LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE B

ED 3501 2012

Lesson Plan

Grade/Subject: 6-8 Drawing Head Bands

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA
PROGRAM OF STUDIES

ART: DEPICTION

Component4
MAINFORMSAND
PROPORTIONS:Students
willmodifyformsby
abstraction,distortionand
othertransformations.
Concepts
A.Thedirectionofshapes
determinesthestatic
ordynamicqualityofthework.
B.Shapescanbeenhancedwith
complexities,
embeddedorextendedforms.

Unit: Art Exploration

Lesson Duration: 25 min

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

ASSESSMENTS

Students will draw an image

based only on the
description provided by
peers.

Observation and listening

for proper descriptions and
game play.

Students will describe how

the abstracted piece can be
considered art.

ELA:5.1 Respect Others and

Strengthen Community:

determineanduselanguage
appropriatetothecontextofspecific
situations

Students will describe in

teams an image using only
description words: no
specifics.

(Observations, Key Questions,

Written Assessments,
Performance Assessments)

Observation looking for

links between the lines
students drew and abstract
art.
Feedback and pushing for
teamwork.

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Resource #1: Head bands game template (pics of strange animals and bugs, head bands, paper clips!)

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

* paper-1 sheet per student, split into quadrants
*pencils, erasers.
*Headbands game: paper strip head bands, pics of bugs, paper clips.

PROCEDURE
Introduction (2 min.):
Hook/Attention Grabber: Today we are playing drawing head bands!
Assessment of Prior Knowledge: Has anyone played the game Headbands before? Quickly explain or let a student
explain the normal Headbands game.
Advance Organizer/Agenda: Our game today will be a bit different!
Transition to Body: Come gather around me and my sketchbook and we will go over an example of drawing head
bands together
Body (20 min.):
Describe what the game is (see Learning Activity) and provide a demo example where you let the whole class try to
give you descriptions. Correct them if their descriptions are cheating EX: DRAW FINGERS this is cheating,
instead youd have to make it vaguer: DRAW 5 LONG SKINNY CYLINDER SHAPES IN A ROW. Let them get it
as close as they can and then reveal it to yourself and freak out and play it up!
-hand out bands and ONLY HAND OUT ONE IMAGE AT A TIME: THE WHOLE CLASS GOES AT ONCE AND
WE ALL REVEAL AT ONCE TO MAKE IT MORE FUN AND ALSO ENSURE IMAGES REMAIN A SECRET.
Learning Activity: sit in groups of 3, one member of each pair will wear the headband (you will be the drawer) the
other member will be describing what they can see on your head band with out actually telling you what it is. The
third member will watch to make sure theres no cheating, but can also step in if the describer is having a hard
time. Most of you wont actually know what the thing in the picture is. I will give you one hint: they are all rare

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE B

ED 3501 2012

animals and bugs. Describers: you will have to be very detailed with your descriptions without giving away what
the thing is if you know. Tell the artist the general shapes that make up the form and tell them where to add lines
(and whether those lines are horizontal/vertical/diagonal) or erase lines, and where to shade or highlight if
necessary. Use descriptive words like: smooth, rough, wispy, hard, soft, thin, thick. BE SPECIFIC but also be very
patient because your artist will be trying to mentally see the image and will probably feel confused. Dont worry
about backgrounds, only make your artist draw the animal/bug. Describers are not allowed to add to the drawings
in any way so keep your hands off those pencils!! Teams that get closest to the actual drawing will get the glory!!
Assessments/Differentiation: encourage students to help each other, describe as a team!

Closure (3 min.):
Consolidation/Assessment of Learning: believe it or not, youve all come together today and become artists drawing
these intricate creatures blindly based only on the fabulous descriptions you came up with! AMAZING! Look at the
lines here, its an abstract piece. (have each student describe their favorite sketch from today, and suggest that they
frame it at home for it is their first abstract piece!)
Transition To Next Lesson: Put your pencils and erasers in the bin and head to your next class, it was great to have
you all!

Reflection:
The first time I taught this lesson, I let students pick the images on their own and didnt make the class
go all at the same time. It was very chaotic and students were all revealing at different times (so pretty
much constantly) this made it so they spoiled many of the images for future rounds. Another mistake I
made was I didnt provide an example myself the first time, I simple let them feel their way through it
and guided them with feedback. This ended up working out by the end of the lesson, and they each
had at least one sketch that they thought looked really great, but I decided to change things up.
The next time I taught it, I first described the game, then I demonstrated a round with the students
giving me examples of descriptions to draw. This way I could also go over how hard it is NOT to
cheat in the game because you have to stop yourself from blurting out things like: DRAW AN EYE
instead of DRAW AN OVAL TYPE SHAPE, INSIDE THE OVAL DRAW A BIG CIRCLE THAT
FITS IN THE MIDDLE, AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT CIRCLE, DRAW A DOT.
Using language in this way is very tricky and it can be difficult if English is also not your first
language, I also discussed how to help a peer constructively if language is a barrier and reminding
students that we will all have troubles with this activity, its difficult, so be helpful and work together.
Since I implemented the changes this lesson has quickly become my favorite activity to do with a
bunch of new students who dont know each other very well, but its still a favorite among my students
so Im having to change out the images quite often.