STANDARDS

Lexile: 1030L

 

Core Art Standards:

VA2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.

VA10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

VA11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

 

CCSS Anchor Standards

R1: Make inferences and cite textual evidence.

R2: Determine central themes and summarize.

R7: Integrate and evaluate content in diverse media.

 

Essential Question: How does making art attune people to their surroundings?

 

Enduring Understanding: Through art-making, people make meaning by investigating and developing awareness and perceptions, knowledge, and experiences.

 

Vocabulary: illusion, monumental, space, structure, warm light

 

Materials: computer or interactive whiteboard, “Graphic Organizer: Art and Nature” skills sheets from Lesson Plans 1, 2, and 3

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Teaching Resources

Lesson: Climate Conscious

Use with pages 10-11

Objective: Students will analyze how Olafur Eliasson shares ideas in his work.

PREPARATION:

Review students’ notes from their “Graphic Organizer: Art and Nature” skills sheets. Preload the video “Ice Watch” on your computer or interactive whiteboard.

PROCEDURE:

  1. Have students observe the photographs of the three works on pages 10-11. Invite them to select and write about one of the works. Encourage them to use descriptive language related to the senses and to speculate about what message they think the artist is trying to convey.
  2. As a class, read the article aloud. Then ask students to discuss their initial interpretations of each work in relation to the text.
  3. Divide students into groups, with each group focusing on one of the artworks. Ask: How does Olafur Eliasson explore nature? What messages does he convey? (In Waterfall, Eliasson invites viewers to think about the manipulation of nature and the connections to the artwork’s location; in Ice Watch, he uses a clocklike arrangement of melting ice to evoke an emotional response to the effects of climate change; in The Weather Project, he presents a work that mimics the experience of being near the sun but with a disconnection of the senses.) Invite students to share their findings with the class.
  4. View the video about the making of Ice Watch. Ask: Why might it be more meaningful for people to experience the ice melting in person than to read data about ice melting? (Answers will vary but should refer to points made in the video.)
  5. Have students record these findings in their “Graphic Organizer: Art and Nature” skills sheets.

DISCUSSION:

  • What common themes do you notice among these three works? (Answers will vary but may mention connections between the human and natural worlds.)
  • Compare Eliasson’s works to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work on pages 8-9. What do these installations have in common? (Answers will vary but should refer to the interaction between the artworks and the environments around them.)

REMOTE LEARNING:

  • Design an installation in the style of Eliasson. What materials would you use? Where would you install the work? What message would you convey?
  • Write a few sentences or a short paragraph about Ice Watch. Do you think this artwork brings more attention to the issue of climate change than statistics and reporting? Why or why not? Use references from the video, text, and image to support your argument.

ASSESSMENT:

  • Have students begin working on the Reading Review quiz.

Download a printable PDF of this lesson plan.

Share an interactive slide deck with your students.

Text-to-Speech