History of Fine Arts: Introduction

For what grade is this Instructional Package Appropriate?

            This Instructional Package is aimed at grade 6 level students. They will be able to do all of the work themselves with little help from the teacher. This will give them a sense of independence and autonomy as well as a sense of what collaboration is all about.

Objective

            Our objective in this instructional package is to educate our students about Fine Arts. It is also to give them knowledge about the history of Fine Arts and how it has affected the artists of today. It will also give them an idea about art and how it is created, what the artist was feeling at the time that they created their work. This will also show the students that a person can be whomever they want.

Technology Used

In our Instructional Package, technology is very important to us. We have integrated various types of technology to be used while teaching the students. We have included interactive ways of assessing our students, creating online rubrics and using various software.

To create interactive quizzes online, we have produced them using Hot Potatoes. This software can be downloaded at: http://hotpot.uvic.ca/. This software allows us to create “interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web.” [1]

To create Online Rubrics we have used an online guide through http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php. This website allows us to create our own rubrics from scratch. We can also use templates available on the website for various topics.

Our class website was created through Tripod. Tripod allows us to create a website through various template or we can create one on our own. This can be found at www.tripod.com

The softwares we have used are PowerPoint, Microsoft Office, Kid Pix, Movie Maker and Inspirations. This technology is important to incorporate because in the years to come, technology will be such a vital role in our everyday lives and it is better to teach the children about it now. The students will also enjoy what they are learning because of all the technology that will be used in order to complete the assignments and projects in this Instructional Package.

Planning Schedule:

            This Instructional Package has lesson plans lasting up to 6 weeks. Certain lesson plans, which include a certain subject area such as art, will not take place in that specific subject (Art Class). Some lesson plans will take place in another class. The subjects include the following: History, Art, English and French. For example, children will be going on a field trip to a museum with their French teacher during French class rather than going with their Art teacher. The students will be able to experience two subjects at once and realize that many subject areas can be interrelated. 

Assessment

In this Instructional Package, we will assess our students several different ways. We will assess our students through an online quiz, a weekly journal that they will eventually hand in, their individual and group projects and finally a peer evaluation sheet. These types of evaluations will truly evaluate each student’s knowledge from the beginning to the end of the lesson on Fine Arts.

Links:

Hot Potatoes: http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

Creating Rubrics: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php.

Creating a website: www.tripod.com

Academic Standards:

            Throughout the six weeks, the students will get experience in many cross-curricular competencies. There will be the idea that within this one subject, there is an interaction with one or many other subjects. As stated previously, it interacts with the History class as well as Art, English and French. Through this production of visual arts, the students will be able to express their personality, experience and aspirations (Q.E.P. section 8.2, pg.9).

            There are many competencies for the field of visual arts. “First, the use of information. Second is using their creativity and third is work with others collaboratively and to communicate appropriately” (Q.E.P. section 8.2, pg.9). By the end of Cycle One, the students participate in the steps of the creative process. “Their productions are often influenced by emotional interests. Related to the stimulus for creation, the work conveys a personal perception of reality. It grows out of spontaneous gestures, an appropriate use of visual arts language and a simple organization of its components. The students are able to talk about aspects of their creative experience that are meaningful to them” (Q.E.P, section 8.2, pg.10).

            There are also cross-curricular competencies for appreciating works of art. These include the following: being attentive to their emotions, they need the connections to various forms of art (this can include their own work, as well as the works of classmates or people of the past and present). During the showing of the work, students are expected to be respectful and appreciative of others.

 Suggestions for Using Information and Communications Technologies

Competencies 1 and 2

• Using computers for the creation of individual and media-related visual arts productions
•  Using computers to save his/her individual and media-related visual arts productions

 Competency 3

• Using CD-ROMs and the Internet to gather information on artists and their works or to discover works of art, traditional artistic
• Objects and media images

• Using the Internet to transmit virtual versions of their visual arts
• Productions to students in another school, province, or country
• Meeting artists who work with mixed media

“Students should also be able to handle the computers as well. They should also be able to share the computer with their classmates” (Q.E.P. section 82, pg.16-18).