Drawing Self-Portraits: My FaceActivities & Teaching Strategies
Active learning helps students understand facial proportions because it requires them to observe themselves closely and discuss their findings with peers. When students move and interact, they internalize proportions better than through passive instruction alone. This topic thrives on kinesthetic and social engagement, making it ideal for hands-on activities.
Learning Objectives
- 1Analyze the basic geometric shapes that compose individual facial features.
- 2Construct a self-portrait drawing using lines to represent unique personal characteristics.
- 3Compare and contrast the use of color to express mood or personality in self-portraits.
- 4Identify specific lines and shapes used to depict unique features in their own and peers' self-portraits.
Want a complete lesson plan with these objectives? Generate a Mission →
Peer Teaching: The Mirror Challenge
In pairs, one student acts as the 'mirror' and describes a specific feature of their partner (e.g., 'Your eyes are like almonds'). The partner then tries to draw that feature based on the description before checking a real mirror.
Prepare & details
Analyze the basic geometric shapes that compose your facial features.
Facilitation Tip: During Peer Teaching: The Mirror Challenge, remind students to swap roles every two minutes, ensuring everyone gets equal practice describing and observing.
Setup: Presentation area at front, or multiple teaching stations
Materials: Topic assignment cards, Lesson planning template, Peer feedback form, Visual aid supplies
Gallery Walk: Identity Wall
Students create self-portraits that include symbols of things they love. They display them around the room, and the class moves from piece to piece, trying to guess whose portrait it is based on the artistic clues and features.
Prepare & details
Construct a self-portrait using lines to emphasize unique personal characteristics.
Facilitation Tip: For the Gallery Walk: Identity Wall, place a small mirror at each station so students can compare their drawings to their faces while viewing others' work.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
Think-Pair-Share: Changing Faces
Students make different expressions in a mirror (happy, surprised, sleepy). They discuss with a partner how their features change (e.g., 'My eyebrows go up when I'm surprised') and then choose one 'mood' to draw.
Prepare & details
Justify the color choices made to reflect your personality or mood in your self-portrait.
Facilitation Tip: In Think-Pair-Share: Changing Faces, provide a quiet timer to keep pairs focused and ensure both students contribute equally to the discussion.
Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor
Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs
Teaching This Topic
Focus on process over product. Research shows that first-year students benefit most when they are guided to notice proportions, not match them perfectly. Use simple language like 'oval,' 'circle,' and 'line' rather than artistic jargon. Avoid correcting too early; let students discover proportions through guided observation. Show examples of faces drawn by other children to normalize varied styles and reduce pressure for realism.
What to Expect
Successful learning looks like students confidently identifying and drawing the shapes and lines that make up their faces. They should describe their features using geometric terms and confidently present their work to peers. Articulating their process is just as important as the final drawing.
These activities are a starting point. A full mission is the experience.
- Complete facilitation script with teacher dialogue
- Printable student materials, ready for class
- Differentiation strategies for every learner
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionDuring Peer Teaching: The Mirror Challenge, watch for students who place their eyes too high on the head. Provide each pair with a small mirror and have them measure the space between their chin and eyes using the length of their index finger.
What to Teach Instead
During Peer Teaching: The Mirror Challenge, correct students who draw mouths too close to the nose by asking them to touch their nose and then their mouth while looking in the mirror. This helps them feel the proportional distance.
Assessment Ideas
During Peer Teaching: The Mirror Challenge, circulate with a checklist. Ask each student, 'What shape did you use to draw your eye?' or 'Show me the line you used to create your smile.' Record how accurately they describe the shapes and lines they used.
After Gallery Walk: Identity Wall, display three to four anonymous self-portraits. Ask students, 'What shapes do you see in this face?' and 'What lines did the artist use to show the person's expression?' Encourage them to point to specific areas in the portraits as they discuss.
After Think-Pair-Share: Changing Faces, have students write one sentence identifying a geometric shape they used for a facial feature and one sentence explaining a line they used to show something unique about themselves before leaving the classroom.
Extensions & Scaffolding
- Challenge students who finish early to draw a family member's face using the same shapes and lines they identified in their own face.
- For students who struggle, provide pre-drawn outlines of faces with geometric shapes inside for them to trace and fill in.
- Deeper exploration: Have students create a second self-portrait using only straight lines and another using only curved lines, then discuss the differences in expression.
Key Vocabulary
| Geometric Shapes | Basic shapes like circles, ovals, squares, and triangles that can be used to represent parts of the face, such as the head, eyes, or nose. |
| Facial Features | Distinctive parts of the face, including eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and eyebrows, which can be broken down into simple shapes for drawing. |
| Line Variation | Using different types of lines, such as thick, thin, curved, or straight, to create texture, form, and emphasis in a drawing. |
| Proportion | The relationship between the sizes of different parts of the face to each other, ensuring features are drawn in a balanced way. |
Suggested Methodologies
More in Lines, Marks, and Making
Exploring Different Types of Lines
Investigating how different lines can represent movement and emotion on paper using various drawing tools.
2 methodologies
Creating Textures Through Rubbings
Using crayons and graphite to discover and capture hidden textures from the classroom environment.
2 methodologies
Drawing from Observation: Still Life
Practicing drawing simple objects from observation, focusing on shape and proportion.
2 methodologies
Drawing People in Motion
Experimenting with quick sketches to capture movement and action in human figures.
2 methodologies
Ready to teach Drawing Self-Portraits: My Face?
Generate a full mission with everything you need
Generate a Mission