Planning Lessons For The Year

How I use a student-centered approach to plan as I go?

​I DO NOT plan my lessons around curriculum, media, standards, elements, principles, or historical movements but I hit them all by the end of my course… I had an administrator who doubted me, and I documented, in detail, that I hit every element with more depth than the state or national standards, AND secretly I asked our guidance department to track my student’s performance on their SAT exams discovering that MY STUDENTS were scoring, on average, 155 points higher on their SATs than their non-art involved peers.  The administrator left me alone after that.
 
So how do I plan my year? I create lessons based on what I think my students will be excited to do! They are my audience. Not administrators, not the Board of Education, not the writers of State or National Standards. Every lesson starts with the question, “what would be cool, fun, and engaging to make or do?” Not what I want to do… not what is easy to do… not what I am supposed to do…. But what would my students WANT to do. Then I weave my lesson. I pull in the elements, and principles, historical connections, literacy connections, holes in the lesson that they must fill with their personal point of view or experiences.
 
If you teach an art class with depth, and a variety of media, you will inevitably hit every art element, principle, state, national, and curricular standard written. When I was a newbie with that “fresh teacher smell” of hope and excitement, I printed out my curriculum and as I designed my student-centered lessons I crossed off items I covered to be sure I did, in fact, hit them all. I found that within 3 or 4 lessons, I hit most. THEN and only when I might find an item I did not cover, I might design an exercise, worksheet, quiz, or lessons to cover that item.
 
Here is a simple illustration to prove my point. Take van Gogh’s Starry Night. I would argue you could teach every element and principle through this one work of art.

Here is a simple illustration to prove my point. Take van Gogh’s Starry Night. I would argue you could teach every element and principle through this one work of art.
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Line – Yup, I see lines, outlines, hatch lines, lines that make form...
Shape – Circles, squares, waves, swirls, and more
Color – Warm and cool, contrasting and analogous…
Texture – OMG are you blind? It’s all texture!
Space – Foreground, middle ground, background, overlap…
Unity – Through analogous colors and unified texture
Contrast – warm and cool, orange and blue, organic vs man-made
Balance – asymmetrical
Emphasis – on the moon as big and bright or the central swirl
Variety – of colors, directions of stroke, scale
Movement – I mean-just look at it!
Pattern – organic patterns that emulate wind
 
Every lesson you plan can be dissected to document that you are meeting curricular requirements and standards. When you plan your year strictly around curriculum, media, standards, elements, principles, or historical movements it is easily to lose focus on the most important thing that is not on that list…    The Student! 

Consider the vapid “lesson” of Monet Bridges above. Sure, it’s easy to teach, you don’t even need a certification to do it successfully. Parents “like it.” It “looks” good, but ultimately if you asked students what they want to create, I will bet you anything that not one will ever say...
a “Monet Bridge.”
 
These “canned” lessons are not only bad, but they are destructive to art education. More on that HERE.
 
So is my advice to you to throw out the curriculum, media, standards, elements, principles, and historical movements?

No.

But if you are a new teacher, or concerned that you may not be getting to everything, print what you are required to cover and cross them out as you teach them. At the half-way point, check your list for items you may be missing, and see if you can naturally roll them into lessons that will hold student attention, not the other way around.
 
For more about scaffolding lessons click HERE.
For more about scaffolding media click HERE.
For more about creating choice-based-lessons click HERE.
After 35 years teaching, THIS is how I start my new year.
If you must write curriculum, don’t “reinvent the wheel.”
If you are NEW to teaching art, THIS will be a helpful resource.
If you want to see how to differentiate the same lesson for grades k-12 THIS will be a helpful resource. You can modify a high school lesson and use the elementary version for your special needs students or give an high school version to a talented middle school student to keep them engaged. 

​If you need a year or more of lessons tied to the elements and principles, I created this book, which is a compilation from my other books (50 Art Lessons, and 51 Art Lessons). Click HERE to get it on Amazon.