Art History "Reports"

I LOVE teaching art history! I'm that art teacher that gets teary-eyed when I walk through a museum (I'm sure my husband enjoys this!). I would love to pass this passion onto my students. However, I'm not so sure that a typed out research paper is the way to do it. So, I have come up with (thanks to the help of Pinterest) a more "fun" way. The kids will still learn most of the important facts about the artist, without me having to carry home boring research papers and then worry about plagerism.

To help the students find their information, we spend the first 2 days in the computer lab answering questions on a worksheet. Also, I let each student choose their artist and make sure that no 2 students choose the same artist.

I started with a 12x18 piece of drawing paper and divided it into 6 inch sections. Each section I cut so it was 2 inches shorter than the section before it. The first section (mearuring 6x2) is the title page.



The next section is for the basic information about the artist (their birthdate and place, etc.). This section measures 6x4.



The following section is a basic timeline of the highlights in their life and measures 6x6 (we use 2 sheets for this). With 7th graders, it is really important to discuss with them what is important enough and what should be left out. I make them list at least 10 items for their timeline.




In the next section (measuring 6x8) the kids write about their opinion of their artist. I encourage them to share their true opinion as long as they back it up with solid reasons.



The final section is for pictures of the artist's work. This section measures 6x10 and 6x12. The kids are required to have at least 5 pictures and are encouraged to present them in a nice way.




For the final step, we put all of the sections in order and staple them together at the top. Posted is the final product. I'm hoping that when I hang all of these out in the hallway they prompt people to stop and take a closer look (and maybe even learn something).