Sixth - Eighth Grades

Visual Arts Content Standards

 

back to Fine Arts

 

Lesson Plans / Units

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Read Alouds / Book Studies

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Online Resources

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Teachers to Connect With

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History

 

 

1. Analyze art work originating in major cultures of the world.

 

Examples: Asian, European, African, Australia, North and South American

 

2. Contrast unique features of particular art styles.

 

Examples: Op Art, Folk Art, Impressionism, Surrealism

 

3. Analyze themes and symbols in art of different cultures.

 

4. Analyze ways that culture influences works of art.

 

Examples: values, beliefs, use of technology, governmental issues

 

5. Research various uses of the visual arts in business and industry.

 

Examples: architectural design, commercial design, advertising, television, film, industrial design, multimedia, art careers, environmental design, artists-in-residence

 

6. Define selected visual art vocabulary.

 

• Elements of Art • Principles of Design

• Analogous Colors • Vanishing Point

• Monochromatic Colors • Horizon Line

• Complementary Colors • Perspective

• Tone • Contour drawing

• Shading • Modified contour drawing

• Cast shadow • Blind contour drawing

• Assemblage • Realism

• Found objects • Value

• Sculpture • Caricature

 

7. Analyze a variety of art works.

 

Examples: Roy Lichtenstein’s Girl at the Piano, William Johnson’s Harlem Renaissance, Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch

 

8. Evaluate the work and style of a selected artist.

 

Examples: research paper, oral presentation, multimedia presentation

 

9. Use a variety of media to research the life of a selected artist.

 

10. Analyze the impact of the life of a selected artist on culture, history, politics, and economy.

 

11. Interpret ways artists achieve different effects with the elements of art and principles of design.

 

Example: creating movement by using a variety of directional lines

 

12. Investigate different art careers.

 

Examples: research, class presentations, field trips to places of business, guest speakers

 

 

Criticism

 

 

13. Evaluate the roles art works play in the environment.

 

Example: monuments: Vietnam War Memorial, Tipoli Fountain

 

15. Apply criteria in judging works of art.

 

• Craftsmanship

• Originality

• Composition

 

16. Make finer discriminations about the elements of art and principles of art when responding to various art forms.

 

Examples: patterns of light and shadow, surface texture, symmetry, asymmetry, color schemes

 

 

 

Aesthetics

 

 

17. Analyze aesthetic qualities (meaning, purpose, role) that exist in both natural and man-made objects.

 

Example: natural—The Alps

man-made—Arc de Triomphe,

 

18. Evaluate ways value, harmony, balance, and unity make a work of art pleasing.

 

Example: examining the use of different values of color to create unity in Leonardo daVinci’s Mona Lisa

 

 

 

19. Connect the visual arts with other content areas.

 

Examples: identifying different types of animals in science, creating geometric shapes and graphing pictures in mathematics, designing covers for classical works of music, designing sets for theaters, creating lines of movement in dance

 

20. Describe imaginative ways of perceiving the environment.

 

Examples: illustrating abstraction from reality through Mondrian’s Tree series;

Paul Klee’s fantasy creatures

 

21. Examine mood and feeling generated by art forms.

 

Example: Giacoma Balla’s Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash using lines and movement to create feelings of happiness and excitement

 

22. Compare various artistic solutions to environmental and social problems.

 

Examples: comparing conventional car to a solar car, a rectangular building to a geodesic dome building

 

 

Production

 

 

22. Apply steps artists use in the production of art.

 

• Inception of an idea

• Elaboration and refinement of an idea

• Execution in a medium

• Evaluation of the product

 

23. Use a variety of ideas and personal experiences as sources of subject matter for art production.

 

Examples: personal experiences and observations of changing condition in nature; the way people appear as they move or change position; people engaging in a variety of activities; animals moving and resting; buildings and vehicles from many points of view; sensory reactions to people, objects, and nature

 

24. Create art using the elements of art and principles of design.

 

Example: using various lines, shapes, and/or colors to create optical illusions and perspective drawings

 

25. Use various visual relationships in creating original art productions.

 

Examples: using the changing atmospheric effects on objects, proportion, and perspective (one and two point)

 

26. Produce art using a variety of two-dimensional production methods and materials.

 

Examples: drawing with pencil, crayon, markers, pens, oil pastels, charcoal; using contour, gesture, and value techniques; using various types of paints to create art work; using mixed media including printmaking on a variety of surfaces, using watercolor for wet onto dry painting and shading on wet and dry surfaces

 

27. Produce art using a variety of three-dimensional production methods and materials.

 

Examples: materials: clay, wire, wood, papier-mâché

methods: carving, sculpting, forming

 

28. Demonstrate proficiency in the use of art techniques to create artwork.

 

Examples: wet brushing, dry brushing, washing; using mixed media, wire sculpture, carving, casting, constructing, crosshatching, pointillism, gradation, tempera

 

29. Use multimedia and other technology to create visual imagery and design.

 

Example: using a stop-action video camera to create an animated video

 

30. Produce graphic art symbols, signs, posters, and wall designs for specific purposes.

 

Examples: school events, environmental issues

 

 

 

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Produce

 

Students will:

 

1. Create works of art utilizing a variety of traditional and nontraditional media and techniques.

Examples: torn-paper collage, weaving, wire sculpture, clay relief

 

• Applying steps artists use in the production of art, including conceptualizing ideas and forms, refining ideas and forms, and reflecting on and evaluating both the process of production and the product

• Applying the elements of art and principles of design to the production of two- and three-dimensional artwork

Examples: two-dimensional—monochromatic paintings, found or natural object prints, texture-rubbing compositions;

three-dimensional—papier-mâchè masks, clay whistles

• Creating original multimedia works of art

Examples: television broadcasts, digital imaging, multimedia presentations

• Creating original works of art using observational skills

Examples: drawing a shoe; painting a still life; creating a landscape in mixed-media; creating timed, gesture studies of a figure

 

2. Produce works of art using one- and two-point perspectives.

Example: drawing a cityscape or still life of geometric shapes that uses a vanishing point and horizontal line

 

 

Respond

 

3. Apply appropriate vocabulary in discussing a work of art.

Examples: discussing the use of cool colors, organic shapes, and flat perspective in Marc Chagall’s Green Violinist; explaining movement in Giacomo Balla’s Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash

 

4. Discuss strengths and weaknesses of a personal portfolio or other work of art.

• Defining the four-step process of critical analysis, including describing what is seen, analyzing how each artist arranged the elements of art and principles of design, interpreting expressive intent and purpose, and judging the effectiveness of communication

Example: analyzing Miriam Schapiro’s The Poet #2 by asking “What do I see in the painting?,” “How did the artist organize the elements of art and principles of design?,” “What is the message that the artist is trying to convey?,” and “How effective is the artwork?”

 

 

Understand

 

5. Define the appropriate technical terminology in creating a work of art.

Example: explaining the terms greenware and bisque-fired when discussing the creation of a piece of pottery

 

6. Discuss ways in which the subject matter of other disciplines is connected with the visual arts.

Examples: connection of plants and animals in a rainforest to Henri Rousseau’s The Peaceable Kingdom; relationship of music to Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings; relationship of measurement, scales, and proportion to Chuck Close’s portraits

 

7. Describe historical and cultural influences on works of art.

Examples: historical—creating a computer presentation depicting works of art of the Civil War,

cultural—comparing the impact of racism in Faith Ringgold’s Flag Quilt and William Johnson’s Moon Over Harlem

 

• Identifying various art periods and movements

Examples: periods—comparing Mayan temples and Egyptian pyramids or Renaissance and twentieth-century paintings,

movements—comparing Impressionism and Cubism or Surrealism and Realism