Written by: Judy Decker
8th Grade Lesson Plans                                               2 to 3 weeks
Unit:  Drawing and painting- technology integration
Project: Heroes Portrait (See note below)

Motivation:

1.      Video: Florence: Cradle of the Renaissance

2.      Renaissance portraits

3.      Internet Lesson: http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/heroes.htm

4.      Demonstrations of drawing facial features to correct proportions

5.      Demonstrations using Publisher to create block lettering (black outline—no fill)

6.      Demonstrations of various drawing techniques- adding line to create value

7.      Demonstration of watercolor pencil techniques and applying watercolor wash.

  Procedures:

1.                  View / discuss video on Renaissance art- fill out work sheet - Go over questions

2.                  Critique Renaissance works - select one image to write about- include elements and principles of design vocabulary (chapter 2 in text)

3.                  Right Brain drawing—turn selected Renaissance portrait upside down—cover and draw a small section at a time. (Spend one class period - students finish on their own)

4.                  Use Internet to find a picture of selected hero (this is interdisciplinary with social studies - students do a report on a hero of their choice)

5.                  Draw a one inch grid over photocopy (or computer print) of hero

6.                  Enlarge digital image using a grid—Grid 12x18 paper to 3” (300% enlargement)

7.                  Print out selected words done in Publisher-- suggestions: name, date of birth/death, character traits, virtues.

8.                  Cut out word strips from computer print-out and arrange on drawing—secure with small pieces of masking tape

9.                  Transfer portrait to 12x18 watercolor paper using the Seral graphite paper (tape drawing in two places)

10.              Outline drawing with Ultra-fine point sharpie marker.  May use cross hatching, parallel line shading and or stippling to show shadows and for contrast.

11.              Color with watercolor pencils--Must show highlights and shadows. Put darker skin tones in shadows and leave highlights white---brush water over to blend. May leave words white for contrast.

12.              Build up watercolor pencils in negative space---must use more than one color (related colors work best)

13.              Add additional water color wash if desired.

14.              Critique work  

NOTE: Be sure to talk about copyright issues. Fair Use allows students to use published  photographs.... However, if one follows that letter of the law, making a drawing from a photograph is a derived work. Unless the photograph is in public domain, an artist would have to seek permission to use the photograph. One must also consider rights of publicity when putting works on the Internet. Permission from the estate (as with the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). should be obtained to display  the portraits  on line.         

            Alternate Lesson: Teachers as Heroes - How about having the
students select a teacher of theirs as a hero? Students who can not
contact a previous teacher could select one from this year. It should
be very easy to get "permission to use" photos.

You could start out by reading this essay written by an assistant
principal in Ohio. Permission is granted to share it with you.

By J. Bradley:

  Where are the heroes of today?" a radio talk show host thundered.

  He blames society's shortcomings on education.  Too many people are
  looking for heroes in all the wrong places. Movie stars and rock
  musicians, athletes, and models aren't heroes; they're celebrities.
  Heroes abound in public schools, a fact that doesn't make the news.
  There is no precedent for the level of violence, drugs, broken homes,
  child abuse, and crime in today's America.  Education didn't create
  these problems but deals with them every day.

  You want heroes?

  Consider Dave Sanders, the schoolteacher shot to death while trying to
  shield his students from two youths on a shooting rampage at Columbine
  High School in Littleton, Colorado. Sanders gave his life, along with
  12 students, and other less heralded heroes survived the Colorado blood bath.

  You want heroes?

  Jane Smith, a Fayetteville, NC teacher, was moved by the plight of one
  of her students, a boy dying for want of a kidney transplant.  So this
  woman told the family of a 14 year old boy that she would give him one
  of her kidneys.  And she did.  When they subsequently appeared
  together  hugging on the Today Show, even Katie Couric was near tears.
  You want heroes?

  Doris Dillon dreamed all her life of being a teacher.  She not only
  made it, she was one of those wondrous teachers who could bring the
  best out of every single child.  One of her fellow teachers in San Jose,
  Calif., said, "She could teach a rock to read."

  Suddenly she was stricken with Lou Gehrig's Disease which is always
  fatal, usually within five years.  She asked to stay on job ... and
  did.  When her voice was affected she communicated by computer.

  Did she go home?  Absolutely not!  She is running two elementary
  school libraries!  When the disease was diagnosed, she wrote the staff
  and all the families that she had one last lesson to teach .... that dying
  is part of living.  Her colleagues named her Teacher of the Year.

  You want heroes?

  Bob House, a teacher in Gay, Georgia, tried out for Who Wants to be a
  Millionaire.  After he won the million dollars, a network film crew
  wanted to follow up to see how it had impacted his life.  New cars?
  Big new house?
  Instead, they found both Bob House and his wife still teaching.  They
  explained that it was what they had always wanted to do with their
  lives and that would not change.  The community was both stunned and
  gratified.

  You want heroes?

  Last year the average school teacher spent $468 of their own money for
  student necessities ... workbooks, pencils .. supplies kids had to
  have but could not afford.  That's a lot of money from the pockets of the
  most poorly paid teachers in the industrial world.

  Schools don't teach values?   The critics are dead wrong.

  Public education provides more Sunday School teachers than any other
  profession.  The average teacher works more hours in nine months than
  the average 40-hour employee does in a year.

  You want heroes?

  For millions of kids, the hug they get from a teacher is the only hug
  they will get that day because the nation is living through the worst
  parenting in history.
  An  Argyle, Texas kindergarten teacher hugs her little 5 and 6
  year-olds so much that both the boys and the girls run up and hug
  her when they see her in the hall, at the football games, or in the malls years later.

  A Michigan principal moved me to tears with the story of her attempt
  to  rescue a badly abused little boy who doted on a stuffed animal on
  her desk .. one that said "I love you!"  He said he'd never been told that
  at home.  This is a constant in today's society .. two million
  unwanted, unloved, abused children in the public schools, the only
  institution that takes them all in.

  You want heroes?

  Visit any special education class and watch the miracle of personal
  interaction, a job so difficult that fellow teachers are awed by the
  dedication they witness.  There is a sentence from an unnamed source
  which says: "We have been so eager to give our children what we didn't
  have that we have neglected to give them what we did have."

  What is it that our kids really need?  What do they really want?

  Math, science, history and social studies are important, but children
  need love, confidence, encouragement, someone to talk to, someone
  to listen, standards to live by.  Teachers provide upright examples,
  the faith and assurance of  responsible people.

  You want heroes?

  Then go down to your local school and see our real live heroes the
  ones changing lives for the better each and every day!

  Now, pass this on to someone you know who's a teacher, or to someone
  who should thank a teacher today.  I'd like to see this sent to all
  those who cut down the importance of teachers.  They have no idea who a
  public school teacher is or what they do.

  J. Bradley-Asst. Principal
  Fairland High School
  Proctorville, OH
---------------------------------------------------------------

Students could write a few paragraphs why they selected that teacher
as a hero. Maybe plan the exhibit for May (National Teacher Appreciation Day second Tuesday in May). You could even use words (character words etc)
in the negative space around the portrait (Art with Text - the Word as
Art - Power of Words).

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