National Endowment for the Humanities
Animal Farm: Allegory and the Art of Persuasion
Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms...
Lakeshorelearning
Read and Write about It
Reading informational text is a skill that transcends subjects and grade levels. Practice reading about different topics in various formats with a language arts lesson that includes opportunities for writing and research as well.
Curated OER
Object Pronouns
Work on replacing the object of a sentence with object pronouns. A handy grammar worksheet prompts language arts learners to read 20 sentences and choose the correct pronoun to fill in the blank from the word box above.
Chandler Unified School District
Art Masterpiece—Leonardo da Vinci Inventions
After getting to know the inventor, Leonardo da Vinci and his many inventions, scholars think up their own invention. Following a written description and a hand-drawn picture, learners use a method of mirror writing and antiquing to give...
Curated OER
An American President in American Art
Learners discuss the life and death of both Elaine De Kooning and the president she painted, John Kennedy. They learn how Kooning chose to describe President Kennedy through abstract expressionism and why her choice of color and...
Curated OER
The History of Art
Teachers can use these art history lesson plans as a way to get students to look at art in a new light.
Curated OER
An Introduction to the Relationship Between Composition and Content in the Visual Arts
Students identify different kinds of narratives used in a number of art works, discuss artist's use of compositional elements to further the story and/or convey a message within a work of art, and explain relationship between composition...
Curated OER
Repeat After Me: Repetition in the Visual Arts
Students identify repetition in the composition of a variety of art works, and how it is used to create a unified composition. They discuss compositional structure of a painting.
Curated OER
Art, Naturally
Students read an online article which examine different works of art. They study how patterns and shapes found in nature influence art. Finally, they create original works of art and write artist's statements.
Curated OER
Autobiographical Art
Learners explore how one artist portrays her own experiences and interests through her art. Students then choose themes in their own lives and create works of art inspired by those themes.
Curated OER
Image Conscious
Students take a stand on the concept of changing their appearance. In this changing of ones image lesson, students create a design that would change their image and discuss the age they think they should be to...
Curated OER
The Persuasive Art of Portraiture
Students first explore the power of the visual image to convey a message by examining the portrait of George Washington on American dollar bills. They next use, 'Prolific Chinese Painter Is Anonymous No More,' to explore a famous...
Curated OER
What's in a Name? The Use of Native American Images in Sports
Students discuss and analyze the pros and cons of using Native American names and images to represent sports teams. Using primary sources, including position statements from Native American tribes, interviews with school alumni and...
Curated OER
Fine Art to Animation With Keith Haring
Fifth graders create their own morphes in the computer lab emphasizing lines and color and explain them. In this art lesson plan, 5th graders base their creations on the work of Keith Haring.
Memorial Art Gallery
Learning to Look, Looking to Learn - Sunday Morning
Jerome Myers' depiction of the urban landscape in "Sunday Morning" is the focus of a series of activities that asks viewers to examine how an artist uses the elements of a painting to tell a story. The resource packet includes an...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Utopia/Dystopia: The American Dream
America was founded by dreamers, and the American dream still resonates in our country today. Track the American dream from its Puritan beginnings to its optimistic descendants with a instructional activity that focuses on speeches...
Media Smarts
Images of Learning: Secondary
Make your scholars more aware of stereotypical portrayals in film and television. Discuss the definition of "stereotypes" and how they are used to present a story. High schoolers look at specific television shows and complete a chart...
Curated OER
Art and Culture
Students compare and contrast the ways in which human figures are portrayed in rock art made by ancient Native American artists and in the drawings and paintings of historic European and American artists. They use images to identify...
Curated OER
I SPY Art from A to Z
Students explore the Alphabet and acquire basic English vocabulary through the exploration of art. They find the alphabet in a variety of visual art images the teacher provides for them. Students count, sort and categorize Alphabet...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Exhibiting Common Threads
Artists working in different media often explore the same themes—to model how these same themes weave their way through different forms of artistic expression, scholars analyze images by Dorothea Lange, identifying key themes in her...
National Gallery of Canada
Urban Scenes
Select a theme together to guide and inspire works of art. Class members view images of art and discuss the images of cities. After choosing a theme, individuals create posters that reflect and contribute to the theme. They can use paint...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Still-Life Painting: Arranging Nature—Lesson 1
Art learners examine still-life arrangement images and respond to a series of prompts. In a whole-class discussion, pupils list elements and qualities that still-life paintings can have. After instructors create an arrangement and model...
Curated OER
Manipulating Digital Images
High schoolers work with pre-loaded images as well as with a digital camera to manipulate digital images. At the end of the instructional activity, they analyze and write about their work using complete sentences, correct grammar, and...
National Gallery of Canada
Panoramic Landscapes
Combine landscape with collage to create unique art pieces. Class members examine works of art before creating their own pieces with photos of a special place. Learners create a panoramic image and add in figures.