In this lesson, students explored various elements and principles of design and how they can be arranged and used to convey an emotion. In doing so, students learned how imagery can influence how humans understand emotions and how we express them visually.  They were charged with creating a large-scale collaborative piece that utilizes line, shape, symbols, and colors to help convey an emotion. On the final day, students critiqued all of the works as a class discussion. This assignment is collaborative in that students work with their table group (groups of 5) to create a large-scale piece. Each table selected an emotion at random and kept it a secret; this is so that during the final critique, the class can use their knowledge of the elements and principles of design to make educated guesses about the emotion being conveyed by each group. Students also compared and contrasted these works and the characteristics within these works.

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Grade: 6

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Objectives:

1. SWBAT… identify how emotions are expressed (through imagery) across various time periods by interpreting the use of line, shape and color within them. 

2. The student will (be able to)… demonstrate how to paint in layers by experimenting with opacity. 

3. The student will (be able to)… critique works of art by evaluating the use of line, shape, and color to portray an emotion effectively.

4. SWBAT… design an abstract expressionist piece by employing techniques of painting line, shape and color.