Monster-party
Assessment Art-Education, evaluated by Pieter Van den Broeck
For the final assignment in Art Education, we created an overview of all the sample-lessons Pieter had provided. You’ve already read about those classes on the previous blogposts, or you can find them in this powerpoint-presentation! As an additional task, we were challenged to develop our own visual arts lesson. I found inspiration in various lessons from the PO & PKV program at KdG and came up with the following idea: a Monster-Party! The students create their own monster using cutouts and split pins, then combine all of them to create a big celebration and make them dance using stop-motion!
A Step-by-Step Process:
Warm-Up:
We start with a movement exercise and a playful game to get to know each other and create a sense of safety and trust. While electronic music plays in the background, we go around the circle. The teacher starts by waving to the class like a robot and saying their name. Then, they make a robot-like movement that the student to their left imitates. The student then adds their own silly robotic movement and says their own name. We continue this until every student has participated, and the movements build up. By the time we finish, we have a whole robot dance, which we try repeat, together as a group!
Introduction to the theme:
Once all the students are back at their seats, they are divided into groups of four. Each group receives an iPad with images from the artist Julian Curi. They are given about ten minutes to explore his YouTube channel. Afterward, we have a short class discussion about his work, and I tell them that we’re also making a short stop-motion video featuring our own creatures. I show them my own example and explain that we’ll start by creating our own dancing monster for the bigger party.
Creative Phase:
We begin by cutting out a body, arms, legs, and a head. These are be made from different coloured paper. Then, we add details to our cutouts. Finally, we attach everything to the body using split pens, so the limbs can move and dance for the stop-motion video. After that, we make a disco ball, lights, music notes, flags... and other decorations for the festive background. The students discuss who will draw which prop, to ensure nothing’s overrepresented. They also come up with fun additions for the background. They have 45 minutes to complete this part of the lesson.
Realization Phase:
Once all the students have finished their monsters and props, we begin directing the video. First, we choose a song to play during the monster party. This is done by a democratic vote to avoid unnecessary discussions. The teacher prepares the photo setup beforehand. It consists of a horizontally placed phone with a large black A3 paper underneath, which fills the entire frame. This black paper serves as the dance floor for the monsters.
The students can place their monsters and accessories on the paper, after which I take the first photo. I then ask four students at a time to move their own monster and one accessory of their choice a few millimeters. Once all the students have moved their monsters, I take a new photo. We repeat this 20 times, so I expect full cooperation and patience from the students. We take about half an hour for this process. Once all the photos are taken and there’s time left, the students get the chance to experiment with their iPads in groups of four. Meanwhile, the teacher assembles the photos and adds the music. The final result will premiere in the next lesson. We’ll also stick the students' results above their coat hooks in the hallway, so everyone has their personal little monster!
