1. Topic-
Painting: landscapes
 
2. Content-
This lesson will teach the bottom-up process of creating landscape paintings.

Key vocabulary:
-Background
-Middle-ground
-Foreground
 
3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
1. Students will be knowledgeable about and make use of the materials in painting.
2. Students will be able to understand and be able to use the elements and principles of art in order to communicate their ideas.
3. Students will feel confident when creating and expressing their personal artistic ideas through the given materials.
 
4. Objectives-
1. As a result of this lesson, students will be able to use the appropriate skills to develop a multi-layered landscape painting.
2. As a result of this lesson, students will comprehend the process of creating landscapes from the bottom-up.
3. As a result of this lesson, students will be able to apply this knowledge when creating a painting using the true painting materials.
 
5. Materials and Aids-
-iPhone or iPod touch for each student (equipped with the "Brushes" application)
-One piece of tempera board for each student
-Paints
-Paint brushes
 
6. Procedures/Methods-

A. Introduction-

1. To introduce the topic, I will show the students a short PowerPoint presentation of examples of landscape paintings done by some of the masters. This will help them to understand the basic elements of a landscape, and get them excited about creating a landscape of their own after seeing these beautiful finished products.
 

B. Development-

1. The instructor will introduce the terms foreground, middle-ground, and background to the students, and have the students identify each of these within some of the example paintings shown in the opening PowerPoint presentation.
2. The instructor will then explain the bottom-up process of painting, emphasizing that it is very difficult to work backwards from the details.
3. Much of the value of this lesson, in fact, comes from the students actually making this top-down mistake themselves. So, we will jump straight to the iPhone and begin working in Brushes.
 

C. Practice-

1. Students will begin working in Brushes, first simply getting to know the program and its functions.
2. Students will then be instructed to begin their landscape paintings, as the instructor visits each child to view their progress or help with any issues there may be.
 

D. Independent Practice-

1. Students must come to class the next day with images saved onto their phone of the various stages in their process. This means students must have an image with only the background, then background and middle-ground, and then the finished product. This will prove that they did, in fact, use the bottom-up process.
 

E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-

1. As not all students are as artistically able as others may be, the instructor will ensure that their works will be assessed based on their ability to work with the application and demonstration of understanding of the process.
 

F. Checking for understanding-

1. To ensure that these processes and skills can be applied to the actual medium of acrylic paints, students must create a landscape painting in class, to be completed in two class periods.
2. The instructor will monitor the students progress this time by directly viewing their process, and giving feedback accordingly.
 

G. Closure-

1. Students will hang their finished products around the room for all to view as a showcase of their learning and accomplishment.
 
7. Evaluation-
1. The instructor will measure the students progress in stages. The instructor will observe that the students created the painting beginning with the background, then the middle-ground, then the foreground.
 
8. Teacher Reflection-
After the lesson has been completed, I would like to assess how well the lesson learned on the iPhone translated over to the true materials. Did the students have difficulty working with the materials after having used the virtual painting program? Were the students able to use the program effectively? So, really - even though the lesson may have saved us some cash, was it actually worth it in the long run?
 

This Lesson Plan is available at (www.teacherjet.com)