High Quality Work

We have been working for the past 3 weeks on persevering to create a high quality self portrait.  The purpose of this hard work is for students to understand what perseverance means and the multiple steps we can go through to improve.

Our first step was to attempt a first draft with no instruction or guidance.  Students noticed and reflected that they were done quickly and not much thought was put into the drawing.

Next, we introduced an expert through an online YouTube video.  This art teacher modeled the whole process and gave specific instructions on what to do for certain body parts.

For our second draft, students went very slow and concentrated on one body part while sitting next to his/her learning partner.  After the body part was drawn, students had the opportunity to get feedback from his/her peer.  After several days of drawing slowly, students came up with a criteria list for feedback.


Using this criteria list, students met with their YO (younger and older) buddy from Ms. Lindsey's 4th grade crew.  Each student got to analyze his/her 2nd draft and get feedback on how he/she could improve.

Students then had the opportunity to revise their portrait from this specific feedback.

Students traced their self portrait onto final draft, high quality card stock.  We persevered by coloring slowly and working on only a couple of body parts a day.  We discussed contrasting colors when we chose our background color.  

We celebrated our hard work with an art gallery walk with our YO Buddies.  The pair of students had the opportunity to walk around and notice each first grader's hard work while sipping a little bubbly...Sprite.

Students gained an understanding of working hard, listening closely to feedback and self reflecting through a rubric based on our criteria list.

Learning Targets:
I can persevere to draw a high quality self portrait.
I can give kind, specific, helpful feedback using "I notice" and "I wonder".
I can reflect on my self portrait using a checklist.
I can persevere to color a high quality self portrait.
I can reflect on my self portrait.