Clay Curriculum 2019-20

WASHINGTONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
CLAY 2019-2020
INSTRUCTOR: MS. HELD
Email contact: LHELD@WS.K12.NY.US
Google Classroom Code: 4lidlf

Welcome to Ms. Held’s Clay Course. We will be spending the next 40 weeks together making, talking about, and displaying functional and sculptural works of art made from clay. You will have the opportunity to explore a variety of clay building, glazing & painting techniques. You will learn to sculpt clay with your hands, as well as “throw” vessels on the pottery wheel. We will learn how different artists approach working with clay, as well as critique artworks from different time periods and cultures. There are 5 clay units in this course: Food-Inspired Bowls, Human Rights Heroes, Pottery Wheel, Animal Totem Vessels, and Choice Project. Below is a list of what is expected of you:

  1. LATENESS & ATTENDANCE: Three unexcused lates equals a cut and a referral; excessive lates and/or a cut will result in a phone call home.
  2. BEHAVIOR: The clay classroom is a positive and creative learning environment, one in which we share and care for our art materials, respect each other’s work and ideas, and participate in the cleanup of our working spaces. Your ability to act maturely and respectfully will be reflected in your final grade. It is crucial that we all work together to ensure that the clay and all the tools and machinery are cared for.
  3. SCHOOL RULES: All school policies will be strictly enforced in the clay classroom. No iPods, cell phones, or other electronic devices unless we are using BYOT or Chromebooks. No food or drink. No hats. Failure to comply with these rules will result in a referral and a phone call home.

Each marking period your grade will be based on the following:
  1. CLAY PROJECTS: 70% of the grade. You are required to complete each clay project. You will receive two grades for each project grade. One grade is for the wet clay construction and another is for the finished piece (fired then glazed or painted). Project grades are based on EFFORT just as much as they are based on CREATIVITY, CRAFTSMANSHIP, and PRESENTATION. You will have an opportunity to self-evaluate each of your Clay Projects.
  2. FINAL ARTIST STATEMENTS 10%: Your understanding of clay vocabulary and techniques, as well as an explanation of your artistic choices will be articulated in the form of a written artist statement for each project. 
  3. WRITING & SKETCHING ASSIGNMENTS 20%: For each of your clay projects you will be asked to sketch and write about your ideas, as well as document glazing information, write drafts artist statements, critique your own work and that of your classmates, as well as complete other in-classroom exercises. You will also be asked to complete Do Now assignments throughout the school year. I will provide individual student folders and paper for these assignments, which will be checked on a regular basis. Some assignments will be done on Google Classroom. Neatness and completion of all assignments (by their required due dates) will be reflected in your grade.

Your final semester grade will be based on an average of all four marking period.

Clay Class 2019-2020 Google Classroom Code: 4lidlf: Ms. Held updates the Clay Class 2019-2020 Google Classroom regularly with lesson information, videos, assignments, and handouts. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to check the Google Classroom to see what you have missed.

Clay Class Blog: Ms. Held Clay Classroom Blog, www.claycreationswhs.blogspot.com, includes a digital version of this course overview, a biography of and artwork by Ms. Held, as well as photographs on in-progress student artwork, photographs of completed projects and updates on our Empty Bowls Project.



UNIT 1:  EMPTY BOWLS PROJECT

Food Inspired Slump/Hump Mold Bowls
*PROJECT GOAL: The Empty Bowls Project is an international grassroots effort to raise both money and awareness in the fight to end hunger. Students will participate in Washingtonville High School’s fifth annual Empty Bowls Project by creating ceramic bowls inspired by their favorite foods. Through the introduction of videos, discussions, and online research, students will learn how their favorite foods are farmed, processed, and sold, as well as why people, even in our local communities, are struggling with food insufficiency. Students will be invited to sell their bowls at the school’s Empty Bowls WHS Dinner & Fundraiser in March of 2020 to help raise money for the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley and the Country Kids Food Pantry of Washingtonville. Students will learn to prepare clay, make basic slabs, and use the slump/hump mold method to create their bowl forms. Other techniques such as carving, stamping, relief, sculpture, and glazing will be introduced and used to add color, texture, pattern and sculptural forms to these bowls.

UNIT 2: Human Rights Heroes
Subtractive/Additive Sculpture
*PROJECT GOAL:Inspired by the theme of Human Rights, students will design and create a ceramic bust of a human rights hero using the subtractive and additive sculpture methods. Students will research and explore how individuals, throughout history, have fought for a variety of human rights issues. We will look at an overview of the history of human rights and study the thirty articles outlined in The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Students will then a select a UDHR article, connect it to a specific person they identify as a human rights hero and create a ceramic bust representing this individual. This person may be contemporary, historical, or personal. Students will be encouraged to use a variety of surface decorating techniques (carving, relief, sculpting, piercing, stamping, and acrylic painting) to add realistic or metaphoric imagery and/or text onto their bust in order to enhance their bust’s symbolism and meaning. Students will be encouraged to think about what actions they can take to promote human rights in their own lives and their community, so they too may become “human rights heroes.” In addition, students will be invited to showcase their sculptures at the Orange County Human Rights Commission’s annual Human Rights Art Exhibit in December 2020.

UNIT 3: POTTERY WHEEL& COIL BUILDING
Introduction to Cylindrical Forms
Project Goal: Students will learn the history of the pottery wheel and the basics of how to use a potter’s wheel. They will learn to throw basic cylinders in preparation for their upcoming pottery projects. Students will also be introduced to coil-building cylindrical forms as an alternative to using the pottery wheel. Students will also learn how to trim foot rings into or build foot rings onto these cylindrical forms, as well as make and attach pulled handles to these forms.

UNIT 4: ANIMAL TOTEM VESSELS
Coil Building or Pottery Wheel Thrown Vessels
*PROJECT GOAL:  Since the cave paintings of early humans, the visual depiction of animals has embodied great spiritual and cultural significance for cultures throughout the world. Inspired by animal symbolic beliefs and artwork from a indigenous cultures, specifically Native American art, as well as contemporary artists, students will choose an animal of personal symbolic significance. Using this chosen animal as inspiration, students will create a coil-built or wheel-thrown vessel. Both the vessel form and the vessel’s surface designs must be inspired by their chosen animal totem. Students may use any of the surface decoration techniques learned throughout the year to incorporate animal-inspired imagery/texture onto the interior and/or exterior of their vessel (carving, sculpting, relief, stamping, piercing, and glazing).

UNIT 5: CHOICE PROJECT
*PROJECT GOAL:  Students will be given an opportunity to propose, design and execute a project of their choice using the techniques handbuilding and pottery wheel techniques.




*Please note: Project Goals are subject to change depending on time, availability of materials, and the instructional needs of the students.

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