California University of Pennsylvania
Guidelines for New Course Proposals
University Course Syllabus
Approved: 2/4/13
Department of Art and Design
A.

Protocol
Course Name:
Teaching Art in Grades 9 - 12
Course Number:
ART 411
Credits:
3
Prerequisites:
Art and Design Declared Majors
Maximum Class Size (face-to-face): 40
Maximum Class Size (online):
(Choose which one is appropriate or both if applicable)

B.

Objectives of the Course:
To prepare our students to be able to:
- Effectively teach art at the secondary level in a way that clearly demonstrates a
student-centered philosophy.
- Design and execute developmentally appropriate lesson plans driven by the
State and National Standards for art education.
- Prepare students to design developmentally appropriate lesson plan objectives,
material selection, motivational strategies, procedures, and multiple assessments.
- Plan strategies for teaching students at Grade 9-12 levels to describe, analyze,
interpret and make judgements about Art Production, Art Criticism, Aesthetic
Perception and Art History.
- Design and maintain a well-organized, properly lit, clean, safe classroom
environment.
- Employ teaching strategies that support creativity, imagination, practical skills,
presentation skills, social skills and responsibilities.

- Be an articulate advocate for the arts in education at all levels to colleagues,
administrators, parents, community, and politicians.
- Develop a portfolio of lesson plans involving Discipline-Based Art Education
(DBAE) areas in traditional through new technological 2-,3-,& 4-dimensional
mediums and methods. These would include but not be limited to: Drawing,
painting, sculpture, graphic and multiples mediums, book arts, light-based
mediums, time-based mediums (i.e. video), stained glass, jewelry, fibers, ‘postmodern mediums,’ art history, art criticism and aesthetics.
- Address contemporary issues in visual art that include but are not limited to:
multiculturalism, pluralism, gender issues, nationalism, ethnographic and
anthropological perspectives.
- Take responsibility for developing visual literacy – how to see, recognize and
think critically about information in the visual world as it contributes to larger
‘Visual Cultures.’
- Address interdisciplinary approaches to visual art in secondary education,
especially in areas such as visual perception, visual physiology, visual reality,
physics of light and materials, chemistry of materials and processes,
experimental strategies, etc.
- Expand opportunities for exhibition of public school visual art within the
school, community, region, nation, and world in real and cyber space.
- Research and write simple grants for monetary and in-kind support of school
art programs and special projects from government, private, corporate, small
business and various other sources.
- Help advise secondary art students on appropriate career options.
C.

Catalog Description:
Teaching Art in Grades 9-12 is designed to prepare the k-12 art education
specialist to be a more effective teacher of art students in grades 9-12 for the
needs of the 21st century. Traditional and non-traditional materials and methods
will be addressed in art production. In addition, art criticism, art history and
aesthetics will be addressed in the context of a daily classroom expectation. Fine
Art, Crafts and Visual Culture/Visual Literacy will be explored with a focus
upon preparing teachers who are able to deliver a solid foundation in visual
thinking and learning as well as help the more career-minded student.

D.

Outline of the Course:
1.

Introduction to the secondary art student. Preparing relevant objectives
a. PA state standards for secondary art education
b. National standards for secondary art education.

2.

Interdisciplinary considerations and the Post-Modern world in
secondary art education.

3.

Visual art education advocacy in secondary art education.
a. strategies within the school faculty and administration
b. strategies for parents and the community

4.

Out-of-classroom sources and resources:
a. Arranging Artist-in-Residencies,
b. Visiting art exhibitions, and other field trips
c. Bringing in outreach programs and writing grants for monetary and
in-kind materials and services.

5.

Planning for Art History and the Secondary classroom.
a. Multicultural history timelines
b. Using art history as a unit organizer

6.

Planning for Art Criticism and the Secondary Classroom.
a. Strategies for building strong use of the elements of design
b. Integrating the principles of design to production media and art
history

7.

Planning for Visual Aesthetics and the Secondary Classroom.
a. Finding the major aesthetic issues
b. Creating a basic discourse in aesthetics

8.

Planning for Visual Literacy and its relation to Visual Culture in the
Secondary Classroom.
a. The language of visual cultures
b. The power and politics of visual language

9.

Designing lessons and units for secondary art education in:
a. traditional and non-traditional 2-D methods and materials.
b. traditional and non-traditional multiples methods and materials.
c. 3-D imaging and optical methods and materials.
d. materials and methods in sculpture.

e. monumental sculpture and architecture.
f. traditional materials and methods in crafts: metals/jewelry, glass,
and fibers.
10. Special needs in the Secondary art classroom.
E.

Teaching Methodology:
Traditional Classroom Methodology
1.Instructor:
a. Classroom Lecture,
b. Classroom Demonstration
c. Hands-on activities
d. Person-by person Guidance
2. Group work: to reinforce studio atmosphere, layout of space, work stations,
etc. demonstrated and practiced as a group.
3. When possible, purposeful, topic-related observation visits to secondary
classrooms of different grade levels in art education:
a. Resulting in written reports that respond to a classroom observation
guide and
b. Oral reports from the observation shared and discussed in class.
4. Outside purposeful visits to cultural institutions with
assessment guidelines tailored for different community resources:
a. Students share their report to class verbally and
b. Students hand in a written report to instructor.
5. In last 2/5 of total class sessions, students generate over 30 written pages
of developmentally specific lesson plans (with opportunities for revision)
that will:
a. Address different major visual art mediums along with art criticism, art
history and aesthetic perception according to DBAE inspired National
and PA State Standards.
b. Students then demonstrate their lessons in class with examples.
6. Time permitting, students in this course learn from experts in the field who
address specific topics such as art educator portfolio development and how to use
local museums as art educational resources.

F.

Text

G.

Assessment Activities:
1)
2)

H.

Traditional Classroom Assessment
Online Assessment

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities:
• Reserve the right to decide when to self-identify and when to request
accommodations.
• Will register with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) each semester to
receive accommodations.
• Might be required to communicate with faculty for accommodations, which
specifically involve the faculty.
• Will present the OSD Accommodation Approval Notice to faculty when
requesting accommodations that involve the faculty.
Requests for approval for reasonable accommodations should be directed to the Office for
Students with Disabilities (OSD). Approved accommodations will be recorded on the
OSD Accommodation Approval notice and provided to the student. Students are expected
to adhere to OSD procedures for self-identifying, providing documentation and requesting
accommodations in a timely manner.
Contact Information:
• Location:
• Phone:
• Fax:
• Email:
• Web Site:
I.

Azorsky Hall – Room 105
(724) 938-5781
(724) 938-4599
osdmail@calu.edu
http://www.calu.edu/current-students/student
services/disability/index.htm

Supportive Instructional Materials, e.g. library materials, web sites, etc.

Additional support will be gleaned from:
- Assigned and in-class university library books addressing Western and
Western artists and art forms.

non-

- Appropriate art magazines that include but are not limited to: Art News,
in America, Artforum, Art on Paper.

Art

- Art-education-specific journals - of particular interest are two from the
National Art Education Association: Art Education: The journal of the
National Art Education Association, and Studies in Art Education: A
journal of issues and research in art education.
- In addition, the NAEA also publishes a list of art education related books, a
newsletter, and periodically distributes two-sided condensed information about
specific hot topics in art education from classroom management to addressing
visual culture in the art education curriculum.
- Resources also exist in presenting actual artwork, posters, and other
reproductions as well as visiting exhibitions and institutions of visual art.
- Actual artists will be visiting on campus, and art and design clubs will be
sponsoring gallery and artist/designer studio visits – art education students are
encouraged to take advantage of these extra-curricular events created both on
and off campus.
- The PA State Department of Education, and other sites addressing issues in
secondary art education will be used.
- In addition, a Pennsylvania Art Education Association Student Chapter will
likely be founded in the near future, and not just membership but attendance of
and contributions to conferences will be expected of students.
NOTE: The internet is presented as a strong potential resource for web-based art
education information (Getty, ERIC, and other art, art education, museum,
gallery and artist sites abound). In addition, an abundance of web-based
curriculum content exists but is only useful when tempered with sound studentcentered, safety-minded classroom knowledge to transform it – lesson and unit
plans are NOT ‘plug-and-play’. Images can be used from the internet
successfully in a capacity that does not attempt to substitute them instead of
sources that may better exist in available books, magazines or other
professionally printed sources. (Web images are typically of a poorer quality for
viewing on screen or printing because high resolution images take up too much
space.)

Additional Information for Course Proposals
J.

Proposed Instructors:
Any qualified faculty member of the Department of Art and Design.

K.

Rationale for the Course:
This course will formally add a unique assessment piece to the body of
knowledge needed in creative academic art programs, which is currently absent
as a specific focus. Students will develop a broad foundation of scholarly skills
in assessment of creative products of their own and others at all developmental
learning levels. There is both a need for art students to have ample opportunities
that use different senses that develop their imagination and creative thinking and
for interested non-majors to expand their assessment abilities in visual literacy.
This course will be beneficial to students in all programs of Art and Design and
anyone responsible for expanding their skills in visual literacy.

L.

Specialized Equipment or Supplies Needed:
No specialized equipment is needed.

M.

Answer the following questions using complete sentences:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Does the course require additional human resources? (Please explain)
This course will not require additional human resources.
Does the course require additional physical resources? (Please explain)
This course will not require additional physical resources.
Does the course change the requirements in any particular major?
(Please explain)
All art education students in the Art and Design Department will be
required to take this course as well as those wanting to teach workshops.
Does the course replace an existing course in your program? (If so, list the
course)
This course does not replace an existing course.
How often will the course be taught?
This course will be taught every semester.
Does the course duplicate an existing course in another Department or
College? (If the possibility exists, indicate course discipline, number, and
name)
This course does not duplicate an existing course in any other department.

N.

If the proposed course includes substantial material that is traditionally taught
in another discipline, you must request a statement of support from the
department chair that houses that discipline.
N/A

O.

Please identify if you are proposing to have this course considered as a menu
course for General Education. If yes, justify and demonstrate the reasons
based on the categories for General Education. The General Education
Committee must consider and approve the course proposal before
consideration by the UCC.
Fine Arts.