Unifying Concept: Building Communities
Overview:Students begin by discussing personal connections to art. Then, students analyze literature and artwork for intercultural understanding, including artists’ techniques, purposes for creating art and the effects of art on a specific culture and community. Students create a piece of art that makes a statement and conveys their opinion about a current event or community issue; and/ or, students create a piece of art that reflects their deepest held cultural values. Finally, students analyze and critique the completed pieces of art from multiple perspectives.
Purpose:To investigate artists’ techniques, purposes for creating art, and the effects of art on a specific culture and community.
Art is:
Multifaceted-- visual images, concrete/ sculptures, auditory/music/rhythm, found in nature or man-made
Dynamic--shifts over time and space
Universal--shared globally, can transcend the boundaries of language, can evoke strong emotions
Personal--reflects unique cultural identity, experiences, worldviews
Inspiration--religious art, churches, temples, songs, dance, poetry
Activism--murals, posters, theatre that reflects a political movement
Politics--propaganda and persuasion
Storytelling--can be read/interpreted independently or experienced through someone else’s lens, can sometimes convey ideas that cannot be expressed with words
Enduring Understandings:
1. Artists use different techniques to communicate, inspire, inform, explain, persuade and narrate.
2. Through understanding an artist’s purpose, we can better understand the artist’s experiences and culture.
3. Art can reflect cultural ideas and values as well as universal experiences. / Essential Questions:
1. How are artists’ techniques similar and different?
2. How are cultural perspectives expressed through the arts?
3. How are art and culture interrelated?
4. How are universal experiences expressed through the arts?
Target Standards are emphasized during the quarter and used in a formal assessment to evaluate student mastery.
Highly-Leveraged1 arethe most essential for students to learn because they have endurance (knowledge and skills are relevant throughout a student's lifetime); leverage (knowledge and skills are used across multiple content areas); and essentiality (knowledge and skills are necessary for success in future courses or grade levels).
3.RL.7Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).
Supportingare related standards that support the highly-leveraged standards in and across grade levels.
3.RL.3Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events
3.RL.9Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series).
3.RI.9Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.
3.W.2Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
- Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.
- Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.
- Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categoriesof information.
- Provide a concluding statement or section.
Constant Standards are addressed routinely every quarter.
3.RL.6
3.RI.1, 2,5, 6, 7
3.W.1a-d,4
3.SL.5
3.L.1a-j,2a-g
Selected Readings of Complex Texts
Extended/Short Texts:
Frida Kahlo: The Artist who Painted Herself (Smart About Art), Margaret Fry
Native Artists of Africa, Reavis Moore / Multicultural Adoptions:
Emma’s Rug, Allen Say Morris
Frida Kahlo: The Artist who Painted Herself (Smart About Art), Margaret Fry
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, Christine Baldacchino
Native Artists of Africa,Reavis Moore
Wake Up Our Souls: A Celebration of Black American Artists, Tonya Bolden
Whispering Cloth Pegi Deitz Shea / Scholastic Leveled Bookroom Adoptions:
Level M:
Eye for Color, An, Natasha Wing
Frida, Jonah Winter
Level P:
Copper, Kazu Kibuishi
Happy Burger, Chuck Ranberg and Patrick Daley
Krooks in the Cafeteria (Comic Guy), Timothy Roland
Tar Beach, Faith Ringold
Additional Instructional Resources
Electronic Resources and Alternative Media:
U of A Poetry Center Lesson Plans (
Art and Artists - What is an Artist? (
Art and Artists - Goya, Oh Boya! (
Art and Artists - Leonardo da Vinci (
Famous African Americans - Duke Ellington (
Famous African Americans - Marian Anderson Passage & Question Set (
Famous African Americans - Maya Angelou (
Portrait of an Artist (
African American Literature ()
Performance Assessments
Formative Assessments:
Mid-Unit Formative Assessment:
Students choose a piece of art from the text set on artists, and write a poetry response that conveys the artist’s message.
Formative Assessment:
Formative Assessments will be administered once or twice a week by having students respond to text selections within the unit through various text types (e.g. narrative, opinion, informative/explanatory) and modalities of writing (e.g., digital story telling, letters, poetry). / Summative Assessments:
Students will independently analyze one or more of the above texts to identify figurative language, and nuances of specific vocabulary used by the author to convey meaning.
After choosing a book from the text set, students create a work of art that either makes a statement or conveys their opinion about a current event or community issue; and/or create a piece of art that reflects their deepest held cultural values.
SchoolCity Assessment
ELA, Office of Curriculum Development© Page 1 of 3
These modules are not an exhaustive list of resources and may be used by teachers to implement the quarterly standards and to meet the needs of students.
Short, Kathy Gnagey, and Jerome C. Harste.Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996. Print.
1This definition for highly-leveraged standards was adapted from the “power standard” definition on the website of Millis Public Schools, K-12, in Massachusetts, USA.
ELA, Office of Curriculum Development© Page 1 of 3
These modules are not an exhaustive list of resources and may be used by teachers to implement the quarterly standards and to meet the needs of students.
Short, Kathy Gnagey, and Jerome C. Harste.Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996. Print.