Inventing your own language
Art 295 | LV Lesson Plan
Theme: "Symbols"
Grade: Fifth (20 students)
Time: 45 minute period from 9:00 AM to 9:45 AM
Theme: "Symbols"
Grade: Fifth (20 students)
Time: 45 minute period from 9:00 AM to 9:45 AM
Lesson Narrative:
The lesson is based on the inspiration of Egyptian Hieroglyph symbols where students will be designing their own alphabet. The students will receive a blank handout of a chart with letters A-Z with a space to draw their symbol. Students will draw a symbol they create on their own with each letter. Not only do students learn about the significance of how symbols are developed but through this process they will incorporate their knowledge of the elements of design. When they finish they will have a newly defined symbol for every letter of the alphabet which can later be incoporated for constructing name plates, stamps or any other future extended art projects.
The lesson is based on the inspiration of Egyptian Hieroglyph symbols where students will be designing their own alphabet. The students will receive a blank handout of a chart with letters A-Z with a space to draw their symbol. Students will draw a symbol they create on their own with each letter. Not only do students learn about the significance of how symbols are developed but through this process they will incorporate their knowledge of the elements of design. When they finish they will have a newly defined symbol for every letter of the alphabet which can later be incoporated for constructing name plates, stamps or any other future extended art projects.
Lesson Rationale:
Students will grasp how symbols can be representational and be viewed as a visual element. We will discuss in class how symbols are carried throughout our history and how we can identify modern day symbols society. Students will investigate symbols that they observe in their every day life. The goal is for students to comprehend the development of symbols and how their meanings are interpreted. With the main multicultural/historical piece being the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, students will be able to model how Egyptian scribes thousands of years ago made a coded language with the use of symbols. The final product will be a chart labeled from A-Z with the student's unique symbol that matches with each corresponding letter.
Students will grasp how symbols can be representational and be viewed as a visual element. We will discuss in class how symbols are carried throughout our history and how we can identify modern day symbols society. Students will investigate symbols that they observe in their every day life. The goal is for students to comprehend the development of symbols and how their meanings are interpreted. With the main multicultural/historical piece being the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, students will be able to model how Egyptian scribes thousands of years ago made a coded language with the use of symbols. The final product will be a chart labeled from A-Z with the student's unique symbol that matches with each corresponding letter.
Lesson Objectives:
- Students through a historical context will be able to apply their knowledge of what they learned about Egyptian Hieroglyphs into the symbols they create.
- Students will investigate the process of how symbols become developed and apply this knowledge with the different elements of design (line, shape, size, texture, color, space and value) when integrating these elements into their ideas. They are required to incorporate at least two to three of the design elements mentioned in order to be evaluated in a proficient level.
- Through the concept of how symbols operate, this will educate students on how symbols have been a part of our history and are seen in our every day life.
- Students will analyze the meaning of symbols by identifying its representational quality or respond to its meaning. This will translate into how they will represent letters with their own symbol.
Standards: (Ohio Visual Arts Standards)
- 1PE Understand that the context of an art object has an effect on how that object is perceived
- 3PE Investigate the role of cultural objects in our everyday environment
- 4PR Select and use the elements and principles of art and design to communicate understanding of an interdisciplinary concept
- 5RE Express what was learned and the challenges that remain when assessing their artworks.
Materials:
- Pencils
- Erasers
- Thin Black permeant markers
- Colored Markers
- 8 x 11-inch worksheet that labels each letter A-Z with the space to draw their symbol
- The special accommodated students will get a sheet that is 11 x 17 inches or use the online PDF of the worksheet from a computer.
- Each work area will have reference sheets of different types of symbols. By having these references, students can pull inspiration from the design and see how some symbols can depict clear representational form and can choose that approach for their own work.
- Reference sheets included will be of…
- The Egyptian Hieroglyph symbols that will be presented in class
- Native American symbols
- Greek Symbols
- Asian Symbols
- Astronomy symbols (zodiac signs)
- Religious symbols
- Public Symbols i.e. traffic symbols
- Design based symbols i.e. peace sign and ying yang
- Reference sheets included will be of…
Lesson Vocabulary:
- Design: A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function of a building, garment, visual image or other object before being completed
- Elements of Design “The Building Blocks of Design”
- Color: The Hue i.e. red, green, and blue are colors. How light is reflected off the objects
- Value: The light or dark parts of the color
- Line: The linear mark or edge made when two shapes meet. Line can have different directions that move the viewer’s eyes up, down or across.
- Shape: A self contained defined area that can be geometric or organic
- Size: The relationship of the area occupied by one shape to that of another
- Texture: The surface quality of a shape that can promote smooth or rough visual quality in texture
- Symbols: An image that represents or stands for something else
- Hieroglyphics: pictorial characters that represent recognizable symbols that ancient Egyptians used for their script writing
Question Strategies for Images:
- What kind of logos and symbols do you recognize in your environment?
- What do you consider is a symbol?
- How can symbols depict meaning or how are they representational?
- How do symbols help us in our society?
Visual Culture Component:
Procedure:
Hook/Dialogue (3 minutes)
Hook/Dialogue (3 minutes)
- Announce to the class that today they will be creating their own coded language by creating their own symbol for each letter in the alphabet.
- The teacher will ask the class what they know about symbols and ask them to name some examples that they see in their daily lives. This is the time where you allow active participation.
- Ask the class what they saw today on their way to school or if they can point out any symbols that they can find in the classroom (answers can vary and depending on their responses you can point out the symbols from their observations i.e. maybe a student drove past a McDonalds so you can say that the McDonald's M that they saw is a marketing symbol. Or when pointing out a symbol in the classroom it’s okay to point out a logo on a t-shirt because logos are symbols too.
- Bring them back from the discussion and talk about how they will be creating symbols that will connect with each letter of the alphabet.
- Introduce the historical context by explaining how Ancient Egyptians used Hieroglyphics as their language.
- Compare and contrast our standard English letters to their hieroglyphic symbols and ask them what is different about the way both languages are represented. Again this is a time where students can actively and openly participate.
- You will briefly discuss some historical background on hieroglyphs
- These symbols, hieroglyphs, or "sacred inscriptions" were adapted for use in everyday life, in addition to their important religious/mystical identity.
- Hieroglyphs were used for most of the surviving forms of written communication during the Old and Middle Egyptian eras, where this was inscribed on temple walls, used for religious documents on papyrus or used for official documents; for day-to-day administrative needs during the Old Kingdom.
- It is a common misconception that the hieroglyphs are pictures that represent ideas instead of the sounds of the language. While the shapes of the hieroglyphs are indeed taken from real (or imaginary) objects, most of them are used for their phonetic value. Take, e.g., the hieroglyph representing a house. It can be used to write the word pr (vowels unknown) which means 'house."
- Show them a completed example that you did. Reiterate that their symbols should not look like yours or the Eyptian hieroglyphs, so emphasize that copying is not allowed.
- Remind them what you’re looking for. It's time to layout those visual expectations. These are more technical based versus skill based assessment. You state to the class that you want to see a minimum of three design principles included with the design of each symbol and each must look uniquely different where the same image can not be repeated (NOTE: clarify that shapes and lines and certain elements can be repeated but not the symbol as a whole).
- Breifly go over what the elements of design are and see if they can define each one. If they struggle with the definition then explain definition and show an example if necessary.
- With the technology available whether it’s a Smart Board, overhead projector or simply a dry erase board/chalk board...Do a couple demonstrations on drawing a symbol that you make up from your head.
- Pass out the worksheets that you made them and the drawing materials (see worksheet PDF under resources)
- Come around and assist each individual when they ask for help or make sure they are keeping on pace.
- Special Accomodations: Have them go online and look up generic images of food, animals things from nature and have them plug it in to the online PDF. Make sure you ask them that in these images what are the elements of design they see i.e. do they see any darker to lighter values? Do they see any visual texture? Colors that they notice and line movement or direction of line movement if its apparent. If they are able to draw, print out a worksheet where the spaces are bigger so they don’t have to feel as confined or detailed as everyone and have them focus purely on how the elements can interact so working on abstracting the symbols
- Ask the students to pause what they are doing and ask for voluenteers to share some of the symbols they like the most that they designed and which letter they did it for. Ask them their thought process on designing that particular symbol and why did they choose it for that letter. Also ask if it had any emotional or literay/language meaning like how the hieroglyphics are phonetic relative. If the student honestly did not know their intention when making the symbol then allow the class to point out some of the key design principles that the student did.
- For clean up, Students will put the belongings away in the designated areas. There will be helpers like one to collect the charts, and some to collect the pencils, markers and erasers.
Assessment Checklist
Criteria will be assessed with a 1-4 scale: 1 = Poor 2 = Average 3 = Proficient and 4 = Exemplary
Students who meet a 1
Criteria will be assessed with a 1-4 scale: 1 = Poor 2 = Average 3 = Proficient and 4 = Exemplary
Students who meet a 1
- Lack of effort or attempt in the work.
- does not follow instructions where most of the symbols are copied or replicated with a faint distinct difference.
- Sloppy depictions, bad craftsmanship of coloring outside the lines or the symbol designed is hard to read or identify i.e. scribbles
- Show only 1 design element.
- Repeat a similar appearance in almost half the symbols.
- Does not attempt to creatively explore their ability to design a fully rendered image. This is by evaluating if they pushed. themselves to explore these elements of design further.
- Show at least 2 design elements.
- Show an attempt to really push the ideas of the elements of design to make it look representational or uniquely different.
- Depict repetition in design where other symbols have similar elements, but still stand out differently from one another.
- Show 3 or more design elements.
- Reveal some complexity in their symbols by creatively going out of bounds whether its representational or abstractly created
- Each design is clearly unique with no repetition in design
Example Images of completed activity/project
Step 1: Use pencil to draw out each symbol
Step 2: Outline your symbols with a thin black permanent marker and add value in places
Step 3: Apply color
Step 1: Use pencil to draw out each symbol
Step 2: Outline your symbols with a thin black permanent marker and add value in places
Step 3: Apply color
Resources:
Elements of Design Definitions from John Lovett
Elements of Design Definitions from j6design
Egyptian Hieroglyphics Historical Context
Elements of Design Definitions from John Lovett
Elements of Design Definitions from j6design
Egyptian Hieroglyphics Historical Context
symbol-creating-chart.jpg | |
File Size: | 62 kb |
File Type: | jpg |