Week 3 Question 3: Do you know who wrote your curriculum?
It is me! I write my curriculum!
In Arkansas, we have Fine Art SLEs (Student Level Expectations) that I plug into, but they are very vague and broad for grades K-2. Soon, we will have Common Core standards for the Visual Arts. (Yay! The current SLEs are have a formalist slant that I try to dance around.) Mandatory art education in the elementary schools in Arkansas has only been around for a about a decade. There is no lateral or vertical planning among the art teachers in my district. Of the eight elementary art teachers in my district, I am one of three that design 'longer' projects for my students. The other five like one day lesson plans.
I am cognizant that I am in a unique position, and I cherish it. With the advent of Common Core, 'regular' classroom teachers have meet in groups and designed curriculum for grade level subject matters. They have pacing guides that state what to teach on what given day. Even before that, I sensed that 'regular' classroom teachers have been losing freedom in the classroom. For the past 5 years, classroom teachers have been cleaning out bookshelves, and have been giving me their arts and crafts books because, sadly, they do not have time for that type of work with their students.
I started teaching K-5 five years ago. In the beginning there was major turn over of lesson plans as I was finding what fit best with what age group. Now I am developing themes/big ideas for grade levels that I am more comfortable with, and design lessons within those frameworks. For example: my kinders are Art Explorers and do a lot of material exploration and explicit creativity training. My fifth graders explore the theme of popular culture all year. The main resource for this framework would Teaching Meaning in Art Making by Sydney Walker, a text I was introduced to in Mary Francos VTS II class. The book is written more for older grades, so I did some digging for early childhood and elementary grades. The companion text that I used to help translate the Walker text for K-5 was Art & Creative Development for Young Children by Jill Eglebright Fox and Robert Schirramacher. I still rewrite lessons or substitute better ones as I find concepts and projects I like better. My population lives in a changing world, and I have to keep up with the changes to make the curriculum relevant.
I did not have art until high school, and even then I only took one course. I just did a lot of drawing on my own when I was younger, and was left alone to do it. I started teaching at the junior high level and then moved up to high school. I am very aware that I give my students in grades 3-5 upper level projects that have been broken into smaller steps. If I am googling some lesson ideas, I do not limit myself to elementary ideas. Some of the projects the students have liked best came from upper level course work.
Great song choices, I am a big fan of Panic! At The Disco! :)
ReplyDeleteHave you learned much about Common Core yet? I signed up to go to a training, but it was cancelled on account of low enrollment. Don't art teachers realize they need to advocate for art and obtain profession development specific to their content area? I would love to hear your thoughts and explanations about Common Core.
Most of the regular classroom teachers I have talked to, are very frustrated with the current constraints they are experiencing. They feel that it is difficult to give students a love for learning and they do not agree with all of the requirements. Plus the students are being forced to move on before they adequately understand the material.
That's great that you have a big say in your curriculum! Does it allow teachers the opportunity to present the material how they want to? Do they chose their own projects and what not? I do not have a set curriculum this year, but I am on the hunt for jobs closer to home and I'm interested to know what I should expect.
I have a lot of freedom in terms of project choice, and what not. I do try to tie into what the classroom is doing in order to make cross-disciplinary connections, when possible.
DeleteI was on the second grade literacy common core curriculum team two years ago. I wasn't very good at that type of curriculum design, but it allowed me to develop a year's worth of art lesson plans that made me happy and also tied into what was going on in the classroom. Second grade was a good level to play with. I am hit and miss with tying into the CC curriculum at other grade levels --- it isn't as good a fit.
The CC core standards are being developed for the arts, and a draft has been sent out. The final standards are due out in a few months.
Here is a link to the draft: http://nccas.wikispaces.com/NCCAS+September+30th+Public+Review
The latest 'trend' in my neck of the woods is going to be the need to promote literacy in pull out classes since our pay will be tied to literacy scores soon.
The positive spin I have heard about CC as a whole is that it is good curriculum for higher ability learners. It is going to take a few years for the students to get synced. For example, a 5th grader just starting CC classwork will not have had the CC training in grades K-4, so it will be rough for a while. Kindergartners, however, will know no difference and should have an easier go at it since they are starting at the baseline.
My personal reservations about Common Core is that even though it is research based, it was not field tested! My own district was very enthusiastic about it and jumped on the band wagon early. Last year upper administration admitted they rolled it out too fast. The core subjects have gone to standards based report cards, but nothing is in the works for pull out teachers at the elementary level yet.
A few years ago our district tried to mandate that all seven elementary art teachers teach the exact same projects at the exact same time. You can just imagine the furor! In the past I have danced around the curriculum guide, but now that the district has gone to standards based report cards, I feel more responsible for spending more time on the skill I am assessing. Most of the other teachers prefer one day projects which pretty much all end up looking the same. Mine, on the other hand, sometimes take all quarter.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely checking out Art & Creative Development for Young Children. My copy of Walker's book is like an old friend. I love the structure that you are creating for your grade levels.
PS Our classroom teachers are tied to pacing guides. I've heard several of them complain that they no longer have time to do the fun stuff.
Did you have say in what standards were being assessed in art and how the report card was written? Our current report card system for pull out areas is meaningless - 4=Excellent and 1=Undeveloped. It is hard to teach for 'excellence' when you only see the students once a week, at best.
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