Lori

Korschgen LTC_8740_SP15 Curriculum Document: Humans of 5th Grade

Conceptual Structure
Big Idea:
Empathy- Not to feel sorry for, but to gain a deeper understanding of others lives,
thoughts, and emotions.
Identity- Being who or what a person or thing is.
Story- Experiences and emotions a person has gone through that has influenced
them in one way or another.

Key Concepts:
o Interaction- To have a conversation with others. How to create appropriately
meaningful interview questions to learn more about another individual.
o Depiction- To understand that as a photographer, you are in charge of how
you make another person look. Technically, you owe nothing to the subject,
and are in complete control of how you represent them.
o Selection- How to edit oneself and select out of multiples the best possible
representation of a person and/or idea. How do you select an intriguing
moment to take a photograph?
o Composition- How to frame your subjects in a visually interesting way.
Relying on helpful tricks such as the rule of thirds, getting close, off the edge,
portrait vs. landscape.
o Empathy- Understanding, learning, and connecting with personal
experiences of others.
o Story- Through one image and one quote, what brief story am I presenting
about this person?

Essential Questions:
How do I create a visually interesting composition?
How do I best depict a person and their identity through an image?
How do I conduct an interview to learn about a person?
How do I edit/select an image/quote that best represents the person?
How do I present my image to help others understand and connect to their
community?
What feelings, experiences, and stories feel universal?

Instructional Activities
Students will know:
! How to conduct an appropriate interview.
! How to use multiple perspectives to have multiple options of a subject theyre
photographing.
! How to create a visually interesting composition.
! How to create a portrait that portrays the personality of their subject.

Student knowledge acquired:
! How portraits evoke a mood.
! How a portrait, especially when paired with a quote, can tell part of a persons story.

Lori Korschgen LTC_8740_SP15 Curriculum Document: Humans of 5th Grade

When an audience hears part of a story, empathy can be evoked, and connections
can be built.
! Art, especially on social media, has the power for change and connections as part of
a larger collective.
! How to edit oneself to best select an opportune moment, and how to find the best
image from those to display.

Artist Exemplars:
Brandon Statten (Humans of New York)
o Humans of New York, Little Humans
! Portraits, interviews
o Facebook: connecting to mass medias, mass change
Lindy Drew (Humans of St.Louis)
o A more local example.
Annie Leibovitz Showing the personality/story of her subjects.
Lee Friedlander Street photography influence.


Connections to prior knowledge and other disciplines:
! Literature/Social media- Interviews
! Background knowledge about photography and social media.

What questions would help your students work through the big idea?
! Why do you think he puts them on Facebook?
! What examples of diversity to you see through his subjects?
! Why do you think he includes a quote?
! Why do you think some pictures dont include a face?
! Why do you think some people arent looking at the camera?
! Why do you think he takes pictures of people instead of drawing/painting?

How would students get to respond to art?
! After showing a previously screened collection of examples, ask:
o Which example did you connect to? Why? (Personal writing)
! I wish my teacher knew (Personal writing)

Art Making
Students will create:
! Practice roll of twenty different photos/compositions of a subject without the
subject moving.
! Collaborate on a list of appropriate interview questions to help their class get to
know one another better.
! A final portrait of a subject.
! One final quote taken from the interview to pair with the portrait.

Assessment:
! Comparison of practice compositions to final portrait.
!

Lori Korschgen LTC_8740_SP15 Curriculum Document: Humans of 5th Grade

Statement of why they picked the final quote and final picture.
Statement of what they learned about their partner.
Pre and post assessment questions:
o What do you think pictures are for?
o How well do you think you can relate to the people around you?

Standards:
! VA:CR1:2.5a Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to
choose an approach for beginning a work of art.
! VA:Cr2.1.5a: Experiment and develop skills in multiple art-making techniques and
approaches through practice.
! VA:Cr2.3.5a Identify, describe, and visually document places and/or objects of
personal significance.
! VA:Pr5.1.5a: Develop a logical argument for safe and effective use of materials and
techniques for preparing and presenting artwork.
! VA:Re9.1.5a: Recognize differences in criteria used to evaluate works of art
depending on styles, genres, and media as well as historical and cultural contexts.
! VA:Cn11.1.5a: Identify how art is used to inform or change beliefs, values, or
behaviors of an individual society.

Presenting
Students work will be presented:
! Final image paired with final quote, photographer/interviewers name.
! Intermixed.
! Main area of school.
! Online, school-art website.

Teacher Reflection Conceptual Age:
! Empathy- learning about the people around us and their own similarities and
differences to us, growing in understanding.
! Technology- how do we create portraits, edit them, and post them digitally for the
world to see?
! Social Media- why is it crucial to select what you post on social media? How can
social media be used for positive influence, connections, and change?
! Visual symbols- how are people creating and decoding visual cues/symbols in the
images that we are looking at?
! Community- reaching out to others to tell our stories so together we can learn,
connect, and find commonalities.
! Portrait- what does a picture of someone else or of a selfie say to the world?