Why it works
Quality visual art education, guided by standards, engages students in creating art, responding to and interpreting art, and connecting art to their lives and the world, developing creativity, craft, visual literacy, and meaning-making, not just following craft directions. Research links art education to creative and cognitive benefits. Strong teaching values process and individual expression, engages every student, and treats art as thinking, not decoration.
The research: National Core Arts Standards; research on art education.
The run-of-show
Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.
The core activity: balance creating, responding, connecting
Teachers leave with a unit that engages creating, responding, and connecting for every student.
- Pick a unit or lesson.
- Engage students in creating art, not just following a craft.
- Build in responding to and interpreting art.
- Connect it to their lives and the world, and value process and expression for every student.
Facilitator notes
- Engage creating, responding, and connecting.
- Value process and expression.
- Engage every student; art is thinking.
Adapt it
- <b>Elementary:</b> creating, responding, exploration, joy.
- <b>Secondary:</b> technique, concept, critique, portfolio.
- <b>All settings:</b> create, respond, connect, every student.
Participant handout
One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.
Teaching Visual Art: art is thinking
<b>Creativity and meaning:</b> balance creating, responding, and connecting, valuing every student expression.
- The unit or lesson:
- How students create art:
- How students respond to and interpret art:
- How I connect it to life and the world:
- How I value process and student expression:
Make it stick
Create, respond, connect:
- Balance create, respond, connect.
- Value expression.
- Bring a lesson beyond crafts to the next PLC.