Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

	Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge - Messages In Art
20 minutes	Part B: What Is Important To You?
30 minutes	Part C: Persuasive Art
30 minutes	Part D: Planning Your Artwork
10 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge - Messages In Art

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by inviting students to conduct a 'Think-Pair-Share' routine around the following question:

'Do artists have a responsibility to bring important social or environmental issues to their audiences? Why or why not?'

Think Pair Share
Think pair share is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question.
Think - students independently think about an issue or question and record their thoughts.
Pair - students work in pairs to discuss their ideas and record new thoughts.
Share - students share their thoughts with the whole group or with other pairs to reach consensus.

Students can record their thoughts on the space provided on the Student Worksheet.

Once complete, invite students to share their ideas through a class discussion.

Step 2.

Now, invite students to read the following short article, Artists and Climate Change (https://artistsandclimatechange.com/about/). Explain to the class that although the article deals with the topic of climate change, some of the main ideas in can be transferred to other topics.

Once students have finished reading, invite them to summarise some of the key points in the article, for example:

Having an intellectual understanding of an issue is probably not enough to really understand the topic.
If we want to bring about meaningful change on any issue, we need to engage all the parts of our brains, including our imaginations.
Artists are in the best position to do this – this is why we should pay attention to the art they are creating.

In addition, invite students to answer the following questions:

What did you find most interesting about this article?
What other topics could the main theme of this article be applied to?
What questions does this article leave you with?

You could use the questions generated by students to guide further inquiry with your students.

Part B: What Is Important To You?

Step 1.

Explain to students that in the rest of this lesson they will be:

Identifying an issue that is important to them
Creating and defining a message around this issue
Creating an artwork in support of their message

The first step is to identify an issue or topic that is important to students. You could do this by conducting a class brainstorm session around important issues using the following steps:

Create a table on the board with three columns and label one column as ‘People’, another column with ‘Planet', and the final column as ‘Other’. Have sticky tape handy (several dispensers might be useful).
Distribute scrap paper pieces to students and invite them to write an issue that is important to them on the scrap paper. Students should then come to the board and stick their paper in the relevant column. Students should read what other students have written but should not comment on them at this stage; instead, they should be inspired by what other people are writing and use these ideas to spark more ideas.
After several minutes, when the number of ideas being added to the board has slowed down, you could begin inviting students to share their thoughts about what has been added to the board.
Finally, invite students to sit silently and choose one issue that is important to them that could be explored through an artwork. This may be an issue that has been raised by the class on the board, or a new issue entirely.

If students are having trouble beginning this brainstorm, ask them to focus on topics/issues that they have encountered in specific areas of their lives, such as at school or in the media. This segmenting of areas of their lives will help students focus on specific issues that they have encountered previously.

Step 2.

Now that students have identified an issue that is important to them, it’s time to create and define a message around that issue. You could do this by asking students to work independently to come up with a range of key words around their issue. For example, if the issue is ‘marine pollution’, you might choose the following key words:

Turtles
Plastic waste
Entangle
Injury
Oceans

From that, students can begin tying their words together to clarify their key message, for example:

Plastic waste in our oceans can entangle and injure marine animals, including turtles.

Encourage students to keep their messages brief, sticking to one or two sentences, and to self-edit their messages, checking for things like repetition or ambiguous words. Explain to students that they will have the chance to create an artist’s statement once they have created their artworks: this message is about creating clear parameters for the artwork they are about to create.

Once students have created their key message, you could invite students to form pairs and share their messages. Students should offer feedback by considering the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Is the key issue clear?
Is the message no longer than two sentences?
Is there any unnecessary repetition?

Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback:

Part C: Persuasive Art

Step 1.

Students will now investigate how some artists use their work to communicate a message and persuade their audiences to take action.

Break students into pairs and either invite them to choose one of the following artworks, or assign pairs with one of these artworks:

Students can work in their pairs to discuss and record their answers to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Describe what you see. What techniques are being used? How are colour, light and texture used?
What does this image make you think about or feel? What does it make you wonder?
Do you think this artwork has a message? What is it?
What do you think the artist was trying to accomplish with this art? Do you think they were successful? Why or why not?

Step 2.

Once complete, invite each pair to present the artwork they analysed to the class, and to briefly discuss their answers to the questions. Encourage other students to ask questions and to offer their own interpretations of the artworks.

You can then review the artworks and artist intentions analysed by students using this information: Artwork information.

Part D: Planning Your Artwork

Step 1.

Explain to students that they are now going to plan their own artwork based on the message they identified as important. This artwork will be entered into a contest with a theme that students will have to integrate into their artwork. Explain to students that this process is similar to professional art competitions, such as the Archbald Prize, where there are parameters to what can and can't be included in an artwork. The parameters of this competition are that students' artworks must include a ‘dream car’ that incorporates their message and that provides a solution to the problem they identified. For instance, former dream car finalist, Y. Teh, addresses the issue of food security in the following artwork: Dream Car finalist 1. Likewise, C. Cheah's dream car is based on the issue of plastic pollution: Dream Car finalist 2. Feel free to show these examples to students for inspiration.

Explain to students that their dream car doesn’t have to be a feasible car; instead, it can be a car of your imagination that can look however you want it to look and do whatever you want it to do, in the context of this lesson. Students will need to create a painting or drawing of their dream car which will be submitted to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Spend a few moments discussing the process of submitting their artworks and the prizes that might be won.

You could also work with students to view other previous Toyota Dream Car Art Contest finalists. As you view these artworks, invite students to consider:

What do you notice about these cars?
What are the best things about these cars?
What mediums have been used?
What messages have the artists of these dream cars conveyed?

Step 2.

You can now invite students to dream up some ideas on how their car could convey the message they created earlier. Students should record some ideas about the features of their dream car and the artistic intentions they want to convey. They could then think of some ways a dream car could help to convey this message, for example (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What features will your car have to convey your message?
Will your dream car be like a conventional car that drives on roads, or will it float, swim, sail, balance, bounce, burrow or transform into something else?
How big is your dream car?
Who will be allowed to drive your dream car?
How will your dream car create an awareness or solution to the issue that is important to you and the message you created around this issue?
What visual conventions do you want to convey in your artwork?

Remind students to think creatively and to dream big!

Part E: Creating a Dream Car and Entering the Contest

Step 1.

Explain to students that they are now going to create their artwork that describes their very own dream car. Once complete, this artwork will be submitted to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Explain the following contest rules for creating your dream car:

You must create your dream car artwork by yourself (no working with a friend or in a group).
Your dream car must be hand-created using things like pencils, pens/markers, crayons, paints, etc. It can’t be made using collage or a computer/digital device.
It must be drawn on an A3 piece of paper (or smaller). You might like to use this Toyota Dream Car Drawing Template.
Find the contest entry information here (including dates, prizes and full terms and conditions).

Step 2.

Invite each student to create a draft version of their dream car. Give students a set amount of time to create their draft and emphasise that perfection is not important at this stage: instead, it is more important to have fun and to create the car of your dreams that will help you do the job of your dreams!

This dream car can include some of the features written on the board from the class brainstorm, or students can think up features that are entirely new!

Depending on time, you could also encourage students to experiment with different colouring or painting techniques and mediums, such as:

Techniques - pointillism, hatching, blending, patterns, perspective or shading.
Mediums – pencils, marker pens, acrylic paints, watercolour paints or pencils, crayons, pastels, etc.

Step 3.

Once students have created their drafts, invite them to share them with a classmate and to offer feedback. Again refer to the following tips during the feedback process:

Step 4.

Once feedback has been provided, invite students to create the final version of their dream car on A3 paper, incorporating feedback where necessary.

Step 5.

As part of their entry, students are required to write a statement in response to the following: “Please explain the idea behind ‘Your Dream Car’ artwork”.

Ask students to create a draft version of their response, ensuring that they focus on being clear and brief and that they have explained what their car will do and how it will do it.

Again, invite students to share their statements with another student to seek feedback, and to check spelling and grammar.

Finally, have students scan or take a clear photograph of each entry and submit all entries using the online entry form.

Important! Students (or yourself) will need to hang onto their artworks after entering in order to be eligible to win prizes and have their artwork showcased.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How well did I convey my message in my artwork?
What part of my dream car do I like the most and why? What are its best features?
What part of my artwork am I most proud of? (Think of technique, choice of medium, colours etc.)
What was hardest for me in this lesson?
How did I overcome this challenge?
If I could change anything about the process of creating this artwork, what would it be?

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?

Toyota Dream Car Art Contest - Dream Car with a Message

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