Standard 3A: Uses student achievement data, local standards, and the district curriculum in planning for instruction.
Title: National Arts Standards
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Reflection: Since there are no district level arts standards at Clarke, all of my curriculum comes from the National Core Arts Standards. The NCAS are divided into four main subcategories: Creating, Presenting, Responding, and Connecting. Students meet the Creating standards by working on creative projects and products. The Presenting, Responding, and Connecting standards are met through students' art websites where they present work in their digital portfolio and journal about their process.
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Standard 3B: Sets and communicates high expectations for social, behavioral, and academic success of all students.
Title: Beginning of Semester Powerpoint
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Reflection: This spring, I wanted to set a better tone for students who had never had me in class before. I had also just run across the article from Forbes about the top ten skills that companies want for new graduates. In previous semesters, I had heard lots of comments along the lines of "I didn't realize we were going to have to _________ in this class." or "This is art class. We aren't supposed to have to ________". I wanted to really set the tone about my expectations of students: that I didn't care so much about them making great art, as I cared about making them better and more creative thinkers. I have had much better buy in from this group of kids than in the past, and they aren't as self-conscious about the technical art ability of their work.
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Standard 3C: Uses student’s developmental needs, backgrounds, and interests in planning for instruction.
Title: Student Portfolio Site
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Reflection: One of the great things about choice-based art education is I am not picking the theme of students' artwork. For each project, we practice a skill, then they must create a piece of artwork that applies that skill. This student's drawing portfolio shows off her love for animals and her interests in livestock and agriculture. Had I chosen a traditional still life as the subject for their drawing assignments, they would not have been able to create such deep and compelling work. As you can see from this student's artist statements, she put a lot of deep thinking and personal connection into her artwork. Seeing this work and reading student writing has gotten me so much closer to students and help me build rapport in my classroom.
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Standard 3D: Selects strategies to engage all students in learning.
Title: Student Portfolio Site
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Reflection: One of the great things about choice-based art education is I am not picking the them of student artwork. For each project, we practice a skill, then they must create a piece of artwork that applies that skill. This student's drawing portfolio shows off her love for animals and her interests in livestock and agriculture. Had I chosen a traditional still life as the subject for their drawing assignments, they would not have been able to create such deep and compelling work. As you can see from this student's artist statements, she put a lot of deep thinking and personal connection into her artwork. Seeing this work and reading student writing has gotten me so much closer to students and help me build rapport in my classroom.
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Standard 3E: Uses available resources, including technologies, in the development and sequencing of instruction.
Title: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
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Reflection: When reworking my drawing curriculum this year, I used the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain as a resource. This book is widely considered to be the best book out there to learn the skills to draw and depict objects in a realistic way. I sequenced my curriculum so that the units we did in class matched a main component of drawing in the book and followed the sequence in the book to help students spiral and build skills. I varied from the book because it doesn't allow for very much creativity, so for each unit, we would do some of the practice exercises and then apply them to creative projects.
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