8th Grade Nature Themed Artwork

My middle school classes are one semester long, 8th grade first semester and 7th second semester. I tried to get most of my lesson starters from the Core Arts Standards.  One of the standards is about preparing and presenting theme based work, and we met half of that standard through this lesson.

VA:Pr5.1.8

I can collaboratively prepare and present selected theme-based artwork for display, and formulate exhibition narratives for the viewer.

I started by telling students they were going to create theme based artwork, and that as a class, they were going to decide on the theme. I took notes as they brainstormed and we combined similar themes. They voted and "nature" was the clear winner.

Next, each student came up with an idea of how they would create artwork for that theme. Projects were created in clay, drawing, and painting.

I helped each student work on the skills they needed to communicate their idea.

One student even did nature on another planet.

And now I have to tell you about the piece that was also pictured at the top of this post. The student had an idea of making a flower and she wanted to include wheel throwing. I hadn't planned to let 8th graders loose on the wheel, but I decided to do a demo and let them all have a shot at it if they wanted to. This student was seriously a natural on the wheel. After she threw the base, she started sculpting all these petals and assembled them into a flower.... which blew up in the kiln. It either had trapped air or wasn't as dry as I thought it was. Thankfully, she rolled with it and was able to save most of it. I told her I thought it could be glazed back together and I love how it turned out!

K-12 Curriculum Planning

Since I will be starting a new teaching gig this fall- PreK-12th grade art teacher in a school district closer to home, I've been spending a lot of time this summer working on curriculum. I was able to spend a day shadowing the previous art teacher at my new school last spring so that I could get a feel for things, ask questions, etc. I took notes on the curriculum she had been using, which media she covered at each grade level, etc. With Kansas working on adopting the National Core Arts Standards and their new direction focusing more on student choice and making artwork that is personally meaningful, it seemed like a good time to reexamine EVERYTHING.

I had spreadsheets started for K-6 that I helped write in my former school district. Our process was basically to look at one standard at a time, one grade at a time, and write an "I Can" statement for each. So, we were breaking the standards down into student-friendly language and sometimes putting them in smaller pieces. I used the same process for 7th grade, 8th grade, HS proficient, and HS advanced. Then, I took the standard and "I Can" statements and put them in a table with a row below each pair where I've been writing how I will make sure we meet the standard. I've made notes to myself about discussions, processes, and assignment prompts. After I finish up the HS advanced standards, I will start to go through the notes I took about the last teacher's curriculum and see what fits in with the new standards and my goals. 

It's going to be an interesting transition for all of us, and I'm very much looking forward to it.