Ready-to-go resources are short, flexible learning activities that center art as texts. In “Compare and Connect” students use a guiding question to compare works of art within the context of a shared theme and produce brief writing examples. The activities are presented in google slide decks with teaching notes to make classroom implementation easy.
Guiding Question: How does our home shape our identity?
Featuring Robert Spear Dunning’s Still Life of Fruit, Honeycomb, and Knives and Lalla Essaydi’s Silence of Thought #2
Make your own copy! Check the slide notes for the teacher’s guide.
Total Activity Pacing: 30 min
Pacing: 1 min
Grade(s): 3-5
Activity Overview:
- In this Compare and Connect activity, students will view two artworks that show different subjects on the theme of home. One artwork is a painting of a food still life while the other is a photograph of a person in what looks like a bedroom (or at minimum a room in her home). Students will discuss how different elements of home shape our identities. The artworks will inspire an ELA writing assignment where students write a narrative about the person who might live in the home depicted in one of the artworks.
- In Day One: Discuss, students will discuss what they notice in the artwork and how that might connect to home. Students will discuss how the subject matter (food and a bedroom) might shape our identity –both in a positive and/or negative way. Students can share their thoughts and opinions in small groups or partner shares.
- In Day Two: Write, students will choose one of the artworks and write a narrative about who lives in the home illustrated in the artwork.