FAMILY

NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR VISUAL ART

Content Standard #1 Understanding and applying media, techniques and processes

Achievement Standards K-4

• Students know the differences between materials, techniques, and processes
• Students describe how different materials, techniques and processes cause different responses
• Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories
• Students use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner

Achievement Standards 5-8

• Students select media, techniques, and processes; analyze what makes them effective or not effective in communicating ideas; and reflect upon the effectiveness of their choices
• Students intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas

Achievement Standards 9-12, proficient

• Students apply media, techniques, and processes with sufficient skill, confidence, and sensitivity that their intentions are carried out in their artworks
• Students conceive and create works of visual art that demonstrate an understanding of how the communication of their ideas relates to the media, techniques and processes they use

Achievement Standards 9-12, advanced

• Students communicate ideas regularly at a high level of effectiveness in at least one visual arts medium
• Students initiate, define and solve challenging visual arts problems independently using intellectual skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

Content Standard #2 Using Knowledge of structures and functions

Achievement Standards K-4

• Students know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas
• Students describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different responses
• Students use visual structures and functions of art to communicate ideas

Achievement Standards 5-8

• Students generalize about the effects of visual structures and functions and reflect upon these effects in their own work
• Students employ organization structures and analyze what makes them effective or not effective in the communication of ideas
• Students select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of their ideas

Achievement Standards 9-12, proficient

• Students demonstrate the ability to form and defend judgments about the characteristics and structures to accomplish commercial, personal, communal or other purposes of art
• Students evaluate the effectiveness of artworks in terms of organizational structures and functions
• Students create artworks that use organizational principles and functions to solve specific visual arts problems

Achievement Standards 9-12, advanced

• Students demonstrate ability to compare two or more perspectives about the use of organizational principles and functions in artwork and to defend personal evaluations of these perspectives
• Students create multiple solutions to specific visual arts problems that demonstrate competence in producing effective relationships between structural choices and artistic functions

Content Standard #3 Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas

Achievement Standards K-4

• Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art
• Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning

Achievement Standards 5-8

• Students integrate visual, spatial and temporal concepts with content to communicate intended meaning in their artworks
• Students use subjects, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values, and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks

Achievement Standards 9-12, proficient

• Students reflect on how artworks differ visually, spatially, temporally and functionally, and describe how these are related to history and culture
• Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and use the skills gained to solve problems in daily life

Achievement Standards 9-12, advanced

• Students describe the origins of specific images and ideas and explain why they are of value in their artwork and in the work of others
• Students evaluate and defend the validity of sources for content and the manner in which subject matter, symbols and images are used in the students work and in significant works by others

Content Standard #4 Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Achievement Standards K-4

• Students know that the visual arts have both a history and specific relationships to various cultures
• Students identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times and places
• Students demonstrate how history, culture, and the visual arts can influence each other in making and studying works of art

Achievement Standards 5-8

• Students know and compare the characteristics of artworks in various eras and cultures
• Students describe and place a variety of art objects in historical and cultural contexts
• Students analyze, describe, and demonstrate how factors of time and place (such as climate, resources, ideas, and technology) influence visual characteristics that give meaning and value to a work of art

Achievement Standards 9-12, proficient

• Students differentiate among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics and purposes or works of art
• Students describe the function and explore the meaning of specific art objects within varied cultures, times and places
• Students analyze relationships of works of art to one another in terms of history, aesthetics and culture, justifying conclusions made in the analysis and using such conclusions to inform their own art making

Achievement Standards 9-12, advanced

• Students analyze and interpret artworks for relationships among form, context, purposes, and critical models, showing understanding of the works of critics, historians, aestheticians and artists
• Students analyze common characteristics of visual arts evident across time and among cultural/ethnic groups to formulate analyses, evaluations and interpretations of meaning

Content Standard #5 Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others

Achievement Standards K-4

• Students understand there are various purposes for creating works of visual art
• Students describe how people's experiences influence the development of specific artworks
• Students understand there are different responses to specific artworks

Achievement Standards 5-8

• Students compare multiple purposes for creating works of art
• Students analyze contemporary and historic meaning in specific artworks through cultural and aesthetic inquiry
• Students describe and compare a variety of individual responses to their own artworks and to artworks from various eras and cultures

Achievement Standards 9-12, proficient

• Students identify intentions of those creating artworks, explore the implications of various purposes, and justify their analyses of purpose in particular works
• Students describe meanings of artworks by analyzing how specific works are created and how they relate to historical and cultural context
• Students reflect analytically on various interpretations as a means for understanding and evaluating works of visual art

Achievement Standards 9-12, advanced

• Students correlate responses to works of visual art with various techniques for communicating meanings, ideas, attitudes, views and intentions

Content Standard #6 Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines

Achievement Standards K-4

• Students understand and use similarities and differences between characteristics of the visual arts and other arts disciplines
• Students identify connections between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum

Achievement Standards 5-8

• Students compare the characteristics of works in two or more art forms that share similar subject matter, historical periods, or cultural context
• Students describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with the visual arts

Achievement Standards 9-12, proficient

• Students compare the materials, technologies, media and processes of the visual arts with those of other arts disciplines as they are used in creation and types of analysis
• Students compare characteristics of visual arts within a particular historical period or style with ideas, issues or themes in the humanities or sciences

Achievement Standards 9-12, advanced

• Students synthesize the creative and analytical principles and techniques of the visual arts and selected other arts disciplines, the humanities, or the sciences