philly art work 4 u by devonsparks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at phillyart4you.blogspot.com.

WebQuest to the Wild West!

philly art work 4 u by devonsparks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at phillyart4you.blogspot.com.

Introduction:
  Have you ever imagined going back in time to the Wild West?! Getting in your own time travel machine and heading back to the 1800's, think about it!
What role would you want to play if you went back to the Wild West? A cowboy? A Mustang herder?
Today is your LUCKY day...your teacher has provided a time travel machine to your class and your first assignment is to travel back in time.

Task:
You have arrived!! But wait...where are you exactly?! What kind of town have you arrived in?
Its up to you...create the town in your imagination, draw it out..its up to you...your assignment will be based upon it.
After deciding where you are, make your way to the town newpaper building (every western town has a newspaper!) The Western Gazette has offered to hire you as their new illustrator! Congrats!
On your new desk is a letter from your teacher explaining that you must publish one full article of illustrations before you can come home and share your stories!

Process:

1. Once you decide what kind of wild west town you want to be in, start investigating...is it anything like these old western ghost towns?

2. Dont forget people that you might have in your town...women (or heroines), outlaws, famous people? Anyone that you might admire from that period of time

3. Now you must go out into the town, get the stories, do some portraits, and get the human interest stories!

4. Once you have all that taken care of, go back to the Gazette, fire up the printing press and get to work on getting your excellent newpaper out to the residents of your Wild West town.

Evaluation:
Did your newspaper sell out?! Did the residents love what you provided for them? Do they want to keep you on or promote you to editor?! GREAT JOB!!
Rubric for Evaluation:

Category    Excellent Work  -  A    Better Than Average Work  -  B
    Average Work  - C
    Below Average Work  - D    Failing  - F
CLASSWORK    Student demonstrates outstanding skill, discernment and understanding of visual principles in accomplishing his or her work. The quality of work is excellent, and it is integrated with exceptional creativity.
    Student demonstrates moderate skill, discernment and understanding of visual principles in accomplishing his or her work. The quality of work is good, and it is integrated with some creativity.
    Student demonstrates average skill, discernment and understanding of visual principles in
accomplishing his or her work. The quality of work is modest, and it is moderately integrated.
    Student demonstrates lack of skill, discernment and understanding of visual principles in accomplishing his or her work. The quality of work submitted is less than acceptable, and it is poorly
integrated.
    Student fails to demonstrate skill or understanding of the issues involved. Quality of work
submitted is insufficient, and poorly integrated.

PARTICIPATION    Student demonstrates through discussion, critique, and studio interaction outstanding
ability to discuss and assess work, communicating how visual elements and strategies are used. The student demonstrates extensive use and understanding of concepts and terminology used in the
discipline.
    Student demonstrates through discussion, critique, and studio interaction a solid ability to
discuss and assess work; communicating how visual elements and strategies are used. The student demonstrates competent use and understanding of concepts and terminology used in the discipline.
    Student demonstrates through discussion, critique, and studio interaction an average ability to discuss and assess work, communicating how visual elements and strategies are used. Though the discussion and assessment of work is substantially complete, the communication of some visual
elements and strategies are incomplete or missing. The student demonstrates a superficial rather than thorough understanding of concepts and terminology used in the discipline.
    Student demonstrates through discussion, critique, and studio interaction a limited ability
to discuss and assess work, while communicating at a minimal or perfunctory level how the visual
elements and strategies are used. Poor effort is made to relate an understanding of the art concepts and
terminology used in the discipline.
    In discussion, critique, and studio interaction, the student states an opinion vaguely or
does not assess the work and shows little to no evidence of an understanding of how visual elements
and strategies are used. No effort is made to relate an understanding of concepts and terminology used
in the discipline.

HOMEWORK    In the case of studio assigned homework (activity) the student completes the assignment in all aspects and creatively exploits possibilities within open-ended assignments. The work demonstrates skill, good judgment, and application of principles. In the case of written assignments, oral
presentations, and research, the work/presentation/document, presents sound research and is well written and well presented.
    In the case of studio assigned homework (activity) the student completes the assignment and fulfills more than minimal requirements. The work demonstrates some skill, judgment, and application of principles. In the case of written assignments, oral presentations, and research, the work/presentation/document, presents research and are reasonably well written and suitably
presented.
    In the case of studio assigned homework (activity) the student completes most of the
assignment and fulfills the minimum requirements. The work demonstrates modest skill, some
judgment, and in parts, application of principles. In the case of written assignments, oral presentations,
and research, the student makes a modest effort as evidenced by a satisfactory presentation/document.
Research may be incomplete, or lacking in organization.
    In the case of studio assigned homework (activity) the student does not complete the
assignment and fulfills only minimal requirements or submits work late. The work demonstrates lack of
skill, weak judgment, and little application of principles. In the case of written assignments, oral
presentations, and research, the work/presentation/ document, presents faulty or negligible research
and is not well written and/or presented.
    In the case of studio assigned home work (activity) the student does not complete the
assignment and does not fulfill requirements. In the case of written assignments, oral presentations, and research, the work /presentation/ document, presents faulty or negligible research and is not well
written and/or presented.

Conclusion:
Now where did that time machine go?! Head back to the 21st century and tell your class and family all about your travels!

eLecture

Graphic design in the 20th and 21st century has shaped the way we look at logos and iconography in our lifetime. Everything we interact with and view around us comes from a graphic designer. Logos impact how we think about a product and how we see the world around us.


Think about some of the logos you see on a daily basis...McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, Verizon, T-Mobile, BP gas, Geico auto insurance, Google, sports teams- NFL, NBA, college, MLB, ect ect.







History
Beginning in the 11th century, longer scrolls and books were produced using movable type printing making books widely available during the Song dynasty. Sometime around 1450, Johann Gutenberg's printing press made books widely available in Europe.
In late 19th century Europe, the movement began to separate graphic design from fine art. Piet Mondrian is known as the father of graphic design. Bauhaus typographers such as Herbert Bayer and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and El Lissitzky are the fathers of graphic design, as we know it today. They pioneered production techniques and stylistic devices used throughout the twentieth century. The following years saw graphic design in the modern style gain widespread acceptance and booming post-World War II American economy established a greater need for graphic design, mainly advertising and packaging.


QUESTIONS:
Think about what it is about these logos are saying to the consumer?
Think about the colors the advertisers use? How do they effect how you react or look at the product?
How do these logos make you feel? Does it make you want to purchase them?
Are there successful key points to each of these logos?
What are the negative points?

What I would like you to do is, think about labels, logos, advertisements that capture or have captured your attention and pick one that you didn't feel successfully got the point across. Maybe it was something you didn’t understand, maybe you thought it was just plain ineffective, whatever the reason I'd like you to take that ad, or a product you like and come up with a concept or logo for it. Almost as if you were presenting it to the company.




Links about graphic design, images that might help you along your quest:
http://www.designtalkboard.com/glossary/
http://www.superbowl-ads.com/
http://www.spike.com/superbowl 
scroll down and click on the ads on the left
http://my.mmoabc.com/article/Nik88/3713/Collection-of-EyeCatching-Advertisments.html?login=no

Silhouette Lesson Plan

Teacher: Devon Sparks

Grade Level: 6th grade

Title: Landscape Silhouettes

History/Background: Silhouettes began appearing and being used in the 17th century as portrait pieces for families. They have originated in modern times to encompass anything that you would like to form a picture with light background and contrasting dark foreground images.



PA standards:

9.1.6 A. Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.
9.1.6 B. Recognize, know, use, and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review, and revise original works in the arts.
9.1.6 C. Identify and use comprehensive vocabulary within each of the arts forms.
9.2.6 C. Relate works in the arts to varying styles and genre and to the periods in which they were created.
9.3.6 A. Know and use the critical process if the examination of works in the arts and humanities.
9.3.6 D. Evaluate works in the arts and humanities using a complex vocabulary of critical response.
9.4.6 D. Describe to what purpose philosophical ideas generated by artists can be conveyed through works in the arts and humanities.

Goal: To create a winter landscape silhouette

Objectives:
1. Learn about silhouettes in art.
2. Learn about blending water colors.
3. Learn about drawing shapes and using them as silhouettes.

Requirements: To design a stark winter landscape with long shadows using silhouettes of trees, skiers, sleighs, or other winter scenes.

Resource Materials/visual aids: silhouettes in art, examples of snow scenes, Monet's painting, Haystacks in the Snow.

Supplies/Materials: watercolor paints, kosher salt, black construction paper, white watercolor paper, paint brushes, glue, scissors, sponges (optional for added texture)

Teacher Preparation: Gather silhouette visual aids, prepare supplies for each student to use individually or share, have an exemplar ready to show, demonstrate blending water color technique and kosher salt if necessary.

Introduction: Ask students what they think of when they think of the word silhouette, and what they think it means? Ask students if they can think of an example to explain of a silhouette. Talk to students about how snow effects are achieved by artists. Show an exemplar of Monet's painting, Haystacks in the Snow and describe his use of dark colors on a light background. Discuss silhouette history through out time, focusing on landscapes.

Directions:

1. Wet your water color paper with a sponge or paintbrush.

2. Choose one watercolor and brush the wet color over the wet paper. Rinse your brush and add a second color, blending the colors together on the paper. Cover the entire page to resemble sky colors of your choosing.

3. while the paint is still wet, sprinkle kosher salt on the painting. Watch the salt absorb the watercolors to make a crystal or snowy pattern. Let Dry.

4. While the paint is drying get out the black construction paper and sketch silhouette images on your paper. Winter appropriate images such as skiers, snowboarders, a ski lodge, a house, a barn, trees, skylines, sleighs, ect. Cut out these images and attach to your winter sky with glue.

Closure: Students will clean up, allow work to dry and then talk about students different ideas on silhouette and the winter images.

Critique/evaluation/assessment: Students will discuss what successfully worked for other students, constructive criticism and participation is a must.

Extensions: If students are done early they can begin working on another silhouette of choice.

Time Budget:
10 minutes- Demo/introduction
30 minutes - work time
20 minutes- clean up and critique

Vocabulary: silhouette, Monet, landscape

safety concerns: none





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sense of place

I really enjoyed the links that were provided and the ideas your former students came up with. In the wish you were here blogs some of the photograph collages Amy and Ann made were just beautiful. I went through all of the wish you were here blogs as well as the sense of place, sounds of the city blogs and thought they were all beautifully put together and well thought out.

To get some ideas for the sense of place silhouette we had to create, i thought a lot about what I was most familiar with and what came to mind were all of the silhouettes my parents had done of me as a child. i also thought about how most silhouettes we see in the present and the past usually have a white background with the image being in black or color. I wanted to do something different that incorporated light, literally.
I used white cut outs of trees as well as light posts (that is where the light comes in), i wanted to incorporate my sense of place with my everyday life. I work and go to school in the city but live in Conshohocken, and although that isn't so far outside the city, there are definitely more landscapes, and tree lines. The lamp posts obviously tie me to the city, you don't normally notice the lamps during the day, but when the lights are on at night they guide you everywhere. I came up with the tree scape idea my self and just began cutting out paper shapes, the lamp posts i printed offline and i used black construction paper for the background. i decided not to adhere it completely everywhere because i liked the play of the shadows the white cut outs made on the black paper.

I think this could definitely be used as a lesson plan, putting emphasis on different collage materials that could be used representing each students choice for their individual sense of place, whether its at home or somewhere they might go. Having a light box in the classroom to further explore ideas is also a great idea to get them to think outside the box and use they're imagination.

Philosophy of Art Education

I believe that education is not only academic but also emotional, social and physical. These things are the very core of what I want my classroom to encompass and revolve around. I want my classroom to always have a hands on approach, and I want to be understood that learning can be fun, and directly applied to what it is you have a passion for. I believe teachers are facilitators, not just knowledge givers, and I do not believe education is a privilege, but rather a right.