Integration Concept I:
This is an opening concept paper to give everyone a starting place as to integrating Art
into your courses. Specific projects, vocabulary list, and lesson ideas will be forth
coming.
I will go through each PASS standards and discuss how it can be done with examples.
ART
Standard 1: Vocabulary. I have attached a short minimal list of vocabulary for you to
strive for. I have noticed that many are under the impression that artist names and
movement names are “the vocabulary” in question. Those terms more apply to the history
and culture standard. Once you have read the words and become familiar with the
definitions it will be a somewhat simple matter of interjecting those terms when
discussing works of art, architecture, or any number of items you see in the textbook
throughout the year.
Testing on these terms should be a simple matter of dealing with them the same as any
other vocabulary words. If you do not use a journal in your class this is a great way of
doing vocabulary. You can also place the words around the class next to examples. I have
also attached some for you.
Standard 2: History and Culture. This area seems to have the best of all standard
integration. The text book tends to lend itself well to bringing up artists and examples of
different movements. For those having difficulty here some ways to bring this up in
discussion are to relate the style of art to changes in how people see the world around
them. Also look at changes in technology and how that changed the way artists works
and/or perceived their work. Adding the artist names and explanations of the movements
will help students to grasp the material. I have provided some examples of the styles of
art from the art PASS standards on movements along with some web locations for
additional reading which may offer ideas for in class discussion.
Testing: Again this is not a tough one as you likely already have methods for testing
historical names and events.
Standard 3: Art Expression. This is a hard one for many. To actually have students
“create” something is tough in many ways. What to do, how to grade it, where to do it,
and how to link it to world history. Here are some ideas. Students must do a report for
you anyway so you could have them do a poster report that involved cutting out images
and placing them within the poster. (Collage art) You could have them draw a small
picture that replicates a castle or some other form of architecture. Grading would just
involve if you can identify the significant areas of the castle or whatever you want to
specifically see. They can draw this at home. (drawing) They could make an architectural
item from found (things just laying around the yard or house leaves, branches, feathers;
things not man made) or ready made items (things made for one purpose but used in art;
bottle caps, string, toothpicks, etc). This can be fun for them and get parents involved at
home. Another thing you can do is have them make a structure say using tooth-picks or
Popsicle sticks. They can work within specific size restraints. Some students may have
their own ideas and offer them. Grading is very subjective so don’t feel as if you have to
be an art teacher to do it. Just use your best judgment. If you want you can also ask your
art teacher for some tips.
Other examples of projects are but not limited to the following: shields, family crests,
flags, armor designs, money designs, Egyptian hieroglyphics, other styles of writing,
drawing weaponry designs (da Vinci). Just looking through your text book will likely
give you many ideas for small and simple projects students can do that involve actually
creating art.
Also in this area is viewing art. Again this is covered throughout the text book and is
another area where you can combine standards, 1 and 2 with 3. In art it is almost
impossible to do one standard without doing another. They lend themselves well to this.
Standard 4: Art Appreciation. This again is virtually impossible to do without doing
standard 2 at the same time. If you couple your knowledge of 1 with this you can zip
right through all three over and over in your lessons. One way to keep it more real for the
students is to try to relate what they see say in the renaissance to something current. They
often are very surprised to see that old styles of work are not gone but simply used in a
new fashion. CD covers, comic art, digital games, etc. It may take some research but the
concepts are all over. You can also use this as a creative art project by having students
use say cuneiform to make a CD cover design.
Testing here is a tad harder but not impossible. You can design tests that involve artwork
and matching styles of movements, artists to movements, or styles to uses. The methods
are only limited by your imagination.
Lastly, when going through the contemporary periods of world history you can hit a
number of standards all at once. Art forms in the 19 through 21st centuries are so
combined as to make it a wonderful time for art. Kids have digital design, web graphics,
play station and X-box art, cell phone art, tattoos, and all manner of graphics on clothing.
Having them design their own cell phone covers, CD covers, clothing, shoes, etc but
using past art styles is a great way to “create art.” Critiquing their work is a fine time to
reinforce the vocabulary of “elements and principles.” You can match styles to
movements and other artists. You can almost do an entire textbook review simply by
going over the art from the periods and hitting on what was happening, who was doing
what, how technology lent itself to this art movement, and how it’s used currently.
Hopefully this is helpful.