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Curriculum proposal


Here is a first draft of a set of ideas and questions, drawn and modified from Mark's Big Ideas and Essential Questions to serve as writing prompts for wiki documents. Each idea would probably be a page with sub-pages leading to the questions. I tried to design these to be instructional and respond-able across a range of high school ability levels. Each question would be answered collboratively. Responses can include graphics audio or video. A scheme or rubric or set of expectations for how many responses to how many questions a student would be responsible for would be set out by the participating teachers. Students can also post comments via the Threads button.

First, some assumptions:

• Communication has six components: An originating idea, a sender, a medium, a receiver, and a response or interpreted idea.
• Art is communication. In art, the sender is the artist, the medium is the work of art, and the receiver is the viewer (or listener or reader).
• In some art, the originating idea and intended response is specific and for the most part, agreed upon by everyone in the culture in which it was created, and everyones' response is expected to be similar.
• In some art the originating idea may be ambiguous, and the viewers' responses are intended to be individual, personal, and varied.
• Art with a specific, intended idea and response, when viewed by a viewer from a culture or time or background that is different from the culture in which it was made, may result in a response that is individual and personal. This viewer may never know for sure exactly what the painter, writer, musician or choreographer intended. This does not mean the response in incorrect or invalid. It means the response is personal.

Big Idea #1

Individual and cultural identities can be communicated in art.

Question 1.1: Individual and cultural identity in art
Question 1.2 Identity clues in selected works of art
Question 1.3: The influence of the viewer's background

Big Idea #2

Art can communcate ideas and purposes or functions. The idea communicated by the work of art, or the function of a work of art is influenced or even mandated by the culture of the artist who made it.

Question 2.1: Culture influences on ideas and functions of art
Question 2.2: The influence of the viewer's background

Big Idea #3

Ideas and functions can be communcated by the artist's choices of subject and form (size, media, compositional elements).

Question 3.1:Communicating through subject and form
Question 3.2: Communicating through subject and form in selected works of art
Question 3.3:The influence of the viewer's background