Stage 1: Desired Results Pastels

Vermont Framework of Standards and the Grade Level Expectations
A7-8:10 Students show skill development when creating art
A7-8:14 Students analyze interpret and respond to art
A7-8:15 Students analyze, interpret and respond to art
A7-8:19 Approach to work
A7-8:20 Students develop effective, personal work habits
A7-8:21 Students demonstrate appropriate interactions


Established Goals:
1. Learn to see color and how the colors one chooses depend on the personality of the artist.
2. Learn Jeneane’s technique of doing pastels which is based on French artist Edgar Degas and American artist Mary Cassett.
3. Students will start to develop their own style.
Understandings:
Students will understand that:
1. by looking more carefully they can see “more” color than non artists.
2. they can learn to use color in a creative way that reflects their personality.
3. practice helps one to improve their ability to see and use color in a more complex manner.

Essential Question(s)
1. How do color choices convey mood?
2. How can an artist be influenced by previous artists and still keep their originality and voice?
3. How do artists overcome the fear of failure long enough to be skilled?

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Performance tasks
1. Students will learn one technique of using pastels.
2. Students will be able to begin to use pastels and color to convey mood.
3. Students will learn to accept mistakes as part of learning.
4. Students will produce pastel paintings that show improvement over their first efforts.
Other Evidence
1. Students focus on their work without signs of frustration.
2. Students can help others if asked.
3. Students can explain what they are doing.
4. Students will express a sense of accomplishment.

Stage 3: Learning Plan
Learning Activities
1. Slide show of pastels by Degas, Cassett and Lunn with a discussion on the essential questions
2. One day of direct instruction on pastel technique where students will follow along with the teacher as she does a demonstration of using pastels.
3. Students will do two still lives on their own.
4. Students will be allowed to chose a photograph or work of art to interpret in pastels.
5. Each day we will ask a couple of different students to put up their work so we can give them requested feedback.

 This slide show features work by Vermont print makers Daryl V. Storrs and Sabra Fields as well as other examples of reduction prints.

Stage 1: Desired Results Reduction Printmaking
Vermont Framework of Standards and the Grade Level Expectations
A7-8: Students show skill development when creating art
A7-8: Students make connections between/among the arts and disciplines outside the arts
A7-8:11 Students demonstrate perform/communication skills in visual arts
A7-8:19 Approach to work
A7-8:20 Students develop effective, personal work habits
A7-8:21 Students demonstrate appropriate interactions

Established Goals:
Students will:
1. learn to use print making tools safely.
2. learn about the history of print making.
3. learn the vocabulary of print making.
4. learn about color mixing.
Understandings:
Students will understand that:
1. printmaking is a viable art form even in the digital age.
2. one of the purposes of printmaking is to make multiple copies and the economic benefits of doing so for the artist.

Essential Question(s)
1. What led to the development of printmaking?
2. Was printmaking more important before computers and copy machines?
3. Is printmaking a dying art or is there a way to make it meaningful in the digital age?
4. What unique qualities does printmaking have compared to digital images?
Stage 2: Assessment Evidence
Performance tasks
Students will:
1. use tools safely and appropriately.
2. be able to use carving tools to create textures and desired effects.
3. use butter block to create a reduction print using four colors that makes a repeating pattern on two sides.
5. appropriately clean up their tools and work area.

Other Evidence;
Students will
1. focus on their work without signs of frustration.
2.  help others if asked and be able to explain what they are doing and why.
4. make their own decisions about how their work is displayed and be able to explain  that decision.
5. be excited about displaying their work.



Stage 3: Learning Plan
Learning Activities
1. Slide show of different kinds of prints including reduction prints by contemporary artist Chuck Close and discussion of the essential questions.
2. Teacher will demonstrate tool safety, carving techniques, talk about examples of other students’ work and explain technical excellence or difficulties such as too much ink, too little ink, misregistration, etc. 
Students will:
3. draw their design on paper the same size as the block.
4. pick out four colors and decide which areas in their design will be which color.
5. ask Jeneane to help them with color and carving order. This order will be written down.
6. work in pairs to facilitate printing and hanging up work to dry.
7. prepare their work for exhibition.

Painting Middle School

Stage 1: Desired Results Painting

Vermont Framework of Standards and the Grade Level Expectations
A7-8 :10 Students show skill development
A7-8:12 Students show understanding of visual arts concepts and vocabulary
A7-8:15 Students critiques and revise art
A7-8:17 Students show understanding of how the arts impact life
A7-8:18 Students show understanding of how the arts shape and reflect various cultures and times
A7-8:19 Approach to work
A7-8:20 Students develop effective, personal work habits
A7-8:21 Students demonstrate appropriate interactions

Established Goals:
Students will learn how to:
1. clean up and care for brushes and other materials.
2. create different textures in paint
3.  use paint for self expression
4.  learn from artists of the past

Understandings:
Students will understand that:
1. Painting is a teachable skill
2. With work, it is possible to improve at painting
3. That they are part of the long history of art. They are both the beneficiaries of the past and the people that will carry art into the future.

Essential Question(s)
1. Since 1826 some people have felt that with the advent of photography the need for painting was extinct. How do you feel about that?
2. Is painting still a valid form of self expression? Why or why not?
3.  Do painters show the world something that no one else can?
4.  Is it wrong to paint from photographs? Why or why not?

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Performance tasks
1. Students will be able to identify some schools of painting.
2. Students will be able to handle paint and the tools one uses in painting in acrylics
3. Students will be able to do acrylics using different textures.
4. Students will learn to accept mistakes as part of learning.
Other Evidence
1. Students focus on their work without signs of frustration.
2. Students can help others if asked.
3. Students can explain what they are doing.
4. Students will produce work they are proud of and want to exhibit.

Stage 3: Learning Plan
Learning Activities
1. Essential questions will be discussed while viewing a slide show of paintings with a focus on the variety of texture artist can create. We will look at work by Hals, Monet, Seurat, and Morisot as examples. These artists show a range of different types of texture that are possible with paint. Each day we will ask a couple of different students to put up their work so we can give them requested feedback.

Introduction to Drawing with Light and Shadow

This video was used to show a variety of charcoal drawings that students used to practice critique. Most have obvious mistakes or elements that could have been better resolved.



Stage 1: Desired Results Drawing
Vermont Framework of Standards and the Grade Level Expectations
A7-8:13 Students describe art using discipline specific vocabulary
A7-8:12 Students show understanding of visual arts concepts and vocabulary
A7-8:15 Students critique and revise art
A7-8:19 Approach to work
A7-8:20 Students develop effective, personal work habits
A7-8:21 Students demonstrate appropriate interactions

Established Goals:
1. Learn how to use shading to make simple still life objects look dimensional.
2. Learn the names and uses of charcoal drawing materials.
3. Learn the vocabulary of drawing.
4. Learn to see proportions and relationships between multiple still life objects.
5. Be introduced to the history of drawing in the tradition of western art.

Understandings:
Students will understand that:
1. learning to draw is really learning to see
2. they can learn to draw
3. shading can be used to make things look “real”
4. practice helps one to see accurate proportions

Essential Question(s)
1. How did the first person to draw come up with the idea of drawing?
2. The first drawings we know of are about 32,000 years old. Do you think people drew in other ways before that that were less permanent? What ways have you drawn in that disappeared?
3.  Why do you think the first artist who left a record of their work, drew deep in caves?
4.  Why do you think the pictures of the animals are not the same as the bones found in these caves?
5.  Artists have progressed technically, but have they progressed artistically?
6.  Do you think the cave paintings are as aesthetic as more recent art work?

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Performance tasks
1. Students will be able to draw simple still life objects and make them look three dimensional using light and shadow.
2. Students will be able to handle the tools one uses in drawing in charcoal safely and with respect.
3. Students will learn to accept mistakes as part of learning.
4. Students will take a quiz on the vocabulary of drawing.
Other Evidence
1. Students focus on their work without signs of frustration.
2. Students can help others if asked.
3. Students can explain what they are doing.
4. Students will demonstrate a sense of pride in their work.

Stage 3: Learning Plan
Learning Activities
1. Slide show of drawings throughout the history of western art with a discussion on the essential questions
2. One day of direct instruction on the value scale and making a circle look like a sphere using shading. This will be done by having students copy the teacher while she draws. (pencil)
3. One day of drawing along with the teacher using the same techniques to draw an actual object.(pencil) Teacher will introduce the drawing tools for charcoal and explain how they work.
4. Students will each work on their own drawing of still life objects placed in a strong light using charcoal.
5. Students will progress to multiple objects in charcoal.
6. Each day we will ask a couple of different students to put up their work so we can give them requested feedback i.e. a student may want to ask the class if their work has enough value contrast. The class would only give feedback that the artist requested.

Pottery 8th Grade

This slide show starts with death masks from neolithic Jericho, progresses through the technique we used to make our masks, works by other artists and works by U-32 8th graders.

Pottery
Stage 1: Desired Results
Vermont Framework of Standards and the Grade Level Expectations
A7-8:10 Students will show skill dev when creating art
A7-8:17 Students show understanding of how the arts impact life
A7-8:19 Approach to work
A7-8:20 Students develop effective, personal work habits
A7-8:21 Students demonstrate appropriate interactions

Established Goals:
1. Learn to create flat slabs of clay and the basics of hand building.
2. Learn how to use slipping and scratching to attach two pieces of clay.
3. Learn to  use tools safely and respectfully.
4. Learn about the process of firing clay and how to prepare work to be safely fired.
5. Learn about the history of pottery and the influences of culture and natural resources.

Understandings:
Students will understand that:
1. pottery is an ancient and universal art form
2. effort is rewarded by achievement
3. pottery styles are influenced by natural resources and culture

Essential Questions
1. Why has pottery been used in many cultures all over the world for thousands of years?
2. Why is it still used today when we have alternatives like plastic?
3. It has been said that crafts change less over time than styles in fine arts. Do you think this is true and why?
4. Pottery that is useful is considered a craft. Is pottery only art if it is not useful?
5. What patterns do you see across time and cultures in the pottery we looked at?.
Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Performance tasks
1. Make a clay mask.
2. Learn to use various pottery tools to create the desired affect.
3. Learn to use pottery tools safely.
4. Participate in clean up as a team member.

Other Evidence
1. Students focus on their work without signs of frustration.
2. Students will understand that pottery can be a professional choice whether as a production potter or as a more artistic potter.
3. Students can explain what they are doing.
4. Students respect tools,clay and each others’ work.
5. Students persist to make a piece of work of which they can be proud.

Stage 3: Learning Plan
Learning Activities
1. Slide show of pottery across time and culture with discussion on essential questions.
2.Teacher shows student examples of masks that different students have made.
3. Demonstration by teacher of rolling clay, slipping, scratching, attaching and using coils to connect pieces of clay and using stamps to make designs.
4. Students work on their masks, making artistic decisions about style  and adding embellishments.

Book Making 7th Grade

Stage 1: Desired Results Book Making

Vermont Framework of Standards and the Grade Level Expectations
A7-8:18 Students show understanding of how the arts shape and reflect various cultures and times
A7-8:19 Approach to work
A7-8:20 Students develop effective, personal work habits
A7-8:21 Students demonstrate appropriate interactions


Established Goals:
1. Students will learn about different ways of binding books.
2. Students will be introduced to the history of world book making.

Understandings:
Students will understand that:
1. book making is an ancient art.
2. even with the great number of books available to buy, bookmaking is still a viable art form.
Essential Question(s)
1.     How did people convey information before there were books?
2.     What were the first books like?
3.     Why make books at all when there are so many you could buy?
4.     Is making books an art form or purely utilitarian?

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence
Performance tasks
1. Students will be able to make a simple book using the techniques of Japanese stab binding, sewing, gluing and folding.
2. Students will be able to individualize their books.
3. Students will be able to make a neat, attractive and usable book that they are proud of.
Other Evidence
1. Students focus on their work without signs of frustration.
2. Students can help others if asked.
3. Students can explain what they are doing.

Stage 3: Learning Plan
Learning Activities
1. Slide show of book making throughout the history of the world with a discussion on the essential questions
2. Explanation of materials to be used, the order of steps in the process and safety issues involved with hammering holes in paper.
3. Teacher will help students individually.
4. Students will each work on their own book while getting help from the teacher and other students.

Basket making in middle school

Vermont Framework of Standards and the Grade Level Expectations
5.24 Artistic Problem Solving
5.29 Students show skill development when creating art by selecting art tools and materials for specific purposes
A7-8:18 Students show understanding of how the arts shape and reflect various cultures and times
A7-8:19 Students approach artistic problem solving with an open mind and creative thinking
A7-8:20 Students develop effective, personal work habits

Understandings
• Students will understand that basket making is skill that has been in use since prehistoric times all over the world.
• Students will understand that a utilitarian object can also be a work of art.
• Students will increase their understand of pattern making.
• Students will understand the persistence needed to create a beautiful, useful basket.

Essential questions:
• Why is basket making so universal over time and cultures?
• What are the uses of a basket?
• Is a utilitarian object also a work of art? Is a basket only a work of art if it is useless?
• What kind of materials could be used to make baskets and how do these choices relate to the environment?
• Is it possible to understand more about a culture by studying the baskets they make?

Students will know:
• how to follow a complex set of directions
• the amount of work necessary to do a good job
• more about how the baskets they see are made
• more about the cultural significance of baskets across time and cultures
• how to clean up and store wet baskets or left over wet reed

Students will be able to:
• make one simple basket
• make artistic choices over the color and type of reed used
• demonstrate their ability to take care of materials and clean up

Stage 2--Assessment and Evidence
Performance tasks
At the end of the unit students will each have a completed basket. These can be assessed on symmetry, quality of craftsmanship, and choice of materials and their use.
Other evidence
• The teacher will observe people at work, determine their seriousness about the project, how they ask for help and respond to help, and how they help each other, and how they clean up.
• The teacher will see what percentage of students seem pleased with their results and how many baskets are take home. (this is a strong indicator of student satisfaction and pride in their product)

Stage 3--Learning plan
• Students will be shown a short slide show of utilitarian and art baskets from across time and culture
• Students will choose the materials to make their basket. There will be four options available. A simple garlic basket, a more difficult dried flower basket and the most difficult option, the cat ear basket. Other students will have the option to weave beautifully painted paper into a flat mat
• Students will learn the basic weaving pattern for their type of basket
• Students will learn how to finish their basket and attach a handle if needed or desired.
• Students who finish quickly will have a chance to make another basket, help others or free draw
• Students will have the option to have their work displayed or to take it home immediately
• Students will ponder the essential questions with the teacher at the end of the unit