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LESSON PLAN - PREPARATION IDEAS
 INTRODUCE Georgia O’Keeffe to your students with prints and posters of her work, overheads from books, and video of her life. Build the environment of your room by bringing in flowers; I had the good fortune to find a cow skull, completely weathered.
- KEEP an eye out for flower pictures in magazines and old calendars, laminate them so you can use them year after year. Until you have a large enough resource file, have the students find their own pictures. Always check content for appropriateness (back too!). See "Teacher as Curator - Setting up a School Gallery Lesson Ideas" for more ideas.
As the teacher create examples using these ideas, then ask your colleagues to do the same so you could have a gallery of teacher artwork. The gallery will let the students see that learning is a lifelong affair and fellow teachers may find a "teachable moment" in their discipline that they may not have recognized prior to creating an image themselves.
- CREATE a viewfinder for isolating compositions- an adjustable viewfinder would be a great investment in time for a student, in a variety of projects. Use manila paper or card stock, cut out two “L” shapes with at least a 1" width of vertical and horizontal legs. Flip one “L” upside down, lay over the other “L” and adjust the size of the viewable space; secure appeture size with tape or paper clips for the time needed, laminate “L”s for durability. If your students are keeping a sketch book/journal, create a pocket in the journal to keep a viewfinder handy.
- USE the viewfinder to locate a composition in room. Sketch viewfinder composition onto large paper (try construction paper of any color to prompt color choices.) Use medium of choice, depending on paper, size of finished piece, grade level for a presentation piece.
- CREATE a 6"x6" reproduction of a 2" x 2" square isolated from a magazine picture, finding and using the most interesting shapes in the picture. Avoid edges. The enlargements can either be “eyeballed” or use a grid. For variation work on a larger scale than those suggested.
- DEVELOP an abstract (non-objective) composition similar to Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting by enlarging, simplifing and distorting the compositions from the room or picture.
EXPANSION IDEAS
- Scan compositions into computer and use a program like Photoshop to posterize to different levels; use the output to create templates for various printing techniques, ie. silkscreen, block printing.
- Burn a student portfolio cd.
- BIRTHDAY PARTY for Georgia O’Keeffe- Nov. 15 (short bio)
- Partner the Georgia O'Keeffe project with an American history or geography lesson, a science lesson on plants, photography by her husband Alfred Steiglitz.
- Study lives of famous artists and other notable people, have students choose one personality to recreate. Write a sketch with individuals talking to one another about their art and times they live in. (Get that video camera out!)
- Create a slide show or quicktime movie of year’s work for grants, school boards, etc.
GEORGIA O'KEEFFE LINKS FOR LEARNING
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