of paper and lay them on posters of well-known art along with a post-its defending their the placement. We do a gallery walk and discuss.
I use the Concept Attainment Model in sessions two and three (also months apart.). I use the same statement because there is a lot of information students have to deal with and using the same statement hopefully calls it up from their long-term memory. In session three I ask the to verbalize a definition of function and purpose and then reveal the IBDP description.
