MYP unit planner

Unit title
/
How Art Has Changed!
Teacher(s) / White
Subject and grade level / Visual Art-Level 1
Time frame and duration / 9 weeks
Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of interaction and unit question
Area of interaction focus
Which area of interaction will be our focus?
Why have we chosen this? / /
Significant concept(s)
What are the big ideas? What do we want our students to retain for years into the future?
Community and Service-This unit will be looked at through the lens of community and service because with “community and service” students will explore the nature of past and present communities through art. Different cultures will be investigated, as well as the artworks of those communities. Students will have an increased global awareness due to recognizing that communities, and human contributions to those societies, have existed and will continue to exist until the end of time. / Technology and human discoveries have helped to advance parts of our daily life
MYP unit question
In what ways has humankind developed?
Assessment
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the unit question?
What will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding? How will students show what they have understood?
What other local assessments or tasks will be used?
Assessment Tasks:
B- Extracts from the DW showing work from the beginning to the point of realization and materials such as diagrams, photos, and visual influences- at least 2 pieces
A- A comparison or analysis of art practices in the context of the themes being investigated: 3 paragraphs including supporting evidence (Gallery Walk)
D- Comments by the teacher and student relating to personal engagement, based on this unit of work
C- Analysis of the process of working, discussing themes and issues raised by work, and responses to feedback from the teacher and other students (in DW)
Local Tasks:
· Baseline
· Parent form
· Origami star with definitions
· QUIZ on elements and principles (Rubric A)
· Tessellation
· Gesture sketches
· Still life
· Value scale
· Pointillism
· Cubism
· One-point room
Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?
B-Develop an idea, theme or personal interpretation to a point of realization, expressing their artistic intentions
Apply skills, techniques, and processes to create, perform and/or present art
A-Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the art form studied in relation to societal, cultural historical and personal contexts
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the elements of the art form studied, including specialized language, concepts and processes
Communicate a critical understanding of the art form studied in the context of their own artwork
D-Show commitment in using their own artistic processes
Demonstrate curiosity, self-motivation, initiative and a willingness to take informed risks
Support, encourage and work with their peers in a positive way
Be receptive to art practices and artworks from various cultures, including their own
C-Reflect critically on their own artistic development and processes at different stages of their work
Evaluate their work
Use feedback to inform their own artistic development and processes
Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
Criterion A,B,C and D
Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to the learning activities through inquiry
ContentWhat International Connections are being made throughout this unit?
What knowledge and/or skills (from the course overview) are going to be used to enable the student to respond to the unit question?
What (if any) state, provincial, district, or local standards/skills are to be addressed? How can they be unpacked to develop the significant concept(s) for stage 1?
International Connections:
· Students have some international connection embedded within sketchbook assignments.
· Looking at and discussing the work of international artists- Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso, MC Escher, origami
6.V.1.1
6.V.1.2
6.V.1.3
6.V.1.4
6.V.2.1
6.V.2.2
6.V.2.3
6.V.3.1
6.V.3.2
6.V.3.3
6.CR.1.1
6.CR.1.2
6.CX.1.1
6.CX.2.1
Approaches to learning
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills?
Collaboration- Students will continue to learn to work with each other through sitting in a grouped table setting. Through the use of this seating arrangement, students will gain a deeper understanding of the subject-specific objectives by observing and talking with each other about techniques.
Learning experiencesHow will students know what is expected of them? Will they see examples, rubrics, templates?
How will students acquire the knowledge and practise the skills required? How will they practise applying these?
Do the students have enough prior knowledge? How will we know? / Teaching strategiesHow will we use formative assessment to give students feedback during the unit?
What different teaching methodologies will we employ?
How are we differentiating teaching and learning for all? How have we made provision for those learning in a language other than their mother tongue? How have we considered those with special educational needs?
Students will see examples, non-examples, checklists and rubrics for tasks.
Students will acquire the knowledge based on demonstrations and hands-on experiences.
Prior student knowledge will be assessed with warm-up questions. Further formative assessments will be conducted verbally and through observation, and will continue for the duration of the unit as new skills and concepts are introduced. / Verbal and demonstrative formative assessments will be used to give students feedback during the unit. The teacher will give group and one-on-one demonstrations and will discuss how given examples are examples or non-examples of the desired product.
The teacher will employ various teaching strategies, including: demonstrations, discussions, collaborative work and peer feedback in a group setting, and through a culminating chance for students to present products to the class.
Instruction will be differentiated as needed during every class period. Further examples, demonstrations, and reminders will be given to individual students and to the class. With these additional supports in place, all students will learn the concepts of the unit. For those learning in a language other than their mother tongue, handouts will be given in the appropriate language. Students with special educational needs will receive differentiated instructions for tasks and additional scaffolding as needed.
Resources
What resources are available to us?
How will our classroom environment, local environment and/or the community be used to facilitate students’ experiences during the unit?
NC Standard Course of Study
The internet for art examples
Computers with word processing
The knowledge, expertise and experiences of others in the classroom
Ongoing reflections and evaluation
In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions. There are further stimulus questions at the end of the “Planning for teaching and learning” section of MYP: From principles into practice.
Students and teachers·  Students were very critical in their self-evaluations. Most students could easily identify personal weaknesses in his or her art skills, but had difficulty identifying strengths.
·  Students had trouble thinking in reverse order on one of the tasks during this unit (not on the assessment task). Students had a pre-conceived notion that a collage is just a bunch of pictures thrown together, not necessarily creating a picture, but rather just filling space. Some students had a hard time identifying shapes, colors, and textures that could be used for certain objects in their collage.
·  Observation skills were enhanced as they began to notice textures everywhere around them, from walls, to shoes, to hair textures. Some students really grew in their awareness of “textures” being not just an art term, but a part of every-day life.
What inquiries arose during the learning? What, if any, extension activities arose?
·  Students inquired about the meaning of the word “evaluation.” It was surprising that very few 6th graders could define that word. Warm-up activities resulted, where students defined the word “evaluation,” and gave examples of things they had evaluated in the last 24 hours. We had several discussions about what people evaluate every day, and what criteria we use to make our evaluations. This led to more in-depth discussions about the importance of evaluating our own artwork in order to improve. Students were also asked to share other things in life they evaluate. Further discussions could be had about how students grew from non-art related personal evaluations.
How did we reflect—both on the unit and on our own learning?
·  Students filled out the reflection sheet at the conclusion of the unit. Students gave very honest answers for numbers 2 and 3, but some students had trouble identifying ways to enhance learning as an entire class. I could focus more on encouraging students to help each other take responsibility for his or her actions and how they affect the learning of the class. Simple comments, such as “Because you are being too loud while you are working, how do you think that is affecting Sam’s ability to concentrate and produce his best artwork?”
·  In further units, I would like to have more verbal feedback after students fill out the reflection sheet. Having a discussion would be productive and would help tie together all the students’ reflections. Time was an issue as this was the last unit of the first semester and everything had to be thoroughly explained since it was this class’s first IB unit.
·  Since students already had a simple understanding of evaluating their own artwork, some of the “most significant learnings” were not based on reflection and evaluation, but were facts about artists we studied or processes we studied. It was clear from the beginning of the unit that students had already been evaluating their work all semester, but we hadn’t spent a lot of time discussing the fact that that is what we are constantly doing in class.
Which attributes of the learner profile were encouraged through this unit? What opportunities were there for student-initiated action?
·  Students had to be able to clearly verbally COMMUNICATE their strengths and weaknesses to the class at the critique at the end of the unit. Communication was also practiced through the writing of the collage artist statements and the journal entry as the assessment task.
·  Students had the chance to be CARING when they offered verbal feedback to peers during the critique.
·  Students were REFLECTIVE when they participated in the warm-ups, discussions, and written tasks throughout this unit.
·  Students had the chance to be PRINCIPLED when they scored themselves on the IB rubric and when they had to honestly list weaknesses of their art.
Possible connections How successful was the collaboration with other teachers within my subject group and from other subject groups?
What interdisciplinary understandings were or could be forged through collaboration with other subjects?
·  Mrs. Ward said that she had taught a unit on Romare Bearden before, so in future years, collaboration with that unit would be very possible.
·  I could collaborate with the band or choral teacher to teach our “reflection” unit at the same time to reinforce the importance of self-evaluation.
Assessment
Were students able to demonstrate their learning?
· Students had the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of evaluating themselves artistically, but writing the journal at the end of this unit. Some students showed a deep level of understanding by how they described strengths and weaknesses. Some students had very generic answers like “I am a good artist,” with not supporting evidence. In those situations, those students A. Did not successfully communicate that they knew how to evaluate themselves or B. did not evaluate themselves.
How did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives identified for this unit? How did I make sure students were invited to achieve at all levels of the criteria descriptors?
· The assessment task (journal) had prompts that addressed each MYP learning objective for this unit, as well as the unit question. If students thoroughly answered every question of the journal prompt, they would be able to show their learning of reflection and evaluation.
Are we prepared for the next stage?
· Some students could thoroughly communicate to others their strengths and weaknesses in art. Some students struggled with identifying “areas of growth.” I think that all students increased their awareness of that fact that evaluation occurs on a daily basis in art, and in other areas of their lives as well.
Data collection
How did we decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?
· The data collected was: daily written warm-up responses, some verbal exit question responses, sentences about thumbnail sketches, paragraphs analyzing student collages, and paragraphs analyzing their three best works of art for the semester (because this unit happened to take place as the last unit of the semester). Of course, the last piece of data collected was the journal entry in which students were asked to describe strengths, weaknesses, areas of growth, how they used feedback, and answering the unit question.
All of the data was useful to see how students increased awareness of evaluation from the beginning of the unit to the end of the unit. The paragraphs were important to identify which students needed more guidance in being able to evaluate themselves. The end of the unit journal entry showed to what extent students could communicate their evaluation of themselves.

Figure 12

MYP unit planner