TEACHER QUALITY STANDARD III
a
eLEMENT
Teachers demonstrate knowledge about the ways in which learning takes place, including the levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students.
Skyview School of STEM has a student population of around 700 this academic year (23/24). As the art teacher, I see each and every one of these students in the 28 K-5 classes that rotate through the art room each week. Despite the large student body, I found it both feasible and enjoyable to teach art to them by planning one lesson idea and differentiating it by age group.
I created a lesson focusing on mixed media collage art, food, and textures, incorporating Art History movements like Funk Art and Pop Art. I tailored the lessons based on complexity and baseline skills, ensuring they were developmentally appropriate for each grade. For 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, I offered a variety of choices for their food collage art, including media and whether it was two-dimensional or three-dimensional. To make the curriculum more accessible to younger students, 1st and 2nd graders focused on ice creams, maintaining the exploration of mixed media, collage, and texture in a way that was engaging for them. Kindergarten classes mad alphabet soup artworks, focused on incorporating different foods that start with different alphabet letters, rather than delving into the Funk Art Movement.
B
eLEMENT
Teachers use formal and informal methods to assess student learning, provide feedback, and use results to inform planning and instruction.
Assessment in art is constant and vital. As an art educator, I prioritize formal and informal assessments to provide students with feedback and areas for growth. Gradebooks are crucial for formal assessment, like the spreadsheet of grades from the Drawing Techniques Packet for Drawing 2 students at Loveland High. These grades, along with specific feedback, help students focus on improving their artistic and academic skills. Informally, students' sketchbooks are valuable for assessing their progress, understanding what they are learning, and identifying areas needing review or further explanation. For instance, photos of warm-up drawings and color-matching exercises from Drawing 1 and Painting 1 classes provide insights into students' understanding of concepts and skills development.
C
eLEMENT
Teachers integrate and utilize appropriate available technology to engage students in authentic learning experiences.
One aspect of becoming a good teacher is learning to use your resources to the fullest extent, and technology can be a helpful tool within instruction, especially when you are teaching content to students that is relatively new to yourself as well. In the Painting 2 course, I taught a lesson on acrylic mediums and additives. While many of the concepts in using these media is similar to techniques applied in oil painting, I had never used acrylic medium at that point, and in turn used a video that introduced the material for part of my instruction. I created a worksheet to go along with the video that functioned as a notetaker. After having students engage with the video, I also led the class through a think-pair-share to fill in any gaps in their notes and make sure each student could understand the subject, and had learned the content effectively.
D
eLEMENT
Teachers establish and communicate high expectations and use processes to support the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
Establishing clear steps and processes for each lesson enables me to communicate the expectations I have for my students within a lesson. At Skyview, I utilized the whiteboard to outline daily project steps, providing students with visual examples, drawings, and my own artwork to encourage their own creativity and independent thinking in their artwork. The framework of essential steps supports students problem-solving through issues while they work. Steps were kept to a small number and included minimal information to retain clarity for student interaction.
E
eLEMENT
Teachers provide students with opportunities to work in teams and develop leadership.
In Painting 2 at Loveland High, we began the semester with a collaborative activity where students created color wheels using collage magazine clippings. Students were put into groups of 3-5, and given the loose instructions of creating a color wheel. The shape, color swatches, and other details were all entirely up to the decisions of each team. Each team created a unique color wheel. Through this collaboration, our classroom culture grew to include a sense of community, student-ownership, and cooperation. This was the first of many activities in the class that had students intentionally seek to work with their peers.
F
eLEMENT
Teachers model and promote effective communication.
Communication is integral to the arts. One way I modeled effective communication to students was through artist statements. When reviewing the questions they needed to answer within their statement, I emphasized the importance of writing full sentences, starting with a capital letter and ending with a period- or some other punctuation.