Standards and Backwards Mapping
BACKGROUND
I am currently teaching Lower School Visual Arts. The school where I work with is on the transition stage moving from AERO to GCC (PreK-G10) and DP (G11-12). Apparently, Visual Arts still use AERO 2007. However, AERO standards for Visual Arts is very general. History of Art, for example, aims to arrive at an historical understanding of the origins of artifacts within specific world cultures, asking about the circumstances of their making, their makers, the media used, the functions of the images and objects, their critical reception and not least, their subsequent history.
REASONS BEHIND CHOSEN STANDARDS
My goals in teaching this subject is to build two key foundations for my elementary students, the love and grade level skills. Visual Arts is a special subject which does not require tests or exams. However, students should use art skills every day in almost subjects they learn, such as Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies. Without writing, speaking skill and art skills, students hardly convey their thought to others.
One of the best way to bring students' focus in this subject is to make connections between Art and Literacy in a modern way, and to provide meaningful learning which reflects student's choice and voice. Taking into account that Lower School promotes reading habit and writing workshop this year in all grade levels. Many writers and illustrators have visited our school and shared inspiring stories how they became famous writer and illustrators. There came the idea to combine two standards in one unit, using Aboriginal Art technique to illustrate creative stories and convert stories books into digital books.
This is a combination of two standards, History of Art and Making Connections. Students will understand how art has influenced and defined history and culture and will recognize that art objects, motifs, and styles define cultural identity. Students will make connections between the study of art and art careers. (e.g., architect, photographer, graphic designer and book illustrator).
AERO standards 2007 - Visual Arts
At the end of the unit, my 3rd graders understand the role Aboriginal Art in the history and culture of Aborigines, dreamtime stories, and its symbolism. Students then use Aboriginal Art techniques to illustrate their own stories. This is an interdisciplinary project in which students will demonstrate all 21STC skills to produce group digital stories like creation, student's choice and voice, technology integration, communication, and collaboration.
3 PROFICIENCIES
At the end of the unit, students will be able to:
- understand meaning of symbolism used in Aboriginal art works
- use Aboriginal Art symbols and techniques in illustrating their own stories
- use Photo story to convert story books into digital books
3 ASESSMENTS
At the beginning of the unit, I clearly present how the final works look like and the timeline given in each period we meet. This is a group project and students are free to choose in a group of four or five. 27 students of two classes of grade 3 made 7 groups. Summative assessments, formative assessments, and critiques along the way were used to help students meet the goals. Each group will be assessed by the three criteria below.
- Final story books including six scenes with proper writing and illustration using Aboriginal art techniques and symbols
- On time
- Team work
MANY LEARNING ACTIVITIES
In order to meet the set goals, chop chunk strategy was used in planning activities in each lesson. Through this project, students experienced many fun and new activities.
- Meet with popular writers and illustrators: students have a general idea about a career called book illustration and reflect what they remember with LA teachers.
- Game base learning: in Art class, to understand Aboriginal symbols, students work in group play a guessing game with 3 different levels. Each level consists of 10 symbol card and 1 hand out paper in which students fill their guess for each symbol. When completing, the whole class meet to see the correct meaning projected on the board. Students will count the correct answers and the total points, then move to the next level. This game had no award, just verbal motivation and time counting.
- Listen to Dreamtime stories: reflect and illustrate stories learned on group posters
- Writing stories in groups: A story map hand out is given to each group and students work together to brainstorm, align story sequences, and define job for each member.
- Skill learning and practice: students study two Aboriginal Art techniques, dot painting and X-ray and apply learnt skills to illustrate their own stories
- Use Microsoft Photo Story: to produce audio stories by importing pictures of each scene and record voice on each page of stories.
All above activities require collaboration and good teamwork. Some students were absent or travelled during the project, so the others did help to complete pending works in order to catch up the due date.
CONCLUSION
This is a big and long, but meaningful and joyful project for elementary students. Our final digital stories were a hit in this Spring Art Exhibition when all seven stories were presented on display boards and projected on a big screen. It was an excellent mix between traditional and modern exhibition where audiences could enjoy visual and auditory presentation at the same time. Students were proud to share their great works with the community and parents.
RESOURCES
http://www.projectaero.org/AEROplus/arts/index.htm
http://jaymctighe.com/resources/downloads/
http://www.grantwiggins.org/documents/UbDQuikvue1005.pdf
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/common-core-map-backwards-jay-mctighe-grant-wiggins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUtzbJtS1aY
http://edglossary.org/backward-design/
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