IRA—Visual Arts
Course Description
Name: IRA: Visual Arts
Length: 1 quarter long (9 weeks)
Grade: 6th grade
Description: During this class, students use the creative process to create and produce works of art.
Established Goals for Middle School Courses
1. Learning and innovation skills increasingly are being recognized as those that separate students who are
prepared for a more and more complex life and work environments in the 21st century, and those who
are not prepared. A focus on core content knowledge, creativity, critical thinking, communication and
collaboration is essential to prepare students for the future.
2. Students in the 21st century live in a technology and media-suffused environment, marked by various
characteristics, including: 1) access to an abundance of information, 2) rapid changes in technology
tools, and 3) the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To
be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to exhibit a range of functional and
critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology.
3. Today’s life and work environments require far more than thinking skills and content knowledge. The
ability to navigate the complex life and work environments in the globally competitive information age
requires students to pay rigorous attention to developing adequate life and career skills.
Desired Results
Transfer (5 years from now)
Students will be able to independently use their learning to…
1.
Use creative processes as a problem solving life skill outside of the classroom
2.
Create using appropriate mediums (manifest 2D and 3D works of art)
3.
Know that there is more than one solution for an open-ended problem
4.
Work collaboratively and creatively for a common goal
5.
Recognize and appreciate quality works of art (be a knowledgeable consumer - recognize
quality craftsmanship, understand personal likes)
6.
Understand the variety of communities that are available as creative outlets
7.
Know that the Habits of Mind are important for both the production and interpretation of art
8.
The same principles learned in drama, art, or music can be transferred to a digital format
Board Approved 05_09_12
The Essential Understandings: Interrelated Arts: Visual Arts
Students will understand the following concepts:
1.
The creative process is fluid and dynamic and transferable to real world situations
2.
Understanding formal and expressive qualities are important to producing, experiencing, and
evaluating the visual arts
3.
Habits of mind (shows care, respect, perseverance, self-discipline, work ethic) are important to
musicians
4.
Performance/product is a necessary component of the visual arts
5.
Creative acts involve multiple people and entire communities
6.
The visual arts influences history, society, and everyday life
7.
Creativity is important to society, but sometimes people are resistant to being creative and accepting
creative ideas
8.
Although famous people are sometimes creative, creative people are not always famous
9.
Creativity is often stereotyped; there are many cultural myths about creative people
10.
Technology can enhance compositional technique and performance
11.
Technology can provide access to potential audiences and communities
Essential Questions: Interrelated Arts: Visual Arts
Content Questions:
1. Why do people create?
2. How do people create?
3. What basic skills and resources are appropriate for solving open-ended visual problems?
4. Was my creative process successful? Why or why not?
5. How can a person communicate a message through the visual arts?
6. How do all of these work together (skills, information, and habits of mind) to solve open-ended visual
problems?
7. How are the fine arts interrelated?
Standards Based Questions:
Board Approved 05_09_12
8. What does it mean to collaborate effectively within a group?
9. How does working in teams increase innovation and quality of work?
10. How does technology impact the visual arts?
11. How do the visual arts impact ones daily life?
Essential Standards: Knowledge and Skills: Interrelated Arts: Visual Arts
K
Students will know, understand and be able to…
1.
Identify, apply, and demonstrate the steps of the creative process as they are interrelated among the
arts including:
-input
-brainstorming
-finding potential
-reorganization
-production
-evaluation/reflection
2.
Use the steps of the creative process to produce/create a piece of art
3.
Use various types of reasoning to be creative, think and reflect critically, and solve problems in both
conventional and innovative ways
4.
Demonstrate originality, novelty, and inventiveness in work
5.
Reflect on final product to assess its success in relationship to the original objectives
6.
Begin to think critically and reflect on images.
7.
Through creating and producing, the student will understand how works of visual art and media are
produced.
8.
Know qualities and processes that are representative of craftsmanship
9.
Use proper safety techniques in all media
10.
Recognize the value of and participate in roles essential to cooperative work
11.
Develop new ideas and share with others
12.
Analyze how one’s behavior and/or product many affect others
13.
Demonstrate cooperation and teamwork to promote group effectiveness
14.
Set a short-term goal and make a plan for achieving it
Board Approved 05_09_12
15.
Recognize that interpretation involves different parties, different points of view, and different
theories of visual communications
16.
Recognize and identify that multiple interpretations exist for performance/production based on
individual perspective
17.
Communicate in a variety of contexts through a variety of artistic media including technologies to
convey individual ideas and to interpret the ideas of others
18.
Communicate meaningful interpretation based on prior and new knowledge
19.
Learn multiple forms of visual understanding appropriate to the work being interpreted including
formal interpretation (elements and principles of design), symbolic interpretations (non-literal
representation),instrumental interpretations (the function of things), and contextual interpretations (
place, historical, social, cultural)
20.
Discover how visual art and media function in history, society, and everyday life (inform, entertain,
persuade)
21.
Use technology to research, solve problems, and learn about images
22.
Access information efficiently (time) and effectively (sources)
23.
Know a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of
information
Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks: Interrelated Arts: Visual Arts
Performance Tasks: (What do you expect student to do–What criteria will be used in each assessment to
evaluate attainment of the Essential Standards?) How will students demonstrate what they have learned in
an engaging and real life way) –
Create art using the creative process according to parameters specified
Other Evidence (e.g. tests, quizzes, prompts, work samples observations)
Informal and formal measures
Student Self-Assessment and Reflection:
~student rubric for self-evaluation
~peer evaluation
~written assessment
~performance assessment
~individual portfolio containing work from IRA classes
References
Board Approved 05_09_12
The Illinois Learning Standards for the Fine Arts
http://www.isbe.net/ils/fine_arts/standards.htm
Partnership for the 2st Century Fine Arts Map
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_arts_map_final.pdf
The National Standards for Arts Education, prepared under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education,
the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities,
Board Approved 05_09_12
Board Approved 05_09_12