CIDNEY WRISLEY

Title: “Magic Trash” Art

 

Name: Cidney Wrisley Date: 10/20/17

 

Grade level/ Subject/ Context: 5th grade. Art and English Language Arts. This lesson is about

ways to transform your trash into something meaningful or of use. Children in this class have

started brainstorming about impacts that they are making in the world. Further into the year

they will start a EL unit on the great pacific garbage patch, so this is a way to start thinking of

things that we can do to recycle or reuse materials.

 

Standards:

• VA.1.CR1.5.1 Generate ideas for an artwork based on cultural influences or social

issues.

• VA.1.CR1.5.3. Constructively design and manipulate materials, organizational and

compositional elements to make meaning in a work of art.

 

Learning Targets:

 • I can create art that has meaning.

 • I can describe how art can impact a community.

Content Objectives:

 • By the end of this lesson SWDTU of the book, “Magic Trash” by creating visual art using

various materials.

 • By the end of this lesson, SWDTU of how art can impact a community by retelling

“Magic Trash”.

 

Language Objectives: By the end of this lesson SWDTU of meaning of art by describing how they

felt about the art that they made.

Student Assessment: At the end of the lesson, students will do a gallery walk and be asked to

share about the art that they made. The class will have a small discussion about their art and

talk about how they think art can impact a community as well as how they felt making and

sharing their art.

 

Materials/Preparation: The book “Magic Trash: A Story of Tyree Guyton” by J.H Shapiro, various

leftover classroom art materials, glue (and/or hot glue guns), scissors, recyclable materials that

students brought from home, note that goes home to parents explaining to collect a few

materials for art project. Teacher should have sent home the note at least a week before the

project so students have time to bring materials in and teacher’s art materials set up in the

classroom so they can be accessed easily after the book. Learning targets should already be

written on board.

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Differentiation strategies: Providing written instructions and learning targets for children that

have a harder time remembering multi-step instructions. Providing some written instructions

that have been translated in Japanese for a child that is still learning English. Providing several

types of working spots for children: standing desks, wobble chairs, hallway, regular chairs, floor,

etc. for children that all work best in different areas.

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Lesson Sequence

Lesson Introduction: I have a book about an artist named Tyree Guyton. How many of you have

seen famous art? What does it typically look like? This is a picture book, but it says it is a story of

his art. In the back of this book is an authors note (read). Do you think this book is fiction or nonfiction,

why? Fiction, there is a picture of the real person. Right. He grew up in an area that

doesn’t have a lot of money so he had to find a different way to make art. What do you predict

he will use? What do you predict it’ll look like? (5 mins)

 

Communication of Learning Targets: Read learning targets from the board. Tell class we are

hoping to accomplish these by the end of the lesson. (2 mins)

 

Learning Activities: Start off by doing a read aloud underneath the document camera or spot

where everyone can see. This should be an interactive read-aloud where students turn and talk

or raise their hands to share connections, predictions or questions they might have. Teacher

will ask questions like “How does your heart feel while reading this? Head? What does the book

tell you?” (15 mins)

 

Give directions to students that they will have 25 minutes to create art of their own. Give them

a short description of materials and where they should work. Let them know they can work

alone or in groups of 2 or 3 and at the end of the lesson they will be doing a quick gallery walk.

(2 mins)

 

Let students work, be available to answer questions they might have and help make sure safety

is being used for all materials. You can ask students to tell you about their art piece while going

around. Wow, it looks like you are working hard with your piece of art. Tell me about it. Oh, I

noticed you are working together? How did you both communicate your ideas? (25 mins)

Have students clean up materials and set out their art for a gallery walk. Explain that every

other person will be walking while the other have talking about their art to each other. (7 mins)

 

Closure: Come back as a class on the carpet. Go over learning targets. Students can give fist to 5

about how they feel they have accomplished learning targets. Ask students questions like: How

did you feel making this art? Was it easier or harder having an open-ended assignment? How

did you feel sharing your project with a group? Do you think Tyree ever felt this way? (4-8 mins)

 

Field Notes:

Before: I am worried that this lesson plan could take longer. I feel like children could potentially

work on art for hours so I am hoping that the transition to a new subject will work well. I am

also worried about glue sticking fast enough, hot glue will be provided, but there will not be

enough for everyone to use at the same time. I am hoping clean up goes smoothly as well, but

there is a chance I might have to supervise cleaning up instead of having them be selfmanagers.

Reflection: This lesson plan did take longer than I anticipated. It took about an hour and ten minutes,

but they didn’t have time to do a gallery walk. Because we didn’t do the gallery walk, I had to

change the assessment to being just the class discussion and a fist to five at the end with the

learning targets. I would’ve still liked to do the gallery walk, but I don’t think that it affected the

closure for the students. I noticed that even after they had time to clean up, not everything was

picked up. Some students avoided helping by walking around or going to the bathroom, while

others got all the work. I would like to pay better attention next time, but I was nervous doing

my first lesson for this class and I missed a few things. I also should have taken less answers for

when people raised their hand. My idea was to not shut down anyone’s ideas, but I was running

out of time. When I asked about fist to five for the learning targets they gave mostly 4’s and 5’s,

which helped me think that they felt confident with the learning targets. One boy came up to

me after class and said that at first, he felt bored because he didn’t know what he could make

and didn’t have any idea’s. He said he was surprised by the end of the project that he felt really

proud of what he made and liked it a lot. This was feedback to me that the children enjoyed

having the chance for creative expression.