Georgia O'Keeffe and The Roots of Intelligence

Name: Mrs. K. Gaines

Date: January 06, 2025

Subject: English One

Grade: 8 Honors

​

​Georgia O’Keeffe and The Roots of Intelligence

Objectives

• Determine the main idea and details in the essay “Georgia O’Keeffe.”

• Use context clues to interpret the meaning of unknown words.

• Identify and analyze the author’s purpose and point of view in “Georgia O’Keeffe.”

• Write a short response identifying the author’s message and supporting evidence.

• Respond to a critical thinking question on intelligence using a concise written response.

Standards

• 9-10.1: Cite strong textual evidence to support analysis of explicit content and inferences.

• 9-10.2: Determine a theme or central idea and analyze its development.

• 9-10.4: Interpret words and phrases as used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings.

• 9-10.1: Write arguments to support claims with valid reasoning and relevant evidence.

​Replace this with a header

Replace this with your body text. Duplicate this text as many times as you would like. All provided templates can be reused multiple times. Wish you a good day.

Happy teaching!

​Teacher- Directed

​Introduce the Essay “Georgia O’Keeffe” and Its Background (3 minutes)

• “Today, we’ll be exploring an essay about Georgia O’Keeffe, one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. Known for her striking paintings of flowers, landscapes, and abstract forms, O’Keeffe’s work captured a unique vision of the natural world. This essay gives us insight into her life and legacy.”

  • “As we read, think about how the author describes O’Keeffe’s personality, artistic style, and the cultural impact of her work.”

​Blue & Green Music

​New York street with Moon

​Points About O’Keeffe’s Life and Legacy (2 minutes)

• “O’Keeffe grew up on a Wisconsin farm, which influenced her love of nature.”

  • “She moved to New York and later to the New Mexico desert, where she painted some of her most iconic works.”

  • “Her paintings often magnify natural objects, making us see them in a new way.”

• Highlight a connection between her life and the essay:

  • “The author mentions how O’Keeffe’s work is often described as bold and groundbreaking, reflecting her independent personality.”

Step 1: Read the Paragraph Aloud

• Slowly and clearly read the paragraph:

"Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant,” Georgia O’Keeffe told us in the book of paintings and words published in her ninetieth year on earth. She seemed to be advising us to forget the beautiful face in the Stieglitz photographs. She appeared to be dismissing the rather condescending romance that had attached to her by then, the romance of extreme good looks and advanced age and deliberate isolation. “It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.” I recall an August afternoon in Chicago in 1973 when I took my daughter, then seven, to see what Georgia O’Keeffe had done with where she had been. One of the vast O’Keeffe ‘Sky Above Clouds’ canvases floated over the back stairs in the Chicago Art Institute that day, dominating what seemed to be several stories of empty light, and my daughter looked at it once, ran to the landing, and kept on looking. “Who drew it,” she whispered after a while. I told her. “I need to talk to her,” she said finally.

Step 2: Think Aloud to Identify the Main Idea

1. Thinking Aloud:

   • "This paragraph highlights Georgia O’Keeffe’s philosophy on life and art. The main idea is captured in her statement: ‘It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.’ This tells us that O’Keeffe values her work and what she has created over any personal narrative or external perceptions."

2. Supporting Details:

• "She dismisses the focus on her beauty, age, or isolation as unimportant. This is a bold and confident declaration of her priorities as an artist."

• "The author shares a vivid personal memory of seeing O’Keeffe’s painting ‘Sky Above Clouds,’ which underscores the impact of O’Keeffe’s work on people of all ages, including the author’s daughter."

• "The child’s reaction (‘I need to talk to her’) reinforces the idea that O’Keeffe’s art transcends words and connects deeply with viewers."

​

Step 3: Using Context Clues for Unknown Words

1. Select a Challenging Word:

   • The word condescending may be unfamiliar to students.

2. Using Context Clues to Define It:

   • "The phrase, ‘the rather condescending romance that had attached to her,’ gives us clues. The author mentions O’Keeffe’s beauty, age, and isolation, which others romanticized in a way that feels dismissive or patronizing of her actual achievements. So, condescending here means treating someone as inferior or focusing on superficial things."

3. Nearby Clues:

   • "O’Keeffe dismisses this view, saying, ‘It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.’ This reinforces that she finds such attitudes reductive and irrelevant."

Step 4: Highlight the Author’s Purpose and Point of View

1. What to Say:

   • "The author clearly admires O’Keeffe. Through this anecdote, they show how her art speaks for itself, independent of her personal life. Words like ‘vast,’ ‘dominating,’ and ‘several stories of empty light’ reflect the awe O’Keeffe’s work inspires. The author’s purpose is to celebrate O’Keeffe’s legacy by emphasizing the transformative power of her art."

2. What to Do:

   • Highlight words and phrases like ‘forget the beautiful face,’ ‘what I have done,’ and ‘dominating what seemed to be several stories of empty light’ to show admiration.

Multiple Choice

How does the author’s tone (respectful and reflective) shape the reader’s understanding of Georgia O’Keeffe’s importance?

• A. It emphasizes O’Keeffe’s artistic contributions by portraying her as a groundbreaking and timeless figure.

• B. It downplays O’Keeffe’s personal achievements and focuses solely on her life story.

• C. It criticizes O’Keeffe’s dismissal of her personal life as irrelevant to her art.

• D. It creates a humorous perspective on O’Keeffe’s career and artistic legacy.

​

Question for Step 5:

Question:
How does the author convey admiration for Georgia O’Keeffe in this paragraph? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Sample Written Response

• "In this paragraph, the author conveys admiration for Georgia O’Keeffe by emphasizing her focus on her work rather than her personal story. O’Keeffe’s statement, ‘It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest,’ reveals her priorities as an artist. The author supports this by describing the overwhelming impact of her painting ‘Sky Above Clouds,’ which inspired even a young child to want to connect with her. This shows how O’Keeffe’s art resonates across generations, making her legacy timeless."

Paragraph

My daughter was making, that day in Chicago, an entirely unconscious, but quite basic assumption about people and the work they do. She was assuming that the glory she saw in the work reflected a glory in its maker, that the painting was the painter as the poem is the poet, that every choice one made alone—every word chosen or rejected, every brush stroke laid or not laid down—betrayed one’s character. Style is character. It seemed to me that afternoon that I had rarely seen so instinctive an application of this familiar principle, and I recall being pleased not only that my daughter responded to style as character but that it was Georgia O’Keeffe’s particular style to which she responded: this was a hard woman who had imposed her 192 square feet of clouds on Chicago.

​Step 1: Guided Discussion to Determine the Main Idea (5 minutes)

1. Instruction:

   • Select a new section of the essay. Read it together as a class.

   • Ask students:

     • “What is this section mostly about?”

     • “What details support the main idea?”

2. What to Do:

   • Write student responses on the board or chart paper.

   • Highlight phrases or sentences from the text that they identify as the main idea and details.

3. Example Prompts:

   • “What does the author want us to understand about Georgia O’Keeffe’s work or philosophy?”

   • “Which sentences give specific examples of this idea?”

Step 2: Analyzing Word Choice and Tone (5 minutes)

1. Instruction:

   • Have students focus on specific words or phrases in the text. Ask:

     • “What words does the author use to describe O’Keeffe or her art?”

     • “Do these words show admiration, neutrality, or criticism? How do you know?”

2. What to Do:

   • Guide students to underline descriptive words like “bold,” “dominating,” or “groundbreaking.”

   • Discuss the tone:

     • “Does the author seem to admire O’Keeffe? What words make you think so?”

3. Example Sentence Stem for Discussion:

   • “The author’s tone is [respectful/reflective], which shows they feel O’Keeffe is [significant/unique].”

Step 3: Using Context Clues to Define Words (5 minutes)

1. Instruction:

   • Choose one or two unfamiliar words from the section. Ask students to find clues in the surrounding text to infer their meaning.

     • “What does the word [e.g., ‘condescending’] mean? What other words in the text help you figure it out?”

2. What to Do:

   • Have students work in pairs or small groups to define the words.

   • Share responses as a class and confirm definitions using the text.

3. Example Context Clues Activity:

   • Provide a sentence with the target word and ask:

     • “What nearby words or ideas help explain the meaning of this word?”

   • Example:

     • In ‘the rather condescending romance,’ the word condescending means __ because the text also says O’Keeffe dismissed this focus on her appearance as unimportant.

​

Step 4: Discussing the Author’s Purpose and Point of View (5 minutes)

1. Instruction:

   • Guide students to consider why the author wrote this section. Ask:

     • “Why did the author write about O’Keeffe in this way?”

     • “What does the author’s perspective add to our understanding of O’Keeffe’s importance?”

2. What to Do:

   • Use sentence stems:

     • “The author’s purpose is to __.”

     • “This point of view helps the reader understand __.”

3. Example Discussion:

   • “The author’s purpose is to celebrate O’Keeffe’s work and inspire admiration. By focusing on her art instead of her personal life, the author helps us understand O’Keeffe’s values.”

Step 5: Crafting a Short Written Response (5 minutes)

1. Instruction:

   • As a class, write a short response analyzing the author’s message and supporting evidence.

   • Ask:

     • “What is the author’s main message in this section?”

     • “What evidence supports this message?”

2. What to Do:

   • Work collaboratively to construct the response. Use a structured format:

     • Message: Identify the author’s message.

     • Evidence: Include one or two pieces of evidence from the text.

     • Explanation: Explain how the evidence supports the message.

Example Written Response:

• “The author conveys admiration for Georgia O’Keeffe by emphasizing her focus on her art over her personal story. For example, O’Keeffe says, ‘It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.’ This shows that she values her creative work and its impact on others. The author reinforces this with a personal memory of seeing her painting, showing how her art inspires deep connections.”

Open Ended

You Do: Independent Practice (25 minutes)

1. Students will:

   • Identify the main idea and details of a new excerpt.

   • Use context clues to define at least two unfamiliar words.

   • Write a short response analyzing the author’s purpose and evidence provided in the text.

Extension Activity:

1. Students will explore background information and respond to the question:
   "What factors contribute most to human intelligence?" (140-character limit). Assignment -Study Sync

​

Closing (5 minutes)

• Recap the day’s learning:

  • What is the main idea of the essay?

  • How does the author’s purpose and point of view influence their message?

  • Why is context important in understanding unknown words?

• Share a few student responses (both short essay and intelligence question).

Multiple Select

What is one strategy you used today to determine the meaning of an unknown word or analyze the author’s purpose?

• A. Using context clues from the surrounding text to infer the meaning of the word.

• B. Looking up the word in a dictionary without reading the text.

• C. Identifying descriptive words and phrases that show the author’s tone and perspective.

• D. Skipping the word or the section to move on to something easier.