Lesson Plan: Our Guam Art Museum 4

Print version of this lesson plan or all four.

The grand opening (Part 4 of 4)

Subjects

Art, History, Social Studies, Music

Grade-level

Elementary, 3-5
Middle School, 6-8
High School, 9-12

Time required

55 minutes (Time may be varied according to scheduling needs.)

Materials required

Small portable stereo for playing music (optional)

Lesson Plan

Description

With this culminating lesson, students will conduct a grand opening of their classroom Guam art museum. Following the grand opening, students will also have an opportunity to recap what they have learned.

Objectives/Skills

Students will complete this lesson series by holding an open house (can be virtual rather than in classroom) for their newly created classroom Guam art museum.
Students will be available to answer questions of guests.
Students will review what they have learned throughout this lesson unit, and share ideas for how they would improve were they to do this project again.

Questions or Assessment

How did our plans for the museum actually work out when implemented?
What ideas that we gained from our field trip actually helped? What ideas did not?
How did it feel to answer our guests’ questions?
Do we believe our exhibits taught our guests anything?

Procedure

Teacher prep
Organize to have outside people attend your grand opening (e.g. another class, parents, or a senior citizen’s group).

Grand Opening (40 minutes)

Have your students quickly set up their exhibits in their designated locations around the classroom, and have them stand by their exhibits in order to answer any questions that may arise. If the exhibit is online students need to be available to answer questions.
Welcome the outside group, most likely another class, to the grand opening. Mention that your class has worked hard to provide an enjoyable educational experience for them.
Explain to the guests the layout of the museum, and then allow them to peruse the museum on their own.
- Be sure to keep an ear out for critical comments by your guests. Sometimes visiting students may be unintentionally critical, and your students may be upset by some of these comments. Walk around and provide supportive comments to your students (e.g. “Good job answering that question”, etc.).
- If there appears to be a lull in areas of the room, feel free to approach some guests and ask them questions about a nearby exhibit (e.g. “What do you think about this?”, “Had you known about that?”, etc.).
Once time is up, thank the guests for visiting, thank your class for curating a good museum show, and allow the guests to leave the classroom.

Discussion Following the Grand Opening (10 minutes)

Once the guests have left, bring your class together and congratulate them on a job well done.
It is possible that some students may be upset by comments made during the grand opening (visiting students from other classes may have been critical of their work). Be sure to remind students that people will always have differing opinions about how things should be done, but that you are proud of the work done by the class, and each student should also be pleased with their results.
Ask students of their thoughts on any of the following prompts:
- What went as planned? What did not?
- What would you do differently next time? What would you keep the same?
- Did it appear that the thematic categorization was useful? Did the guests understand it, or were they confused? Would you adjust it in any way?
- Do we think we taught our guests anything?
- How did it feel to actively preserve and share our island’s art?

Recap (5 minutes)
Recap what we’ve done and learned in the lesson:

“Congratulations students! We successfully held the grand opening of our classroom Guam art museum! During the last few classes, we learned about the types of art on Guam, the galleries that preserve and share them, and methods by which this is all done. We even conducted a field research trip by visiting one of these local galleries. Ultimately, we used this research to create our own curated museum show, and we were able to preserve and share some of Guam’s deep artistic history with another class. Good work!”

Ask students for their favorite parts of the lesson.