This year I’m fortunate to serve on our school’s Curriculum Task Force, which is charged with the responsibility of spearheading a formal K-8 curriculum review. Our committee has made the decision to purchase Rubicon Atlas as our curriculum mapping tool and we will officially roll out the curriculum mapping process in September ‘06 with the intention of making this process our year-long professional development thread. This means that full faculty meetings, department meetings and individual grade level time will be devoted to the process of writing down what we teach, why we teach it and how it relates to what our colleagues are teaching.

In preparation for this process, our Head of School asked the members of our Art Department to act as our official curriculum mapping guinea pigs as we experiment with what a formal review process would look like. Just before vacation I attended a presentation given by members of the Art Department, who crafted an amazingly thoughtful, comprehensive and reflective portrayal of what occurs at each grade level at our school, how the art experience builds on recurring themes and motifs in kindergarten through eighth grade, and how art in general is assessed at our school.

The art teachers stressed that students at every grade level learn about the major elements and principles of art, and how to talk about art in general. They showed slides describing the specific curriculum at each grade level, showcased a sample project from that grade, described the project in detail, and demonstrated how the projects use 3 recurring categories of inspiration:

• 1. Inspiration by art from around the world
  2. Inspiration by art history past/present
  3. Inspiration by integrating with classroom curriculum

The presentation was very illuminating and gave a real sense of what an 8th grader will have had as an art experience upon graduation. I am so glad that this department went first! (I have posted some screen shots below.)

Projects ranged from

1. 2nd Grade Mexican insect art
2. 3rd grade projects closely tied to classroom themes, including Japanese arts & crafts, creating a Japanese zen rock garden with an outdoor installation and African arts & crafts
3. 4th grade handmade/bound classroom portfolios
4. 6th grade ceremonial vessels based on Chinese bronze vessels
5. 8th grade focus on Service Learning Week with Keith Haring-inspired screen printing

But I think one of the biggest points we managed to drive home had to do with how teachers only typically provide parents with a tiny glimpse into their classrooms and the students’ learning process. The rare times parents come to the classroom to see student work it is for the final product — the PowerPoint speech, the Winter Concert, Spring Art Show, Portfolio Day, etc. Rarely are parents exposed to the process of learning, and rarely are students and teachers asked to reflect about what they are learning as they are learning it.

I used an example from my own life as the parent of preschool-aged twins. One of my sons brought home yet another painting from school several weeks ago. When he showed it to me, I thought “that’s nice, honey” and planned to add it to the growing pile of preschool art we already have.

Later in the week, however, the teacher stopped me in the hallway to tell me how excited my son had been about their recent experimentation with color mixing, and upon learning that blue+yellow=green and red+blue=purple, he asked “but how is black made?” The class proceeded to experiment with paints until they came up with black, and his artwork was the end result of the discussion. Suddenly that “nothing” painting became a treasure to me. A glimpse into his development.

A quick note on the back of the painting, a typed caption, or better yet, an audio recording or digital photos and transcription of the class discussion would have allowed parent, teacher and even student to understand the process of learning so much more deeply.