Yet another pet peeve - "can I have your lesson plan?"

For several years, I have willingly and openly used this blog to share projects I've done with my students, including instructions.  And I will continue to do so.  But instructions are not the same thing as lesson plans!

Often, particularly in various Facebook groups, someone will post images of a really cool project they've done.  It is not unexpected that people will get excited and want to know how it was done.  But more often than not, the request is "can you share the lesson plan?"

So today's post is a little reminder about what is and what is NOT a lesson plan.  "How-to" instructions  and lists of materials are NOT lesson plans.  A lesson plan will usually outline objectives, using whatever jargon is appropriate.  It might be that your objectives are written as Essential Questions and Student Outcomes, or Big Ideas, or SWK (student will know) statements, etc.  It might include Anticipatory Sets, Guided Practice, and so on.  You may need to include the Standards being addressed in the lesson.  There are many formats for writing lesson plans; a lot may depend on your education and training, the philosophy of the school district where you teach, and so on.

So, when you see a post of an interesting project by me, or by someone else, and you are intrigued and would like to try it out, think about what you are asking for.  I will gladly give you my instructions, a "how-to", but I will NOT give you my lesson plan, because your lesson plan should be unique to your situation.  Plus, if I give you my lesson plan, I'll feel like I'm doing your job for you.  And I don't want to. 

For example: I recently posted tooling foil samples.  Many people asked me for my lesson plan.  I gladly gave instructions, via some videos, some photos and text, and even a Google doc.  But none of those things were lesson plans.  What might my lesson plan have been?  My lesson objectives are individual to me and my unique needs, according to my teaching philosophy, my schedule, my student body makeup, and so on.  Perhaps my objective is for my students to learn to use tooling foil with appropriate tools to achieve deep relief.  Perhaps there's an expectation for my students to learn the vocabulary of working with tooling foil.  Perhaps the objective is to use the medium of tooling foil to create masks that share various characteristics used in African masks, like symmetry, use of geometric shapes, exaggeration, and decorative pattern.  Perhaps the objective is to discover how tooling foil can be used in a collage, whether as an animal, a robot, or whatever.  Perhaps the objective is to use the foil to explore the tooled metal folk art of various cultures from around the world.  Do you get my point?

And maybe there will be, in your situation, a written companion piece to the art-making project.  Perhaps your lesson plan will include how an objective about completing the piece for display.   Maybe there will be a critique element to your lesson plan.

Lots of times, I see projects that seem to exist for the fun of the project, and nothing more.  In my current business teaching after school art to kids who simply want more art-making time, this is absolutely OK.  If anyone were to ask for my objective, it would simply be for my students to explore various materials, and have a positive art-making experience.  But that might not be enough in your school.

 By the way, if you want some instructions for any of the projects pictured in this post, please feel free to ask.  Just don't ask for my lesson plan!

Papier-Mache "Funky Fish" by 3rd grade

Here I am with my first ever blog post, so please bear with me as I learn to edit and move stuff around. It's going to take some time for me to figure it all out. I've been reading a bunch of other art teacher blogs and have been getting really great ideas (which I "borrow" frequently!), so I thought I'd like to share some too. In typical elementary art teacher fashion, I am jumping in before I really know how to do this.

Anyhow - these pics are of really cool papier-mache fish made by my 3rd graders that we just completed. We started with plastic bottles, such as those from liquid dish detergent, mustard, shampoo, etc. Then we used cardboard (from cereal boxes) and masking tape to add fins and tails, and bottlecaps of various sizes for bulging eyes. Some kids used the neck of the bottle as the mouth end, and some used them for the tail end of their fish.
Once features were added, we covered with papier-mache. I do a lot of papier-mache with my students, so when I get the hang of posting images (I'm a real beginner here) I'll give more specific instructions, since I know my approach is quite successful but a bit different from what others do. Lots of fun but not too hard to clean up! The kiddos are quite proud, and look forward to their art classes using "dog drool" (our nickname for the papier-mache paste). Each fish is totally different.
After the papier-mache had dried, we coated the entire fish with a coat of gesso, and then painted as desired with school-grade acrylics. Finally, we added wiggle eyes, glued on some more fins/flippers/etc that were cut from colored foam, and also used colored metallic glues that we rubbed all over to give the fish a sheen. Some kids chose to embellish with sequins and glitter glue as well. I have a student teacher in my room, so we were able to station one of us at a glue gun to quickly zap on the eyes and foam fins. Tacky glue was used for sequins. They are hanging from fishing line in front of a watery painted bulletin board, and a sheet of clear plastic hangs over the front to complete the watery look.