Curriculum + Planning
Explore the lessons I have designed and other curriculum and planning projects.
Elementary School
Unit Plan - Career Exploration: Inspirations and Aspirations
This unit plan is designed for 4th/5th grade and is centered around the big idea of “Dreams and Nightmares.” Drawing inspiration from artist Keith Haring, this unit addresses the idea of dreams through exploration of students’ career aspirations, leading up to a final project where students are tasked with sculpting 2-3 objects out of clay to represent their dream job. The materials for this unit include three lesson plans, three worksheets corresponding to different activities in the lesson plans, and a slide presentation that encompasses the entire unit.
Lesson Plan 1 | Lesson Plan 2 | Lesson Plan 3 |Keith Haring Coloring Sheet| Career Worksheet | Artist Statement Worksheet
Lesson Plan - Personal Paper People
This lesson plan is designed for 5th grade students to refresh their skills using the elements of art and get to know one another at the beginning of the school year. In this lesson, students will create paper people that reflect aspects of their identity and present their paper people to their classmates through a tabletop runway show.
Curriculum as Art: Portraits of Planning
This project was completed as part of my undergraduate “Art in Elementary Schools” course. In this class, we explored the concept of “a/r/tography,” which refers to the interconnected nature of one’s identity as an artist, researcher, and teacher, rather than viewing each of these practices as separate. With this concept in mind, we were challenged to think about curriculum design for elementary students through a creative and abstract lens by creating an artwork to represent a year of K-5 curriculum and a related artist/researcher/teacher statement about the work. I chose to approach this assignment by creating a quilt, as much of my personal studio art practice is in fiber art. The shape of the quilt is modeled after the iconic 8-color watercolor palettes that I had in every art classroom growing up, reimagined with only 6 colors, each one representing a different year from kindergarten through fifth grade. When designing my curriculum for this project, I first determined what the big idea would be for each grade, and embroidered that as a large icon in the center of each oval on the quilt. I chose the big idea based on what I wanted each age to take away from the school year, drawing inspiration both from my classroom observations and my own experience from what I remember about elementary school. From K-5, the big ideas respectively are community, environment, the mind/emotions, storytelling, identity, and time (past, present, and future). The smaller icons surrounding the big ideas represent some of the K-5 art standards in Kentucky and specific mediums or lessons I would want to teach with each grade. There are many elements of the curriculum that could overlap between grades, which I feel is represented by the fact that my quilt looks like a paint palette—much like I could mix two colors of paint, I could see myself mixing and matching the curriculum based on the individual personalities and abilities of the classes I teach.
To learn more about this project and the research behind my piece, view my virtual presentation for the 2023 KyAEA Conference here.
High School
Lesson Plan - Cardboard Couture: Exploring Identity with Wearable Art
This is an introductory lesson to a unit for advanced high school art students based on the theme of “Self and Others.” In this lesson, students will learn about Nick Cave’s Soundsuits and begin experimenting with cardboard construction techniques as they prepare to build their own wearable sculptures. Students will participate in a cardboard workshop activity inspired by art educator Sam Peck, and will expand upon this experience in future lessons in this unit.
Curriculum Sketches - Outlines for a year of high school Art 1 and Art 2
These are loose plans for two curricula: one covering a year of high school Art 1 and the other for an advanced Art 2 class. Each curricula is composed of 5 units with material and thematic connections throughout. For each unit, I constructed a moodboard from images of contemporary artists’ work, imagined student examples, and other materials or elements that inspired the unit. I carefully selected each project to scaffold on previous lessons and incorporated artists that I felt would be especially engaging and relevant for high school students. Click through the slideshow to view a more in-depth rationale for each curricula and unit.
