Unit 4 — Connecting
Description
Students make connections with personal experiences and artwork to the content and context that is being taught after exposure to various artists, artistic movements, and diverse cultures. In media arts, students make and respond using media arts knowledge, understanding, and skills to represent meaning associated with personal and global views. Students understand that through creating media artworks, people make meaning by investigating and developing awareness of culture and experiences. Understanding connections to varied contexts and daily life enhances a media artist's work. In visual arts, all students understand the role, development, and influence of the arts throughout history and across cultures. Students recognize that through artmaking, people make meaning by investigating and developing awareness of perceptions, knowledge, and experiences. Students develop ideas and understandings of society, culture, and history through interactions with and analysis of art.
Essential Questions
- How does engaging in creating art enrich people's lives? How does making art attune people to their surroundings?
- How does art help us understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures?
- How is art used to impact the views of a society? How does art mirror or preserve aspects of life?
- How do the other arts, disciplines, contexts, and daily life inform the creation, performance, and response to media arts?
Learning Objectives
- Create works of art that reflect community cultural traditions and discuss using formal and conceptual vocabulary.
- Communicate how art is used to inform the values, beliefs, and culture of an individual or society.
- Communicate how art is used to inform others about global issues, including climate change.
- Use, examine, and access internal and external resources to create media artworks based on interests, knowledge, and experiences.
- Identify, examine, and show how media artworks form meanings, situations, and cultural experiences such as news and cultural events.
- Identify, explain, research, and show how media artworks and ideas relate to personal, social, and community life.
- Examine, discuss, and interact appropriately with media arts tools and environments, considering safety, ethics, rules, and media literacy.
Supplemental Resources
- Printed word lists of stylistic terminology for reference during artmaking and discussion
- Construction paper for creating artworks reflecting community cultural traditions
- Markers and colored pencils for experimenting with compositional approaches
- Clipboards for note-taking during discussions of global issues and cultural connections
- Lined journals for reflecting on personal experiences and cultural awareness
Music - Connecting
Media Arts - Connecting
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 examine how art reflects cultural traditions, historical perspectives, and community values. Students learn how artworks communicate beliefs and inform understanding of different societies and time periods.
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.
Students explore artworks from diverse cultures and international perspectives, connecting to global artistic traditions and cultural experiences.
Formative Assessments
- Group work on projects connecting art to personal and cultural experiences.
- Discussion of how artworks reflect community traditions and values.
- Question and answer sessions about global issues addressed through art.
- Observation of appropriate interaction with media arts tools and environments.
- Collaborative projects exploring connections between art and daily life.
Summative Assessment
Students explain, evaluate, and demonstrate how media arts expand meaning and knowledge and create cultural experiences. Students access and use internal and external resources to educate about creation of media artworks. Using age-appropriate stylistic terminology such as cubist, surrealistic, and impressionistic, and experimenting with various compositional approaches, students recognize works of visual art as a reflection of a society's values and beliefs. Through making art, students make meaning by investigating their awareness of culture and personal experiences.
Benchmark Assessment
A short task in which students select an artwork from the unit, identify its cultural or community connection using provided vocabulary (such as cubist, impressionistic, or surrealistic), and explain orally or in writing how the artwork reflects the values or beliefs of a society or culture.
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through an oral discussion with a teacher or peer about how an artwork connects to their culture or community, with visual aids or image references provided. Students may create a simple labeled drawing or collage instead of a written explanation to show how art reflects cultural values.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students with IEPs benefit from visual supports such as illustrated vocabulary cards featuring art style terms (e.g., cubist, impressionistic) and examples of culturally diverse artworks to anchor discussion and meaning-making. Directions for connecting personal experiences to artmaking should be broken into small, numbered steps, and students may respond through drawing, dictation, or verbal explanation rather than written output alone. Providing a model or visual example of a completed artwork-connection response can help students understand expectations before beginning. Teachers should check in frequently during both individual and group work to offer feedback and keep students on track.
Section 504
Students with 504 plans should be given extended time during discussions and hands-on artmaking tasks that require reflection on cultural connections or global themes. Preferential seating near demonstration areas and reduced visual clutter in the workspace supports sustained focus when analyzing artworks or working with media arts tools. Printed copies of discussion prompts and key vocabulary related to culture, community, and art history terms should be provided in advance.
ELL / MLL
Multilingual learners benefit from a visual word bank displaying key vocabulary such as culture, tradition, community, and art style terms paired with images and, where possible, translations or home-language connections. Teachers should use visual exemplars and short, clearly structured directions when asking students to connect personal or cultural experiences to artworks, and allow students to express ideas through drawing or gesture before moving to verbal or written response. Connecting the unit's exploration of diverse cultures and global themes to students' own backgrounds and traditions can serve as a meaningful and affirming entry point into the content.
At Risk (RTI)
Students who need additional support should be introduced to the concept of cultural connection through art using familiar community contexts before expanding to broader or global examples, allowing them to build confidence from personal experience. Simplified discussion frames such as sentence starters that prompt students to describe what they see and what it reminds them of can lower the barrier to participation in group and whole-class conversations. Reducing the complexity of artmaking tasks to focus on one clear cultural or personal connection at a time helps students experience success and develop understanding incrementally.
Gifted & Talented
Gifted students can be challenged to research a specific artistic movement or cultural tradition in greater depth and consider how it connects to contemporary global issues such as climate change or social identity, going beyond surface-level observation. Encouraging these students to experiment with combining stylistic approaches — for example, applying a cubist or surrealistic lens to a personal or community subject — deepens both technical and conceptual engagement. They may also take on leadership roles in collaborative discussions or projects, practicing the skills of curating, explaining, and contextualizing artworks for an audience.