Sessions: 4

Time Per: 45min

Grade: 5th

1. Planning Stage

Vocabulary:

Ceramics: The art of making things out of clay. Clay is an ancient tradition.

Slab: Clay which has been made flat by rolling it.

Coils: A long cylindrical tube of clay stacked into the shape of a coil in which forms pots.

Deconstruction: Deconstruction is an approach to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. In this case it’s clay and meaning.

Resources: 

• https://www.craftinamerica.org/artist/peter-voulkos :

  • This resource will serve as the main example for the students to look at and create work based on similar ideas to that of Peter Voulkos. His ideas being an emphasis on the imperfection and deconstruction of ceramics.

• https://mymodernmet.com/bouke-de-vries-fragmented-ceramic-sculptures/ :

  • This resource is to emphasize the deconstruction or repurposing part of the assignment. This gives strong examples and different ways the students can repurpose their artwork.

• https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/How-to-Slab-Build-a-Simple-Darted-Cup:

  • This resource is shows how to build a cup through the use of a slab but it it will serve as a way to show the students how to build a vessel using a slab as well as a slab on its own.

Supplies Needed:

Clay

Carving tools

Mallets

2. Learning Focus

National Art Content Standards for the Visual Arts:

Va:Re.7.1.5a: Compare one’s own interpretation of a work of art with the interpretation of

 others.

Artmaking:

First, the students will be shown examples of abstract pottery and ceramics followed by a class discussion about a variety of the pieces. Then the students are going to be making pots in various sizes (small to medium, between 6-14 inches) through coil building (this is prior knowledge). There will be an introduction to slab building so they can combine ideas after a quick compare and contrast with Voulkos’s ceramics. Finally, once they’ve finished their pots they will deconstruct/destroy, and add to the pot to make it into a meaningful aesthetic piece of art in a completely different way.

Learning Objectives:

LO1. First, expanding on prior knowledge of coil building, the students will experiment with

making a couple different sized and shaped coil pots to the best of their ability.

LO2. Students will compare and contrast their pots with Peter Voulkos ceramics and come up

with ideas of how they’re so different, furthering their ability to use slow looking.

LO3. Students will learn to experiment with what a finished product actually can look like by 

deconstructing their final product.

3. Assessment Stage

Assessment Method(s) Chosen:

A1. The students will do a self reflection on their own time about on their piece and give 

examples of what they were successful with and what they think they can improve on.

A2. There will be a class discussion that everyone participates in by mentioning something

along the lines of comparing and contrasting their artwork with Peter Voulkos, class

ideas will be written on the board to be further discussed.

A3. Students will show risks taken, in pursuit of experimenting with what it means for a 

piece of art to be finished. There will be points taken from Voulkos, the piece will be

completely different from the pot they originally started with.

4. Teacher Reflection

The theme of this lesson plan is relevant to the students because all of the students will be in different stages with their art making abilities and this is to help loosen them up and show them that if they’re a perfectionists it’s important to enjoy the process rather than focusing on the final product; or if they are short on ideas this is something simple that they might not have to think about as much. Some possible challenges I might face is to at first get the students to take risks with their pots, to really change what they thought looked like a finished pot. It might also be a challenge firing all of these weird shaped sculptures that they finish but it shouldn’t be a problem if I plan out a couple days to fire them all. I expect this to work well in the sense that the students will have fun making an interesting sculpture out of a pot and let loose. The purpose is to get the students to take risks in a low-risk assignment because it gives them room to play while possibly seeding future ideas for them. This plan could easily change in the future. It might be good to have the students make these pots first without telling them about the second part of deconstruction so they can draw certain conclusions on their own, whereas I am