Name-Annette Saldana

Class- LTC 8740 Curriculum in Art Education

Assignment-Lesson Plan: Courage and Power
Date-4/27/15
1. SETTING GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
Big Idea: Through visual art, we can discover how viewpoints about power and courage are
linked to personal values and identity.
Key Concepts: Considering how important courage is in current times, it is important to question
how it impacts us each as individuals. Students will be asked to examine how issues (bullying,
gender, drugs, sexual harassment, academics, home life, well-being, etc.) affect their life today
and their ability to overcome hurdles. They will question how imagery, objects, signs, symbols,
etc. contribute to their understanding of what it means to be courageous and powerful in todays
society. As this lesson progresses, students will be asked to contemplate the ways in which they
contribute ideas about courage and strength through their everyday actions.
Student goals:

Identify ways artists convey power and courage in portraiture

Communicate personal values and ideas of power and courage through creative art
making
Examine how body language can make an impact in demonstrating a powerful pose

Essential questions:
Why is COURAGE important?
How might COURAGE help one overcome struggles (ex. injustice or inequality)?
How can artists create a theme of COURAGE within portraiture?
2. RESPONDING AND CONNECTING
If I pose the question What does courage mean? I expect that I will get various responses from
students. Courage means different things to different people (it can be physical or emotional). It
should make for an interesting conversation. Students will be asked to bring in an image of a
portrait-based artwork that embodies the theme Courage and Power. We will then have a VTS
discussion based on the visuals they collect.
***Side note: This big idea is cross-disciplinary as we will be looking at social aspects
throughout history that tie in topics such as visual culture (fashion, comic books, magazines,
movie stars on television), race, gender, and more!

Students will view how gender can be tied to identity, power, and courage by viewing and
responding to the following historical artworks:
Commemorative head of a Queen Mother Queen Idia (Benin, Nigeria, early 16th century AD)
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=mm032900.jpg
&retpage=15817
Hatshepsut, (Egyptian limestone statue, c. 1485 BC)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/256896/Hatshepsut
Godfrey Kneller. Portrait of Petr Potemkin (17th century)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Potemkin#/media/File:Godfrey_Kneller_Petr_Potemkin.JPG
Students will view how African American archetypal figures can be tied to identity, power, and
courage by viewing and responding to the following historical artworks:
Elizabeth Catlett. Sharecropper (1952)
http://burgessfinearts.com/images/catlett/Sharecropper.jpg
Charles White. Preacher 1952)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/1oWEnAH9kys/T6M29CUlg9I/AAAAAAAAAOg/C1GU0y3RJYo/s1600/preacher.jpg
This segment will feature contemporary artists as well:
Contemporary artist, Kehinde Wiley, often investigates within his portraiture the ways in which
wealth is not always a clear representation of power. Lured by the opulence of early EuroAmerican styles of portraits, he found it not unlike the men strutting the streets of Harlem whose
uber-glitz, bling and vanity were a faade that belied their real lack of power. Wiley was
intrigued by fakeness and authenticity when constructing identities. (Lala, 2012).
Kehinde Wiley, Officer of the Hussars, (2007)
http://prod-images.exhibit-e.com/www_skny_com/149e23cc.png
3. CREATING
Students will view and practice examples of foreshortening as it may help to dramatize the
subject matter within their work. Next, students will take a photo of themselves while creating a
powerful pose. They will print the photo and transfer this image onto paper, cardboard, or
canvas (could use gridding techniques if desired). We will explore the concept that materials can
add to the meaning making process. They may use any materials necessary to embody their
message of power and courage. Students will be encouraged to think about foreground, middle
ground, and background imagery so that it may reflect the obstacles that they are up against or
that they are trying to overcome in their own lives (could be representational or
stylized/abstracted).
4. ASSESSMENT
Formative and Summative assessment are both vital in checking for understanding. Using
various methods of each type creates a better opportunity to meet achievement goals. Students

will be evaluated based on their abilities to perform, create, discuss, write, and reflect artistically.
Portfolio thumbnails that show the progression of ideas, critiques, and discussion questions are
all great ways to evaluate student understanding. Also, a rubric will be used to help in the scoring
process as I evaluate art works, observe the art process, and interview/question students. By
surveying learners in several fashions, I will be better able to discover what my students have
learned from this unit lesson plan.
5. PRESENTING
Students will receive oral feedback as I will monitor progress of portrait creations. Students will
write about their work and explain the effective strategies used to develop their artwork. They
will also critique their peers artworks in the future once projects are complete. I will give
written feedback to students after their work has been assessed and evaluated. Afterwards, we
will be photographing the portraits and compiling an online gallery of the collected images (with
student and parental permission). The web link to access the gallery will be sent out to faculty
and staff in the school so that work can be viewed by teachers and administrators. Perhaps,
recognition from others in the school community could be encouraging!
6. TEACHER REFLECTION
At some point in time, we begin to examine who we are. We start to form values, ideas, and
philosophies which collectively tell a story about us. Many art teachers are in tune with their
sense of self. They often see the importance of individualism and what it means to share our
lived experiences with the world. Teaching this concept to adolescent teens that have yet to form
a true sense of self is a difficult and complex process. As an art teacher who teaches grades 9-12,
I regularly see students who have yet to learn who they are as individuals. They are expected to
create artworks that are expressive, meaningful, and personal, but they are at a loss as to how to
approach this task. Perhaps, the first step into helping students find themselves is to better
understand what it is that makes them who they are. This project was designed so that students
could explore the ways in which personal/cultural identities based on courage and power shape
us, why they are important, and how they can be used to convey messages in our art work. Dr.
Craig Roland states that through portraits we can begin to consider how culture, popular media,
race, family, gender, and place shape our personal identities and our perceptions of others.
(Roland, 2005). Therefore, my curricular design addresses ways of finding self through
examinations of power and courage discovered in portraiture.
My curriculum design helps students understand our visual culture by leading them into
explorations of imagery that are present in their everyday lives. For instance they might
investigate how certain contemporary movie stars, artists, authors, or musicians have reflected
acts that center around the big idea. They can also explore how current fashion trends, comic
book characters, or models in magazines encourage us to think about the impacts of courage and
power.
I want my students to have strength and courage when times get tough. I want them to
understand that life comes with struggles, but it doesnt mean that they have to give up. Also, I
want them to become less afraid of the unknowns in this world. Many of my students deal with
anxiety, physical limitations, bullying, etc. I think the topic of courage is intriguing because I
feel that through the use of art, we can find ways to persevere and become brave individuals

despite any obstacles that may stand in our way. I think students will enjoy seeing how various
artists have used courage as a big idea or theme in their work. Ultimately, I believe it is a topic
that they can relate to. I trust, too, that the artworks that they create in the end will also help to
make this a more personal investigation.

______________________________________________________________________________
RESOURCES (BOOKS/ARTICLES)
Lala, K. (2012). Kehinde Wiley On the World Stage: A Conversation With the Artist. Huffington
Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kisa-lala/kehide-wiley-on-theworld_b_1418058.html
Roland, C. (2005). Identity in the Artroom. The Free Library. Retrieved from:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Identity in the artroom.-a0135932155
Stewart, M. & S. Walker (2005). Rethinking curriculum in art. Worcester, MA: Davis
Publications
RESOURCES (ONLINE IMAGES)
Commemorative head of a Queen Mother Queen Idia (Benin, Nigeria, early 16th century AD)
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=mm032900.jpg
&retpage=15817
Hatshepsut, (Egyptian limestone statue, c. 1485 BC)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/256896/Hatshepsut
Godfrey Kneller. Portrait of Petr Potemkin (17th century)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Potemkin#/media/File:Godfrey_Kneller_Petr_Potemkin.JPG
Elizabeth Catlett. Sharecropper (1952)
http://burgessfinearts.com/images/catlett/Sharecropper.jpg
Charles White. Preacher 1952)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/1oWEnAH9kys/T6M29CUlg9I/AAAAAAAAAOg/C1GU0y3RJYo/s1600/preacher.jpg
Kehinde Wiley, Officer of the Hussars, (2007)
http://prod-images.exhibit-e.com/www_skny_com/149e23cc.png