Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes – Part A: What Do I Care About?
45 minutes – Part B: Creating Self-Portraits
15 minutes – Part C: Artist Statement
35+ minutes – Part D: Sharing Self-Portraits
10 minutes – Reflection

Part A: What Do I Care About?

Step 1.

Begin the lesson by writing the following sentence starter on the board:

"The part of the environment that I'm most concerned about is..."

Invite students to share their thoughts in response to this statement and write these on the board.

As students make suggestions, work with them to try grouping their suggestions into themes, such as:

Animals
Plants
A special or important place
Water
Waste/rubbish
Energy

Step 2.

Once complete, break your class into as many groups as you have themes. Give each group a piece of butcher’s paper and some marker pens. Explain to students that they will have five minutes to work in their groups to think and talk about everything they know about the theme they have been assigned. Students can write or draw their ideas on the butcher’s paper.

The teacher can move around the classroom, checking in with groups to provide direction and clarity to group discussions.

Step 3.

Now give each group some sticky notes (or small pieces of blank scrap paper and sticky tape) and ask them to work together to think of actions people can take to help the part of the environment their group was assigned. One way to do this would be to ask groups to focus on one thing they wrote or drew on their butcher’s paper, and to think about what they could do to help this thing. They could then write their ideas on the sticky notes or scrap paper and stick the paper to the part of the butchers paper it relates to.

Again, the teacher can move around the classroom, checking in with groups to provide direction and clarity to group discussions.

Step 4.

Once complete, invite each group to share their ideas with the class, including everything they know about the theme they were assigned and what actions people can take for this theme.

Part B: Creating Self-Portraits

Step 1.

Explain to students that throughout the rest of the lesson they will be creating a self-portrait that will show how students will care for the part of the environment that is most important to them. At the end of the lesson, students will work together to create a video/animation of self-portraits where each student will hold up their portrait and share the action they will be taking for our environment.

The first stage in the process is to think about why artists create self-portraits. Invite students to respond to the questions:

What is a self-portrait?
Why do artists create self-portraits?

Consider following up students' answers with the question, 'what makes you think that?' This is a visible thinking tool that gets students in the habit of providing proof for their answers/perspectives.

Through your discussion lead students to the idea that a self-portrait is a picture that an artist creates of themselves. Explain that there are many reasons why artists have and continue to create self-portraits. For example:

Painting pictures of yourself is a good way to practise painting people from real-life, not just from a photo. And you’ll always have someone to pose for you!
You know what you look like better than you know what anyone else looks like.
You can use your self-portrait to tell the world something about yourself that might otherwise be difficult to say or share. Likewise, you get to present a picture of yourself in a way you might like to be seen.
Doing self-portraits over the course of your life can be a bit like keeping a diary; you will see how your thinking about yourself and the world around you can change over time, as well as how your artistic skills and interests change.

Consider sharing some examples of self-portraits with students. You can use these flashcards (Self-portrait Flashcards) or you could use the WikiArt website and search for self-portrait.

Step 2.

Students will now need to start planning their self-portraits. There are two parts to planning the portrait.

Firstly, students need to think about what message they are trying to convey through their self-portrait. In this case, students will be incorporating a message about the part of the environment that is important to them and the action they will take to help this part of our environment. In order to assist students in clarifying their message, invite them to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

The part of our environment that is most important to me is…
The action I will pledge to take to help this part of our environment is…

Remind students of the work they did in groups earlier, identifying what they knew about different parts of our environment and how to help them. They can select ideas from the group they worked in or from the other groups who presented to them.

Allow students several minutes to answer the questions on the Student Worksheet and then invite them to team up in pairs or small groups to share their ideas, give and receive feedback, and make amendments to their ideas. Remind students to be KIND, SPECIFIC and HELPFUL when providing feedback:

The final draft of their answers will help guide the students with incorporating their message into their artworks.

Secondly, you will also need to decide what style of self-portrait you would like students to do, such as:

Draw or paint a self-portrait
Cut a photo of yourself in half and draw the other half
Draw or paint an abstract self-portrait
Divide the face into sections and write words in these sections that describe the actions students will take for our environment
Other self-portrait style of your choosing

Examples of these self-portrait styles can be found here: Self-portrait Examples.

Depending on the medium and self-portrait style you choose, you may need to remind students of the Colouring Techniques Handout and/or Pencil Colouring Techniques Handout.

Step 3.

Give each student some paper and access to a mirror. Students should create a rough draft of their self-portrait using a graphite pencil to create a light outline of their self-portrait, remembering to compare what they are drawing to their own reflection.

Step 4.

Once students have sketched their drafts, distribute cartridge paper and the artist tools that students will need, such as graphite pencils, watercolour pencils, marker pens, rulers, PVC-free erasers and Grip sharpeners. Allow students enough time to create their artwork in the style you have selected. Remind students to portray depth of colour, textures and other effects in their artwork.

You should also remind students to think about their environmental message and where possible, to incorporate aspects of this message into their self-portraits.

Part C: Artist Statement

Step 1.

Once students have completed their self-portraits, ask them to create an artist statement in support of their painting. Explain to students that an artist statement is a short, written statement of the artist’s intention behind their work. In the case of their self-portrait, the artist statement could be used to clarify the environmental messages within the artwork.

Students can use the following questions to guide the writing of their artist statement:

What is the title of your artwork?
What materials did you use?
What is the message behind your work?

Invite students to draft, redraft and create a 'good copy' of their artist statement so that it can be displayed next to their artwork in an exhibition.

Part D: Sharing Self-Portraits

Option 1 – Host an exhibition

Hosting an exhibition of student artworks provides students with an opportunity to display what they achieved throughout the project, reflect on their successes and failures, and exhibit evidence of their projects.

Invite students to make a list of the people from outside their class that they would like to invite to attend an opening of an exhibition of their work. Guests might include parents, other students and other teachers.

Agree on the details for the 'opening', such as date, time and place, then include those details in an invitation. Encourage students to reach out to their potential audience using an agreed upon method. This could be via email, a hand-delivered written invitation or a phone call.

Option 2 – Create a video

Creating a video of students presenting their artworks will give all students the opportunity to share the story of their self-portrait in their own time. It will also provide students the chance to individually describe what they achieved throughout the project, reflect on their successes and failures, and exhibit evidence of their projects.

There are several options for creating your video. You could:

Create a video of where each student gets to share their artwork and talk about the message of their artworks (they could read or recite their artist statements)
Group the students into themes based on the message of their artworks and invite groups to share their ideas together
Create a video of self-portraits interviewing each other on their stories
A format of your choosing.

Reflection

Engage students in a class discussion around the following questions, or invite them to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was the most interesting or inspiring thing about this lesson and why?
What was most challenging for you in this lesson and why?
How did you overcome this challenge?
Why is it important that we talk to people about how we can help our environment?

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Creative Sustainability - Self-Portraits for Change

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