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| Digital Age Literacy |
| Basic, Scientific and Technological Literacies |
| Visual and Information Literacies |
| Multicultural Literacy and Global Awareness |
| Effective Communication |
| Teaming, Collaboration and Interpersonal Skills |
| Personal, Social and Civic Responsibility |
| Interactive Communication |
| Inventive Thinking |
| Adaptibility, Managing Complexity and Self-Direction |
| Curiosity, Creativity and Risk Taking |
| High Order Thinking and Sound Reasoning |
| High Productivity |
| Prioritizing, Planning and Managing |
| Effective Use of Real World Tools |
| Ability to Produce Relavant, High Quality Products |
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| The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. |
| The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer. |
| The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. |
| The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving, purposes are seldom fixed but change with circumstances and opportunity. |
| The arts make vivid the fact that neither words nor numbers define what we can know. |
| The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. |
| The arts teach students to think through and within a material. |
| The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. |
| The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling. |
| The arts position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important. |
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Visual Communication |
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Throughout the course of the four year Art program students are decoding and creating visual communication in many forms. The scope and sequence of both the Middle School and the 9th and 10th grade art program offers students a progressive series of projects that cover a wide range of topics, materials and technical skills. Corresponding is a developmentally appropriate approach to art history and theory. By the time students reach the IB program they will have had some exposure to most major art movements in the 19th and 20th century in addition to projects on topics outside of mainstream Western art. Analysis of the barrage of images we see in daily life through media and advertising is also a recurring theme. With the emphasis on integrating history, theory and studio work students have an inside view of the power of communication through visual means. Understanding the sophistication of artistic expression by studying history challenges them to bring the same level of sophistication to their own artistic expression. Student work is regularly exhibited in the school hallways and on a virtual gallery on the ASB website. Critiques in the IB program give students the opportunity to hear each other’s thinking and see how visual problems have been solved by their peers.
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| Developing Critical Writing Skills | ||||||
Writing in the art program focuses on critical writing and is based on a model of art criticism which includes four main steps: observation, analysis, interpretation and evaluation. Building upon this model, students are progressively given experience with each step. Beginning in year 1, students initially use guided questions to address each step, whether writing about professional or their own work. Gradually students begin generating more of their own approach, culminating in the IB program with fully independent critical essays. Criteria from the Six Traits writing program are also woven into the program. Developing ideas, organization and voice is the focus here.
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| Sharing Ideas and Learning | ||||||
Besides classroom discussions students have the opportunity to share ideas and what they have learned thorough blog and wiki pages. Seeing what others have written and commenting on intriguing ideas allows for interactive discussion using the internet. Most importantly students interact with each other in the studio, exchanging and debating ideas and witnessing how various visual problems are solved. Work is exhibited around campus and on the ASB website.
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| What Students Are Saying | ||||||
I have made progress in my Reflections because of not only reading the documents given more carefully but also because of my participation in a class discussion about a particular subject. I have noticed that I seem to be more included in our talks and know a lot more information about the topic which helps me understand the topic better. - grade 9 student I chose to draw McDonalds sign, with a skull and a snake in it on the front The message is that McDonalds is bad to health and kills you, and is expressed in a poster type manner. I think the message is conveyed clearly. It shows the reality of what some people enjoy a little too much. It shows the other side of reality, that not many explore. -grade 10 student |
In the central column below are the guiding principles that inform the curriculum connection highlighted on this page. The 21st Century Skills and “Ten Lessons” that are woven into these elements appear in white in the corresponding columns to the right and left. Links to teacher and student generated material illustrating how these guiding principles take form in the classroom can be found below as well.
 = link to high school example |
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 = link to middle school example |