Grade Level Expectations for the VTS Curriculum

 The images presented in previous posts will be used to address the following Grade Level Expectations for the state of Missouri; those which relate to Artistic Perceptions and more specifically, Aesthetics. Although the various items are assigned to particular grade levels, the VTS Curriculum I am designing will easily address all.  This is because, although each item is assigned to a specific grade level of students,  it is certainly acceptable and even preferable that it be introduced to them earlier.  The Grade Level Expectations simply indicate the grade level at which particular skills/understandings will be assessed and it is certainly beneficial for students to have multiple opportunities to deal with assessed items in the lessons and years leading up to that assessment!

Grade Level Expectations

Strand III: Artistic Perceptions (AP)

A. Aesthetics

                1. Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks

·         Grade 3 – Compare different responses students may have to the same artwork

·         Grade 4 – Discuss & develop answers to questions about art such as:

o   What is art?

o   What is beauty?

·         Grade 5 –Discuss and develop answers to questions about art such as:

o   Who decides what makes works of art valuable, special, and good?

·         Grade 6

o   Discuss how different cultures have different concepts of beauty

o   Explain how responses (feelings or ideas) to artworks from various cultures are based on both personal experience and group beliefs

Image Curriculum Addition!

 Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi (Utagawa Kuniyoshi) (Japanese, 1797-1861)
Dancers at a Teahouse in Furnichi near Ise 1854 (?)
Woodblock print (68.28)
Gift of Alvin John Accola in memory of his wife Katharine Mize Accola

Exciting Addition!
In my attempt to create a culturally diverse and visually exciting image curriculum that is also "VTSable," I am proposing to add "Dancers at a Teahouse in Furnichi near Ise" to the image curriculum for this unit.  I will be "test-driving" the image with my Unit B (Grades 2 & 3) students at RWE within the next week or so and will report on its success (or lack thereof).  I can't imagine that it won't be extremely successful and propose that it be used to introduce the Arts of Japan as we explore the connections between Visual Art, Communication Arts, and Social Studies (Geography & Culture).

I'm beginning the challenging, but exciting task of selecting VTSable images from the Museum of Art & Archaeology's collection. I am particularly happy with the collection that appears here! Hopefully, it will cause the viewer to reflect upon the attribute of beauty and its relationship to time, culture, and place.

In his discussion of image selection, Yenawine (2003) presented a list of criteria that I am following in my selection process. These include:

1. Accessibility
2. Ambiguity
3. Captivation
4. Expressive content
5. Narrative (particularly stopped action; inferred dialogues, pregnant moments)
6. Diversity  (In terms of time, culture, & medium)
7. Realism (may include some abstraction & realism if they reference viewers' known worlds)
8. Subjects (a range of "genre" scenes)

Images should also be grouped and sequenced from simpler (less "stuff," more recognizable, accessible figures and subject matter) to more complex (those that require critical thinking, reflection, empathy, inferring). I think I've done that here.  Of course, the test will be with a group of students or museum visitors! More to come!

Welcome to Collection Connections, a collaborative curriculum development project initated by Mary Franco and under the supervision of Museum Educator Dr. Cathy Callaway. As part of ARHA 7960, the project  proposes the design of a Visual Thinking Strategies-based professional development program for area educators based on 20 carefully selected images from the permanent collection of the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology. This blog will encapsulate the process and product of  that project.