Brian Dang

Theme: Culture/Identity

Medium: Painting

Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Challenge:Create a silhouette self-portrait using personal symbols drawn and painted to express their identity/culture.Objectives: The student reflects on the meaning of their identity/culture.The student will compare and contrast visual symbols used to communicate ideas in various cultures.The student explores their identity through discussion and art making. The student will recognize symbols as concrete images that represent some other, more abstract thing or ideas. The student will create a self-portrait that uses symbols to express my identity.The students will explore the use of drawing and watercolor to construct their self-portrait.

Materials: o Watercolor Prang Oval-8 Color Seto Crayola Premier Tempera

Liquid Paint (Alternative)o Jack Richeson

Tempera Cakes (Alternative)o Paint brushes (optional—Q-tips, small 1”x1”sponges)o Styrofoam trayso 9”x11” white drawing papero Tupperware containers for watero Pencils/Eraserso Sharpies (Regular & thin)o Printed Photograph of Students

Vocabulary: Silhouette Symbolism Self-Portrait Culture Watercolor Technique Overlapping Tempera Paint (Alt.) Identity Collage

Prototype:

Introduce / Engage: Session 1: Create a mindmap on “what is culture?” Brainstorm what can I draw about my own culture.Students play a modified game of ‘Pictionary’. Students have a minute to draw an image that present and communicates each word or phrase from the chosen ‘Pictionary’ cards. Session 2: Discussion about what are things important in the life of a 3rd grader. Demonstration of how to trace drawn symbols with sharpie & how to use watercolor to color symbols after sharpie.Session 3/4: Demonstration on watercolor tips and use. Session 5: Present a video (5:33 min) Symbols of America as a review of what is a symbol. https://youtu.be/LVkVH6w4G0I

Closure/Reflection:Session 1 –Students share with each other in a Pair-N-Share thepersonal symbols they made that reflects their self-identify & culture. Session 2 – Student pick a table partner Art Inspector to exchange artwork and check if each other have all the things on theirchecklist in their self-portrait.Session 3/4 – Class verbal assessment 3-2-1 surveying students’learning: 3 things I learned today… 2 things I found interesting…1 question I still have. Session 5 – Artwalk to observe what others had done.In a writing prompt, students can write a letter about “what if their future self” wrote a letter describing the elements in their symbolic self-portrait they had made.

Artists and Art History Connections:Self-Portrait Connection

Gustavo Ortiz, Self-Portrait, Collage on paper, 2013. Argentinian born, London based artist.

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Monkeys, oil on canvas, 1954. Mexican artist. Magical realism.

Kehinde Wiley, Portrait of Venetian Ambassador, Oil on canvas, 2006. African American artist born in South Central L.A., NYC artist. Watercolor Technique Connection

Winslow Homer, Rowing Home, Watercolor, 1890. American self-taught artist.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Sunrise, 1916. American modernist painter.

Lesson Title: “WHAT’S IN YOUR IDENTITY?” SYMBOLIC SELF PORTRAIT