Additional Lessons

Our teaching must go beyond expectations and create new standards. Imagining what is possible when complex thinking and creativity combine.

Lesson 1: Zine Scene

Grade Level: Middle School

TQS 1, element B, C
TQS 2: element B, C
TQS 3: element A

This lesson was prepared for a middle school classroom that includes students from both 7th and 8th grade. Entering the classroom at the end of the school year required a lesson that could engage students' individual voices, creative thinking skills, and excitement for their upcoming summer breaks. Designed with the Colorado Visual Arts Academic Standards: Invent and Discover to Create, students created mini-zines based on their own thinking and ideas, expressed through writing and illustration.

Students started their class period with a warm-up that asked them scaffolding questions in the form of a Mad Lib. Their responses served as a framework for the next part of the lesson. After the warm-up, students were introduced to Zines and their ability to communicate the maker's ideas directly to their audiences. They then moved into the construction of their own mini-Zines with the use of examples and presentation aids. After students finished constructing their Zines, they returned to their warm-up note catchers, using the responses as the titles for their summer mini-Zines. Each student was then able to use the writing they did to guide the cover illustrations for their creations.

Once students finished titling and illustrating their covers, they participated in a pair and share session with their table-mates. Each table selected one person to share in a whole-class discussion. This lesson guided students through new technical skills, engaged both writing and vocabulary skills, and visual expression. Students were also able to collaborate with peers in discussions and provide leadership opportunities to fellow students in larger group conversations.

Lesson Materials

Slide Deck

Note Catcher

Student Artifacts

Lesson 2: How I Met Jelly

TQS 1, element A, B, C
TQS 2, element A, B, C
TQS 3, element A, F

Designed for a second-grade class, this lesson starts with an introduction to a character that also serves as a teaching aid. When coming into a new space, it is important to be mindful of classroom communities and group dynamics. Meant to introduce students to big ideas around bravery and empathy, the lesson is in line with the Colorado Visual Arts Standards: Invent and Discover to Create and Observe and Learn to Comprehend. Students engaged in class-wide conversations about their own ideas around bravery and illustrated a space designed to evoke that quality.

Upon entering the classroom, students met Jelly, a worm with aspirations of being a bird, but suffers from a fear of new things and new people. The class listened to the story of how I met Jelly that accompanied a slideshow with illustrations and text in Spanish. Focusing on the key elements of how Jelly and I work together to make one another feel safe and overcome our unique fears, and in turn learning to be brave. Once the story concluded, key vocabulary terms were introduced, and students participated in a classroom discussion around the feelings, ideas, and symbols around bravery. With a framework to build upon and a connection to Jelly as a creature in need, students were provided with a worksheet on which they could design a safe space for Jelly. Instructed to use their ideas and concepts around bravery and our group discussions, students illustrated Jelly's birdhouse. Upon completing their designs, students used sentence stems to answer in their own words what they created and how it connected to the ideas of bravery.

After all students finished, materials were put away, and the class came together in the classroom's common space. We then had students share with their peers what they created and described how it connected to their thinking. The Lesson ended with an exit ticket that had students reflect on their experience and how to practice bravery and empathy personally and with others.