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Masks Around The World

 

8th Grade Level

Objectives: Students will...

  • Explore and define cultures and purposes of masks throughout history

  • Incorporate historical aspects into the design of their mask

  • Create an armature to build their clay mask while defining form and creating any texture

  • Employ different uses of symmetry to the visual balance of their mask

  • Use color families to increase the unity of painting their mask

  • Use good craftsmanship in both creating the clay portion of their mask as well as painting the surface

 

Students had finished a worksheet on the elements and principals of design and had done some art journaling about color families and theory. In a previous grade students had worked with clay for creating boxes with personal symbols added. This was to be the first lesson they had encountered with sculpting the clay.

 

I handed out a packet to students to keep track of the different cultures of masks as we went through a Prezi to see masks through history. There's a lot of information, so we made sure to go as slow as we needed. I told kids to pay attention to which cultures really stood out to them as something they had personal interest in. I encouraged them to sketch any ideas they had as we discussed cultures.

After going through all the cultures, students received this sheet to help guide their thought process in planning their masks. We went to the computer lab and while sitting at our computers we had a quick discussion about responsible and reliable internet usage; primarily which types of websites would have good information about historical masks and which were questionable. I specifically gave them websites to look for Mardi Gras masks because most Google searches were bringing up results like Party America and cheap replica souveniers.

 

Students researched themes and came up with three sketches. We then went over to the production aspect of the masks. Based on the sketches and plan for their masks, students created a newspaper armature to fit the desired shape. Students rolled slabs of clay (which had been learned in the clay lesson from a younger grade) to place on their armature. We took the next few days to create texture, symmetry, additions and apply craftsmanship to the clay itself. When students were done the masks were set to the side to dry out for firing!

 

At this point we had another lesson while we waited for the masks to fire. Some other element or principle lesson I'm sure. When all the masks have been fired, on to the coloring!

Color process was a choice between glazing and painting their masks. This was also influenced by the culture of the mask, what would have been common at the time, and what worked with the established composition of the masks. We let students know that glazing would take an additional firing if that changed their mind at all.

 

We also reminded students to think of the color families we had discussed prior to the clay lesson (triadic, complimentary, split-complimentary) and how to utilize these in their coloring.

 

Once masks were painted and glazed students could add adornments and additions as they desired. We sat down with students in class and discussed results. This particular district had a consistent rubric system throughout K-12 so students were familiar with expectations. They also received the rubric at the beginning of the unit to guide their process.

 

I love how this lesson got students to think in unique ways and explore topics thoroughly. Results varied so much and allowed the personality of each student to shine!

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