Series

Week 1: What is Art?

2 Min Read  •  Literacy

Welcome to The Art of Curriculum Design Week 1: What is Art?

Throughout this six month series, we will explore the fundamentals of curriculum design, via an Arts Appreciation course created through arts collaboration.

The first few weeks were devoted to the “how and why” of the curriculum design process.  The next portion of the series we will look at the weekly objectives, outcomes, and assessments designed for the Arts Appreciation course (links to the entire series can be found below).  The full curriculum, including daily lesson plans, handouts, and assessments, will be available at the completion of the series.

Last week we reviewed the backward process we encountered as we planned this course like an artist.  Now, we will go week-by-week specifying the objectives and outcomes we designed for the students of the Arts Appreciation course.

Week 1: What is Art?

Since this high school level course was designed for students who need to fulfill a fine art credit, yet have no desire to produce artwork (whether in performance or visual), it was assumed that the students would be coming to us with little to no prior knowledge of art, and even less when it comes to articulating art.  So, we felt the best way to start this course would be to propose and answer the question what is art?

Week 1 begins with an introduction to multiple procedures and structures for our class environment, including a discussion of the syllabus and expectations for the course.  One of the procedures that was very important to cover, involved expeditiously adjusting the classroom environment into four major uses: theater style, partner work, 4 person groups, and discussion.  We also spent ample time introducing the various components that make for good class discussion.

Week 1 Objectives

At the completion of week 1, students will be able to:

  • Identify classroom routines and expectations
  • Assess their own knowledge and experience of art
  • Build a rapport with fellow classmates
  • Develop a class definition of art
  • Develop discussion skills through the use of sentence stems
  • Define theme and intent
  • Practice expressing personal preferences (which will build their artistic brand)

Week 1 Outcomes

At the completion of week 1, students will demonstrate:

  • Knowledge of their classmates
  • Proper discussion protocol
  • Personal definition of art
  • Compromise to develop a class definition of art
  • Their personal emotional response to selected artwork
  • What is and is not art based on the class definition and criteria

Week 1 Assessments

At the completion of week 1, students will be evaluated on:

  • Their definition of their personal artistic brand
  • Their contribution to the class definition of art
  • Their demonstration of class discussion procedure
  • Their contribution to class discussion
  • Their articulation of artistic intent as it pertains to personal emotional response

Series Links:
The Art of Curriculum Design
The Art of Curriculum Design: The “Why”
The Art of Curriculum Design: The “How”
Arts Appreciation: Planned Like an Artist

Next Week: Week 2 “Talking Art”
Week 2 of the Arts Appreciation course, including lesson plan objectives, outcomes, and assessments.