Blog Topic #2

.Briefly describe your focus class for the semester and your teaching context.

.Discuss & explain your choices of BIG IDEA, CONCEPTS, ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS, IMAGES and STUDIO ACTIVITY/ACTIVITIES based on course readings, personal VTS experience, curriculum goals/objectives, and knowledge of students as learners.

Target Grade: 3^rd -5^th grade

Most students I am going to work with are same as those of the last semester. And one 3^rd grader and two 5^th graders might newly attend the class. Since my class is composed of multiple levels and ages, I would like to take into account each student’s developmental distinction in terms of age. Letting the new students know the VTS instructions in detail, I would like to create comfortable and welcoming learning environments.    

1.    BIG IDEA: Fear

Throughout history and across cultures, people have had many different kinds of fear and tried to overcome the fear.

I personally believe that every life has evolved based on fear. Fear is not good feeling to every life but it ironically keeps us safe from various potential dangers. This is the way we have lived and going to live. However, from the evolutionary point of view the more dependant and weaker lives are, the more fear they feel. This is because they are not strong enough to keep themselves safe. In terms of that, young children can easily feel more fear than adults feel. Through the lesson with the BIG IDEA, I would like to encourage students to understand fear and overcome the fear by communicating with inside themselves.    

2.    Key Concepts:

·         Fear is a basic human emotion.

·         All people have an instinctual response to potential danger.

·         Fear is an essential survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus such as pain or the threat of danger.

·         Fear can become a controlling factor in a person’s life.

·         Artists have frequently reflected their fear on the works of art to understand and overcome or relieve the fear. 

·         One’s Fear is layered, composed of:

o    Personal experiences and memories

o    Personal, national, cultural circumstances

o    Personal characteristics and beliefs

o    Cultural characteristics and beliefs

o    Religious beliefs

3.    Essential Questions:

·         What makes you afraid or scared?

·         What kinds of beliefs and experiences affect on the fear?

·         How can fear be overcome by exploring sub consciousness?




A Image for the first VTS class


The Haunted Cellar (Who is afraid),  Joseph Seymour Guy



I would use this image in the first VTS class as a tool of introduction of the unit. I believe this art work represents well  FEAR  as a BIG IDEA. It also satisfies the guide line of image selection as well as it is appropriate for my students ages and levels. 

Activity Idea

Create Collage

Starting the unit plan with VTS, I would show various artists artworks expressing fear as a concept. Through these processes, I help students have a better understanding about “FEAR” and look for their own fear. Having students think where their fear came from, I would encourage them to share their personal experiences and believes. Themes for the artmaking might be Sickness, Death, Divorce, School, Ghost, War, Animals, Weather, Fire, Water, Vehicle, etc.

I would show how to create collage by using various medium such as construction paper, magazines, crayons and paints. Discussing rhythm and pattern, unity, contrast, harmony, and texture, I would also demonstrates various painting techniques such as wet -in-wet, dry brush, stamp printing, spatter painting, textured brayers, and crayon resist rubbings.

Examples