Name of Project:
Ink Pen Illustration Lesson
Classroom, School:
3rd and 4th grade classroom at Clara Barton Open School in Minneapolis
Cooperating teacher:
Jaci Sullivan
Grade Level:
3rd and 4th grade
Presenter's Name:
Gretchen Doebler
Subject and Curricular Link:
This lesson plan consists of working with India Ink pens to create illustrations that give imagery to previously created descriptive poems. This lesson plan thus integrates the use of language and writing, specifically the use and understanding of synonyms, homonyms, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and translating descriptive writing into visual imagery.
Overview of Project
Taking a look at writer and artist Shel Silverstein, we will read specific poems that deal with the use of synonyms, homonyms, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in hopes students will be able to see and decipher where Silverstein has used these specific elements of writing. We will then look at the style and tools he uses in creating illustrations or drawings to accompany his writing, making a connection of how descriptive writing can create an image, and then translating this image using pen and ink.
Essential Question(s)
How can images express ideas?
How does language express ideas?
What is a homonym, synonym, noun, verb, adjective, and adverb?
Why might it be important to understand what these elements of language mean?
How can we use these elements of language when we write?
Prior Knowledge
The students will need to have been introduced to these specific elements of language and writing and know a little bit about what they mean and how they are used.
Timeline
This lesson consists of two days, the first being on Friday, April 25th from 11-12 and the second day will be on the following Friday, May 2nd from 11-12.
Examples of student or artist work
We will be looking at the writings and drawings of Shel Silverstein from his books, The Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Falling Up. We will also look at examples done by myself of what the students will be creating.
Assessment
At the very end of day two, we will hopefully have a chance to walk around and see each other's work. I will also have a few students read their poem to the class, present their illustrations, where I will ask the class to find the use of specific writing and language elements and also what elements from the poem the selected students decided to illustrate or how they went about illustrating their poem.
Materials
Ink pens in a variety of weights, 2H pencils, white rubber erasers, hot press Bristol paper.
Procedures
Day 1:
11:00 - Introduce the lesson and also Lynda to the classroom, explaining she is there as a teaching tool for me and to pretend as if her videotaping isn't even there. Introduce or re-introduce Shel Silverstein and how he not only was a writer but also an artist who drew illustrations using ink pens to accompany his often silly and funny poems.
11:05 - We will read together specific poems that deal with adjectives, adverbs, synonyms, and homonyms where students will be asked to locate the use of these. We will also consider how the language part of the poem gives us the same or different mental picture than the illustration and vice versa.
11:20 - Introduce the tech pens, how they work but explain we will be drawing out our illustrations with pencil first, in order to erase mistakes. Also explain layout of illustration, demonstrating out the poem will be on one side and the illustration on the other, in order to turn these into a possible classroom book.
11:30 - Have students create thumbnails and sketches of different ideas of how they can illustrate their poems.
11:45 - Once students have created and decided on a final sketch, they will proceed to draw out in pencil very lightly their illustration.
Day 2:
11:00 - Remind students of their objective, to create illustrations that go along with their descriptive poems. I will also talk about using a tech pen; the fact that it needs to dry and so must work slowly and carefully from left to right in order not to make smudges.
11:05 - I will do a demo on how to use the variety of weights along with how to create texture and volume with different techniques such as shading, hatching, stippling, etc.
11:10 - Students will then continue to finish their pencil drawings and move into inking them, along with rewriting their poem and inking that as well.
11:50 - As a class, we will walk around tables, taking a look at everyone's work. For an assessment, chosen students will share their poem along with their drawing and ask questions to the class to see if they can find any homonyms, synonyms, adverbs, adjectives and if any of those describing words were translated to the drawing.