Unit 1 — Creating
Description
Students demonstrate understanding of the elements and principles that govern creation of visual and media arts. In media arts, students create visual representations that communicate, challenge, and express their own and others' ideas as both artist and audience. Students connect with multiple art movements, a variety of cultural art throughout history, and diverse artists. Upon exposure to these works, students are inspired to create their own artwork. Students develop creativity and innovative thinking as essential life skills, experiment with forms and materials, balance exploration with safety, and develop excellence through practice and reflection. Students work individually and collaboratively to set goals, investigate approaches to art-making, and refine work through peer discussion and revision.
Essential Questions
- What conditions, attitudes, and behaviors support creativity and innovative thinking?
- How do artists work, learn from trial and error, and grow through practice and constructive critique?
- How do artists and designers determine goals and criteria for creating works that effectively communicate?
- What role does persistence play in revising, refining, and developing artistic work?
Learning Objectives
- Brainstorm and curate ideas to innovatively problem solve during artmaking and design projects.
- Individually and collaboratively set goals, investigate, choose, and demonstrate diverse approaches to art-making.
- Experiment and develop skills in multiple art-making techniques and approaches through invention and practice.
- Demonstrate craftsmanship through safe and respectful use of materials, tools, and equipment.
- Represent environments or objects of personal significance through a process of peer discussion, revision, and refinement.
- Reflect, refine, and revise work individually and collaboratively, and discuss personal choices in artmaking.
- Generate ideas for media artwork using a variety of tools, methods, and/or materials.
- Develop individual and collaborative artistic goals for media artwork using a variety of methods.
- Construct and arrange various content into unified and expressive media arts productions.
Supplemental Resources
- Markers for exploring color and design choices during brainstorming
- Chart paper for collaborative planning and visual idea development
- Colored pencils and crayons for experimentation with art-making techniques
- Sticky notes for peer feedback and revision notes during creative process
- Printed images or photographs for inspiration and reference materials
Music - Creating
Media Arts - Creating
Students apply mathematical thinking to visual arts and media arts projects through measurement, spatial reasoning, and data representation. Students count, measure, and analyze visual elements and compositions.
Students engage in scientific inquiry and observation when creating and analyzing artworks. Design thinking and problem-solving processes connect to engineering and technology applications of science.
Students use vocabulary, discussion, and written reflection to analyze, interpret, and communicate about artworks. Students engage in collaborative dialogue and express ideas about artistic intent and meaning.
Formative Assessments
- Teacher observation of students during creative process and problem-solving activities.
- Group discussion and peer feedback on artistic choices and techniques.
- Student self-reflection on personal choices in artmaking and revision decisions.
- Questions and answers about students' creative processes and artistic intent.
- Observation of safe and respectful handling of materials, tools, and equipment.
Summative Assessment
Students complete tasks demonstrating understanding of elements and principles of art. Media arts students collaborate and generate ideas for media artwork using a variety of tools, methods, and/or materials, assessed using a digital rubric on a learning management system. Visual arts students identify elements and principles from a variety of artworks and create works expressing personal responses to creative problems, assessed using a rubric or preferred summative assessment.
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding of art elements and principles through a teacher-guided interview, visual sorting activity, or simplified creation task with reduced scope or pre-selected materials. Sentence frames, visual reference charts, or step-by-step checklists may be provided to support brainstorming and goal-setting during artmaking.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
During brainstorming and planning phases, provide visual organizers or picture-based idea maps to help students generate and organize their creative thinking without relying heavily on written output. Allow students to communicate artistic intent and self-reflection through verbal responses, dictation, or drawing rather than written explanations. When introducing new materials or techniques, break multi-step processes into numbered, visually supported steps and check in frequently during independent work time. Scaffold peer discussion and revision activities with sentence starters or structured prompts to support meaningful participation in collaborative artmaking.
Section 504
Provide preferential seating near demonstrations so students can clearly observe material handling and technique modeling. Allow extended time for project completion and self-reflection tasks, particularly when fine motor demands or processing differences affect pacing. Minimize visual and auditory distractions during independent studio work to support sustained focus on the creative process.
ELL / MLL
Support understanding of art vocabulary — such as terms related to elements and principles of design — through visual word walls, labeled examples of student and professional artwork, and picture-supported reference materials available throughout the unit. Offer simplified verbal directions for multi-step art-making tasks and invite students to restate instructions in their own words before beginning. Where possible, connect art-making themes of personal significance and cultural expression to students' own backgrounds and artistic traditions to build engagement and background knowledge.
At Risk (RTI)
Begin art-making activities with accessible entry points that connect to students' personal experiences and environments, reducing the open-endedness of initial brainstorming when needed. Provide structured choice boards or a limited set of materials to help students focus and experience early success before expanding complexity. Use frequent, brief check-ins during the creative process to offer encouragement, reinforce safe material use, and help students recognize and build on their own progress.
Gifted & Talented
Invite students to investigate how a specific art movement, cultural tradition, or media arts form connects across multiple disciplines or reflects broader social themes, pushing beyond surface-level exploration of elements and principles. Encourage the development of a personal artistic statement or design philosophy that guides their revision and refinement process, fostering metacognitive depth. Students may take on peer mentorship roles during collaborative critique or explore additional media tools and methods to produce more complex, layered artwork that challenges conventional approaches to the creative problems presented in the unit.