COURSE DESCRIPTION

PLAY MAKING:
Improvising, writing, and refining stories and scripts for exhibition in the style of medieval plays

BASIC ACTING AND TECHNICAL THEATER:
Terminology, customs, and theaters in the area; improvisations and scene work, technical crew for the musical

ONE-ACT:
Audition, research and guided analysis, rehearsal and performance at Nichols and another theater

STANDARDS

Learn about and apply the elements of theater:
imagination, language, voice, movement, empathy, conflict, resolution, and technical aspects to CREATE and PERFORM

Tell, improvise, mime, and enact stories with conflict and resolution.
Communicate ideas, feelings, and character with guided script writing, voice and movement.
Pick props and costumes for final exhibition.
Exhibit to parents.

Learn vocal and movement techniques to develop characters.
Study conflict as it affects character objective.
Use imagination in playing a variety of characters.
Create technical aspects and running crew for musical play.

Apply acting skills learned in 6th grade to a play with exercises to help communicate empathy for the character to the audience (highlighted through performance at another school). Help to create some technical aspects.

Learn how theater reflects and is affected by CULTURES PAST and PRESENT

Explain the evolution of medieval theater.
Create plays in medieval style.

Enact, discuss, and compare scenes and plays based on folk tale from around the world.

Discuss during and after research how culture relates to the play.
Use acting techniques related to the genre of the play.
Observe people and animals that are similar to the characters in the play.

Learn how to CRITIQUE, ANALYZE, and RESPOND to ones’ own and to others’ performances using appropriate terminology and recognizing the relationship to the other arts (dance, music, and visual art)

Keep journals of responses to selected activities.
Use music to inspire improvisation and storytelling.
Exhibit plays along with other arts.
Evaluate selves and others with guidance.

Learn terminology.
Evaluate observed rehearsals and performances as well as acting exercises and technical work.
Use art in creating scenic effects.

Use and discuss music and artistic concepts in production.
Occasionally use dance like blocking.
Develop criteria for evaluation.
Evaluate selves and group post performances.
Compare performances.

Learn to use school and community RESOURCES (libraries, theaters, museums, internet, etc.) related to theater, and learn what careers are available in theater (Dramaturg, designer, etc.)

Use library, videos, filmstrip, and textbooks to research medieval theater.
Attend performances and show appropriate audience behavior.

Discuss careers and skills needed.
Identify local theaters and acting programs.
See videos of acting techniques.
Tour our theater.
Attend performances and show appropriate audience behavior.

Research character, play and playwright at library, zoo, internet, etc.
Aid in creating study guide.
Discuss design, dramaturgy, direction, etc.
Attend performances and show appropriate audience behavior.

Students:
Experience and create art works, in a variety of mediums (drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, video, and computcr graphics) based on a range of individual and collective experiences.

Develop their own ideas and images through the exploration and creation of works based on themes, symbols, and events.

Understand and use the elements and principles of art (line, color, texture, and shape) in order to communicate their ideas.

Reveal through their own art work understanding of how mediums and techniques influence their creative decisions.

Identify and use, in individual and group experiences, some of the roles and means for designing and exhibiting art works.

Students:
Explore selected works of art in order to discover that these works were made by artists and to discover how they were made. (The exploration may be both visual and tactile.)

Acquire the basic skllls in cutting, pasting, using clay, and using a paint brush.

Create works of art based on their personal experiences as well as their imagination.

Explore themes derived from their own personal experiences (such as stories, pets, trips, etc.) and make art that tells something about that experience.

Explore selected symbols that are used in art, (such as the symbol for the sun, a tree, a flower, a star) and discuss how the shape of the symbol may be different from one work to another , but yet the symbol is still able to be identified or named.

Learn to name visual elements (such as, shapes, textures, and colors) through multi-sensory experience.
Make works of art which incorporate selected visual elements.

Are guided to reflect upon what their art work looks like, how they used the medium (such as, paint or crayon).

Work on a class work of art such as a mural or class book.
Learn to respond to a display of the art work of the whole class by role playing or games (Such as, role playing a visit to an art gallery, interviewing the artst or playing a "treasure hunt" game).

Students:
Understand the characteristics of various mediums (two-dimensional, three dimensional, and electronic images) in order to select those that are appropriate for their purposes.

Develop skills with electronic media as a means of expressing visual ideas.

Know about some cultural institutions (museums and art galleries) and community opportunities (art festivals) for looking at orginal art , talking to visiting artists, and increasing their understanding of art.

Give examples of adults who make their living in the arts professions.

Students:
Draw images of people and things whch become increasingly more specific

Explore the characteristics of selected mediums and describe what they feel like when using them. Name those they like the best.

Make simple three dimensional works of art using additive and/or subtractive techniques.

Use a draw/paint software program to make simple graphic shapes.

Listen to and discuss the presentation of a museum person or an artist who brings original art works or artifacts to the classroom.

Look at and explore (by handling if possible) artifacts borrowed from a museum and talk about their visual characteristics and their purpose.

Listen to and ask questions of a person from the local community who makes his/her living in the visual arts (a painter, sculptor, or photographer).

Students:
Explain their reflections about the meanings, purposes and sources of works of art; describe their responses to the works and the reason for those responses.

Explain the visual and other sensory qualities (surfaces, colors, textures, shapes, sizes, and volumes) found in a wide variety of art works.

Explain the themes that are found in works of visual art and how art works are related to other forms of art (dance, music, and theatre).

Students:
Discuss the features of selected works of art, such as the subject matter and the overall feeling of the work.

Identify a work of art as distinguished from other kinds of objects and discuss where works of art can be found, (such as in the home, in school, in a museum etc.).

Identify selected art elements (such as shape, texture, and color) that are found in works of art and describe what they might express in a work of art.

Explore a theme that is part of the students’ experience that is found in a work of art. Express that theme in another form (such as movement, music , or in composing a class story).

Students:
Look at and discuss a variety of art works and artifacts from wor1d cultures to discover some important ideas, issues, and events of those cultures.

Look at a variety of art works and artifacts from diverse cultures of me United States and identify some distinguishing characteristics.

Create art works that show the influence of a particular culture.

Students:
Look at and discuss a variety of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art works from different times and different cultures, and learn that art tells us something and that the drawings, paintings, and sculpture that they do is also art.

Look at art and artifacts from different cultures of the United States and discuss what they look like.

Make a work of art based on an image or a design that they see in a work of art from another period or another culture.

Students:
Experience and create art works, in a variety of mediums (drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, video, and computer graphics) based on a range of individual and collective experiences.

Develop their own ideas and images through the exploration and creation of works based on themes, symbols, and events.

Students:
Describe the characteristics of drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking so that they can distinguish one from another.

Acquire some basic skills in at least one of these mediums.

Create original works of art based on their interpretations of nature, familiar places, activities with their families and friends, and imaginary places and things.

Explore themes derived from their experiences in school (such as reading, social studies, physical education) and/or outside of school (home, places they visit, or things they see). Students develop ways to make those experiences visual in a work of art.

Understand how symbols carry meaning in art and explore the symbols they use in their art (symbols for the sun, flowers, people, and animals, etc ).

Students:
Understand the characteristics of various mediums (two dimensional, three dimensional, and electronic images) in order to select those that are appropriate for their purposes.

Develop skills with electronic media as a means of expressing visual ideas.

Know about some cultural institutions (museums and galleries) and community opportunities (art festivals) for looking at original art and talking to visiting artists, in increasing their understanding of art.

Give examples of adults who make their living in the arts professions.

Understand and use the elements and principles of art (line, color, texture, and shape) in order to communicate their ideas.

Reveal through their own art work understanding of how mediums and techniques influence their creative decisions.

Identify and use, in individual and group experiences, some of the roles and means for designing and exhibiting art work.

Students:
Draw from observation and from imagination and understand the differences between them.
Explore the characteristics of at least two mediums, (opaque painting medium vs. transparent painting medium).
Make sculpture, using both additive and subtractive processes, and explain the differences in these processes.

Use a draw/paint software on the computer to create simple graphic images.

Listen to and ask questions of a visiting museum person or an artist who brings original art works or artifacts to the classroom for students to explore.
Look at original artifacts borrowed from a museum and talk about their their visual characteristics and their origins.

Listen to and ask questions of a person from the local community who makes his living in the visual arts ( a photographer, graphic designer, illustrator, or painter).

Begin to develop the skills of identifying the qualities of visual elements, ( line, color, and texture) and begin to make decisions about how they will use these in their own art work, (use line to convey motion, use color to convey feeling, use size to suggest distance, or use pattern to suggest rhythm or movement).
Begin to compose their work by arranging forms and colors in a deliberate way to convey a specific meaning.

Describe the choices they have made about which medium or technique they used in their art work and the reasons for those choices, (such as, describe why they may have used crayon rather than tempera, or describe why a clay image of an animal that they have made is different from their drawing of the same animal).

Work with others to plan and produce a group art work (mural or book illustrated by the class).
Plan and mount a display of their art work.

Students:
Explain their reflections about the meanings, purposes, and sources of works of art; describe their responses to the work and the reason for those response.

Explain the visual and other sensory qualities (surfaces, colors, textures, shape, sizes, and volumes) found in a wide variety of art works.

Explain the themes that are found in works of visual art and how art works are related to other forms of art (dance, music, and theatre).

Students:
Draw conclusions about the meaning of a work of art after they have named and described what they saw in that work.

Check their responses to a work of art by going back to the work to describe what it is about the work that triggered their responses.

Compare works of art and describe how the elements can communicate different ideas (such as, lines may imply motion, color may convey feelings, size may suggest distance, or pattern may suggest rhythm or movement).

Explore a theme that is part of the students’ experience (children’s games or imaginary worlds). Compare how that theme is depicted in a visual work of art and in another art form (a story, a poem, or a song).

Students:
Look at and discuss a variety of art works and artifacts from world cultures to discover some important ideas, issues, and events of those cultures.

Look at a variety of art works and artifacts from diverse cultures of the United States and identify some distinguishing characteristics.

Create art works that show the influence of a particular culture.

Students:
Look at works of art from world cultures and describe the characteristics of the images by comparing them with images they are familiar with.

Look at works of art from a variety of historical periods and describe how the objects in those works are different from the same kinds of objects and things in their surroundings ( the clothing worn, the houses, the tools , and toys).

Look at art and artifacts from diverse cultures of the United States and describe what they look like (ethnic costumes, Northwest Native American totems, etc.).

Create a work of art based on the way images or designs are depicted on works of art from cultures other than their own (make a section of a quilt after looking at Amish quilts, depict an animal after looking at the way an animal is depicted in Japanese or Chinese, or Indian art ).

Students:
Experiment and create art work, in a variety of mediums (drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, video, and computer graphics) based on a range of individual and collective experiences.

Develop their own ideas and images through exploration and creation of works based on themes, symbols, and events.

Understand and use the elements and principles of art (line, color, texture, and shape) in order to communicate their ideas.

Reveal through their own art work understanding of how mediums and techniques influence their creative decision.

Identify and use, in individual and group experiences, some of the roles and means for designing and exhibiting art works.

Students:
Recognize the characteristics of various mediums when looking at a work of art and identify the medium used in a specific work of art.
Acquire basic skills in at last two of these mediums.
Create more complex works of art based on their observation, recall, and imagination.

Explore themes derived from their experiences in school (literature, social studies, physical education, science) and/or outside of school (home, the popular media, places they visit, etc.). Students develop ways to make these experiences visual in a work of art.
Explore the meaning of symbols they find in works of art and dis cover ways in which they use symbols in their own work (such as, symbols for objects they are depicting, for ways of identifying or distinguishing one person from another, etc ).

Further develop the skills of identifying the qualities of the visual elements, and make some decisions about how they will use these in their work (such as, use line to convey motion or feeling, color to convey emphasis, size to convey space, pattern to convey rhythm, and shape and form to convey meaning).
Continue to compose their art work by arranging the visual elements in a deliberate way to convey meaning.

Make a choice between two mediums based on their understanding of the properties of each of the mediums and their ability to convey a specific meaning through that medium.
Reflect on the effects of a medium specified by the teacher on the ideas that are conveyed in the work (such as, the ideas or feeling that is communicated by the use of a fine marker as a drawing instrument vs. the use of brush and ink).

Work with others to plan and produce a group art work (mural, book illustrated by the class, or a stage design).
Plan and mount a display of their art work.

Students:
Understand the characteristics of various mediums (two-dimensional, three dimensional and electronic images) in order to select those that are appropriate for their purposes.

Develop skills with electronic media as a means of expressing visual ideas.

Know about some cultural institutions (museum and galleries) and community opportunities (art festivals) for looking at original art and talking to visiting artists, in increasing their understanding of art.

Give examples of adults who make their living in the arts professions.

Students:
Continue to draw from observation and from imagination. Learn how to transform drawings from observation into imaginative drawings.

Explore at least three mediums, comparing and contrasting the technical and visual characteristics of each. Develop technical skills in at least two mediums.

Make sculpture, using both the additive and subtractive processes and describe the differences between these processes.

Use a draw/paint computer software to create graphic images employing the use of selected visual elements and the principles of composition.

Use multimedia as a means of generating a graphic image (such as, a pin hole camera and/or a video camera and/or Xerox copying).

Ask questions about and be able to discuss the ideas presented by a visiting museum person or an artist who brings original art works or artifacts to the classroom.

Examine original artifacts borrowed from a museum or some other source and discuss their visual characteristics, origins, and purposes.

Listen to and ask questions of a person from the local community who makes his/her living in the visual arts (photographer, graphic designer, illustrator, painter, or architect, etc.)

Students:
Explain their reflections about the meanings, purposes, and sources of works of art; describe their responses to the works and the reason for those responses.

Explain the visual and other sensory qualities (surfaces, colors, textures, shape, sizes, and volumes) found in a wide variety of art works.

Explain the themes that are found in works of visual art and how art works are related to other forms of art (dance, music, and theatre).

Students:
Describe, analyze, and interpret selected works of art exploring their functions, purposes, and roles.

Describe their responses to a work of art, orally and in writing, and explore the reasons for their responses.

Use art terms to describe, analyze, and interpret the visual characteristics of works of art.

Compare and contrast the function of selected visual elements in two or more works of art.

Explore a theme that is part of the students’ experience (the power of nature, the love and/or conflict between or among people, etc.). Explain how that theme is portrayed in selected works of art. Explore how that same theme is conveyed in a poem, a story, a dance, a musical selection, or a theatre piece.

Explore how themes or ideas found in works of art may also be expressed in other disciplines (the power, the rhythms, and patterns of nature as expressed in science; and the idea of pattern, rhythm, and progression as found in mathematics).

Students:
Look at and discuss a variety of art works and artifacts from world cultures to discover some important ideas, issues, and events.

Look at a variety of art works and artifacts from diverse cultures of the United States and identify some distinguishing characteristics.

Students:
Contrast and compare the cultural functions and origins of selected works of art.

Explore how types and styles of art are influenced by time and culture (such as the depiction of the human figure changes with time and is different in different cultures, and the depiction of space changes over time and among cultures).

Look at art and artifacts from diverse cultures of the United States and describe the visual characteristics (such as, the Spanish style of architecture found In the Southwest, the art of African Americans which depict the African American experience, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, etc.).

Create a work of art which reinterprets the style or design of a work of art from another culture.

Students:
Experience and create art work in a variety of mediums (drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, video, and computer graphics) based on a range of individual and collective experiences.

Develop their own ideas and images through the exploration and creation of works based on themes, symbols and events.

Students:
Recognize more subtle characteristics of mediums and are able to apply that knowledge when they are looking at works of art and when they select mediums to use in their own work.

Acquire basic skills in at least three of these mediums.

Create more complex works of art based on their observations, recall, and imagination.

Explore themes derived for their experiences both in school and outside of school, including larger cultural themes, (myths, nature, human concerns and needs).

Explore the meaning of symbols and images they find in works of art and discover ways in which they may use symbolism and images in their own work Discover symbols and meaningful images used in other times and other cultures and derive ways of adapting these to their own artistic needs.

Students:
Understand the characteristics of various mediums (two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and electronic images) in order to select those that are appropriate for their purposes.

Develop skills with electronic media as a means of expressing visual ideas.

Know about some cultural institutions (museums and galleries) and community opportunities (art festivals) for looking at original art and talking to visiting artists, in increasing their understanding of art.

Give examples of adults who make their living in the arts professions.

Understand and use the elements and principles of art (line, color, texture, and shape) in order to communicate their ideas.

Reveal through their own art work understanding of how mediums and techniques influence their creative decisions.

Identify and use, in individual and group experiences, some of the roles and means for designing and exhibiting art works.

Students:
Continue to develop drawing skills for sketching ideas, for recording observations and for expressing imaginative ideas.
Continue to explore a variety of mediums, developing a deeper knowledge of the visual and technical characteristics of these mediums. Develop technical skills in at least three mediums by the end of 6th grade.
Make sculpture using both the additive and subtractive processes which require multiple steps.

Use computer graphics software program to create images which indicate a knowledge of the visual language.
Use multimedia to create visual images.

Be able to discuss both orally and in writing the ideas presented by a visiting museum person or a visiting artist.
Examine original artifacts borrowed from a museum or some other source and research and discuss their visual characteristics, origins, and purposes.

Research and discuss the job requirements and preparation for a person who makes his/her living in the visual arts.

Perceive more subtle characteristics and interactions of the elements and principles of art.
Use selected elements and principles of art in their own work in such a way that they give evidence that they understand how these elements and principles give structure and meaning to their work.

Select a medium from an array of three or more, and be able to describe why they chose that medium.
Analyze whether or not the medium they chose for a particular work was effective in expressing their ideas.

Work with others to plan and produce a group art work, with each student reflecting on his/her level of participation.
Plan and mount a display of their art work, including the writing of descriptive labels.

Students:
Explain their reflections about the meanings, purposes and sources of works of art; describe their responses to the works and the reason for those responses.

Explain the visual and other sensory qualities (surfaces, colors, textures, shapes, sizes, and volumes) found in a wide variety of art works.

Explain the themes that are found in works of visual art and how art works are related to other forms of art (dance, music, and theatre).

Students:
Discuss the features of selected works of art, such as the subject matter and the overall feeling of the work.

Identify a work of art as distinguished from other kinds of objects and discuss where works of art can be found, (such as in the home, in school, in a museum etc.).

Identify selected art elements (such as shape, texture, and color) that are found in works of art and describe what they might express in a work of art.

Explore a theme that is part of the students’ experience that is found in a work of art. Express that theme in another form (such as movement, music , or in composing a class story).

Students:
Look at and discuss a variety of art works and artifacts from wor1d cultures to discover some important ideas, issues, and events of those cultures.

Look at a variety of art works and artifacts from diverse cultures of me United States and identify some distinguishing characteristics.

Create art works that show the influence of a particular culture.

Students:
Look at and discuss a variety of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art works from different times and different cultures, and learn that art tells us something and that the drawings, paintings, and sculpture that they do is also art.

Look at art and artifacts from different cultures of the United States and discuss what they look like.

Make a work of art based on an image or a design that they see in a work of art from another period or another culture.