Advanced Placement (AP) Art Timeline
Yearlong (36 weeks)
SUSTAINED INVESTIGATION:
If time gets tight at the end of the semester, drop the final one or two sustained investigation
pieces. The AP Board has made it clear that they want to see in progress images of work. Swap
these out for progress sand detail images. Although the AP board is only requiring photographs
of multiple views in the selected works. I believe you can also include multiple images of one
piece if needed to fully grasp the piece. I recommend leaning on progress pictures and multiple
viewpoints as opposed to detailed shots to fill all 15 slots. Detailed shots should only be used if
needed to better show detail in the final work. If your student is doing much more in-depth
investigations check out the shorten timeline where only 6 pieces are created.
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Sustained investigation begins over the summer. Students will start brainstorming topic
and guiding question ideas and create one work of art. Including the summer piece,
students will end up with 11 works of art.
First day of class critique the summer pieces.
First week go over what a sustained investigation is.
Have students fill out the in-depth, sustained investigation essential questions sheet to
determine their overarching topic and essential questions to guide every work of art.
o With each work of art they will develop questions to help guide specific pieces,
but these should all tie back into their main topic/essential questions.
First semester: Every four weeks a sustained investigation piece is due.
End of second semester: The final two pieces are on a shortened timeline.
Generally pieces are started on a Monday and due Friday four weeks later. The Friday on
week three is in-progress critique day. The Thursday before the piece is due is final
critique day.
Homework is due the Friday after the next piece is started.
The students should participate in an in-progress critique as well as a finished critique
with each piece. If time gets tight, drop the finished critique and stick with the inprogress ones.
Breaks such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break are included in the four week
rotation. It is difficult for 3D work to be completed outside of class, so they may just be
on a condensed schedule over those breaks. If possible, send them home with materials to
work at home.
With the completion of each project the students should complete a self-evaluation sheet
as well as a sustained investigation checklist. This will help guide them in which pieces
are the strongest and which need to be revisited.
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Have the sustained investigation pieces DUE the week before the electronic submission
deadline. Due means all pieces are uploaded to the website ready for your final approval.
Their selected work should be selected, photographed, and uploaded at this time as well.
TIP: Schedule an open studio time at least once a week. This can happen during lunch,
after school, etc. Encourage (or require) the students to attend to keep up on their work. If
they start failing the course this should be a requirement until they are no longer failing..
TIP: Submit the electronic submissions as soon as the students have them finalized, aim
for all of them to be submitted the day before the due date.
PROJECTS COMPLETED BY THE END OF FIRST SEMESTER:
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Summer Assignments
Sustained Investigation 1
Sustained Investigation 2
Sustained Investigation 3
Sustained Investigation 4
Sustained Investigation 5
HOMEWORK:
FIRST SEMESTER
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Sustained Investigation worksheet 1
Sustained Investigation worksheet 2
Sustained Investigation worksheet 3
Sustained Investigation worksheet 4
Sustained Investigation worksheet 5
Sustained Investigation worksheet 6
IN CLASS PROJECTS COMPLETED BY THE END OF SECOND SEMESTER:
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Sustained Investigation 6
Sustained Investigation 7
Sustained Investigation 8
Sustained Investigation 9
Sustained Investigation 10
Selected works finalized and photographed for submission
HOMEWORK:
SECOND SEMESTER:
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Sustained Investigation worksheet 7
Sustained Investigation worksheet 8
Sustained Investigation worksheet 9
Sustained Investigation worksheet 10
AP Essay
*By the end of April their sustained investigation pieces should be photographed, edited, titled,
and uploaded to the website. See the sustained investigation checklist attached in the file.
*Their final grade should be based on the uploaded images to the website.
SELECTED WORKS:
*If your school doesn’t assign you an AP exam time slot try to meet with your AP coordinator or
administrators to get a time slot set up during the school day. This is necessary because you want to tackle
the form registration, preparation, and submission as a group so it is easier on you. During the school day
is ideal because students are less likely to have after school conflicts. It may take longer than class time to
complete everything.
*In the event your administrators don’t approve a blocked off period of time, plan for 2 class days to
complete this.
*Have students select their top 8-10 pieces then meet one on one to help them narrow it down to their best
5.
*Start meeting with students, selecting and preparing artwork a week before deadline day. For selected
works they will submit 10 digital images, two views of each work of art. They need to ensure the
photographs of their work are well lit, in focus, and provides strong representation of their works of art.
*Have your students title each work of art with the 3D Design concepts that they think best represents the
piece to ensure they cover all their bases when selecting work. See the PowerPoint for examples.
Exhibit Teacher Tips:
*If you have time, have your students select their favorite work of art to print on the front of a set of AP
exhibit invites. These will go out to their friends, family, and faculty, limit 5 per student if needed.
Otherwise ask the student how many they would like. This helps personalize the event.
*It’s a nice touch to mail the exhibit invites, but if money is tight place them in teacher boxes and send
them home with students to give to their friends and family.
*An easy way to display is to table tops and set up in your school library as a central location.
*If possible, have a TV in the display space that runs through every student’s entire portfolio. This adds
work for you, you will have to drop all of the images into a slideshow, but it’s a great way to showcase all
the work the students did this year.
A WEEK BEFORE PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION:
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Sustained Investigation completed and uploaded to College Board website. This includes
the writing portion of the sustained investigation.
Send out AP Exhibit invites. Either mail invites or have students take them to pass out to
friends and family.
Send an e-mail invite out to the entire faculty with the invitation attached as a PDF or
JPEG.
THE WEEK LEADNG UP TO THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE:
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Have students work on uploading their selected works images and filling out the
accompanying questions.
The goal for submission day is for you to review one on one with each student to ensure
everything is ready to go.
Work on including the writing requirements for sustained investigation. This can be
copied over from their assignment sheets.
TWO DAYS BEFORE SUBMISSION DEADLINE:
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Start displaying work the day of the exhibit.
Help students as needed, but let them determine how they want their pieces displayed.
Set out a TV with a slideshow of all their guided assignments and sustained investigation
pieces.
Ask students to bring in some refreshments to set out during the exhibit.
AP EXHIBIT: Determine the best start time based on school activities and parents coming after work.
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Have students stand with their work so they can answer question and discuss their work.
Have the exhibit run for an hour or two.
Have students take their work back to the classroom when it wraps up. Have them stack
them in neat piles on the tables, this will help submission day run even smoother.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE:
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Have students meet during a pre-designated time or during class.
Pass out the paperwork and fill out each section TOGETHER. Make sure all work is
uploaded and ready to go.
Allow the students to hang out while you call the students up one at a time to submit their
digital portfolios. (Only if you want to do this step, it isn’t necessary. At this point they
should have already sent it to you, you should have looked over it a last time, and this is
the final check and submit).
FINAL WEEKS:
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Typically, there are a few weeks left in the semester. The first few days after submission have the
students clean your room. They need to clear out cubbies, take home work, and help with a
general clean up.
The remaining weeks show them art specific movies and shows:
o Big Eyes, PG-13
o Exit Through the Gift Shop (Documentary), R (preview and determine if the
language/content is appropriate)
o Obey Giant (documentary), preview and determine if this is appropriate for your students.
o The Girl with the Pearl Earring, PG-13
o Midnight in Paris, PG-13
o Frida, R, (preview and determine if this is appropriate for your students.)
o Milton, preview and determine if this is appropriate for your students.
Get administrator approval for any rated R movies. Write down the times of scenes that need
to be skipped and fast forward through them.
Let them have open studio time or study halls.
Have an AP Art party to round out the year. Have everyone bring in food and drinks and enjoy
each other’s company.