Teacher(s) Melissa Miller

Subject group and discipline Arts: Visual arts

Unit title

MYP Year

Unit 2: Color and Paint

Grade 10

Unit duration 5 weeks (25 hours)

Inquiry: Establishing the purpose of the unit

Key concept

Related concept(s)

Aesthetics

Identity

Arts: Visual arts

Composition
Visual culture

Global context
Genre

Identities and relationships

Students will explore the idea of identity and how

artists use art to relay a message about themselves.
Exploration to Develop: Identity formation, selfesteem, status, roles and role models

Statement of inquiry
Why is it important to be intentional about color in art?
Inquiry questions
What color schemes are characteristic of
successful art?
Factual

Conceptual

How does color affect the way we see?

Objectives

Summative assessment

B: Developing skills
i. demonstrate the acquisition and development
of the skills and techniques of the art form studied
ii. demonstrate the application of skills and
techniques to create, perform and/or present art.
C: Thinking creatively
i. develop a feasible, clear, imaginative and
coherent artistic intention
ii. demonstrate a range and depth of creativethinking behaviours
iii. demonstrate the exploration of ideas to
shape artistic intention through to a point of
realization.

Outline of summative assessment task(s) including assessment

criteria:

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

Task
October

18
Saturday

9:00 AM

Artist Critique (D)

Students will do an in-class critique
of each other's work. They will give
several students feedback using
"plusses" and "deltas." We will
then have a conversation about a
few select pieces to practice
responding to art and pointing out
both the conceptual ideas and the
techniques we have learned.

What is the value of adding color to a

composition?
Debatable

Relationship between summative assessment task(s) and

statement of inquiry:

Students will learn that color takes thought in order to

correctly express an idea. They will practice creating
and using color schemes that are used by artists to
both express their ideas and attract an audience.
Students will have many opportunities to create these
schemes and mix colors through paint, colored pencils,
and collage. They will also look at several other pieces
of art and discuss the intentionality of the color choices.

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Task
November

18
Tuesday

9:00 AM

Self Portrait in Complementary

Colors (B, C)
Students will do a self portrait in
acrylic paint with two
complementary colors. They will
brainstorm to ensure that they are
communicating a message about
themselves and will justify their
color choices. The self portrait will
show the students' ability to show
warm and cool, dark and light, and
neutrals.

Approaches to learning (ATL)

Arts
B: Developing skills
i. demonstrate the acquisition and development of the skills and techniques of the art form studied

Communication

Self-management

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

I. Communication skills
Exchanging thoughts, messages and information
effectively through interaction
Give and receive meaningful feedback
Use intercultural understanding to interpret
communication
Reading, writing and using language to gather and
communicate information
Make inferences and draw conclusions
V. Reflection skills
(Re-)considering the process of learning; choosing and
using ATL skills
Identify strengths and weaknesses of personal
learning strategies (self-assessment)
Consider content
- What did I learn about today?
- What dont I yet understand?
- What questions do I have now?

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Thinking

VIII. Critical thinking skills

Analysing and evaluating issues and ideas
Use models and simulations to explore complex
systems and issues
IX. Creative thinking skills
Generating novel ideas and considering new
perspectives
Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas,
products or processes
Create original works and ideas; use existing works
and ideas in new ways

Action: Teaching and learning through inquiry

Content

Learning process

Knowledge & Skills:

Learning Experiences

Knowledge & Skills TBD

Standards:

Writing
Text types and Purposes
1. Write arguments to support claims in an
analysis of substantive topics or texts, using
valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient
evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to
examine and convey complex ideas,
concepts, and information clearly and
accurately through the effective selection,
organization, and analysis of content.

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

Students will see rubrics and examples, as well as demonstrations of each technique and vocabulary we learn.
They will also access knowledge each day by looking at and responding to the selected artists through their bell
ringers. They will practice connecting the concepts we are learning through the reflections at the end of the
period. Students also have Developmental Workbook Assignments and Digital Sketchbook assignments, where
they look up a piece of art, describe and respond to it, each week. During this unit they will be working
specifically on color-related drawings and pieces to reinforce our work in the classroom.
I know they have enough prior knowledge because they have already had conversations in which limited
understanding of color theory was mentioned.
Teaching strategies
Students will receive feedback from me regularly as they turn in their weekly Developmental Workbook
assignments. They will also receive feedback from their peers formally and informally. They will be given rubrics
and will practice grading themselves and justifying the grades they gave themselves. I also return all other tasks
mentioned with feedback on them.

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Task
October

18

Complementary Colors Grid (B)

Students will create a grid by choosing two complementary colors and create the nuetral.
They will also create the tints of each of the colors, so the final product will show an ability to
find equal contrasts between colors.

Saturday

9:00 AM
Task
October

18

Black and White Still Life Painting (B, C)

Students will start with black and white before moving to color with their painting. They will
bring in objects to create a still life and they will be given a few days to apply the paint to their
work to create their first painting

Saturday

9:00 AM
Task
October

27

Color Schemes Activity (A, B)

Students will use a medium of their choice to turn in a reference for each of the color
schemes they have learned in class. They will also be given some color schemes which they
will need to label.

Monday

9:00 AM
Task

Vocabulary Quiz (A)

October

29
Wednesday

9:00 AM
Task
October

30

Color Mixing Quiz (B)

I will give students colors that they will need to mix on their papers. This will show their ability
to create a color using the complements and analogous colors in order to match effectively.

Thursday

9:00 AM
Describe how you will differentiate teaching & learning for this unit?
Students will be able to choose many of their colors within a scheme. For example, with their complementary
color grids and with their portraits, they may choose red-green, yellow-violet, or blue-orange. However, if they
need to be pushed, I will encourage them to use tertiary colors which they will need to mix first, and then create
their neutrals through those colors. Additionally, they can be pushed to use more levels to their grids. If

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

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students struggle with getting that done, they will instead use 3 by 3 grids, creating a 2 lighter shades of each
color, and the one neutral between them. Students with special needs will also be given additional time,
preferential seating, and I will check in with them frequently throughout the class for one-on-one instruction
when needed.
Learner Profile
Risk takers: Students will be using themselves as the subjects of their piece, which requires them to take risks to communicate more personal ideas and thoughts.
Resources
Journal:
Art 21. org
Artists' work:
Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Mark Rothko,
Christina Papagianni, Fancois Neilly, Alexa Meade, Vincent Van Gogh and John Lovett.

Reflection: Considering the planning, process and impact of the inquiry

Prior to teaching the unit

During teaching

After teaching the unit

What do students already know, and what can they do?

What potential interdisciplinary connections can we
identify?
Could we develop authentic opportunities for service
learning?
Our last unit was on value, so they will study value in
a different context. Before, they created value
through line. Here, they are using another medium
and adding another dimension by recognizing the
difference of values within colors and seeing the
importance of using values in different colors. They
have also been exposed to still life drawings.
I would like to use students' history class to connect
artwork to historical context and further understand

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

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the ways in which art connects us with the greater

world. In our last unit, we looked in particular at Kara
Walker and her messages about race and slavery in
America, so will be looking at using examples to have
deeper discussions that relate directly to what
students are learning about in history.
I would like to talk about this idea of service learning
because I do not have any ideas yet, but would like to
add this into my plan.

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

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