Learning Links
Architecture / Landscape Design / Monuments / Metaphor / Patterns / Abstraction / Poetry / Freedom / Censorship / Invention / Popular Culture / Festival / Brainstorm / Hobbies / Jazz
Related Concepts
Integrity of Form / Creativity / Artistic Freedom / Responsibility / Appreciation / Artistic Sensitivity
Demonstrators should be read from bottom to top, but need not be demonstrated sequentially.
Elementary Demonstrators
• Explore a variety of art forms in music, visual arts, dance, and drama.
• Describe reaction to artworks and performances using basic vocabulary.
• Respond to the expressive qualities of music, visual arts, dance, and drama.
• Recognize and demonstrate arts concepts used to describe feelings.
• Begin to formulate preferences based on the perception and reaction to the expressive qualities of music, visual arts, dance, and drama.
Middle School Demonstrators
• Experience a wide variety of art forms in music, visual arts, dance, and drama.
• Demonstrate an openness and sensitivity to a variety of artworks in music, visual arts, dance, and drama.
• Compare elements within and among artworks in music, visual arts, dance, and drama.
• Formulate and justify personal preferences based on the perception and reaction to the expressive qualities in music, visual arts, dance, and drama.
• Discriminate and use arts concepts that develop aesthetic judgment and societal values.
High School Demonstrators
• Demonstrate an openness and sensitivity to the role of creativity, form and craftsmanship in the evaluation of a variety of artworks.
• Analyze reactions to artworks and performances using appropriate vocabulary.
• Discriminate and use arts concepts that reflect aesthetic judgment and societal values.
Sample Teaching/Assessment Strategies
Collaborative Process: Cooperative Learning / Community-Based Instruction: Field Studies, Shadowing / Continuous Progress Assessment: Interviews, Observation, Self-assessment / Graphic Organizers: Graphic Representations / Problem Solving: Debate, Inquiry, Reasoning / Technology/Tools: Distance Learning, Interactive Video / Whole Language Approach / Writing Process
These sample strategies offer ideas and are not meant to limit teacher resourcefulness. More strategies are found in the resource section.
Ideas for Incorporating Community Resources:
• Invite someone who works in advertising to discuss the use and need for art concepts in advertising.
• Attend a live theatre production and convey your reaction to the actors in person or in writing.
• Tour an art gallery, choose a favorite piece, and indicate the specific aspects that appeal to you and why.
Core Concept - Aesthetics
Sample Elementary Activities
• Create movements to music and describe the feelings you are trying to express. PE, OE
• Choose a favorite play, movie, television show, piece of music, and make a presentation on why you like it. PE
• Listen to a recording and create a visual illustration of personal feelings. PE
• Draw your favorite scene in the production after attending a play. Include it with a letter to your favorite actor/actress. P
• Make a work of visual art appropriate for display in a children's hospital ward. Defend choice of color and subject matter. PE, P
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Create a cartoon and write a story line. PE, P
Science
• Invent and construct a musical instrument to reproduce common sounds. PE
Mathematics
• Create designs showing rhythm, symmetry, and balance using graph paper. PE, OE, P
Social Studies
• Visit an art museum or local crafts exhibit. Explain which pieces of work you like best and why. PE, OE, P
Practical Living
• Collect information about an athletic event and create a movement sequence or dramatization of the event. Discuss the ideas and feelings communicated by the presentation. PE, P
• Vocational Living Create a new ad for an imaginary product using images and words from existing ads. PE, P Research, design, and build a bluebird house. PE
Sample Middle School Activities
• Explore the arts of a national or global historical period and communicate the relationships between and among significant architecture, dance, music, painting, and drama. OE, P
• Plan and host a Renaissance community festival. PE
• Explore the architecture of the Victorian period, find examples of the era in your own community, and make a presentation of the unique elements and their derivation. PE
• Choose an artwork you do not like. Research the artist, period, style and purpose of the work. Present your research and any changes to your opinion that occurred during your research. PE, OE, P
• Choose one element such as rhythm and find examples in all art forms. Present your findings. PE, OE
• Make a presentation about how nomadic or homeless people use the arts. PE, OE
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Prepare a musical program which expresses the theme of a book or play. PE, P Interview students who portray the major characters in a school play. Record how their understanding and portrayal of the character changed during the production. PE, OE
Science
• Based on your reaction to a scientific discovery, choose music which you think symbolizes the discovery. PE
Mathematics
• Make a stringed instrument and explain the mathematical concepts involved. Compare instruments made by classmates and explain which are most clearly related to a mathematical concept. PE, P
Social Studies
• Record local musicians performing selections. Interview them to determine the origin of the selections. Create a video or audio tape of dialogue and music. PE, P
Practical Living
• Observe a table setting and discuss how the aesthetics of the setting affect feelings and behavior. OE, P
Vocational Education
• Debate the portrayal of violence in television and movies on teenage behavior. PE, OE Design and build "the world's best dog house." PE
Sample High School Activities
• Listen to selections from Carnival of Animals. Compare and contrast dynamics, tempo, pitch, tonality, meter, and rhythm patterns. Determine what animal/action and/or mood is depicted through the music. Communicate your reactions. PE, OE
• Conduct interviews of people in your school to ask their favorite song and reason for selecting it. Present these results using a database. PE, P
• Write your high school "last will and testament" leaving your most valued experiences in music, visual arts, dance, and drama to a younger student. PE, OE, P
• Create and display a class wall hanging. Present and explain the aesthetic forms used to express ideas and philosophy. PE, OE, P
• Create, notate, and play a pentatonic melody to accompany your own poetry. Analyze the effect of the accompaniment when the poem is presented to a selected audience. PE, P
Applications Across the Curriculum
Variations on a theme: National Anthems
• United States
• New Zealand
• Malaysia
• Canada
• Singapore
Language Arts
• Compare the lyrics of national anthems from selected countries on each major continent. PE, OE
Science
• Analyze the scores of selected national anthems for similarities and differences in rhythm, melody and form. PE, P
Mathematics
• Examine the national anthems from a variety of cultures and plot the extremes of range. PE
Social Studies
• Analyze the ways a country's national anthem reflects the nation. P
Practical Living
• Produce a tape with a medley of anthems from different countries. PE
Vocational Education
• Present a selection of national anthems in the language of the country. P