Unit Title: Art of Northwest Native Americans (Culturally Respectful)

Lesson Title Art of the Northwest Native Americans

Grade Level 4th Grade

Length of Lesson 1 day, 40 minutes

Task Description Students will be assigned a Native American Nation to do research on (16
different nations in this area). The students will research their assigned nations
culture and art-specifically totem poles, and how they are significant and
symbolic to each nation.
Enduring Understanding Exploring the history, culture, and art of each of the main Native American
Nations in the Northwest. The teacher will have a representative from one of
these nations come and speak to all fourth graders as an assembly.
South Carolina Standards

Learning Targets I can:

● Compare and Contrast the art of Native Nations.
● Create a totem pole figure that reflects and honors the traditions and
culture of my assigned Native American Nation.
Vocabulary ● Symbolism
● Stylistic art
● Culture
● Tlingit
● Haida
● Heiltsuk
● Nuxalk
● Tsimshian
● Kwakwaka’wakw

Curriculum Connections College and Career Readiness

Materials ● 14x12 white posterboard

● Paint
● Construction paper

Instructional Procedures Day 1:

Intro:
 - Power Point introducing six different Northwest Native American
Nations, their history, culture, and images of their art.
- Presentation/speech from a representative from one of these Native
American Nations that discusses their culture, how they create art, and
what totem poles mean to them, their symbolism, and what they signify.

Research:
- Students are assigned a Native American Nation in the Northwest and
will research that nations culture, history, art, and symbolism. They
will look at totem pole examples and study what the totem poles signify
for their nation.
- Students will sketch some ideas of how to respectfully honor and reflect
their research on their nation in the form of a totem pole.
Art Making:
- Once students were pleased with their sketch, they were given a piece of
14"x12" white posterboard and drew their totem pole composition onto
the board in pencil.

- This was then traced over in black sharpie.

- Once the drawing was completed, students used tempera paint to add
color to their composition.

- Once the painting was finished, teacher will put strips of posterboard
stapled to the back of their boards to make their pieces 3-dimensional.

- Students that finished early had the opportunity to use construction

paper to add more detail.
Set Up/Clean Up Teacher will hand out all materials for sanitation purposes.

Formative and Summative Formative:

Assessments - The teacher will be observant and ask questions as the students
create their artwork.
● What are three facts you learned about your assigned Native
American Nation?
● How are you representing this nations culture?
● How are you incorporating symbolism in your composition?
 Summative:
- Artist Statement
o Describe the process of researching your Native American
Nation and what you specifically wanted to know about this
nation. Describe what you learned about the art produced in
this nation and how they use totem poles to represent their
culture. Describe your own artistic process used to reflect
what you learned and the choices you made when designing
your composition for your totem pole.
Accommodations UDL:
- Show examples.
- Give a demo.
- Assist as needed.
Use the Multi-Modal Presentation Method:
- Speech: Information presented in an open discussion format.
- Visual: Information will be presented with visuals.
- Tactile: Students will create their own artwork.