Vincent van Gogh 

WebQuest

Designed by Heidi Oberhelman

for

High School Advanced Art Students

Introduction:

Have you ever wondered what a columnist for an art magazine does?  Would you like to use your knowledge of Art Elements and Principles of Design to critique a famous painting?  Look no further.  Your adventure is about to begin.  Vincent van Gogh is one of the renowned artists from the Impressionism era of art.  Let Vincent van Gogh take you on a trip around the art world as you discover information about his life and his artistic contributions.  You will travel France, learn a few French words, meet other artists,  visit museums, and even play some art games.

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Task:

You are a writer for Art World, a fictitious art magazine.  Your editor has requested you to write an informative piece on Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night.  Use the Resources provided and follow the process to write an article which will appear in Art World.  Use the Evaluation and your prior critique experiences in art classes to guide you.

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Resources:

http://www.impressionism.org/SAM/about.htm  About the Impressionism exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum.  Be sure to click on "Experience Impressionism" for a very thorough guided tour. 

http://www.impressionism.org/Experience/paintings.htm Impressionism Paintings Collected by European Museums

http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/  Letters written by Vincent van Gogh (to various people including other artists and family)

http://www.moma.org/collection/depts/paint_sculpt/blowups/paint_sculpt_003.html The Starry Night Painting with Commentary

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/bisrd/top-1-2-2-4-1.html

http://www.francemonthly.com/ France Monthly Home

http://www.francemonthly.com/n/0801/index.php Vincent van Gogh - page down to find (Arles)

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/europe/france_pol91.jpg Large Map of France

http://www.quia.com/jg/278786list.html  Art Elements

http://www.quia.com/mc/278786.html  Test your knowledge of Art Elements by playing this game of Matching.

http://www.quia.com/cc/278786.html  Test your knowledge of Art Elements by playing this game of Concentration. 

http://www.artlex.com/  Art Dictionary (Look up any art term) 

http://www.britannica.com/search?query=impressionism&source=g1impressionsr  Encyclopedia Britannica on Impressionism 

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/  Biography of Vincent van Gogh 

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/theme/impressionnisme.html  Impressionism with Links to Impressionistic Painters

http://www.babblefish.com/babblefish/ Translate English to other languages (ESL Students)

http://www.kentuckyschools.net/cgi-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=101963520&EXTRA_ARG=&host_id=1&page_id=713&query=Holistic+Scoring+Guide&hiword=HOLISTIC+SCORING+GUIDE+ KY Holistic Scoring Guide

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Process:

Steps For  Success

• The first step, or Pre Reading activity, was our experience playing Art Critic and discussing our choices as a large group.  This gave us a better understanding of applying our knowledge of Elements and Principles to evaluate works of art. 

• You will be assigned a partner to discuss results of research with prior to initial draft of article.

• You will be assigned a small group to Peer Conference with during the revising and editing processes of writing.

• Materials you will need are pencil/pen, paper and Resources available to you below.

• In addition to websites below, you may utilize art books and art periodicals in our classroom.  I highly recommend you read articles written by real life art critics in art periodicals provided in our classroom.

• Browse each site under Resources and decide which ones to use for your Task.

• In depth, investigate the sites you chose, reading and making notations to determine which information is relevant to your Task.

• Post reading will be the task of writing an article on The Starry Night.

• Remember, you are a writer for Art World, a fictitious magazine, so use art terminology when analyzing and interpreting The Starry Night.

• Your readers are interested in art and will be looking for details, relevant ideas, background information, and critical thinking on your part.  

• Be sure to organize it well and employ an appropriate tone for your clientele.

• Think about the needs of the readers.  How much information do they need to obtain meaning or intent of your article?

• Use your experiences, readings, and if possible, additional self initiated inquiries to form your ideas. 

• Article should be 5-7 pages, double spaced lines, 12 point Ariel font, include a cover page and a bibliography (APA style 5th edition).

• You will submit a rough draft, showing revisions and editing, along with your final version.

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Evaluation:

To self evaluate or Peer Conference use the following questions as a guide;

• Purpose/Audience 

  •   Have you thought about who the reader is, what responsibility that person has, and what that person or group would like or need to know?

  •   Have you narrowed the topic?

  •   Have you stayed focused on the reason for writing?

  •   Does your writing have the characteristics of the form?

  •   Is your voice and/or tone appropriate for the reader, your purpose, and the form you have chosen for your writing?

  Idea Development/ Support

  •   Does your writing have a main idea?

  •   Have you supported that idea in a variety of ways?

  •   Have you used idea development strategies appropriate for the form you are writing?

  •   Have you anticipated and taken care of readers’ needs/questions?

  Organization

  •   Have you organized the writing so the reader can make sense of the piece?

  •   Does your organizational plan match the form you have chosen?

  •   Did you give the reader some “rest stops” (paragraphs)?

  •   What organizational strategies have you used to help the reader move through the piece?

  Sentences

  •   Do your sentences start in different ways?

  •   Are some long (compound/compound-complex) and some short (simple)?

  •   Are they complete?

  Language

  •   Are the words interesting?

  •   Are the verbs lively and the nouns specific?

  •   Are the words used correctly?

  •   Have you used language appropriate for the content, purpose, and reader?

  Correctness

  •   Have you spelled the words correctly?

  •   Have you used capital letters where they are needed?

  •   Have you used punctuation correctly?

• http://www.kentuckyschools.net/cgi-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=101963520&EXTRA_ARG=&host_id=1&page_id=713&query=Holistic+Scoring+Guide&hiword=HOLISTIC+SCORING+GUIDE+ KY Holistic Scoring Guide 

The chart below displays grade correlations

        

KY Holistic Scoring Guide	Distinguished	Proficient	Apprentice	Novice
Letter Grade	A	B	C	D
Numerical Grade or Points	100	90	80	70

In the event a student does not submit WebQuest task the grade will be: 

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Conclusion:

I hope you have had a pleasant and informative quest as you completed the task.  Thank you for submitting your Informative Article on Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night.  The editor will review and grade your submission.  At the end of the semester all the articles from this class will be compiled with copies of our two dimensional artworks in order to create our own art magazine.  

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Bibliography:

Thank you to:

Dr. Pam Petty for her seemingly endless resources and for her clarity of instruction. http://www.pampetty.com/ 

All the WebQuests at http://www.pampetty.com/519webquests.htm, which gave me a much better understanding of my task. 

All the sites I have linked to this WebQuest.  There is such an enormous amount of information available to us with the click of a mouse.   

http://www.impressionism.org/SAM/about.htm  

http://www.impressionism.org/Experience/paintings.htm

http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/

http://www.moma.org/collection/depts/paint_sculpt/blowups/paint_sculpt_003.html  

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/bisrd/top-1-2-2-4-1.html

http://www.francemonthly.com/ 

http://www.francemonthly.com/n/0801/index.php 

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/europe/france_pol91.jpg 

http://www.quia.com/jg/278786list.html

http://www.quia.com/mc/278786.html

http://www.quia.com/cc/278786.html 

http://www.artlex.com/ 

http://www.britannica.com/search?query=impressionism&source=g1impressionsr

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/theme/impressionnisme.html  

http://www.babblefish.com/babblefish/  

http://www.kentuckyschools.net/cgi-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=101963520&EXTRA_ARG=&host_id=1&page_id=713&query=Holistic+Scoring+Guide&hiword=HOLISTIC+SCORING+GUIDE

http://www.kentuckyschools.net/KDE/Instructional+Resources/Curriculum+Documents+and+Resources/Core+Content+for+Assessment.htm

Thank you to Ryan for his computer and his patience in assisting me with upgrades as I realized I wanted to add information.

Gambrell, L.B., Morrow, L.M., Neuman, S.B., & Pressley, M. (1999). Best practices in literacy instruction. NY: Guilford.

Turning on Learning: Five Approaches for Multicultural Teaching Plans for Race, Class, Gender, and Disability
by Carl A. Grant, Christine E. Sleeter (Contributor)

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Teacher Information:

This WebQuest was created using criteria from Kentucky's Core Content for Visual Arts Assessment and Portfolio Writing Assessment.  You can link and download from the site below.

http://www.kentuckyschools.net/KDE/Instructional+Resources/Curriculum+Documents+and+Resources/Core+Content+for+Assessment.htm Scroll down to locate desired document.

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Oberhelmanhandjo@AOL.com