PART 2: UNIT OF WORK OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW
UNIT TITLE &
THEME
Popular art forms in the contemporary art world
Focus on art forms and subject matter
STAGE AND
GRADE

Stage three year five

AIM

This uni aims to integrate the study of visual arts with the skills and
knowledge development of English and history. The lesson sequence and
content covered offers a wide array of insight into the art world an aims to
emphasise how and why art has changed as well as making evident to
student the prevalence of contemporary art in their 21
st
century lives.

RELEVANCE

The reality of todays 21
st
century classrooms contain many deadlines,
pressures and expectations for teachers to meet benchmarks in areas of
Mathematics and Literacy leaving Key learning areas such as the arts
unappreciated and undervalued. Often the arts is a key learning area that
is put aside for a Friday afternoon or a wet weather day. In reference to
this, the relevance of this unit aims to bring the arts back to the forefront of
classroom teaching. The exploration of the art world is utilised in this unit as
a theme/ basis for learning that is supported by the English and History
curriculum. Selecting art as a basis and using the English and History
curriculums as supporting KLAs have allowed the educators to appeal to
the interests of the students within the classroom throughout this program.
Students in this classroom are very easily bored and at times experince
frustrations with heavy content saturated subject such as English and
Mathematics and therefore, this unit provides alternate pathways to
achieve the relevant benchmarks and outcomes for these particular
students in a creative way.

This unit has been designed with a high degree of relevance to the
learners within the classroom situational analysis as it appeals greatly to the
digitally native learners and current trends of the 21
st
century; containing
an explicit focus on ICT. The unit offers within it rich tasks that encourage
students to become autonomous and independent in their learning as
they investigate various art concepts though inquiry learning and student
directed learning tasks. Students within this unit are identified as artists and
are encouraged to express individuality and uniqueness in an effort to
appeal to the diverse abilities of all learners. This unit allows for the smooth
manipulation of differentiated tasks that appeal to the specific needs of
learners within the classroom. The unit itself has a high focus on visual
imagery and stimulation and therefore it well suited to the visual needs of
the ESL/EALD and learners with other specific needs (autism/ dyspraxia). In
an effort to cater to the specific needs of dyspraxia the rich task and
assessments in this unit are digitally based or contain digital alternatives
therefore the production of handwritten work is minimal.

THE ROLE OF
ICT

ICT plays a large role within this unit as it predominantly forms the basis for
the rich assessment task. ICT is very much a fundamental form of
contemporary art and therefore the content of this unit is also heavily
focused on the use of media and ICT within art, for example within videos,
music, digital installations, animations and 3D printing etc. ICT is also used
with the learning sequence as students engage in inquiry research and
formulate ways to present their work (e.g word, PowerPoint and Prezi, Go-
Animate, Weebly and other classroom platforms such as Google
Docs/Drive and Classm8 etc).

ASSESSMENT
AND RICH
TASK

ONGOING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Throughout the learning sequence educators will engage in a number of
formative assessment procedures that aim to thoroughly inform the
educator of the rate and state of the learners educative process so that
the educator is fully aware of the students knowledge and skills. The
educator will:
Use Evernote to record observations including anecdotal jottings
and photographs of a) students engaged in art making or b)
student work samples documenting ongoing learning
Collect student task work, mark and provide feedback to ensure
students are utilising subject specific vocabulary, writing cohesive
responses and demonstrate an awareness of the agencies within
the conceptual framework when required to break down
information.
Engage in cooperative discussions to receive insight, provide
feedback, reflect and clarify ideas for students during their learning.

SUMMATIVE: RICH ASSESSMENT TASK
To summate the learning process student will engage in a two-week
design and make project. This will form the rich assessment task for this unit.
During these two-week students will be expected to plan, develop and
produce one artwork digitally based that has been inspired by a previous
art making experience though the learning sequence. The criteria for this
assessment is as followed:
MUST be digitally based (created, designed or presented using ICT)
MUST be inspired by ONE previous art making task (i.e portraiture,
sculpture, installations, animation etc)
Presented in one form of art only
Special dimensions are limited to a space of 1 squared meter (i.e 1
meter in height, depth and length for artworks such as installations)
Portfolio including the following:
- Artwork citation including artwork title, dimensions and materials
and brief artist statement to accompany the artwork in a gallery
- A two to three paragraph summary of the artist intentions for the
artwork including the artists inspirations.
- A two week reflective log book documenting the artists practice
- Artists plan for the artwork to mapping the artists initial thinking:
this might include any ideas, thoughts, brief sketches, mind maps,
resources, ideas about colour, patterns and themes.
The purpose of this assignment is to create an opportunity to the students
to showcase their individual knowledge, skills and understandings of art
forms, subject matter and art practice gained within the learning
sequence through a creative and particularly individual means. It allows
students to become the artist and experience first hand the realities of the
art world. The assessment includes both art marking and appreciating
components that are evenly weighted in their significance.


SYLLABUS LINKS
KLA OUTCOMES & INDICATORS

VISUAL ARTS

Making: VAS3.2: Makes artworks for different audiences assembling
materials in a variety of ways.
Examines a range of concepts and their relationships to selected forms
and experiments with such things as the expressive use of colour,
qualities of abstraction and sculpture, the sequencing of events in a
video, digital work or cartoon, the use of found objects and other
objects in an installation or sculptural work
Discusses the conditions and requirements of artworks that are made for
particular purposes, sites or events and how those conditions and
requirements can affect how they might go about their own artmaking.

Appreciating: VAS3.4: Communicates about the ways in which subject
matter is represented in artworks.
Identifies and describes the properties of different forms, materials and
techniques in artworks and comments on how these are employed in
the representation of subject matter
Suggests how subject matter can mean different things in artworks and
seeks to explain meanings by developing reasoned accounts using the
conceptual framework (artist, work, world and audience)
Considers a range of artworks and their subject matter including
paintings, drawings, photographs, video and digital works, sculptures,
installations and buildings, prints and digital animations

ENGLISH

EN3-7C: Thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about
information and ideas and identifies connections between texts when
responding to and composing texts
Creates texts for a range of audiences
Writes creatively from a range of viewpoints and roles (i.e critic, artist,
audience or character)
Responds and connects ideas within various texts

EN3-2A: Composes, edits and presents well-structured and coherent texts
Plans, drafts and edits on work for cohesion, grammar and spelling
Publishes work in both handwritten and digital forms
Investigates how complex sentences can be used to elaborate, extend
and explain Ideas
Uses specific metalanguage such as artists names, titles of art forms and
techniques etc.

HISTORY

HT3-5: Applies a variety of skills of historical inquiry and communication
Identifies and understands that the art world is heavily influenced by the
society of its time
Identities art within its historical periods
Uses inquiry skills to identify the influences of a particular art period
Links art periods with the appropriate dates/ times
Recognises art as a means of documenting changes in history and
society
Engages with ICT to inquire about art periods their forms. practices and
significant artists.

TEN WEEK OVERVIEW
LESSON
SEQUENCE
DETAILS

WEEKS 1 & 2:
An
introduction
to the art
world.

AIM: Weeks one and two aim to introduce the students to the concept of
the art world. Educators will aim to promote an understanding that the art
world is a constantly changing dimension that is influenced by the societal
values of its time. Students will focus on developing a conceptual
understanding of how the art world has become contemporary and
what has influenced it past and present. Students will work with timelines
and dates according to various influential societal changes within the art
word to date. It is within these two weeks where students will be highly
engaged with outcomes aligned with the history syllabus.

This introductory two weeks will also include an overview of the topics and
tasks within the unit as well as an introduction to the final assessment task
to ensure students are prepared and aware of the expectations aligned
with the program.

WEEKS 3 to
6:
Art forms of
the Art
World
- Portraiture
- Sculpture
-
Instructional
art
-
Environment
al art


AIM: Within weeks three to six students will engage in a number of art
appreciation and art making lessons that allow students to explore a
range of popular art forms within the art world through both explicit
teaching and inquiry research. Students will be introduced to a number of
focus and supporting artists that will effectively support the content of
each lesson. Students will be provided with opportunities to deeply explore
the art making practice of various artists, review, critique, compare and
research artworks and artists as well as plan and create artworks of their
own.

The following is an outline of the art form, focus artist and supporting artist
in accordance within the program between weeks three to six:
Week 3: Portraiture Pablo Picasso & Brett Whitely
Week 4: Sculpture Ricky swallow
Week 5: Instructional art Kerrie Poliness & Sol LeWitt
Week 6: Environmental/ public art Andy Goldsworthy & John
Wolesley


WEEKS 7 & 8:
Installation
art








Planed
Excursion

AIM: During weeks seven and eight students will closely explore installation
art within its many forms. Students will again be provided with opportunities
to discover artists, their practice and artworks through research, analysis,
appreciation and making tasks in an effort to enhance a critical
understanding of the characteristics of installation artworks. The following
installation types and artists will be explored:
Digital (videos) Tabaimo
Performance
Natural & Man made Christo & Jeanne Claude & James Turrell.
Sculptural: Do Ho Sue & Thomas Saraceno

During week seven students will visit the Museum of contemporary Arts
(MCA) Sydney to accompany the study of digital installations. Students will
explicitly visit the Mekurumeku Exhibition by contemporary artist Tabaimo.



WEEKS 9 &
10:
Design and
make
assessment
planning
and
developing.

AIM: The final two weeks of this program are allocated to the rich design
and make assessment task. Time aim for this period of the program is for
each individual student to plan, develop and produce one piece of
digitally based artwork inspired by an artwork previously created by the
student within the prior weeks. Students will be presented with a criteria
however the task is developed to be open ended to allow for creativity
and distinction. The possibilities for this assessment task are endless and
may possibly include some of the following:
Video installations
Sound scapes based on particular themes
Photographic collections
Digital collage
Stop motion animation (two or three dimensional)
Instructional art for digital creations