Unit: Identity and Origin

Unit Plan: Identity, Origin & Pattern

Grade Band: Middle School / High School (Grades 8–12)
Duration: 3–4 Weeks (15–18 Instructional Days)

Understanding by Design Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

1. Established Goals (Standards Alignment)

Primary Standards

  • Connecting AS10 (HS Advanced): Synthesize knowledge of social, cultural, historical, and personal life with art-making approaches to create meaningful works of art or design.
  • Creating AS1 (HS Accomplished): Choose from a range of materials and methods of traditional and contemporary artistic practices to plan works of art and design.
  • Creating AS2 (HS Accomplished): Through experimentation, practice, and persistence, demonstrate acquisition of skills and knowledge in a chosen art form.
  • Connecting AS11 (HS Accomplished): Compare uses of art in a variety of societal, cultural, and historical contexts and make connections to uses of art in contemporary, local, and global contexts.

Secondary Standards

  • Responding AS8 (HS Proficient): Interpret an artwork or collection of works, supported by relevant and sufficient evidence found in the work and its various contexts.

2. Meaning (Enduring Understandings & Essential Questions)

Enduring Understandings (EUs)

Students will understand that…

  • EU1 (Cultural Semiotics): Visual patterns, motifs, and traditional textiles are not merely decorative—they serve as visual languages that encode social status, lineage, and cultural values.
  • EU2 (Volumetric Observation vs. Symbol Drawing): Representing human form realistically requires building 3D spatial structures (ball-and-plane construction) rather than relying on 2D symbolic shorthand.
  • EU3 (Conceptual Synthesis): Fine artists strategically combine realistic representation with decorative or flattened backgrounds to communicate complex ideas about personal identity and visibility.

Essential Questions (EQs)

  • EQ1: How do artists use repeated shapes and marks to tell stories about who they are and where they come from?
  • EQ2: Why does the human brain default to drawing “symbols” instead of observing 3D forms, and how do we break that habit?
  • EQ3: What happens when an artist juxtaposes a realistic 3D portrait against a flat, decorative background?

3. Acquisition Goals

Knowledge (Students will KNOW…):

  • K1: How contemporary artists (Kehinde Wiley, Bisa Butler, Faith Ringgold) use patterned environments to recontextualize personal and cultural history.
  • K2: Key art terminology: cross-contour, proportion, semiotics, radial symmetry, tessellation, axis of symmetry, and volumetric form.
  • K3: Structural guidelines of human facial proportion using Andrew Loomis’s Ball and Plane method ($1/2$ eye marker, $1/3$ feature increments, perpendicular rotation axes).

Skills (Students will be ABLE TO…):

  • S1: Design a personalized geometric or organic motif that encodes personal or family narrative through intentional shape choices.
  • S2: Construct a proportioned human head in frontal or $3/4$ view using structural guidelines instead of symbol-drawing.
  • S3: Execute a layered mixed-media composition that balances high-contrast pattern backgrounds with volumetric portraiture.
  • S4 (Language & Literacy): Express visual meaning verbally using frame scaffolds (“This shape symbolizes ______ because ______”) and draft a 100-word written artist statement.

4. Focus Artists & Visual Culture Context

  • Kehinde Wiley: Rumors of War series (Contrast between realistic portraiture and decorative, flat patterned backgrounds signaling identity/power).
  • Bisa Butler: The Safety Pin Box (Quilted portraits utilizing vibrant Ghanaian Kente cloth and African wax prints to encode heritage).
  • Faith Ringgold: Tar Beach / Story Quilts (Combining narrative text, pattern borders, and personal/family history).
  • Global Pattern Survey: Ghanaian Kente cloth weaves, Islamic geometric tessellations, Japanese Asanoha (hemp leaf) motifs, and Indigenous American basketry patterns.

Understanding by Design Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

1. Performance Tasks (Summative Assessment)

  • Primary Performance Task: Mixed-Media Self-Portrait featuring a volumetric rendered head cut out and mounted with foam spacers over a personalized, full-bleed cultural pattern background.
  • Written Performance Task: 100-word Artist Statement analyzing the connection between personal pattern motifs and portrait expression.

2. Other Evidence (Formative Assessments)

  • Phase 1 Checkpoint: 3D Pattern Object / Tile + completed “Pattern Key” worksheet detailing motif symbolism.
  • Phase 2 Checkpoint: Loomis Head Construction worksheet (checked for structural axis lines, 1/2 eye-line placement, and 3/4 rotation rules).
  • Mid-Point Critique: Peer check-in evaluating background color contrast and structural head proportions before final assembly.

3. Assessment Scaffolds & Tools

Artist Statement Scaffold

My artwork explores my identity through the combination of portraiture and pattern. In my background, I repeated the shape of [Shape/Symbol] to represent [Personal/Cultural Meaning]. For my self-portrait, I constructed my features using 3D proportions, focusing on [Specific Expression/Angle] to convey [Mood/Emotion]. Together, these elements show that my origin is [Final Thought on Identity].

Understanding by Design Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

1. Instructional Roadmap

Phase 1: Global Pattern Survey & Personal Pattern Object (Days 1–4)

  1. Inquiry: Analyze Kente, Islamic, and Japanese patterns. Discuss EQ1: How do repeated marks tell a story about where someone comes from?
  2. Activity (Pattern Object): Students construct a 3D paper lantern, ceramic tile, or patterned shield. They draft 3 distinct geometric or organic motifs that represent their family history, hobbies, or cultural background, repeating them via radial symmetry or tessellation.
  3. Language Task: Complete a “Pattern Key” worksheet defining the symbolism behind their selected shapes.

Phase 2: Head Construction & Proportion Worksheet (Days 5–8)

  1. Direct Instruction: Teach Andrew Loomis’s Ball and Plane method. Emphasize EQ2: The head is an egg/sphere in 3D space, not a flat oval with features stuck on it.
  2. Worksheet Practice:
    • Section A: Locating the brow line (1/2 marker), eye line, nose base (1/3 division), and chin.
    • Section B: 90° perpendicular axis rule for rotated heads (3/4 view).
    • Section C: Anti-symbol drawing practice (turning eyes/mouths into volumetric structures wrapped around curved surfaces).

Phase 3: Culminating Project — Pattern Background + Portrait (Days 9–15)

  1. Background Layer: Students select a high-contrast color scheme (complementary or split-complementary) and execute an edge-to-edge pattern on heavy watercolor paper or board, applying their personal motifs from Phase 1.
  2. Portrait Layer: On a separate sheet, students sketch a self-portrait using the Loomis proportion method. They render value and form using graphite, charcoal, or monochrome paint.
  3. Synthesis & Assembly: Students cut out the head/bust portrait and layer it over the patterned background using foam spacers (creating a subtle 3D drop shadow, inspired by Kehinde Wiley and Bisa Butler).

2. Language Scaffolds & Class Routine Supports

Class Discussion & Critique Sentence Frames

  • “The artist uses the repeated motif of ______ to represent ______.”
  • “I chose to incorporate ______ patterns because my heritage/family values ______.”
  • “By placing the realistic portrait over a flat background, the contrast creates a sense of ______.”