TKES Alignment Middle & High School

Visual Art

This document seeks to provide additional examples specific to the middle and high school
visual arts classes aligned with the TKES Standards. This list is not comprehensive, but
provides pertinent additional information tied directly to each TKES standard one might observe
in these art classrooms.

1. Professional Knowledge
Knowing & Understanding:
● Art history concepts and cultural movements
● Artistic styles and their association with various cultures/artists and periods in history
● Awareness of and cultural sensitivity surrounding art concepts and ideas
● Awareness of local museums and/or exhibits for students to see artwork in person,
websites where students can safely explore various artists and/or art styles
● Awareness of how copyright directly impacts and applies to artmaking
● What content, projects, and /or materials is/are developmentally appropriate for your
student population
● What materials are appropriate to complete a project
● How to break down the stages of a project into bite sized chunks that are accessible for
students
● How to scaffold assignments/projects to guide students towards successful outcomes
● How to properly care for and use art materials, tools, and equipment

2. Instructional Planning
In addition to traditional planning such as lesson plans, data review, planning for
differentiated instruction, planning in the middle/high school visual arts class may include:
● Planning what supplies/materials are needed for a given project from concept to
completion
● Organizing supplies/materials for efficient student use
● Loading and unloading the kiln
● Resetting between grade levels/classes
● Properly cleaning and storing materials
● Creating and/or curating past examples (finished or in-progress examples) for students
to reference during projects
● Creating/ effectively using anchor charts
● Preparing centers for TAB instruction or other instructional delivery strategies that
require centers
● Reviewing data to identify student needs for differentiated instruction/materials/strategies
● Planning alternative/ differentiated instructional strategies and/or materials for identified
students
● Investigating research-based instructional strategies for visual arts
● Researching and experimenting with new projects/techniques/strategies/materials for
future instruction
 3. Instructional Strategies
In addition to traditional strategies, here are some additional strategies you may see in a
visual arts classroom:
● Delivering instruction in a variety of ways making the content and/or materials
accessible/appropriate for your students
● Demonstrations for techniques and /or materials use
● Chunking material/ steps for instruction
● Providing checklists for students to complete tasks
● Providing direct instruction in the form of traditional note taking, video delivery,
graphic organizers, use of sketch journals
● Teaching strategies for choice-based art instruction can include Choice-based art
curriculum, Self-directed learning, Learner directed classroom, Authentic art
making, Teaching for Artistic Behaviors (TAB)
● Various literacy and visual literacy strategies, including but not limited to formal
and informal critiques of artwork, reflection on past artworks, vocabulary
integration strategies, sketch journals for visual note taking strategies
● Visual thinking strategies (VTS), brainstorming activities, teaching through
process, Design-based thinking

4. Differentiated Instruction
In addition to traditional differentiation strategies, here are some strategies you may see
in the visual art classroom
● Using age/skill-level appropriate techniques and materials with students; use of formal
and informal data to determine needs of students for differentiation purposes
Process Examples
● Some students will be allowed to trace all or part of an assignment while other groups
are drawing independently
● Some students may use watercolor pencils while others use watercolor paint to complete
a project
● Some students may be allowed to outline their work in black permanent marker while
others are using black acrylic paint
Product Examples
● Size of the finished product (size of paper provided/ required may be larger or smaller
depending on student needs/levels of ability)
● Some students may be using alternative but appropriate materials to complete a similar
art project to their peers
Environment Examples
● Grouping students based on skill level and/or evidence of understanding of a given topic
for a project
● Flexible grouping- evolving placements based on student need
Content Examples
● Students with higher evidence of content knowledge and/or skills are given more
complex concepts and/or increased independence, i.e. when students creating anchor
charts or art projects in groups, the more challenging concepts are given to the students
 showing higher level understanding of the concepts and/or higher levels of artistic
development specific to the assignment
● Students are given consistent and continuous feedback during the artmaking process
through one-on-one conferences when seeking approval to move on to their final draft of
a project, when helping to demonstrate how to draw specific objects in their individual
work, through teacher observation the specific example is based on students' needs.
● EXAMPLE- a student asks their teacher how to draw a tree for their art assignment, the
teacher then considers the students’ level of ability and looks at their current work and
selects an appropriate type of tree and draws an example walking the student through
the process for that specific style and type of tree.

5. Assessment Strategies
In addition to traditional assessment strategies, you may see these in an art classroom
● Rubrics designed to assess technique, artistic skill level, content area knowledge
acquisition, concept comprehension, and/or other specific visual arts
concepts/competencies
● One-on-one feedback conference (formal or informal)
● Teacher observation, documentation, and intervention (as necessary) of student
performance on various stages of a project
● Reflection on completed work and/or professional artists’ works in the form of formal
and/or informal critiques (written or oral submissions)
● Continuous revisions based on feedback/conference
● Rough draft checks/conferences to move on to next stages in the artistic process (Use of
checkpoints)
● Sketchbook checks
● Skill Assessments

6. Assessment Uses
Data gathered from assessments is used to determine strategies, instructional delivery
determination, and to generally make attaining art skills and knowledge accessible to all
students. It may be used in traditional methods of instruction, but may additionally
include the following in a middle/high school visual arts setting:
● Teacher observation data on a particular project may result in intervention and small
group instruction and/or one-on-one intervention to correct technique and/or concept
misconceptions.
● Teachers may provide one-on-one instruction during a conference requiring additional
work and/or proof of concept on a rough draft before moving on to the final draft of their
work on a project
● Skills assessments may result in certain students being identified as needing to use one
material to complete a project while another group will use a different one (Example:
watercolor paints vs. watercolor pencils)
● Data derived from assessments is often used to determine how to tailor the next steps in
a project, how an instructor may deliver the information to specific identified groups, it
may also necessitate alterations in plans for materials used in next steps and/or
 corrections/instructional redelivery for additional understanding to help guide students to
be successful in their projects

7. Positive Learning Environment

In the middle/high school visual arts setting it is vitally important for the instructor to
facilitate a positive learning environment where students feel free to express themselves
throughout the artmaking process where appropriate. It may include some of the
following methods:
● Supplies and materials are organized for efficient student use and accessibility for all
students is considered and adjusted to meet student needs
● Feedback/conferences with students is developmentally appropriate and designed to
provide the teacher and students opportunities to have constructive and positive
interactions
● Rituals, routines, policies, and procedures are clear and equitably enforced
● Arty history concepts, cultural movements, artistic styles and their association with
various cultures, artists, and/or periods in history are presented with awareness of
cultural sensitivity surrounding these concepts and ideas
● Multiple perspectives and/or approaches on a given topic or concept may be explored in
order to increase the inclusive nature of the artmaking experience

8. Academically Challenging Environment

Middle/high school visual arts curriculum should be developmentally appropriate to meet
students’ needs and allow all students accessibility to the artmaking process. This may
include some of the following methods to achieve this goal:
● Based on skills select materials are used with different groups of students
● Age/skill level appropriate scaffolding/chunking of directions is provided
● Developmentally appropriate projects are selected based on student readiness and
age/skill level are a consideration in this process (i.e. while a student may be at an
elementary level of ability , their age is also considered to adjust assignments to a level
that is developmentally appropriate for them)
● In artmaking, the overall task may appear to be daunting if taken in all at once, through
appropriate scaffolding and building assignments and lessons, an art instructor’s goal is
to make the task approachable and guide the students to visualize and achieve success
on a given project/assignment (quite often students will complain that a project is
impossible when they begin, but by the end, through competently crafted lessons
including appropriate differentiation and interventions, the project become approachable,
and through the process the students find success to the point that the project often
feels “easy”)

9. Professionalism
As in all fields of education, professionalism is key, and while most of the professional
tasks of a middle/high school visual arts teacher mirror their peers, here are some
specific examples you might find in this setting:
 ● The teacher seeks to continually improve their craft through research which may include
going to museums and art galleries, attending additional training and/or classes to learn
new art techniques and skills, professional development, participating in collaboration
opportunities within their content area and in interdisciplinary opportunities when they
arise
● The teacher seeks to contribute to the profession by creating their own art, sharing
lessons, exhibiting their own work in exhibitions, demonstrating/presenting to other
teachers and/or community members
● Joining professional organizations like the National Art Education Association (NAEA)
and Georgia Art Education Association (GAEA) or any other recognized visual art or
professional education association
● Joining local arts associations like the Savannah Arts Association, Sulfur Studios, or the
Fibers Guild of the Savannahs
● Subscribing to one of the many professional organizations designed to support and
inform art educators, such as The Art of Education, Art Class Curator, or using free
recognized websites like The Incredible Art Department, Blick Lessons Plans, etc.
● Participation in district and state level trainings when available

10. Communication
Communication encompasses all of what we do as educators, and middle/high school
visual arts teachers use all the same methods that traditional teachers use, but may also
include:
● Promoting the arts in our district through participation in Youth Art Month (March each
year)
● Hosting events at their school such as fine arts nights
● Promoting the arts through participation in other fine arts events/competitions such as
the PTA’s Reflections Contest, New Beginning Youth Art Exhibition, High School
Congressional Show and the Superintendent’s Gala for the Arts