Blue Dog Unit

One of my favorite units to write, teach and continue to improve upon is the George Rodrigue Blue Dog Unit. In this unit, students discover and uncover parts of their personal culture. We spend time discussing culture and what makes each one of us unique. Then, we study George Rodrigue and his Cajun culture. We look at different artwork by Rodrigue and analyze the cultural impact on his art. We focus mainly on the Blue Dog and it's origin.


Here is a link to the George Rodrigue website:

http://www.georgerodrigue.com/

For the project, and take away artwork, the students follow a demonstration of how to draw Blue Dog. Lastly, the students add parts of their culture to their Blue Dog.

See examples below.

Here is the rubric that I use to grade the Blue Dog artwork

Blue Dog Rubric

Summative (summary of the knowledge) Assessment = Final Project

Master Artist (90-100)	Amateur Artist (65-89)	Starving Artist ( <64)
The student draws Blue Dog according to the demonstration.		This Blue Dog looks nothing like the example.
The artist uses craftsmanship: proper use of materials; well executed.	The artist has sloppy craftsmanship.	The artist used no craftsmanship and the materials are abused.
The artist incorporates an obvious part of their culture.	The cultural significance is irrelevant.	There are no cultural relevance.
The dog is large and fills the page/or has a background, which fills the empty space.	Half of the paper is full.	The dog is alone and small.
The art is complete on time.	The art is incomplete but can still be completed for full credit of completion.	The art was started but never completed.