But is it art?

Level: Visual arts 1
Grade: 9-12
Time frame- 1 class period: 45 minutes

Descriptive title- But is it art?

Students will be engaged in a collaborative dialog about the nature of visual art. One of the primary learning objectives for the assignment is to engage students in dialog about objectivity, subjectivity, and bias in the overall appraisal of artistic value for any given object.

Content Standard: Visual Literacy, Contextual Relevancy and Critical response.
Prior Learning: Students should be given an opportunity to self define the term "art".
Students should be given an opportunity to share their personal.
definition of art with their peers.
Student Objectives:
B.V.1.3- Classify art according to specified styles.
B.CX.1.2- Explain how art influences historical perspectives on society.
B.CX.1.3- Understand how art is used to document human experience
B.CR.1.1- Understand the art critical process
Related learning component:
Art History, Critical Analysis, Writing and Articulation.
Motivation/Anticipatory set:
Students will compare and contrast works of art from contemporary popular culture and the historical past.
Students will recognize the role of contextual relevancy in their personal valuation of material culture.
Students will write down a personal definition for the term art.
Activity:
Students will begin this inquiry based lesson by viewing a digital presentation wherein images of eight artworks by contemporary artists have been paired with images of everyday objects.
Students will be instructed to choose one or both of the images from each pairing as being representative of art and defend their opinion in writing.
Students will be lead in a class discussion relating to the imagery-
as the teacher reviews the imagery and reveals which works were created by artists Students will be polled about their choices and asked to defend their assumptions.
Students will be engaged in a conversation about the terms bias, subjectivity, objectivity, and critical analysis. Students should self define each term before being given the standard accepted definition of the terms.
Independent practice:
Students will be given an opportunity to reflect upon and revise their definitions of art.
Students will create and present a power point that includes their definition of art with visual examples of objects that fit their definition.
Instructional Strategy:
Direct instruction: Didactic & Open ended inquiry based questions
Compare & Contrast- Outline and discussion similarities and differences in opinions.
New Vocabulary:
Bias
Objective
Subjective
Critical Analysis