Learning Target: I can create a sketch of a natural object.
Learning Evidence and Assessment: Students will produce an initial drawing. Graded by the drawing rubric (PDF) (Word Document).
Academic Language: sketch, label, measurement
Lesson Opening: Watch YouTube video about Esmee Winkel. Discuss what her job is and what she needs to keep in mind to make detailed drawings. https://youtu.be/8TwisiPs1s8
Learning Steps:
Begin journal entry on a new page with a title, location, date, and temperature.
Ideally, you should have students outside. Otherwise, collect a large variety of natural items or detailed pictures and make student sketches in the classroom.
Let students choose a non-animal natural object to sketch. Encourage students to choose something they will be able to sketch again later, such as a tree or a small object they can collect and save, like a pinecone. Animals are not a good choice because they may move before the sketch is finished. If needed, point students towards something sufficiently detailed. Rocks, for example, are very hard for beginners to draw well.
You might want to encourage students to add labels, measurements, or sketch from more than one angle (all things they will learn later). They do not need instruction in this area yet: this is for a baseline in those skills. If you think a simple drawing is significantly difficult, you may stop there.
This first sketch might not take students very long. Either ask them to draw more than one object, or have another activity ready for them when they finish.
Lesson Conclusion: Have students share their drawing with a partner with the following sentence stems: I drew … One part that was hard was … One part that was easy was… My favorite part is … And responses: I like the way you … I think this part of the drawing is … One thing I like about your drawing is …
Alternately, older students could compare their process to what they saw from the artist in the video.
References: Naturalis Biodiversity Center. (2017, October 20). Naturalis newsroom #15: The art of scientific illustration[Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/8TwisiPs1s8
Research Connection: Early sketches and later revisions serve as an impression of how student thought evolves and can also be motivating for students (Baxter & Banko, 2018; Glynn & Muth, 2008).