Teacher(s) Melissa Miller

Subject group and discipline Arts: Visual arts

Unit title

MYP Year

Unit 4 - Portraiture

Grade 9, Grade 10

Unit duration 5 weeks (25 hours)

Inquiry: Establishing the purpose of the unit

Key concept

Related concept(s)

Perspective

Arts: Visual arts

Audience
Interpretation

Global context
Expression

Personal and cultural expression

Students will express themselves through the study of

what they look lie, what they want to see when others
draw them, and how to interpret the work of others.

Statement of inquiry
Portraiture, both of the self and of others serves several purposes and the study of portraits shows the perspective and opinion of a person, as well as the physical
attributes. We all want to be remembered and in turn, we remember others, but the reasons are complex.
Inquiry questions
Factual How do I represent a face in two
dimensions and in three dimensions?

What makes a face recognizable?

How do I want to be remembered and
how will that translate visually?
Conceptual What is the purpose of portraiture?

Objectives

Summative assessment

A: Knowing and understanding

ii. demonstrate an understanding of the role of
the art form in original or displaced contexts
C: Thinking creatively
ii. demonstrate a range and depth of creativethinking behaviours
D: Responding
i. construct meaning and transfer learning to
new settings

Outline of summative assessment task(s) including assessment

criteria:

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

Conceptual
Conceptual

Task
February

23
Monday

9:00 AM

Post Assessment: Portrait

Speed Dating (A)
Students will do another portrait
day, the same as the first day, and
reflect on their improvements
throughout the unit.

Debatable What makes a person worth

remembering?
Debatable Why do we want to remember what
someone looks like?

Relationship between summative assessment task(s) and

statement of inquiry:

The tasks are a combination of technical skills and

studying of the face, as well as taking what they
understand about the construct of the face in two
dimensions, and starting to work with it in three
dimensions. Students will do a combination of several
portraits before they decide what to do with their final
project. We will also do a pre and post assessment of
their technical skill from start to finish of the unit by
doing a pre and post assessment of students drawign
their peers.

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Approaches to learning (ATL)

Communication

Self-management

Research

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

I. Communication skills
Learning Experiences
Students will critique each other's work throughout
Exchanging thoughts, messages and information
the class. They will work together to find areas of
effectively through interaction
strength in each others' work, but also questions and
Give and receive meaningful feedback
areas of improvement.
Use a variety of media to communicate with a range
of audiences

III. Organization skills

Managing time and tasks effectively
Plan short- and long-term assignments; meet
deadlines

Learning Experiences
Students will be working on some longer term
projects during this unit, some in class and some out
of class. They will have four class days each for two
in class portraits, and they will do one as homework,
as well as create a short, 5-6 minute presentation on
an artist they are interested in for the class. They will
need to manage their own time in order to ensure
they finish on time.

VI. Information literacy skills

Finding, interpreting, judging and creating information
Access information to be informed and inform
others
VII. Media literacy skills
Interacting with media to use and create ideas and
information
Communicate information and ideas effectively to
multiple audiences using a variety of media and
formats

Learning Experiences
Students have an assignment to research an artist
who does portraiture. We have seen many artists in
class, both well known, and smaller names so that
students have ideas of where to start, but they can go
beyond their exposure in class. They will research an
artists life and influence and present on two images to
the class. Students will send their slides a day early
so that I can use the images as bell ringers. The
audience will then have a little time to process some
of the images before they hear the presenters
interpretation of the image. Students have a choice
here, and some will find that they are interested in an
artist, but not much information exhists about that
artist. They will also need to present the information
in a coherent way that allows their audience to get a
good idea of their artist and her or his work.

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Thinking

IX. Creative thinking skills

Generating novel ideas and considering new
perspectives
Use brainstorming and visual diagrams to generate
new ideas and inquiries
Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas,
products or processes

Learning Experiences
Because we have so much going on, students are
given brainstorming sheets, so they can visually think
through what their portraits will look like, and how it
will connect to their themes.
They will also take what they know about their artist
of choice's style, and apply it to one of their three
portraits.

Action: Teaching and learning through inquiry

Content

Learning process

Knowledge & Skills:

Learning Experiences

- Students will know and be able to draw the structure

of the face with correct proportions.
- Students will find areas of highlight and shadow to
show two dimensions on the face.
- Students will find the many purposes of portraiture
including identifying faces, expression, and
remembrance.
- Students will know the many styles and forms that
portraiture comes from from artists across time and
locations.
- Students will apply a theme to their drawings the
connects their drawings and communicates a message.
- Students will give feedback to other artists and
interpret their intentions
National Core Art Standards:
#1 Creating: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas
and work.
#3 Creating: Refine and Complete artistic work.
#8 Responding: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic
work.
Standards:

Writing
Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

Students will be given rubrics and examples of everything that we are doing in class. They will hear prompts
and be given structures for each day. I will provide examples and walk them through the examples so they
visually see each step for feature studies, distortion grids, artist presentation, portraits, and cardboard portraits.
For days that students have extended time to finish a project, they will be given some structure. For example,
students will have 4 days each for each of the portraits they will do in class. Students will be encouraged to
spend the first day with contour lines, the second day on filling in values, the third and fourth day to focus on
how they are communicating their theme and fixing up areas, craftsmanship, applying feedback, etc.
Students will participate in the following activities to be successful with portraiture:
- Speed dating- portraiture: Students will rotate throughout the class and draw the faces of other people at their
table. This will serve as a preassessment for me, but for students, they will be given these portraits back at the
end of the unit so they can see how far their drawings skills have improved over the unit.
- Measuring proportions of the face: Students will learn the proportions of the face and how big the features
generally are. They will do one generic face, which will look very similar to their neighbor's drawing. The next
one will be done of someone else. Students are encouraged to change certain aspects to make the second
person look different. More advanced students might change the gender, hair texture, etc. Students with lower
skill levels will make the eyes slightly wider apart, closer together, higher, lower, bigger, smaller, etc, and
continue for other features. These will be more cartoonish drawings to understand proportions. The video we
are using as a base for this
- Study the facial propritions: We will spend a half day on each the eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and hair. Students
will study their neighbors' features from three different angles: straight forward, profile, and 3/4 view. We will
watch a short video on drawing hair and talk about the main components to show hair texture.
- Artist Projects: Students study another artist, what influenced their work, where their interests lay, and how to
interpret their work. They will also apply the styles and techniques of that artist to their own work.
- Distortion Grids: Students will choose a celebrity image, and along with a conversation about how people's
faces are so recognizable. Students will learn about why we want to remember celebrities and how their faces

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 9. Draw evidence from literary or

informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

become memorable to us. They will then learn about anamorphic and other types of gridding. With a celebrity
image of their choice, they will create a grid with unconventional lines, and carefully fill in according to the image
they started with.
- Dove Video: We will watch a video and have a conversation about why else we use portraits and a person's
perspective on another person can affect the physical aspects and appearance of that person's face in a
drawing.
- Art 21 Video: Students watch a video of the contemporary artist Layla Ali. She is a painter that uses
cartoonish images that have much deeper and darker messages than what it seems at a first glance. Students
will learn how she creates deep messages with simple characters that are missing some of the essential aspects
of communication, like ears and arms, and still gets her message across clearly.
-Self Portraits: Students will do this first, taking what they learned about facial features and apply it to their own
self portrait by looking into a mirror. They will incorporate their IB Learner Profile theme into the drawing as
well.
-2 Other portraits of different people that fit with the theme
- 3D Techniques with cardboard - Students will learn about corrugated cardboard and how taking off a layer can
add high contrast, quilling, stacking and forming to make a 2D drawing into a third dimension.
- Cardboard Portraits: Students will apply the 3d cardboard techniques to replicate their portrait in three
dimension. This will lead us more naturally into our next three dimensional unit.
- Speed Dating Round 2- Students will do the same speed dating that they did the first time, rotating to other
people in their groups for ten minutes at a time. They will then be given their first portraits from the unit and
reflect on how much they have grown in their skills throughout the unit.
- Artist Statement: Students will share their process and frustrations and strengths in their project. They will
also speak to their theme and how they communicated their ideas through their work. They will talk about their
inspiration of ideas and how they learned to communicate their theme.
- Critiques: Students will look at the work of others and describe, interpret and evaluate in an in class
discussion.
Bell Ringers: Students will respond to the work of other artists. They will ask questions, describe, interpret, and
evaluate. They will reflect on questions like: How is this different from other artists we have looked at? and
What is the purpose of portraiture? Why did the artist create this? What materials did they use? What was the
process? so that their thinking can inform student work.
DW Assignments: Students have a drawing assignment each week. For this unit, students will cut out facial
features from pictures in magazines or other places, and draw them (3 each of eyes, nose, and mouths,) draw
hair of different textures using the four parts of drawing hair we studied in class, they will work on a
brainstorming worksheet at home, with thumbnail sketches, and then one of their thematic portraits will be done
at home. Lastly, students will show different expressions either on themselves from a mirror, pictures of others,
or from observations on others.
Digital Sketchbooks: As always, students will work on digital sketchbooks, an extended paragraph write up
each two weeks, where they describe, interpret, and evaluate a work of art from a museum website. This unit,
students are encouraged, but not required to look at more portraits to find how artists interpret the concept of
portraiture differently.

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Students will take the PreAssessment at the beginning of the unit not just as a preassessment for my use, but
also to be able to reflect on how their skills have grown later in the unit. They started last semester with a
drawing unit that focused on value, and paying close attention to areas of highlight and shadow, a skill essential
to drawing the face. Students need to be able to show the three dimensionality of the face through highlight
and shadow in this unit. I have seen students' artwork from that unit.
Teaching strategies
Students who are ready to be pushed can try people of different ages (babies can be particularly difficult.) i
have outlined other methods of differentiation above, but I will also adjust for students who need modifications
in ways including, having them focus on only one image in their artist presentation, assigning them an artist.
Additionally, I will have pre printed pictures to work with, and I will help them grid the drawing that require it.
This unit emphasizes new vocabulary less than the other units, but heavily makes use of the vocabulary we have
already learned this year. Students will identify the compositional components and elements and principles that
they have seen utilized in the images they are studying. We will, however, talk through different ways of
gridding, as well as the concept of form, which we have only talked about in two dimensions so far this year.
Students get feedback from me as I circulate while they are working. I will stop to do measurements of their
individual face, and talk through attributes of their facial features (ie. Does the line between your lips curve up or
down, or is it straight across? How pronounced are the divets in your upper lip?) With the projects that they turn
in, I will give them feedback and adjust the next part of the unit to adjust weaknesses or misunderstandings
throughout.
Students will see examples and will be given step by step directions so that they experience success
immediately in this unit. Students will also be looking through not just my own examples, but will carefully be
studying the work of others that have successfully
Task
January

26

PreAssessment - Speed Dating with Portratis

Student will have ten minutes to draw each person that they will be sitting with. They will
either be modeling or drawing during this time. Students will then be able to look at these
original drawings at the end of the unit to see their improvement.

Monday

9:00 AM
Task
February

2
Monday

9:00 AM

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

Facial Studies
Students will be given on instruction on the proportions of the face, as well as technical skills
on how to draw the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and hair. Students will practice these with their
neighbors as well as images on the board to study these features more in depth. They will
turn in studies from different perspectives: the front, a profile, and a view from somewhere in
between, often called a 3/4 view.

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Task
February

6
Friday

9:00 AM

Grid Drawing Distortions

Students have already done drawings with grids, but we will be studying other artists who
have done alternative types of portraits, including surrealism. We will look and practice using
anamorphic grids and find other kinds of distortion grids to challenge students to think about
whether or not someone can be recognizable through their features even if the grid were
morphed.

Describe how you will differentiate teaching & learning for this unit?
Students have a lot of choice in this unit, so they can choose topics and artists that are to their level. I am
encouraging students to choose particular artists according to their interests and style. For students who have
little exposure to artists, I have given them examples. They have a bit of structure to work within. For examples,
they will choose one of the learner profile traits and fill out a brainstorming worksheet that walks them through
how they should think through the ideas they are coming up with.
Additionally, students choose who they will draw, how they will apply their artists's style to their own work, what
compositions, angles, they want to use, how they will fill their negative space, and how they will communicate
their theme.
I have also built in step by step activities that all students can be successful with. The video breaks down the
structures and proportions of the face so that all students can measure and correctly find where and how big the
eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are. We also will spend a half day on each of the features, allowing students to
really study and practice the features individually. For more advanced students, they will try drawing from many
different and more difficult angles (3/4 view) and for other students who struggle with the proportions more, they
will be encouraged to start off more from the front and side views.
I also scaffolded alternative grids by using a simple mouse drawing and for students who need additional
support, I either provided them with grids or adjusted their paper size to fit their grids more appropriately.
Students who need extended time are given extended time, and all students are allowed to come in during
lunch or after school to work more.
Learner Profile
Inquirers: Students are encouraged during many of the bell ringers to think through what questions they would ask the artist if the artist were here to answer them.
Additionally, students are choosing a theme for their three portraits that they feel connected to and they see in the two other people they choose to draw. Their theme is a
learner profile trait. One of the reasonings for this, is to connect what students are learning about in other classes. In history and science, especially, students have learned
about people throughout history (as well as more contemporary figures) that have exhibited one or many of the IB Learner Profile Traits, and students should be able to
identify that in the work of others and connect it to themselves and the future they see for themselves.
Resources
Journal:
TED Talk

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Art 21 Video (http://www.art21.org/videos/segment-laylah-ali-in-power)

Google Drive Unit 4 Presentation with all Bell Ringers, instructions, DW Assignments, (https://docs.google.com/a/cps.edu/presentation/d/1...
DW assignments, digital sketchbooks, etc. (www.msmmiller.weebly.com)
Lady Gaga article (http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2010/12/grotesque-iconography-of-lady-gaga.html)
Drawing with facial proportions (http://gbaacademy.com/watch?id=K6DR-6tOq10)
Nose drawing (http://thevirtualinstructor.com/graphitenose.html)
Brainstorming Sheet (https://docs.google.com/a/cps.edu/document/d/1WNvL5gAqw_9H5UlRJ8w_7LnLyX7-vqHs06RZPzu-ghw/edit?usp=sharing)
Mouse Anamorphic Grids
Powerpoint on Grids and Salvador Dali (https://docs.google.com/a/cps.edu/presentation/d/1L8pgf46FbnbiXM-tS_hiQXxe82jjrvMy3SHif0X2ncA/edit?usp=sharing)
Dove Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk)
Hair videos (http://www.stanprokopenko.com/blog/2010/03/draw-hair/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKw7CzL8EP8)
Reflection: Considering the planning, process and impact of the inquiry
Prior to teaching the unit

During teaching

After teaching the unit

Why do we think that the unit or the selection of topics

will be interesting?
What do students already know, and what can they do?
What attributes of the learner profile does this unit offer
students opportunities to develop?
1. This topic is about students. They will be drawing
themselves, which should be interesting as student at
this age are very interested in everything about
themselves. They are also learning about what
makes them unique, and who they are. They are
figuring out how they relate to other people, and what
connections are meaningful to them. Students are
interested in drawing their friends, and forming close
relationships with their peers. Additionally, I have

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had several students ask me throughout the year,

"When are we going to start drawing people?"
2. Students have studied the many ways of creating
value both with their pencil or pen, charcoal, as well
as various other media, including paint. They have
thought of this in more two dimensional space, and
throughout the unit, will start thinking about how to
build these structures that create the values in a three
dimensional space.
3. Students are focusing on IB learner profile traits as
a whole, as they identify which on they connect to
most, and which one connects them to people they
respect and admire. Students choose an IB Learner
Profile trait to guide their thematic exploration through
the unit.
Other:
1. "How will we see your theme in each of your
drawings?" needs to be on the brainstorm sheet.
Student are not making this connection and seeing
this ahead of time naturally, and need to be prompted
to think about it ahead of time. As I see this
happening, I want to encourage them as other writing
prompts and for the bell ringers, to think about how
this can be as clear as possible. I have also made a
point to talk to them explicitly about this in the
example I have prepared for them.
2. TED Talk/ Lady Gaga article - I think more articles
and talks will give them a broader understanding of
how portraiture and expression is applicable outside
of the arts and how it follows into the realms of
science and history, etc. I need to think about how to
frame these so that they naturally fit in with the
curriculum and don't seem tangential.
3. Artist style in cardboard- I am still deciding how
much of a priority it is that students transfer their
emulation of their artist into the cardboard portrait.
4. As I have gotten their brainstorming sheets in, I
have noticed that students are not as explicit as I was
hoping they would be with their choices in people that
they are portraying. I think if I were to do this again, I
would perhaps give more structure to who they can

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choose and have them write more about a) how this

pertains to their theme and b) how they will show that
in their images.
5. Lastly, I showed students distortion grids for two
reasons. 1) To challenge their gridding skills so that
traditional grids would be much easier after they have
studied it in depth, and 2) As an exposure to more
forms of portraiture or art in general. It was also a
good introduction to surrealism and shows how this
pertains to many public art forms. However, I don't
know that the connection was clear for students, and
I think I may need to spend more time thinking about
how to make that part of the unit more meaningful to
student learning.
6. I think I should have done an example of the
interpretation, as I have found many students need
more examples of what I am looking for in that area.

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