This resource is supported in part by Raye and Ben Foster Jr.

Lesson Plans: Face It!

Contents
1. How To Read A Portrait

All Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills: Standards for Multidisciplinary Units referenced in this resource are taken from the Knowledge and Skills subsection of the curriculum areas. Consult TEKS web site

Use this page as a Reading Readiness activity. 2. Portraits in this Resource McNay Art Museum Fairfield Porter exhibition 3. Lesson Plans Language Arts Reading & Writing Portraits Viewpoints Art Color Me Crazy Face Prints Drawing a Charcoal Self- Portrait from a Photo K-5 K-5 6-12 K-5 6-12 Grade 4-8 9-12

http://www.tea.state.tx.us /teks

Original lesson plans contributed by: Susan Ferris, Kathy Guerra, Honor Moorman, Teri Evans -Palmer, Jeanette Pierce, and Linda Talbert.

Social Studies Family Mobiles People from the Past 4. Sources Worth Consulting Web Sites with Portrait Lessons Videos in the Teacher Resource Center for Vis ual Arts

For information, questions, or comments about this resource please email trc@mcnayart.org

Web sites accessed August 2003

Copyright 2003 The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas. All rights reserved.

Images

How To Read A Portrait

Facial Expression What do the eyes and mouth reveal about the person/people in the painting?

Woman with Plumed Hat. Pose What does the position of the body reveal about the person/people? Gesture What do the hands, feet, arms, or legs reveal about the person/people? Clothing What type of clothing is each person wearing (dressy, casual, work clothes)? What does the clothing reveal about the person/people in the painting? Portrait of the Artist with the Idol. Point of View Where was the artist standing when he, she painted this? What do you see that makes you say that? Environment The Red Blouse. What do all the things around the person reveal? (Setting, background, props) What is the location for the portrait? Inside/Outside? Why do you think the artist included certain objects in the painting? What does the location of objects say about their importance? What time period do you think is being shown? Feelings See videotapes available to borrow from the McNay Art Museum Teacher Resource Center at the end of this resource. What is the person feeling? What do you see that makes you say that? If there is more than one person in the portrait, what are the relationships between the people? What are the relationships between the artist and the sitter? What do you see that makes you say that? Elements of Art How does each of the elements of artcolor, line, shape, texture, space, valuecontribute to the artists message about the person in the portrait?

Portrait of Hans Frisch.

Sing Sorrow.

Copyright 2003 The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas. All rights reserved.

Images

Viewpoints
Curriculum Area Language Arts Grade Levels 9-12

July Interior.

Katie and Anne.

Objectives The student will:

Lizzie at the Table.

Compare and contrast two paintings, focusing on visual details, in a written text. Analyze the use and effect of visual details in writing. Write journal entries, as well as poems, using point of view and personification.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) The Screen Porch. See TEKS listed below with Activities. On line at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/teks/index.html [accessed 08/03] While these lesson plans were created for ninth grade students, they may be adapted for other grades. Materials How to Read a Portrait question page (in this resource) paper, pencils Sylvia Plaths poem Mirror (www.sylviaplathforum.com) Vocabulary Point of view is the position or perspective from which something is observed or depicted. Speaker of a poem, like the narrator of a story, is the voice that talks to the reader. Personification is a figure of speech in which an object, animal, or idea is given human characteristics. Activities Journal Entry 1. If someone walked into your bedroom, what would he or she see? Using specific details, describe your bedroom as thoroughly as possible. TEKS 9.1 (A, B), 9.2 (A), 9.4 (A) Trade descriptions with a partner (or read them aloud in a small group) and make a drawing of another persons bedroom according to the details in the description. Repeat the writing activity using Fairfield Porters paintings July Interior and Lizzie at the Table as prompts. What do the details in the paintings suggest about the artist's life and family?

The Red Blouse. See videotapes available to borrow from the McNay Art Museum Teacher Resource Center at the end of this resource.

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Reading and Writing 1. Find two news articles about the same topic, preferably from very different sources such as The New York Times and your local paper, or Time and People magazines. Read each article and underline or highlight details included in the story. Discuss how the choices of details affect each story. TEKS 9.8 (A, B), 9.12 (B, D) Using the description you wrote in your journal, create a found poem about your bedroom, or the bedroom in July Interior. Underline or highlight key words and phrases from your description. Then rearrange these words and phrases into a poem. You may want to use additional words to hold your poem together. TEKS 9.1 (A, B)

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Viewpoints
Journal Entry 1. Imagine that an object in your home could speak. Write what that object would say about its experiences and about the people living in your home. TEKS 9.2 (A), 9.4 (A), 9.7(B) What would the objects on the table in the painting Lizzie at the Table say?

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Reading and Writing 1. Read and discuss Mirror by Sylvia Plath. TEKS 9.8 (A, B, C), 9.10 (A, B) The speaker of a poem, like the narrator of a story, is the voice that talks to the reader. Personification is a figure of speech in which an object, animal, or idea is given human characteristics. Identify the speaker of the poem and the poets use of personification. TEKS 9.10 (A), 9.11 (G) Write a poem modeled after Sylvia Plaths Mirror in which your mirror, or something else in your room, is the speaker describing YOU. TEKS 9.1 (A) With a partner or in groups of three, examine and discuss the various points of view suggested in Katie and Anne and The Screen Porch. Compare and contrast the points of view of the subjects, and the artist. What are they seeing, thinking, and feeling? What about Porters view, his thoughts and feelings while creating the portrait? What do you, as a viewer of the painting, think and feel about what you see? TEKS 9.10 (A), 9.1 (C) Now write a diary entry about the day depicted in the painting from the point of view of one of the subjects, or Fairfield Porter. Be sure to use first person (I). TEKS 9.1 (A), 9.1 (B) If you plan to use the extension activity below, each person in the pair or group should write from a different persons point of view. This activity may also be used with Henri Matisses The Red Blouse. Working with your partner or group, blend the diary entries into a single narrative with shifting points of view. You might want to use a third-person narrator to hold the piece together and indicate the shifts in perspective. TEKS 9.2 (B) Read your diary entries or blended narrative aloud to the class. TEKS 9.16 (D)

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Copyright 2003 The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas. All rights reserved.