Kōkiri Learn

Week 1 of 4

Find your idea and learn to read art

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Session 1 · CREATE: Connect

What do you want to say?

  1. 10 minHook: show Michel Tuffery's bull made of corned beef tins with no title. What do you notice? What is it made of? Why would an artist choose that material? Reveal the title and talk about what it might be saying.
  2. 15 minIdea storm in three columns: My place / Who I am / Issues I care about. Write at least four ideas in each. Circle the one that gives you a feeling in your stomach.
  3. 10 minWrite your idea as one sentence: 'I want people to feel or understand…'. Swap with a partner and ask each other 'Why does this matter to you?'
  4. 10 minPlan your stimulus hunt: three things to collect (a photo, an object, a sound, a texture rubbing) before next session.

Session 2 · CREATE: Respond

Looking closely

  1. 10 minTeach the four-step routine: Describe (what you see), Analyse (how it is made), Interpret (what it might mean), Judge (does it work, and for whom?).
  2. 20 minGallery walk: five New Zealand artworks around the room. Use the routine on two of them in your visual diary. Spend at least three silent minutes on one work.
  3. 10 minPair talk: which artwork was easiest to read? Which symbols, colours or materials helped?
  4. 10 minChoose one technique or trick you could borrow for your idea and sketch it in the margin.

Getting started

Choose an idea from the class idea wall and use the Describe–Analyse–Interpret sentence starters.

Stretch

Compare two artworks from different times or cultures on the same theme (for example land, or family). What is the same and what is different about how they say it?

Checkpoint

Each student has a one-sentence idea, three stimulus items and one technique to try.

Activities for this week

Useful this week