This entry is an activity for Teach-Now while working towards a teaching certificate. Specific goals and requirements had to be met by this entry and is by no means designed to be an independent feature.
Working on Designing a Unit of Art Lessons for the New York State Standards at the Secondary Level.
The New York State Education Department set forth four heavily dense standards with regards to the expectations and standards of excellence for all students who elect to participate in a visual arts subject (NYSED, 2015). The standards are differentiated for each grade group such as elementary (Pre-K to grade 4), intermediate (5 to 8), commencement (grade 9 – 12), and commencement major sequence which defines performance indicators for advance placement, students desired to attend a post-secondary art school, or currently an art high school. For this exercise, I will explore the state’s first standard for Visual Arts for any level in the commencement group.
The NYSED Visual Art’s Standard 1
Students will make works of art that explore different kinds of subject matter, topics, themes, and metaphors.
Students will understand and use sensory elements, organizational principles, and expressive images to communicate their own ideas in works of art.
Students will use variety of art materials, processes, mediums, and techniques and use appropriate technologies for creating and exhibiting visual art works.
Yes, this is the single standard and not many accidentally packed into one.
Why This Standard?
This standard can enforce the practice of a skill. Art is like any other activity — the first time you try it the results will be based on your effort and ability but not necessarily meaning you have achieved your best ability or that you are an expert; smart and effective practice makes you better. Lets consider a comparative example: riding a bike. The first time you rode a bike, I bet a foot or two stepped on the ground every pedal stroke, your balance felt wary unsettling your body on the seat and the handle bars wiggled erratically twisting without control. After a couple of days of continued riding, did you notice that you pedaled faster and your direction had more intention? Practice made your bike riding skill better. Then if you continued for years later, maybe you became a professional bicyclist in a multi-stage race such the Tour de France. Practice. Additional comparisons can be made with walking, reading, playing a sport, multiplication tables, braiding hair, or dressing yourself. Standard 1 works on practice to enhance your skill and deepening that practice with more advanced ideas and requirements.
Standard 1 also supports a wide variety of lessons that will maintain interest as well as levels of challenges. The first statement within the standard — “Students will make works of art that explore different kinds of subject matter, topics, themes, and metaphors.” — has four types of activity objectives: subject matter; topics; themes; and metaphors. Subject matter alone can explode into several lessons such as something as small as drawing one object or painting a full length portrait in a large setting. Additionally, each of the other objectives can expand: topics can range from a story or poem to a news item; themes can be anything such as a dark mood to bright comedic satire to making a movie poster; metaphors could relate to translating a storyline or playing on a pun.
The second part has some hurdles. The use of “sensory elements” can be interpreted and explored into a variety of directions. Sensory could mean the use of their eyes and mind for visual thinking strategies in both making and describing artworks. It could also translate to their use of evaluating and translating that artwork into a critical essay with very descriptive language that evokes other deeper emotions where this itself becomes an form of art. Organizational principles alone creates several lessons from the basic practice of seeing shapes, creating basic units for measurement, learning proportions for rendering in scale, color theories, and light logic (lights and shadows). Expressive images provides options of exploring and rendering in several art eras and their styles as well as finding their own style to create their story.
The final part of this standard means that each previous lessons becomes a deeper learning moment with another goal. Any practice from the first or second part has the potential to be experienced again thus continuing practice but with another level of complexity. Exploring another interpretation of the same theme or even a different them WITH learning a different medium such as ink, watercolor, oil paint, acrylic, clay, metal, wood, plastic, or glass. The same theme, if desired, could actually be explored and rendered in different sizes, formats as well as each of the different mediums listed earlier. Finally, their artwork practice can be revised and revisited to refine their idea. Upon completion, the student submits this piece into a student or community art show that may or may not be judged and awarded for achievements — a real-life practice.
In addition to setting the standards, NYSED also provides Performance Indicators that assist in the development for what students will understand, some of the goal’s guiding questions, and even the performance evidence and assessment.
Performance indicators, for Levels 9-12 (Commencement):
Create a collection of art work, in a variety of mediums, based on instructional assignments and individual and collective experience to explore perceptions, ideas, and viewpoints.Create art works in which they use and evaluate different kinds of mediums, subjects, themes, symbols, metaphors and images.
Demonstrate an increasing level of competence in using the elements and principles of art to create art works for public exhibition.
Reflect on their developing work to determined the effectiveness of selected mediums and techniques for conveying meaning and adjust their decisions accordingly.
I will use these performance indicators as a foundation for what the students will know, do, and how to evaluate their achievements. Of course, other specific indications will be incorporated that relate to the medium, the story, and the activity.
In the end, students will create a collection of their artwork to demonstrate their advancement and skill refinement comparing the beginning of the term to the end. Essentially, the work should show in several occasions advancement of their skill within a several instances of the same activity, theme, and/or medium. For example, a student shows sophisticated growth of portrait executions as well as control with oil paint mixing and application where colors are not muddy or over-mixed, the paint application is consistent over the entire canvas or successfully applied with a specific purpose as intended. Another example is overtime the students shows less reliance on erasing and demonstrating more control of line execution — the paper will easily express this by the surface becoming more rough and/or delicate with each erasing.
In addition to their collection, they should include a reflection that describes what and how they have learned regarding the ability to render and how that is applied to their artwork’s subject matter. Selecting three pieces they should evaluate what rendering thinking was required, the obstacles they encountered, the solutions to overcome those obstacles and their choice of medium. If the student had a particular set of icons or a theme, they should describe their intention and how successful each piece in their practice demonstrates their execution. Select words describing composition, negative space, color intention, gesture, medium application, story and subject matter purpose exist in their reflection and appropriately describing the work and process.
Each medium will have its complications. Pencil rendering is much more complicated than anticipated. Does the student show varying pencil strokes and tones? Does the artwork present efficiency in line development and the execution of shapes? Can the student reasonable demonstrate any understanding of which pencil graphite density for which purpose (a hard pencil for light tints or loose base sketching; the soft graphite for dark, rich tints and line weight variations)? Moving beyond the pencil, can the student demonstrate practiced and authentic effort within other mediums? Did they skillfully take into consideration the medium’s purpose and rendering range (watercolors can be light and transparent as well as rich in color and evidence of brush stroke control)?
As I mentioned, the NYSED Arts Standards can be very open supportive to several lessons, but dense in consideration and expectation. As a thought to how to achieve all four expectations, each unit could explore each standard as one larger theme. For example, students would practice drawing in a painterly fashion with basic colors. Their efforts would consider the purpose of art making within prehistoric cultures as iconic story telling. Examples of these stories can be experienced by several resources such an online gallery or, better yet, a museum visit where students learn the resources and opportunities in an art field. While exploring these artifacts, students gain knowledge of the culture learning terms and language designated or supportive to the art and its respective culture. Each unit would be very intense but at least engaging and enhancing all aspects of art and its study.
A Study Example of Lessons in Development
Lesson 1
GOAL: Students present their current ability as exampled by a few drawing activities; this is the first step that their drawing skills will improve becoming more refined, practiced, and impressive.
STUDENTS WILL KNOW that drawing or art is a skill and not a natural talent. This should encourage those that have no confidence. Art foundation is based on seeing and style. Art exploration happens in stages each with their own purpose and study as they grew.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO identify their current style and understand why they draw the way they draw.
ASSESSMENT will be based on their full commitment to authentically try each exercise. This effort will be evidenced by their patience to go beyond their frustration and to accept that this activity is not to embarrass them.
LEARNING PLAN: View artwork of children and master artists. Start their portfolio of self-assessment to provide them evidence of their achievement. Draw a self portrait as based on your memory. Draw a self portrait with a mirror. Draw a subject or theme most common in your childhood; different mediums could be used (crayons, watercolor, color pencils).
Lesson 2
GOAL: Students will draw several shapes based on contours and shading emphasizing the object’s silhouette to practice that art of seeing.
STUDENTS WILL KNOW the spaces of the visual plane (positive and negative); the definition of line and contours; the brain activity separation designating logic and visual or icon and object.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO designate brain concentration to correctly see the object without defining it; draw or “copy” from the visual plane to their own rendering surface; describe the process of seeing in a new way; develop a confidence that they can draw.
ASSESSMENT of their understanding will be based on the accuracy of their rendered copy; their ability to describe how they saw; and their competence and commitment to practice witnessed during the activity.
LEARNING PLAN: Review Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain; draw several objects to practice the skill and design; review the practice by reflection describing the transition from thinking to non-thinking during the seeing and drawing; store/save these pieces for later assessment and reflection.
Lesson 3
GOAL: Students will study perspective for scale.
STUDENTS WILL KNOW the visual perception and reality of size differ than what is understood or dictated in your thinking.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO designate brain concentration to correctly see the object in its proper size based on perspective; to draw or “copy” that object correctly; describe the process of seeing in a new way; develop a confidence that they can draw.
ASSESSMENT of their understanding will be based on the accuracy of their rendered copy; their ability to describe how they saw; and their competence and commitment to practice witnessed during the activity.
LEARNING PLAN: Demonstrate scale in space by creating a unit to measure. Draw a shape with sides or volume. Draw shapes in a setting to reflect scale in space. View, evaluate, and reflect the scene of a hallway, city street, and a landscape to describe scale and perspective — what is your basic unit of measurement.
Lesson 4
GOAL: Students will tackle the abstract and complex — they will draw a still life.
STUDENTS WILL KNOW and expand upon positive and negative spaces, scale and proportions; light logic.
STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO refine their drawing skill foundations of shape development with contour drawing; set a scene with the right scale without size distortion; shade from light to dark.
ASSESSMENT of their understanding will be based on the accuracy of their rendered copy; their ability to shade and highlight; and their competence and commitment to practice witnessed during the activity.
LEARNING PLAN: Concentrate for this one or a few periods to complete their single view of the still life; students could explore and render different views based on the complexity of the still life and their rendering agility. Add to their portfolios. Reflect on what makes a still life and suggest and describe two completely different still life themes.
Reference
NYSED. (Sept 15, 2015). New York State Education Department. Curriculum and Instruction. The Arts. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/arts/artstand/home.html