My Best Lesson Plans

As an art teacher, I think that it is important to move my classroom beyond painting and free draw.  I like my students to really connect to the art we are making.  I try to focus my lessons on an important artist, moment in history, and connection to their own lives.

One of my best lesson plans was teaching the students about the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.  The project was introduced with a sketchbook warm up, where the students were asked to write a critique on one of Kahlo's self portrait, before being given any information.

I presented them with an interactive lecture where we discussed Kahlo's life, and how she used symbolism in her self-portraits as a form of self expression and identification.  We looked at the importance of self-portraits throughout history, and examined how other artists used them as a form of expression.

The students were then instructed to examine their own lives, and decide what were the most important aspects of their life that were unique to them, and that they would like to present to others.  They then created self portraits in the style of Kahlo, including symbolism that was unique to them.

After learning about artist statements, the students wrote their own artist statements, and presented them to the class along with their portraits, full of symbolism.