Situating Prompts
This resource was designed to accompany the Unit Plan Where am I? (Part 1 of 4), however these questions can be used to help students get a sense of themselves at the start of year one as they learn to unpack key concepts such as context and situate.
Instructions: Select 5-6 of the prompts below for a 15-20 minute writing exercise by hand in the Visual Journal or paper of your choosing. Suggest the following prompts to students as timed free-association writing* exercises (approximately 2-3 minutes each).
Suggestion: Give students coloured papers and/or different writing tools to explore each prompt in a new way. White coloured pencil on black paper, charcoal on brown craft/butcher paper, or ink pens on ivory laid paper may provide an additional sensory experience, enhancing the experience of the each student.
Unit Connection: In part 1 of the unit, after the completion of the free-association writing, guide students to reconstruct their paper(s) as the starting point for (mixed-media) collage in their Visual Journals.
Recall places you’ve lived in using all five senses.
Using all five senses, what do you observe in the physical location where you’re sitting right now? Take 2 minutes to look and observe before beginning to write.
Picture this same spot in the past and future—what changes?
Imagine you had to explain something about the time in which you live (now) to someone …100 years ago.
Imagine you had to explain something about the time in which you live (now) to someone …50 years from now.
Recall a historical or current event that has affected your country or culture.
Describe a tradition, celebration, or custom from your culture or nationality.
How does language shape the way you see and describe the world around you?
Imagine meeting an artist from another time or place—what would you say?
Imagine making art in a different country or time—what would change?
*Read more about free-association writing
NOTE: In the new Visual Arts curriculum (first exams 2027), students will select and curate evidence of their artmaking process for their Artmaking Inquiry Portfolio. While there are clear requirements and guidelines for word count, if words appear as part of an artwork (i.e. a collage) the words will not count towards the word count. Therefore, deconstructing words and reconstructing them into new visual materials is a creative way to explore text without this creating future word-count issues.
The Inquiry Portfolio
In the previous curriculum we had the Process Portfolio and we now have the Art Making Inquiry Portfolio, or AIP, or let’s just call it the Portfolio. The Portfolio consists of a selection of curated...