As my students became more comfortable with me and with choice-making in their artwork, I really started to see them flourish. This lesson was actually prompted by one of my students sharing her routine that she started doing when she was faced with “artist’s block.” When I heard her talk about her process with such excitement and passion, I knew that this project would be a grand-slam.

Project Description:

This project is all about combinations. Students combine media and words to create their artwork.

I began the lesson by having students use their devices to randomly generate word pairings. We used this site, but there are dozens out there. I took a decent chunk of time to guarantee that all words would be appropriate in a school setting before guiding my students to the website. As students refreshed selections, they wrote a list of their favorite pairings. Once they had reached 10 of their favorite pairings, I asked them to put their devices away and start sketching their favorite 3 pairings from their list. It’s important to set a pairing limit, as some students will become sucked into the refresh button!

My only requirement once students had conferenced with me about their concept for their artwork was that their piece had to include a clear depiction of both words and they MUST use 2 different mediums that had been taught throughout the semester and 3 different techniques.