A. INTRODUCTION
- Hook: We will watch the following YouTube video, starting at 15:22.
- Topic Question or Introductory Activity (Pre-Assessment): Next I will ask students to take 5 minutes to observe a physical behavior they’ve noticed in themselves that day, in school. What might it mean about them, their relationship to others, and their relationship to their environment? They may discuss with their tablemates. I will then allot 5-10 minutes for students to share with the class.
- Introduction of big idea, A Dialogue:
- Me: We watched that video and asked ourselves that question because in our next lesson, we’ll be dealing with the idea of physicality. Physicality is the way we engage with the world through the body’s senses. We live through our bodies as well as our minds, so if the goal of education is to prepare for life, learning through the body as well as the mind makes perfect sense. It gives us the tools to draw deeper meaning and pleasure from their physical experience, and this sensitivity makes us better communicators. An example of physical communication may be an emotion expressed through dance, a history lesson taught through a role-playing game, or a question exchanged between two foreigners with hand gestures. Can anyone offer any other examples of physical communication?
- Students: “Hugging, or kissing, or holding hands?” “When your parent slams the door on the way out, you know they’re mad.”
- Me: Sure, those are all good examples.
- Student: “When your stomach growls, it means you’re hungry.”
- Me: Well that’s an example of you’re body communicating with itself, which is still an important thing to be sensitive to. That’s intrapersonal. The other examples have been interpersonal- communication between different people. When we ignore these physical messages, we’re missing important information. What might be some examples of situations where we overlook our physical experience, or take it for granted? What are some consequences?
- Students: “Well, a lot of the time the cafeteria food smells gross, but I eat it anyway haha. And I always feel pretty sick when I get home…” “I always used to play on my phone on the bus to school, but the other day I noticed that the sunrise is always happening out the window, and it’s awesome! Now I always watch the sunrise, but I’m bummed I didn’t notice earlier in the winter. Would’ve enjoyed the bus more.”
B. SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES/ORGANIZER
- Examine Artist and Artwork: Now we’re going to look at a contemporary artist who is working with the idea of physicality in really interesting ways. His name is Ernesto Neto. (I will then lecture for 10 minutes based off of the artist section of the website we prepared for the midterm assignment. http://aae273-physicality-ernestoneto.weebly.com/artist-background.html
- When we come to the example pieces, I will call on students to discuss how they relate to the big idea before sharing our own take. After the lecture, I will ask what students thought about his art, and why. This class discussion may continue for 5 to 15 minutes.
- Introduce Artmaking Activity: I will hand out the lesson assignments, seen below. We will read over the handout, and I will answer questions. I will emphasize that while Neto is a good starting place for inspiration, students' proposals should be be original and creative, and reflect students' personal interests. This handout will be the form of the lesson objectives that the students receive.
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File Type: | docx |
- Conclusion: "For next class, I want you all to bring in three different ideas for this assignment. Take some time to think about it. Maybe research Neto a little more, or other artists that you like. You should have sketches for each idea, along with anticipated materials for the model, so that you may begin to work next class if you have time. Try to have each of your ideas engage the viewers' senses in a different way."
- Students will let themselves out when the period is dismissed. There will be no clean-up this day. If there is time leftover at the end of class, they may begin their plans.