Planning from the Visual Art Curriculum Guide

The curriculum outlines three required units, each having two or three mini-units. For example, Unit Three is called "Traditions and Innovations". This unit is divided into two mini-units: "Visual Images and Daily Life" and "Artist Study".

The suggested activities in the guide are organized under the mini-unit headings. The activities are developed under a sample theme. However, in classroom practice a relevant theme should be chosen by the teacher and/or students based on a topic relevant to their own situation, the expertise of the teacher and the resources available in the community. Themes chosen should include the study of at least one artist from Saskatchewan, Canada or elsewhere. Themes suitable for the development of units for middle years students could include the following:

journey/expedition families fads and fashions independence global issues sports and games popular culture the environment circus relationships work

legends outer space architecture individuality transformations heroes fantasy time travel mysteries weather and the seasons entertainment

Teachers should familiarize themselves with the foundational objectives and the unit overview charts. These outline the required content for the year. Planning involves selecting learning objectives derived from the "Foundational Objectives" section and selecting or designing appropriate activities to meet those objectives.

In the suggested activities section, the activities can be divided into three categories: introductory, principal and concluding activities. In the introductory activities the teacher will engage the students' interest, provide a context for learning and introduce skills or materials for the activities that will follow. The principal activities will explore a theme or context toward achieving the selected foundational objectives, and the concluding activities will give the students opportunities to reflect upon their experiences and explore possible extensions to the unit or bridges to a new unit of study.

Planning a Unit

This section of the curriculum contains a step-by-step guide to using the curriculum. Eventually teachers will become comfortable with the course and develop their own method of planning and unit topics based on the foundational objectives and their own interests, expertise and resources.

The following will support teachers in using the guide and developing their own programs:

Step One Read the introductory section of the visual art guide and refer to the Planning Section in the introduction to the Arts Education curriculum. Step Two Study the visual art curriculum for your grade, becoming familiar with: the foundational objectives the unit overviews the model unit. Step Three Set appropriate learning objectives. These can be derived by the teacher from the foundational objectives provided for each grade (see "Foundational Objectives" section). Step Four Plan a sequence of lessons. Use the suggested themes or select one of relevance to your students and community. Step Five Check to ensure that a variety of strategies has been included in the unit (discussing, researching, making, looking at art works and other images, reflecting, etc.). Learning experiences other than making art works are essential if the students' learning experiences are to have meaning and reflect learning. Most units should include experiences from the three components (creative/productive, cultural/historical and critical/responsive), although emphasis will shift from unit to unit. Step Six Determine a means of assessing achievement of the foundational objectives. Use a variety of assessment techniques such as student self-evaluation, group evaluation, teacher evaluation (see the "Evaluation" section in this guide for examples and read "Adapting the Viewing Process for the Discussion of Student Work").

The following pages provide a planning sheet that may be used for daily or unit planning. Lists of some instructional strategies and assessment techniques to which teachers may refer are also provided.

The following information is also intended to assist teachers in their planning.

Common Essential Learnings Communication (C) Creative and Critical Thinking (CCT) Independent Learning (IL) Numeracy (N) Technological Literacy (TL) Personal and Social Values and Skills (PSVS) For objectives specific to the CELs see: Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice, Staff Development Program Binder, 1991, or the Bulletin Board System in the conference area Teacher Information and Support.

Instructional Strategies and Methods: For detailed information see Instructional Approaches: A Framework for Professional Practice, 1991 Direct Instruction: Structured Overview Explicit Teaching Mastery Lecture Practice Compare and Contrast Didactic Questions Demonstrations Indirect Instruction: Problem-solving Case Studies Inquiry Reading for Meaning Reflective Discussion Concept Formation Concept Mapping Concept Attainment Independent Learning: Essays Computer Assisted Instruction Reports Learning Activity Package Learning Contracts Home Work Research Projects Assigned Questions Learning Centres Experiential Learning: Field Trips Experiments and Exploring Games Focused Imaging Field Observations Synectics Model Building Surveysng Interactive Instruction: Debates Brainstorming Discussion Co-operative Learning Groups Problem-solving Circle of Knowledge Interviewing Responding Processes (see individual strands) Teacher in Role * Role * Parallel Play * Tableau * Improvisation * * Key Drama Strategies. See page 227 for a complete listing.

Assessment Techniques: For detailed information on many of these techniques see Student Evaluation: A Teacher Handbook. Methods of Organization: Individual Assessments Group Assessments Contracts Peer and Self-Assessments Portfolios Conference Audio and visual recordings Methods of Data Recording: Anecdotal Records Observation Checklists Rating Scales Ongoing Student Activities: Written Assignments Presentations (assessment of process and product) Performance Assessments (ongoing assessment of process and student participation) Homework Journal Writing Projects

Click here to see the Arts Eduacation Planning Sheets.You need Acrobat reader to view them properly.

Teacher Checklist for a Sequence of Lessons Have you set appropriate learning objectives?

Have you mapped out a series of lessons within a mini-unit; for example, "Artist Study"?

Have you included opportunities for the students to explore and express themselves through visual art language and materials?

Have you included opportunities for the students to research ideas, topics, etc.?

Have you included opportunities for both individual and group work?

Have you included opportunities for discussion?

Have you included opportunities for student reflection on their own work?

Have you included art works, reproductions or images from magazines, photographs, children's books illustrations, etc.?

Have you considered all three components (creative/productive, cultural/historical and critical/responsive)?

Have you included Indian, Métis or Inuit content, either specifically or as examples of general concepts?

Have you included activities which develop the Common Essential Learnings objectives?

Have you connected the activities to things relevant to the students and their communities?

Have you made plans to assess the extent to which students have achieved the foundational objectives during the mini-unit?

Transforming Ideas Into Visual Form

There may be times when a teacher wants the students to practice a skill or technique (drawing facial features realistically or making a relief print, etc.), but meaningful art projects are far more than opportunities to practice skills and techniques. Whenever students apply knowledge, use techniques, express ideas or solve design problems, they should engage in creative problem-solving.

Encourage students to follow the steps below, keeping in mind that they do not exclude strategies such as brainstorming, research, journal writing, watching films, etc. at any point in the process.

The following steps could be followed as a whole group, with small groups or by individual students. This is only one way of developing an idea in visual art. Some students will approach a visual art project with a very specific idea in mind already, and could omit the brainstorming and webbing, for example. Other students may prefer to get their ideas as they work with the art materials themselves. These steps are simply one way to help students come up with some ideas, to find a focus, and to develop or transform those ideas into their own unique visual expressions.

1. Have students brainstorm and create a web around the general area of interest that the student or class has chosen to explore. For example, a small group of students taking the general idea of "sports" might generate words such as hockey, swimming, track, fitness, competition, skateboarding, skating, etc.

2. Have the students take an idea from the brainstormed list and create a more specific web. For example, if a student or group of students chose skateboarding as a focus, they might generate words such as speed, ramps, colours, helmets, knee pads, balance, swerves, noise, jumps, boards, power, turns, etc.

3. Have students research and observe. Keeping the previous work list in mind, have each student look through visual art resource books, art history books, reproductions, slides, old art catalogues, magazine articles, etc., to get a sense of how other artists of the past and present might represent ideas or words such as those listed in their web. For example, how might a particular Saskatchewan artist represent the idea of speed, balance or power?

4. Define the problem to be solved. Have the student state what he or she is trying to do; for example, "I want to express the fun and excitement I have when I am skateboarding." Remember, even though all students are working in the same unit, these are usually individual problems. Each student or group of students will define the problem in a unique way.

5. Encourage students to explore and experiment with images. At this point, some students may have chosen to work on an individual project, while a few others may want to work on a group project. Some students may have a clear idea of what media they would like to use.

Following are some ways students might experiment with their ideas. Using newsprint and pencil, take one or two of the words from the web and experiment with numerous ways of portraying a word visually through sketches and using various styles. Try to portray the word realistically. Try to portray the word as a symbol. For example, how would the student symbolize speed, balance or power? Try to portray the word simply using the elements of art in a non-representational way. Use images from magazines (skateboarding magazines could be used in the skateboarding example presented here) and try combining both related and seemingly unrelated objects to examine the effect.

6. Make a plan. Think of the media possibilities, such as painting, sculpture, photography, video, etc. The plan might be, for example: "I saw some interesting photographs in the art book, so I would like to try working with photography. I'll need to borrow a camera and find a good book about photography."

7. Begin working.

8. Stop and reflect on how the plan is working. "I can't find one photograph that is really interesting. Also, I'm using black and white photographs, and it doesn't look as exciting or as much fun as skateboarding really is. There doesn't seem to be any action and I feel like something is missing."

9. Propose solutions through guided discussions. "I could change to colour film. I could change to video instead of photography. I could take more photographs and keep trying to find one that sums up my feelings about skateboarding."

10. Go back to the original intention. The teacher can ask, "Do you want to change your intention, or do you want to stick with your original idea?" Both are valid. "I still want to show the fun and excitement of skateboarding with photography."

11. Make a decision about which proposed solutions are most appropriate for the situation. Remember, there are many solutions to the problem. The student might say, "I already paid for the development of the black and white pictures, so I don't want to change to colour now. I don't have access to a video camera. I'm running out of time to take more photographs." One of the problems the student mentioned is that he or she wants the image to appear to have action or motion. Ask the student to come up with some ideas for ways to do this. Look at how other artists have done this in the past. "I could make the photographs into a mobile sculpture. I could try overlapping a few photographs and gluing them onto a heavy piece of board in a curved `S' shape." Another problem that the student mentioned was that the images didn't appear exciting. Ask the student to come up with some solutions for this problem. The student might experiment or look at other images that appear exciting to discover what the artists have done to achieve this effect. "Maybe I could make it look more exciting by colouring on the photographs with coloured pens or fluorescent markers".

12. Try the solutions.

13. Repeat steps eight to twelve if necessary.

Through teacher and student interaction during the process, the student will learn that:

• he or she will be making decisions when engaging in creative activities
• there is no one answer to a problem
• even though all the students in the class might start out doing the same activity, their individual problem-solving will lead to unique explorations
• the teacher is a collaborator in problem-solving, rather than someone who has all the answers.

• guide students through the steps
• engage the students in discussions while they are working
• provide as wide a variety of materials as possible for the students to try out their solutions to problems
• allow the students several tries at solving art problems, rather than giving each student one piece of paper, the same sized brush, etc.
• de-emphasize the product as the reason for engaging in art activities, so that students don't feel like they've "failed" if their chosen solutions don't work
• emphasize the problem-solving aspects of an activity
• keep cumulative records on student progress, rather than looking at one final product for evaluation purposes.