When teaching a new lesson, I try to thread the needle of finding subjects that will be interesting to high school students, having a little fun with them, all while aligning with state and national teaching standards.
Here is a sample lesson, a side tangent of our Atmospheric and Linear Perspective unit. Students were to paint a cityscape in two-perspective. I had them draw one of their buildings covered in graffiti and took the moment to do a quick deep dive on graffiti and hip hop culture. We learned the origins of graffiti, it’s modern day impacts, and its current place in the art world.