Mackenzie Wolk

Art Integration Lesson Plan 1

Art Integration Lesson Plan Template

LTC 4240: Art for Children

Lesson Title & Big Idea*: Communities: Making a More Perfect World
Lesson Overview/Summary*: (This is like an abstract of the structure and procedures section)

Grade Level*: 2
Class Periods Required:
(please circle)

In this lesson students will integrate visual arts, literacy, and social studies. To integrate social
studies, students will learn about the importance of community and what makes up a community.
They will then learn about how they can make a difference in the community, in the school, the
world and explore the purpose of communities. Using literacy, the class will receive a prompt
where they will depict their own idea of what their perfect world, or utopia, is. They will write
their own opinion piece about a value or values they consider important to be true of a
community. Following the content, each student will receive a blank puzzle piece. With this
puzzle piece the students will artfully create something that they think is important to have in a
community, a quality they find vital of a community, or something they would change to improve
society. They will be able to use a variety of materials and all of the class puzzle pieces will
create a mural that will be displayed in the school.
Key Concepts for each area (1-2 each): What you want the
students to know.*
1. Visual Art:
Students will create a piece that depicts an element of
community.
Students will analyze how art has meaning and
contributes to an overall purpose.
2. Literacy:
Students will develop an opinion that results in a change
to reform society.
Students will interpret what the importance of a
community is.
3. Social Studies:
Students will understand what their role in the
community is as a citizen.
Students will recognize how it is important to be active

Essential Questions

(1-2)*:

What is a community and what is our role?

What can we do as citizens of the community to create
change and improve society?

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Art Integration Lesson Plan 2
in the community and what the purpose of rules/laws is.

Lesson Objectives/Goals: (Excellent resource at http://www.teachervision.fen.com/curriculum-planning/new-teacher/48345.html?for_printing=1&detoured=1): What

you want the students to do. *
1. Visual Art: The students will be able to . . .
Use a variety of materials to visually display their thinking of their literary opinion piece (what they find vital of a
community, something they would change, or what a perfect society would look like)
2. Literacy: The students will be able to . . .
Construct an opinion of what they would change or envision as their perfect community
3. Social Studies: The students will be able to . . .
Define a role they have in the community and explain what a community is
Understand what they can do in the classroom to be an active student in the school community
Grade Level Expectations (GLEs)

(3-4)
(http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/GLE/)

1. Visual Art (May use NAEA National standards):

National Core Art Standards: Anchor Standard 1: Generate and
Conceptualize Artistic Ideas and Work
http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/content/national-corearts-standards-anchor-standards
VA: Cr1.1.2a Brainstorm collaboratively multiple
approaches to an art or design problem; make art or
design with various materials and tools to explore
personal interests, questions, and curiosity.
VA: Cr3.1.2a Discuss and reflect with peers about
choices made in creating artwork.
VA: Pr6.1.2a Analyze how art exhibited inside and
outside of schools (such as in museums, galleries,
virtual spaces, and other venues) contributes to
communities
VA:Cn.10.1.2a Create works of art about events in
home, school, or community life.

Instructional Strategies (Teachers approach to helping students

achieve learning)
The teacher will need to do some preparing prior to teaching
this subject.
In order to do direct instruction, the teacher will need
to prepare work about communities. Describing
physical characteristics of a particular community
might spark discussion about weather and global
warming or recycling. Preparing human characteristics
of communities will be features that are added by
humans. A book that could be read for this is If You
Lived Here, by Giles Laroche to talk about the different
ways people live around the world. This could then
lead into topics of diversity and inclusion. An idea to
model for students could be about how they want
peace and acceptance among the classroom and in the
community. Another factor would be a cultural
characteristic of communities, which talks about

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Art Integration Lesson Plan 3

2. Literacy:
https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/cnsl-curr-gle-full.pdf
Missouri Comprehensive Schooling Counseling Program
Social/Emotional Development Grade Level Expectations
>Big Idea 1: SE 1 Understanding Self as an Individual and as a
Member of Diverse Local and Global Communities
GLE-Grade 2. B. Identify personal roles in the
community
GLE-Grade 2. C. Compare and contrast character traits
needed for different situations
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA
%20Standards.pdf
CCSS for ELA Grade 2: Writing Standards
1. Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the
topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion,
supply reasons that support the opinion, using linking
words (e.g. because, and, also) to connect opinion and
reasons, and provide a concluding statement or
section.
3. Social Studies:
https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/gle-social-studies.pdf
MO K-5 Grade Level Expectations for Social Studies- Grade 2
1.B. Explain and give examples of how laws and rules
are made and changed within a community
1.D. Analyze how being an active and informed
citizen makes a difference in your community; List
the consequences of citizens not actively
participating in their communities
5.B. Name and locate the regions in your community

common beliefs, or behaviors of a community. This

could also lead into discussion on diversity. Using a
group graphic organizer would help students
understand this concept of communities.
Creative thinking- the teacher will have to prepare the
puzzle pieces in advance for the students to use for
the visual art content area. The teacher will have
prepared an exemplar model of a puzzle piece.
Cooperative learning- the teacher will foster classroom
discussion with what students would implement into
their own society or change and give ideas of topics
about what they could write about.
Guided practice- modeling by providing examples to
help transfer learning of literacy to the art content
integration. Teacher would provide a sample puzzle
piece and opinion piece to share with the class.
Students will typically self-assess their own progress
with their art and writing.

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Art Integration Lesson Plan 4

http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/c3/C3Framework-for-Social-Studies.pdf
C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards
D2.Civ.2.K-2. Explain how all people, not just official
leaders, play important roles in a community.
D2.Civ.3.K-2. Explain the need for and purposes of
rules in various settings inside and outside of school
Content Areas Integrated*:
1. Visual Art (Inspiration Artist: Tim Kelly)
Puzzle Installation- how art comes together to
make a story, puzzle pieces that the students
create fit together to make a mural of community
values
2. Literacy
Opinion piece writing- introduce topic of
community and state their opinion of what they
would change for their perfect community using
linking words
3. Social Studies
Communities- discuss what a community is and
the different characteristics of a communityphysical, human, cultural, etc.

Lesson Structure & Procedure(s) Sequence of events of the lesson

elements. (The before, during, and after the lesson, e.g.
Engagement/Opening, Procedures, Guided Practice, Conclusion ,please be
very specific, walk me through step by step of the What of what is
happening with a rationale as to WHY you are doing this):

Day 1: Introduce community

1. Students will arrive to class and the teacher will ask what
consists of their community- home and school. There will be
a discussion of what a community is and what makes up a
community.
2. The teacher will take notes of what makes up the
community and will foster discussion of the types of things
students like and wish they can improve about their
community.
3. The teacher will create a class list of what the students
find important to be true of a community and the role they
have in the community.
4. The teacher will have a discussion about the different parts
of a community and read the book If You Lived Here by Giles
Laroche.
5. The students will decide one thing they would like to
change about the community or something they would

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Art Integration Lesson Plan 5
include in their opinion of a perfect world. This can also be
something they would change about the school community or
a trait that they value.
Day 2: Literacy/ opinion writing
6. The next day, the students are asked to remember the
concept they would like to include into their perfect world.
7. The teacher introduces what an opinion-writing piece looks
like by asking what having an opinion means.
8. After having a discussion about what consists of an opinion
and how to write using your opinion and using linking words,
a concept they would have already talked about, the teacher
models what an opinion piece looks like about a concept they
wanted to include in their perfect community.
9. The students will write their opinion piece about the value
or concept they would talk about for improving the
community.
10. The students will then share with a partner their opinion
writing.

Opening (Gaining Attention, what will you show, or demonstrate)*:

The opening activity would be asking what their dream world

Day 3: Arts integration

11. The last day of the lesson would be focused on the arts.
Students will be prompted to display their opinion piece
through art on the blank puzzle piece they are given. The
student will portray their opinion piece through art given a
variety of different materials such as watercolor, paint,
colored pencils, crayons, etc.
12. When all of the class is done, the teacher will have the
students place their piece next to another puzzle piece so
they all fit together to make a mural.
Closure (Reflecting Anticipatory Set, how will student share what they
learned):

Students will be able to share their opinion piece with their

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Art Integration Lesson Plan 6
would look like or something that they would take away in the
world to make it better. The students would be in the whole
class setting where the teacher would foster oral participation
by having the students share. An example would be to get rid
of war.

peers or a partner. This would give them the opportunity to

reflect on what they would change in their world or
community and it would be a storytelling activity. They would
also be able to share their puzzle pieces with a peer as well.

Formative Assessment strategy: (how will you assess while the

Summative Assessment strategy*:

The summative assessment for this lesson would be in the
form of a portfolio of the opinion pieces that the students
write and also the pieces that they create as exit tickets.
This would provide the teacher with information of the critical
and higher level thinking that is used in this lesson. If the
student meets the criteria that the teacher has on a rubric for
the written piece, the student will receive a satisfactory
grade on this activity.

learning is happening?)

The formative assessment would take place throughout the

three-day lesson. For example, in the discussion, the teacher
would be able to see what the students knowledge is of the
world around them and being knowledgeable about things
going on around them. The teacher would be able to gauge
based on the interest of the students and their responses.
Asking questions in the classroom is a way to assess if the
students are on track or tells the teacher if they need to slow
down or scaffold the learning happening.

What student prior knowledge will this lesson require/draw upon? (what do they need to already know)
Students will already need to have a basic understanding of writing stories or paragraphs with details and linking words. Since
the lesson jumps to the conclusion that the students know how to write, the students in this class hopefully have a basic
understanding of writing. This lesson would be successful whether or not the students have prior knowledge of what a
community is and what an opinion is, but it would be sustainable if the students had an idea of the meaning of these words.
Technology Instructional and/or assistive technology incorporated into the lesson to enhance instruction and student learning
Students will not need much technology for this lesson but researching ideas of certain characteristics of a community can
enhance this lesson. There could be a research part of this lesson if needed where students can look up different communities
on their iPads. The teacher will also show different images of diverse communities in the class discussion. Also, students can
also look up characteristics of active citizens in the community as well with their iPads.
How will this lesson allow for/encourage students to solve problems in divergent ways?
Students are given a lot of freedom in this lesson of how they would portray their opinions. There are so many different ways
that the students can take this activity, including what they would write in their opinion piece and how they carry out their
thoughts into their art.

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Art Integration Lesson Plan 7
How will you engage students in routinely reflecting on their learning? (How will the students know they have learned something?)
The students will know if they have learned the content by being able to write their own opinion pieces about what they have
learned about communities. Sharing the key concepts and essential questions with the class at the beginning of the lesson as
an attention grabber can be a way that the students will be engaged and understand what the main focus of this assignment.
Differentiated/Accommodations/Modifications/Increase in Rigor To help meet the needs of all learners, learning differences,
cultural and language differences, etc.

To help the needs of all learners, the students that need accommodations may have experienced different culture or
communities. For example, an English Language learner may have different experiences than that of their peer, but having
that student share it with the class is also a learning moment. It allows all students to understand diversity and also how there
are differences in the way they may envision their perfect world. Some may be more simple, but making known to the class
that all changes may be to benefit the citizens of that world or community, there is no wrong answer. Helping students who
need help with writing or may not speak English, they can write in their native language but it is great that art is integrated so
the main idea of their writing is portrayed in art that people may interpret differently. Students with cultural or language
differences will be given the opportunity to work with a translator or a peer on this activity but this lesson is transferrable and
flexible to be used in multiple directions.
Lesson Resources/References (please be very specific by providing links, authors, titles, etc.):
http://www.timkellyartist.com/tk_puzzle_about.html - artist website and classroom lesson plan vision
https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/cnsl-curr-gle-full.pdf - Missouri Comprehensive Schooling Counseling Program
Social/Emotional Development Grade Level Expectations
http://www.teachertrap.com/2014/11/communities-part-1.html/#_iy8mw9 - Teaching Characteristics of Communities,
Instructional Strategies

* Include this information during the Padlet/prezi/ppt presentation.

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Art Integration Lesson Plan 8
References
Silverstein, L. B. & Layne, S. (n.d.). Defining arts integration. Retrieved from
http://www.americansforthearts.org/networks/arts_education/publications/special_publications/Defining%20Arts
%20Integration.pdf