This is a 4th / 5th grade lesson plan I designed to teach students how to identify the 9 stages of a shield volcano and to give them a dynamic mixed media experience. They loved it and so did I! Prior to beginning the art activity, I projected a “9 Stages” reference guide onto the Smart Board. Using visual thinking strategies (ODIW), students closely observed, then verbally compared and contrasted the similarities and differences they noticed in each stage. Each child was assigned a particular stage to create as a mixed media collage, but they were asked not to tell any other students which one they were illustrating. I made a big deal of keeping mine “top secret” too, surreptitiously writing my my stage on the back of my paper, then quickly flipping it over so they couldn’t see it! They loved the mystery of not knowing and wanted to guess as I worked on my demo. The reflection at the end of the project was exciting because they were able to look back and forth between the art and the poster and try to figure out whether the creative interpretation contained specific details found in the chart. In this way, students were able to meet the Common Core Standard below by citing evidence from the “visual text” to support their inferences.
| 4.RL.1 | Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. |
Because of the success of this activity (and I’ve taught it a number of times now), I’m in the process of writing up the lesson plan with instructional tips and a materials list to submit to Teachers Pay Teachers. I’ll post the link once I’ve uploaded it.
About Beth Marcil