Creating the Curriculum

When Ms. G described to us how she decides upon the curriculum for her classes, she explained that it is entirely based around the Wisconsin Standards for Art and Design Education. There is an incredibly large amount of standards that she has to meet by the time the students reach 12th grade, so she makes it her goal to incorporate a large variety of lessons in each of her classes. For example, in Art I she would not teach exclusively pastel drawing. Not only would it not cover all of the bases, the students would get incredibly bored with it. Having a variety of lessons with different media or art styles gives the students the opportunity to explore the world of art, allowing them to see what they can do and what others have done. She told us about how she implemented this in her stained glass class. Obviously, the students cannot switch between media as they would have the option for in Art I-- they must all work with stained glass for the entire trimester. However, Ms. G writes lessons for the class that allow the students to practice different types of art. The first project she did focused on geometric art and creating straight lines with the stained glass. Then for the next project, she had the students create nouveau art that was more organic in its structure. This gave the students some diversity in their learning and allowed them to practice different techniques. When the students move on to Stained Glass 2, they are then able to create 3-dimensional pieces. They have the opportunity to learn about stained glass in different ways, and build off of previous learning to advance their ability.