Sarah Skidmore

Lifeline Lesson Plan

Date: 4/2/2014
Title: Lifeline Lesson Plan
Description: Students will create a chronological lifeline represented through color, shape, line, and image.
This will lead students to understand that peoples’ values and behaviors are shaped by their culture. It will also
push students to understand that heredity, culture, and personal experience all interact in shaping human
behavior.

Subject: Psychology and Art

Instruction time: 1-2 class periods
Student’s level by grade: 9-12
Standard(s) to be addressed: 1) Students understand the process of how humans develop, learn, adapt to their
environment, and internalize their culture. 2) Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and
use the skills gained to solve problems in daily life.

Learning Objectives for this lesson (Written using verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy): Students can design a
visual lifeline and appraise how heredity, culture, and experiences have shaped their behavior over time
through completion of a graphic organizer and quick sketches related to each of the questions brought up in it.

Identified student needs and plans for differentiation: Students will be able to individually pick out which
particular moments in their life that they represent in their lifeline. They will have options to make the lifeline
out of any shape, any color, or any images, words or expressive marks that they decide. Students can decide
what they represent and how they represent it. I will be available to help any students who need individual
help.

Specific resources needed for this lesson: Lifeline graphic organizer, pencil, paper, markers, crayons, colored
pencils, and pens.

Instructional method(s) used in this lesson: Direct Instruction on how to complete the lifeline project. Creating
the project uses the discovery learning instructional method with each student thinking for themselves and
analyzing their own life, lifeline, and existence.

Lesson Sequence:

• Hook (How will you get students excited about learning/Introduce students to your objectives?): Everyone
has a story, and everyone’s story is unique and different! These stories can be shaped through our
families, our cultures, and our personal experiences. Today we are going to represent our stories and
our pasts through a one to two day art activity, depending on how detailed, as you class, we decide to
get.
• Direct instruction/Modeling: Today we are going to use the information we learned in our color/mood
 activity and about representing of our feelings visually in order to create a chronological lifeline (a
visual timeline of our lives.) These will highlight specific experiences or moments in time that stand
out to you when you look back at your past, see your present, and look forward to the future. Try to
consider the mood and feeling of specific events and what colors, shapes, forms, and symbols could
best express that mood or feeling. I will walk through the graphic organizer and show how I would do
the first one. “Think about your best memory? What happened? How old were you?” Tell students
how for me that would have been graduating from High School and being accepted to the Kansas City
Art Institute. Knowing that I was about to go experience something totally new and different and push
myself past my comfort zone all while meeting new people and doing new things. This was exciting
to me. I went on a family trip to California that summer and went camping at Big Sur, which is one of
my favorite memories. – Then draw a VERY quick sketch. Remind students to keep these sketches
brief – because on their actual lifeline they will be adding color, detail, making it any size they want,
etc.
• Guided practice: Hand out graphic organizer and walk around the room making sure that students are
understanding the concept and starting on their project. Stop to give students reassurance and help with
anyone who is stuck. Let students know that each one is going to be different, which is going to be
what makes them each so unique. “Consider the future part to be a specific goal you’d like to achieve.
Consider the strengths you have to help you get to the goal, the people in your life who will help or
hinder you, and consider images of obstacles that may get in your way of reaching future plans.”
• Independent practice: Work time for students to complete the graphic organizer and prepare materials during
this time. (Crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc.) for them to use on their actual lifeline.
• Check(s) for understanding and scaffolding of student learning: After students begin their visual
representation of their lifeline, ask them if it helped them to map out their experience and organize
their thoughts in the graphic organizer. Students will be demonstrating their knowledge of using color,
line and shape to express mood in order to enhance the meaning of the events and time in their life, so
have them reflect on how looking back at the color/mood activity assisted them with ideas for their
lifeline.
• Assessment of/for learning: After completing the visual lifeline, assess students on completion of their
graphic organizer and of the lifeline itself. Look for use of the color/mood activity we did the first
class. Have students answer the question “How did the lifeline assist you in considering key factors
related to you experiences, heredity, and culture that have shaped your behaviors throughout your
life?”
• Closure of the lesson: Share lifelines if there is time – if not let students continue working and adding detail
until the next time.
• Bridge to next lesson – Next we will be learning about Freud and how he helped shape the ways that we
think about ourselves, our minds, and the science of psychology. Remember to keep the color/mood
activity in mind and also your lifeline, because they will all play a role in your ability to understand
yourself better and be better able to represent your experiences, emotions, and behavior through art.
 Name:

Lifeline

# Order Think Create

Think about your best memory. What What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.
happened? About how old were you?

Think about a time when your life changed. What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.
What happened? About how old were you?

The time in my life when I enjoyed school the What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.
most was…. What was it like? About how old
were you?

My favorite place to visit is…. I had a good What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.
memory of this place when I was about _______
years old.
One important thing about my life now is…. What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.

I have been influenced positively by…. What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.

I have been influenced negatively by….. What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.

One goal I have for the future is…. What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.

Other things I would like to include are… What picture or expression represents this event? Create a quick sketch here.

Number the events in order that you find them on your lifeline. (What happened 1st, 2nd, 3rd?)