Week #2: Relationships Shape Us and the World

Lesson Plan

Enduring Idea: Relationships connect us to other people and the world.

Rationale: Relationships among people, places and things are what make up life. Finding and making connections is an important way of understanding the world and our relationship to it. Our relationships to people, especially family make up a large part of our identity. Through exploring relationships, we can learn about our context in the world.

Artists/Artworks: Rebecca Campbell

Big Fish

2014, oil on board, 33" x 40"

Two Year Supply: Clean

2016, Glass, Windex, Water, Tin, Wood, Video Projection, Dimensions Variable

Two Year Supply: Saved

2016, Graphite, Glitter, Resin, Mirror, Dimensions Variable

Key Concepts:

• Relationships can be between people, places or things
• Relationships are connections
• Relationships can be public or private
• Relationships make us happy
• Relationships can be made stronger or weaker
• Relationships require work
• Relationships can be created instantly or over a long period of time
• Relationships change and evolve
• Relationships can be discovered
• Some relationships are born into

Essential Questions:

1. What is a relationship?
2. How do we form relationships?
3. How do we strengthen or weaken them?
4. Who or what do we have relationships with?
5. What kind of relationships are most important to you? Why?

Unit Objectives:

Students will understand why relationships are important to human life

Students will recognize their own relationships to others and contextualize that information

Students will connect with and create new relationships

Crosscurricular: Write letters to someone that you want to strengthen your relationship with.

Instructional Plan

Objectives: After considering Rebecca Campbell’s artwork, students will research their own family members to understand and synthesize information about familial relationships to create a work of art that reflects their new understandings of relationships.

Lesson: Begin by looking at the artist, Rebecca Campbell’s series of artworks about her family history and relationships. Discuss the essential questions and think about how we are affected by and depend on relationships. Discuss other artists that explore family relationships in their artwork and ask why this is such a common and important topic to so many people.

Activities: Students will research their own family histories from finding out information about ancestors they are unfamiliar with or talking to living family members. After researching, students will create an artwork based off of their new relationship to this person. Like Rebecca Campbell shows, there are many different ways to respond to such a prompt, like painting or creating an installation. Students will not be bound by a specific medium, but rather are invited to create what feels right for a representation of that new or strengthened relationship.

Formative Assessment: After completing this project, students will write a short explanation about their research and newfound or strengthened relationship.

Summative Assessment: At the completion of this unit, students will curate a show based on relationships. Or, they will share in front of the class what they learned as well as their finished product.