Section II: Unit Topic and Rationale
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1. Clearly describe topic taught.
The unit topic is how to use clay in hand building a coil pot and a hard slab project (either a functional clock or a pot for an air plant). During these two projects the students will further explore the limitations with clay, how to build with wet and leather hard clay. They will also learn responsibility in time management and valuable problem solving skills as issues arise during the construction of their projects.
2. Describe the relevance of the topic to the content standards and within the curricular sequence.
The content standards are directly relevant to the unit topic. The art standard 3.1 states students should “demonstrate competency in traditional and new art media, and apply appropriate and available technology for the expression of ideas.” This unit topic focuses on the media of clay as a traditional media that is still used. The assignments are kept open to allow students to try and push the boundaries of the clay to new techniques while still guiding the students to a successful project. Standard 3.2 also speaks of producing art with various methods and materials. However standard 3.2 and 2.1 also focus on assessing and using “reflective strategies to understand the creative process.” During this unit students will participate in self-refection on their own projects as well as participate in a class critique on the coil pot project. During the class critique the class will share with each other what worked and what didn’t work, along with coming up with tips for the second hand-building group, just as the current throwing group will do for them. This allows for peer advice and community sharing that gives more voice opportunity to the students. The last standard I chose to teach in this unit is standard 2.2, which states that, “a personal philosophy of art is accomplished through use of sophisticated language and studio art processes.” During this unit students should discover more about their own artistic process and learn specific pottery terms that apply in the process of clay construction to help describe and develop their studio processes further.
3. Explain the significance of the topic globally, personally, and specifically for this population.
The significance of this unit topic is fairly simple. Pottery is an elective class in which all of these students chose this class due to some kind of interest in learning Pottery. However, many of these students have never experienced working with clay or have a very limited experience with this material. With this in mind clay is a very forgiving material to work with and is a good material to learn great studio practices. Clay is a very time sensitive material and forces students to monitor their time well or suffer the consequences of a failed project forcing them to start over. To focus the hand building unit on coil pots and one hard slab project allows students some guidance in exploring the capabilities of clay as well as its limitations. These projects can be pushed to a more advanced level easily when needed for more experienced students. However, it is simple enough to apply a safe and friendly learning experience for those students who are exploring clay for the first time. Within this unit topic there is also great relevance to their own lives through the development of not only their time management skills, but also to their reflective strategies in order to improve their own work and personal work ethic. This unit gives the opportunity for students to give constructive feedback to classmates who may need some help in looking at their work with a critical eye.
The unit topic is how to use clay in hand building a coil pot and a hard slab project (either a functional clock or a pot for an air plant). During these two projects the students will further explore the limitations with clay, how to build with wet and leather hard clay. They will also learn responsibility in time management and valuable problem solving skills as issues arise during the construction of their projects.
2. Describe the relevance of the topic to the content standards and within the curricular sequence.
The content standards are directly relevant to the unit topic. The art standard 3.1 states students should “demonstrate competency in traditional and new art media, and apply appropriate and available technology for the expression of ideas.” This unit topic focuses on the media of clay as a traditional media that is still used. The assignments are kept open to allow students to try and push the boundaries of the clay to new techniques while still guiding the students to a successful project. Standard 3.2 also speaks of producing art with various methods and materials. However standard 3.2 and 2.1 also focus on assessing and using “reflective strategies to understand the creative process.” During this unit students will participate in self-refection on their own projects as well as participate in a class critique on the coil pot project. During the class critique the class will share with each other what worked and what didn’t work, along with coming up with tips for the second hand-building group, just as the current throwing group will do for them. This allows for peer advice and community sharing that gives more voice opportunity to the students. The last standard I chose to teach in this unit is standard 2.2, which states that, “a personal philosophy of art is accomplished through use of sophisticated language and studio art processes.” During this unit students should discover more about their own artistic process and learn specific pottery terms that apply in the process of clay construction to help describe and develop their studio processes further.
3. Explain the significance of the topic globally, personally, and specifically for this population.
The significance of this unit topic is fairly simple. Pottery is an elective class in which all of these students chose this class due to some kind of interest in learning Pottery. However, many of these students have never experienced working with clay or have a very limited experience with this material. With this in mind clay is a very forgiving material to work with and is a good material to learn great studio practices. Clay is a very time sensitive material and forces students to monitor their time well or suffer the consequences of a failed project forcing them to start over. To focus the hand building unit on coil pots and one hard slab project allows students some guidance in exploring the capabilities of clay as well as its limitations. These projects can be pushed to a more advanced level easily when needed for more experienced students. However, it is simple enough to apply a safe and friendly learning experience for those students who are exploring clay for the first time. Within this unit topic there is also great relevance to their own lives through the development of not only their time management skills, but also to their reflective strategies in order to improve their own work and personal work ethic. This unit gives the opportunity for students to give constructive feedback to classmates who may need some help in looking at their work with a critical eye.