Visual Art
The Visual Art program at the School District of the Chathams aims to empower students to think critically and creatively to develop innovative solutions to problems present in our modern world. While in a virtual learning environment, our focus is to engage students in design and engineering through the use of the engineering design process and design thinking model emphasizing critical thinking, problem solving, planning, feedback, reflection, and redesign.
INSTRUCTIONAL OVERVIEW [Fully Virtual/Remote Instruction]
K-5:
Learning experiences will primarily focus on weekly, creative art experiences that are provided to students through their Visual Art teacher’s Google Classroom. These assignments will focus on students creating works of art using household materials (such as paper, scissors, pencils, etc.), as well as basic arts and craft supplies and supplies provided by the district. At times, the assignment will only require the students to develop sketches or plans. Some weeks the students will be reviewing artwork created by their classmates and providing feedback following our academic discussion and feedback model.
6-12:
Learning experiences will take the form of instructional videos of mini-lessons (combination of live and pre-recorded), as well as live conferences or meetings with individuals/small groups of students. Assignments will provide an opportunity for students to apply new knowledge and skills, think creatively, receive and provide feedback, and redesign as part of the studio thinking process. All hands-on components will be able to be completed with basic household materials (such as paper, scissors, pencils, etc.), as well as any materials included in the course’s supply list. For courses that utilize computer technology, all virtual assignments will be assigned on programs that are web-based so they can be completed using the district-provided Chromebooks.
STUDENT EXPECTATIONS [Fully Virtual/Remote Instruction]
K-5:
Students should participate in class following the building’s fully virtual schedule for live instruction. During asynchronous weeks, students should spend the time dedicated to visual art to work on the provided visual art assignment and lesson. Students should only spend the allotted class time working on the visual art assignment. If a student has a question or needs individualized instruction or assistance, s/he should connect with the visual art teacher for “office hours” during the dedicated visual art time.
Once the student has worked for the full class period on his/her visual art assignment, students should submit the work they were able to complete on the Google Classroom assignment. Some assignments will need to be submitted on FlipGrid or Padlet, as indicated in the weekly assignment directions.
6-12:
Students should participate in class following the building’s fully virtual schedule for live instruction. We want all students to participate in Google Meet sessions with cameras on unless they have extraordinary circumstances that limit their opportunity to do so.
The assignments will vary depending on the unit/topic. Assignments should be submitted following the directions provided by the teacher. We will continue to make use of the learning management system (Google Classroom for 6-8 and Schoology for 9-12), as well as Padlet, FlipGrip and Google Drive to collect assignments as appropriate for each assignment.