MYP unit planner
Unit title
Reflect on This!
Teacher(s)
White
Subject and grade level
Art-Level 1
Time frame and duration
9 weeks
Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of
interaction and unit question
Area of interaction focus
Significant concept(s)
Which area of interaction will be our focus?
Why have we chosen this?
What are the big ideas? What do we want our
students to retain for years into the future?
Health and Social Education- Health and
social education focuses on developing
skills that enable them to function as
effective members of society. Part of
functioning in society involves reflecting and
growing as a person to adapt to changes in
life.
Evaluation includes reflection, which leads
to personal growth.
MYP unit question
How does reflecting help me grow?
Assessment
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the unit question?
What will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding? How will students show what they have understood?
B, C and D-Still life work of art
A-Elements and Principles Quiz
Local Tasks-
Fall 2011
 Sketchbooks 1-4
 Warmups Weeks 1-8
 Baseline
 Bookmarks for binder
 Origami Star
 Drawing and labelling of elements/principles
 Table review for elements/principles
 Quiz on elements and principles (Use Rubric A)
 Tessellation
 Gesture Sketches
 Value Scale
 Drawing of a person
 Still life (Use Rubrics B-D)
 One-point perspective
Fall 2010 Sketchbooks 1-8
 Warmups weeks 1-8
 Quiz on elements and principles
 Pinwheel for peace
 Gallery Walk
 Origami star
 Tessellation and country facts
Fall 2009Warm-ups and exit questions about definitions of evaluation, things that students had evaluated in the last
24 hours, strengths and weaknesses of his or her work
Thumbnail sketches for the collages- students evaluated each thumbnail sketch by writing one strength and
one weakness of each collage
Artist statements about collages
To try next time- sticky notes or other written comments to students as they work on projects (this will help
immensely with students being able to later justify how they used or did not use feedback from others),
mini-critiques by table group, where each student writes down strengths and weaknesses for each person,
or stand in two lines and each student gives feedback to the person across from them
Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?
A-Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the art form studied in relation to societal, cultural,
historical and personal contexts
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the elements of the art form studied, including specialized
language, concepts and processes
Communicate a critical understanding of the art form studied in the context of their own artwork
B-Develop an idea, theme or personal interpretation to a point of realization, expressing and
communicating artistic intentions
Apply skills, techniques and processes to create, perform and/or present art
C-Reflect critically on their own artistic development and processes at different stages of their work
Evaluate their work
Use feedback to inform their own artistic development and processes
D- Show commitment in using their own artistic processes
Demonstrate curiosity, self-motivation, initiative and a willingness to take informed risks
Support, encourage and work with their peers in a positive way
Be receptive to art practices and artworks from various cultures, including their own
Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
A, B, C, D
Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to
the learning activities through inquiry
Content
What International Connections are being made throughout this unit?
What knowledge and/or skills (from the course overview) are going to be used to enable the student to respond to the unit
question?
What (if any) state, provincial, district, or local standards/skills are to be addressed? How can they be unpacked to develop the
significant concept(s) for stage 1?
Fall 2011
 Students will use international inspirations to incorporate into their still life
 Students will use origami, which originated in Japan
 Students will see, sketch, and discuss works of art from Africa via warmups
Fall 2010-
 Students will participate in Pinwheels for Peace project and will attend an “International Day of
Peace” assembly at Northview on September 21, 2010, hosted by the arts department.
 Students will see examples of what woven products look like in different countries around the
world, and will discuss differences and similarities between them
 Students answered questions about and discussed Day of the Dead through the use of
warmup images and questions.
 Students discussed characteristics of African masks, after seeing an example on a warmup
question.
 Students will make an international connection through doing weekly sketchbook
assignments. Every week, students will also explain (through writing) how their
sketchbook assignment shows something about another culture or country.
 Students participated in a Gallery Walk, which included viewing work by artists from around
the world.
Fall 2009-Students will look at artwork created by a variety of artists, including artists from around the world. Students will be
exposed to these works of art through the use of warm-up discussions (small group and whole class).
Students will use knowledge of the elements and principles of art to create products during this unit. Students will have handson experience with various art mediums. Students will then reflect on their portfolio of work for this unit to answer the unit
question.
6.CX.1.1
6.CX.2.1
6.CR.1.1
6.CR.1.2
6.V.1.1
6.V.1.2
6.V.1.4
6.V.2.1
6.V.2.2
6.V.3.1
6.V.3.2
6.V.3.3
Approaches to learning
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills?
Students will learn to reflect on their own work, which is essential for a student embodying the IB Learner
Profile. Students also will acknowledge the fact that evaluation skills are used daily in the content area of
art through. Students take responsibility for the depth of his or her own learning and personal growth,
based on how they reflect on the criteria of what makes art “good.”
Students will collaborate with each other throughout the brainstorming and art-creating process. Through
this collaboration, students will learn to be open-minded and accepting of different viewpoints, as well as
learning from each other in a group setting.
Learning experiences
How will students know what is expected of them? Will
they see examples, rubrics, templates?
How will students acquire the knowledge and practise
the skills required? How will they practise applying
these?
Do the students have enough prior knowledge? How will
we know?
Students will see examples, non-examples,
checklists and rubrics for tasks.
Students will acquire the knowledge based on
demonstrations and hands-on experiences.
Prior student knowledge will be assessed with a
warm-up at the beginning of the unit. Further
formative assessments will be conducted
verbally and through observation, and will
continue for the duration of the unit as new
skills and concepts are introduced.
Teaching strategies
How will we use formative assessment to give students feedback
during the unit?
What different teaching methodologies will we employ?
How are we differentiating teaching and learning for all? How have
we made provision for those learning in a language other than their
mother tongue? How have we considered those with special
educational needs?
Reading/Writing Integration: Students will create an
elements of art and principles of design foldable.
Students will also create a different foldable for
gesture/value scale/still life vocabulary.
Verbal and demonstrative formative assessments will be
used to give students feedback during the unit. The
teacher will give group and one-on-one demonstrations
and will discuss how given examples are examples or
non-examples of the desired product.
The teacher will employ various teaching strategies,
including: demonstrations, discussions, collaborative
work and peer feedback in a group setting, and through
a culminating chance for students to present products to
the class.
Instruction will be differentiated as needed during every
class period. Further examples, demonstrations, and
reminders will be given to individual students and to the
class. With these additional supports in place, all
students will learn the concepts of the unit. For those
learning in a language other than their mother tongue,
handouts will be given in the appropriate language.
Students with special educational needs will receive
differentiated instructions for tasks and additional
scaffolding as needed.
Resources
What resources are available to us?
How will our classroom environment, local environment and/or the community be used to facilitate students’ experiences during
the unit?
The internet
Various art mediums
Examples of famous works of art to discuss and critique
NC Standard Course of Study
Students will use the first three resources to have hands-on experiences in order to later reflect on his or
her artwork. Through this series of problem-solving and reflection, students will be able to answer the unit
question. The NC Standard Course of Study will be what guides the tasks during this unit.
Ongoing reflections and evaluation
In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions.
There are further stimulus questions at the end of the “Planning for
teaching and learning” section of MYP: From principles into
practice.
Students and teachers
What did we find compelling? Were our disciplinary knowledge/skills challenged in any way?

Students were very critical in their self-evaluations. Most students could easily identify personal weaknesses in his or
her art skills, but had difficulty identifying strengths.

Students had trouble thinking in reverse order on one of the tasks during this unit (not on the assessment task).
Students had a pre-conceived notion that a collage is just a bunch of pictures thrown together, not necessarily
creating a picture, but rather just filling space. Some students had a hard time identifying shapes, colors, and
textures that could be used for certain objects in their collage.

Observation skills were enhanced as they began to notice textures everywhere around them, from walls, to shoes, to
hair textures. Some students really grew in their awareness of “textures” being not just an art term, but a part of
every-day life.
What inquiries arose during the learning? What, if any, extension activities arose?

Students inquired about the meaning of the word “evaluation.” It was surprising that very few 6 th graders could define
that word. Warm-up activities resulted, where students defined the word “evaluation,” and gave examples of things
they had evaluated in the last 24 hours. We had several discussions about what people evaluate every day, and
what criteria we use to make our evaluations. This led to more in-depth discussions about the importance of
evaluating our own artwork in order to improve. Students were also asked to share other things in life they evaluate.
Further discussions could be had about how students grew from non-art related personal evaluations.
How did we reflect—both on the unit and on our own learning?

Students filled out the reflection sheet at the conclusion of the unit. Students gave very honest answers for numbers
2 and 3, but some students had trouble identifying ways to enhance learning as an entire class. I could focus more
on encouraging students to help each other take responsibility for his or her actions and how they affect the learning
of the class. Simple comments, such as “Because you are being too loud while you are working, how do you think
that is affecting Sam’s ability to concentrate and produce his best artwork?”

In further units, I would like to have more verbal feedback after students fill out the reflection sheet. Having a
discussion would be productive and would help tie together all the students’ reflections. Time was an issue as this
was the last unit of the first semester and everything had to be thoroughly explained since it was this class’s first IB
unit.

Since students already had a simple understanding of evaluating their own artwork, some of the “most significant
learnings” were not based on reflection and evaluation, but were facts about artists we studied or processes we
studied.
It was clear from the beginning of the unit that students had already been evaluating their work all
semester, but we hadn’t spent a lot of time discussing the fact that that is what we are constantly doing in class.
Which attributes of the learner profile were encouraged through this unit? What opportunities were there for student-initiated
action?

Students had to be able to clearly verbally COMMUNICATE their strengths and weaknesses to the class at the
critique at the end of the unit. Communication was also practiced through the writing of the collage artist statements
and the journal entry as the assessment task.

Students had the chance to be CARING when they offered verbal feedback to peers during the critique.

Students were REFLECTIVE when they participated in the warm-ups, discussions, and written tasks throughout this
unit.

Students had the chance to be PRINCIPLED when they scored themselves on the IB rubric and when they had to
honestly list weaknesses of their art.
Possible connections
How successful was the collaboration with other teachers within my subject group and from other subject groups?
What interdisciplinary understandings were or could be forged through collaboration with other subjects?

Mrs. Ward said that she had taught a unit on Romare Bearden before, so in future years, collaboration with that unit
would be very possible.

I could collaborate with the band or choral teacher to teach our “reflection” unit at the same time to reinforce the
importance of self-evaluation.
Assessment
Were students able to demonstrate their learning?
 Students had the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of evaluating themselves artistically, but writing the
journal at the end of this unit. Some students showed a deep level of understanding by how they described strengths
and weaknesses. Some students had very generic answers like “I am a good artist,” with not supporting evidence. In
those situations, those students A. Did not successfully communicate that they knew how to evaluate themselves or
B. did not evaluate themselves.
How did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives identified for this unit? How did I make
sure students were invited to achieve at all levels of the criteria descriptors?

The assessment task (journal) had prompts that addressed each MYP learning objective for this unit, as well as the
unit question. If students thoroughly answered every question of the journal prompt, they would be able to show their
learning of reflection and evaluation.
Are we prepared for the next stage?

Some students could thoroughly communicate to others their strengths and weaknesses in art. Some students
struggled with identifying “areas of growth.” I think that all students increased their awareness of that fact that
evaluation occurs on a daily basis in art, and in other areas of their lives as well.
Data collection
How did we decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?

The data collected was: daily written warm-up responses, some verbal exit question responses, sentences about
thumbnail sketches, paragraphs analyzing student collages, and paragraphs analyzing their three best works of art
for the semester (because this unit happened to take place as the last unit of the semester). Of course, the last piece
of data collected was the journal entry in which students were asked to describe strengths, weaknesses, areas of
growth, how they used feedback, and answering the unit question.
All of the data was useful to see how students increased awareness of evaluation from the beginning of the unit to the end of
the unit. The paragraphs were important to identify which students needed more guidance in being able to evaluate
themselves. The end of the unit journal entry showed to what extent students could communicate their evaluation of
themselves.
NOTE: The first time this unit was taught during 2010, only one Criterion was used for assessment. For the 2010-2011
school-year, all criterion and rubrics will be used in this unit.
Figure 12
MYP unit planner