A Scheme of Work Using Our Artists

A Scheme of Work using our Artists

About this SOW.

The students will develop a visual language to enable them to ‘read’ a piece of artwork. They will use this understanding to investigate process and media in their sketchbooks and elsewhere. They will compare the ideas, methods and approaches in their own work with those used by the focus artist and other artist’s. They will go on to make larger and more complex pieces, reflecting on a variety of progressive strategies. There is also the possibility of developing the wider aspects of cross –curricular learning through the use of the CULTURAL and CONTEXTURAL understanding of the focussed pieces.

What the SOW covers.

Skills: Observe and reflect on content,

composition, mood, construction and

process in a piece of Art and use that

understanding to inform own art-making

and exploration.

Explore and control tools, media,

surface and techniques.

Developresearch skills through the

use of note and sketch books.

Make appropriate links with other areas of

learning- across the curriculum, cultural,

historic and within the visual and performing

arts.

Modify work based upon exploration of process.

Asses their own progression.

Processes: Drawing

Painting

Digital Media

Elements: Line, Tone, Texture, Shape, Colour, Form

About the Scheme.

This is a MEDIUM S.o.W. using the focussed artists as a starting place for investigation and exploration.

You will have read the section on the artists and probably chosen one of the artists as a focus for this MEDIUM TERM PLAN.

The first thing to do is to decide on the length of the unit. It could be six consecutive weeks or ten x one hour lessons depending on the planning within your subject area or department. To compromise between ks 1&2, I am looking at a baseline of 8 sessions, which could be condensed or extended to suit your school.

Within the SoW there will be distinct areas:

1. Vocabulary which would be appropriate to use with the children at your KS.
2. Expectations (outcomes ) at the end of the unit.
3. Progression- where the children have been in their PRIOR learning and where they will go in their FUTURE learning.
4. Content- incorporating the learning objectives and the possible teaching activities linked to those objectives.

This Section will ask you (the teacher) to refer to other areas of the program – TEACHER’S NOTES , SKETCHBOOK NOTES, CONCEPTS. Etc as it progresses.

SCHEME of WORK (MEDIUM TERM PLAN)

VOCABULARY- SEE ENCYCLOPAEDIA

EXPECTATIONS- At the end of this Medium Term Plan, most pupils will be able to:

Understand and develop a personal discourse with a work of art (in this phase, a painting), using the understanding and knowledge to influence their own art making in this discipline. They will collect a variety of visual information and use their understanding about colour, line, shape, tone and texture to influence their own art making. They will communicate and compare ideas, methods and approaches used in their own and the focused artist’s work to enable them to modify and direct their future intentions.

Some pupils will have not made as much progress. They will use different methods and techniques to explore ideas and to communicate experiences. They will identify similarities and differences in their own and the focus artist’s work. They will adapt their work accordingly.

PROGRESSIONThe pupils will be made aware of their skills, understanding and development through techniques as they work through this program. They will make decisions based on their learning as to the future pathways which their visual and creative art making will take. They will gain confidence in their future choices of materials and tools involved in this making.

CONTENT

1. Look at the Gallery section of this program. Spend the first section of your Medium Term Plan following the instructions in this area. You could DOWNLOAD and print copies of the focus piece for a general discussion with pupils. Spend time looking at the areas for enlargement, following the accompanying notes. This would be good time to talk about the reasons for developing sketchbook skills. (See SKETCH BOOKS). Introduce your pupils to the Encyclopaedia for the relevant VOCABULARY used in the program.
2. Having chosen you artist for this Medium Term Plan, decide on the relevant CONCEPTS to focus on. This may be a part of your school’s LONG TERM or Key Stage Scheme of Work, where specific ART CONCEPTS are focussed upon or it could incorporate CROSS- CURRICULAR aspects which you wish to include in this plan- a link with historical, social, citizenship or geographical aspects.
3. Allow the pupils to develop a personal research program based upon the focussed pieces. This is the ‘crunch’ area. Some pupils will want to pursue a plan based upon process alone. For these pupils, exploration of techniques will allow them to understand and develop their own pathways into their art making. It is important that this space is given to them. There is plenty of direction in the program for them to explore and develop techniques and media at their own pace. Others may be more interested in the research into other linked artists or socio-historic aspects of their learning. Again this program will allow this pathway to be productive. As art teachers, you will by now realise that making art also incorporates living with and through art. Creativity as a leaning objective follows inspiration and if the objectives of our focus artists is to be fully understood, then some of the routes to the outcomes which our artists have followed can be a positive direction for young people. As you have seen, it is a cerebral pathway as well as a visual reflection which has influenced the making in many of the artists development.
4. Decide with your pupils on the direction their research will take. A plan of work would be a good focus for this time:

1. Are they going to pursue the processes which the focus artists use?
2. What materials, resources do they need?
3. What do they see as the outcome of these

endeavours? Is it exploratory work in their

sketchbooks leading to a piece of work at the end? Is

it a wider research into their cultural influences-

fashion, music, dreams, environment? It is as highly

possible that your pupils will produce a musical piece

as a response to the piece of art, as a visual record of

their learning.

1. It may be a good time to introduce/ reinforce some basic IT skills here. Can your pupils access the information that they need on the internet ? You could direct them to some basic SEARCH sites through CLEO or other Sites to find the information they require.( See MORE CONTACTS ) here. OR do they want to contact or see more of the artists work at this stage, in which case can they use the information given on the GALLERY at this point .
2. By now your pupils should be involved with their own pathways into this Critical Studies project. You may need to assess the needs of the pupils and interject with an input of processes based activities. If it is a COLOUR, TEXTURE or LINE based plan then a session on those concepts would be valuable to them, to help them focus on the LEARNING OBJECTIVES of the PLAN. A practical session would be welcome by all pupils and may help them in their direction. For those involved in the PROCESS pathway, this will give them a stimulus towards more available techniques and applications; to those involved in researching the ‘history’ of the work, this will be a welcome interruption which will focus them on the CONCEPTS of the study- not a bad thing. All this work needs the pupils to go back to their sketchbooks and work there, collating and annotating notes and visual studies.
3. This program would be negligent if it didn’t include aspects of structure of a lesson or medium term plan. Whilst most of us try to avoid the proscriptive, I believe that is very easy to keep giving ‘teacher-led’ or ‘instructive directed’ lessons with young pupils. As with any totally technique or process-based lessons, we need time for the pupils to review, modify, assess, and express their learning. So this session should incorporate these aspects. It would be wise to take the pupils back to the source material- the focus piece and ask them to review, in groups or in a whole class a situation, where their personal pathways have lead.

This is an excellent time to make preliminary

assessments of progression based upon the following

criteria:

1. Attitudes- what have each pupil brought to the project? How did they respond to the stimulus? What vocabulary are they using?

Has this broadened? How have they

approached the challenges? Have they

worked in groups or as individuals? If in

groups, how have they responded to each

other’s contributions?

1. Artistic Skills- What techniques/ manipulative

skills has the pupil gained progressed in

during this project?

1. Discriminatory skills- sensitivity, use of art language, response to the stimulus, modification of work has the pupil demonstrated during this project?

1. This is an open session as you need to assess

what further time pupils need to take the project to

its conclusion. This may NOT result in a finished piece

of work. That is not the purpose of a CRITICAL

STUDIES project. It is much more to do with the

personal response to the piece of art that they have been studying. It is hoped that the pupils will have begun to see the purpose of actively engaging with their Sketchbooks as a vehicle for research and involvement in their artistic and creative development. Some pupils will want to produce a finished piece which reflects their understanding of the focus piece. Others will have found that their research has sparked off the beginning of a unique and individual dialogue with their own interests and exploration of idea and concept. Both results are valid. It is up to you to encourage all these pathways and keep an open mind about the outcomes of this program.

It is suggested that teachers use the publication ’ A Scheme of Work for Key Stages 1 & 2’ DfEE as a further guide to planning a critical Studies SoW in Art.