Alanna Gaylord's Art Education Portfolio

Description:

             The National Core Arts Standards are voluntary standards grounded in substantial research and Marilyn Stewart’s Enduring Understandings curriculum philosophy. The standards, which encompass visual arts, music, theater, dance, and media arts, are designed to create comprehensive expectations for the arts, foster equitable opportunities, ensure a quality education, and stimulate learning that transcends the classroom. The new National Core Arts Standards were released in 2014 as a revision of the 1994 National Standards for Art Education, and are backed by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) along with seven other partnering organizations that formed the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards in 2001. The standards were written in order to be in alignment with the Common Core standards for Math and English Language arts, however they are not directly affiliated. The National Core Art Standards provide guidelines for the deeper learning that should be found in all art classes throughout public education.

 

Analysis:

            The National Core Arts Standards focus on five overarching categories of philosophical foundations. These foundations are: The Arts as Communication; The Arts as Creative Personal Realization; The Arts as Culture, History, and Connectors; The Arts as a Means to Wellbeing; and the Arts as community Engagement. These foundations are the basis for the anchor standards, enduring ideas, and essential questions that drive the performance standards. Through the development of artistic literacy, knowledge gained through authentic and hands on learning using appropriate tools in appropriate settings, and conceptual understandings, students not only meet individual performance standards, but work towards lifelong goals. The lifelong goals are for students to apply the overarching ideas or “enduring ideas” to the rest of their life and inform their development as a citizen.

            The National Core Arts Standards not only benefit the students, but they also provide an abundance of resources for the teachers. The standards provide enduring understandings, essential questions, and proficiency levels, which help teachers to develop and plan lessons and also help them decide what should be taught and how. Yet the standards are open and broad enough to allow teachers to decide the specific media and processes. The standards also provide an abundance of online resources, for instance examples of lesson plans and forms of assessment, as well as information and development resources. Most importantly, the standards are a resource for teaching art in a way that incorporates both comprehensive and skill based experiences.

 

Reflection:

            My experiences with the National Core Arts Standards have helped me create dynamic and successful art lessons. I have often created art lessons in a backwards sense: when creating a lesson, I first decide the skills and themes that students should learn; then the I choose medium; then I figure out how to make the project fun and relate to the world, using overarching themes such as famous artists, cultures, art styles, etc.; then finally I use the standards to create assessments. I have found that the National Core Arts Standards are designed to create comprehensive expectations for the arts, foster equitable opportunities, ensure a quality education, and stimulate learning that transcends the classroom.