This presentation examines a school district's Art I Foundation curriculum change into the Understanding by Design curriculum template. Find out the challenges and successes for this National Art Education Association annual conference in New York City March 2017.

1. Art Education
The Challenges of Curriculum Transition
NAEA
Presentation
March 4, 2017
New York City
Christine Miller
@tagartteacher
christine.miller@pisd.edu
Laura Grundler
@GrundlerArt
laura.grundler@pisd.edu

2. The Back Story
• 2014 New Curriculum Coordinator
• 2015 New TEKs go into use
• District Curriculum expectations
• Sculpture I no longer open to first year High School Art Students
• What are our district goals as a vertical high school art team?
• Christine was completing Masters Degree TWU
Important Links:
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter117/index.html
Plano ISD Expectations for Secondary Art Teachers
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xFe1Tgy4ZnxuOWkOTsRHJbU4tmEPWFkLiq0-
9iJh4iw/edit?usp=sharing

3. Please Tweet
Please Tweet during the presentation and we’ll
do our best to respond to questions and then
create a Storify Transcript of the presentation.
#pisdcreatesart
@tagartteacher
@GrundlerArt

4. Where to start…...………
……..important ?s
• Which level of its art education curriculum should it start with?
• How would the backward design concept be most effective in the
reorganization of its K-12 program?
Important Considerations
• Vertical alignment up and down program
• Unique Plano ISD alignment (not a traditional four year high
school program)

5. Retooling
Plano ISD Art I foundation curriculum
• Understanding by
Design
• Shift away from
DBAE
• Rethinking Courses
Art I & Sculpture I
Art I 2D &
Art I: 3D

6. We truly understand when
we can:
• Explain
• Interpret
• Apply
• Have
Perspective
• Empathize
• Have self-
knowledge
To continue the story:
We need have true understanding
Facets of Understanding

7. How Facets of Understanding helped Transition
• Provided a framework in
order to craft the
curriculum
• Utilize the framework our
students would use for
their learning
• Gave us valuable
guideposts in our
exploration of UbD

8. Facet of Understanding
Perspective

9. 2 Creative Teams
2D Team-
Team Lead:
Christine Miller; MA
Williams High School,
Art Team Leader
Art I: 3D, Art II: 3D PreAP;
Art II: 2D PreAP
12 Years Teaching
Melissa Pierce; BFA
Shepton High School,
Art Team Leader &
Art I: 2D PreAP , Art II PreAP;
10 Years Teaching
Allison Garrison, MAT;
Plano Senior High School,
Art Team Leader &
AP Drawing & AP 2D Design Teacher
22 Years Teaching
3D Team-
Team Lead:
Colin McGrane; BFA
Plano East Senior High School, Art Team Leader
& Art I: 3D & AP 3D Design
17 Years Teaching
David Bearden; BFA & MA
Clark High School,
Art I: 2D, Art I: 3D, Art I: 2D Pre AP ,
& Art II 2D; 17 Years Teaching
Kim Paser
Shepton High School,
Art Media Communications,
Art I: 3D, Art II: 3D PreAP ;
5 Years Teaching

10. Perspectives to
consider:
• Priorities and
personal interests of
teachers and students
• Changing obligations
of local, state and
national standards
• Influences and
developments of
technology

11. Essential Questions
• What was UbD?
• What were the principles
behind UbD?
• How did the curriculum
framework operate as
an organizing template?

12. Overcoming Obstacles
• Lack of formal district training
• Texts used
The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating
High-Quality Units 1st Edition
by Grant Wiggins (Author), Jay McTighe (Author)
Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student
Understanding F First Edition Edition
by Jay McTighe (Author), Grant Wiggins (Author)
• Utilize Graduate work
Christine’s- Summation of
Wiggins & McTighe’s text

13. Facet of Understanding
Explanation of UbD
http://jaymctighe.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/UbD-in-a-Nutshell.pdf
Author:
Jay McTighe

14. Key components of understanding
UbD for the Team
• Backward Design
• Big Ideas
• Essential Questions
• Assessment
• Learning activities

15. Explanation of Backward Design
● Identify
desired
results
● Determine
acceptable
evidence
● Plan learning
experiences
and
instruction

16. Explanation of Big Ideas
● Big Ideas are the
concepts or
principles central
to the lesson and
common to the
human experience
● Big ideas relate to
all of the smaller
ideas in a lesson.
● Big Ideas allow
the student to
acquire a broad
range of
knowledge

17. Explanation of Essential Questions
● An Essential Question is a
question that is core to a
subject or a curriculum.
● Essential Questions foster
student inquiry and take the
student deeper into the
exploration of a subject.
● Essential Questions are the
drivers of teaching and
learning - they help students
engage with their learning to
develop creative solutions to
problems.

18. Explanation of Assessment
● Assessment is a performance
task that demonstrates
students’ understanding
● It should be based on the
higher levels of Bloom’s
Taxonomy, starting at the
application level.
● Students should be involved
in assessing their own
learning through a variety of
assessment instruments
● Assessments can be formal
or informal; individual or
group; formative or
summative;

19. Explanation of Learning Activities
The teaching and learning
activities should be closely
aligned to the objectives the
students should meet, the
essential questions they need to
answer, and completed
assessments to demonstrate
their learning.
Lesson plans can have many
forms, but will include the
following components:
● Materials and resources
● Timeline for project
● Introductory activities
● Developmental activities
● Closing activities

20. Facet of Understanding
Interpretation

21. Essential Questions
for the Team
• How could we reimagine
our curriculum using
UbD?
• What Big Ideas should
we use?
• How can me make it
easier for the teachers
AND more meaningful
for the students?

22. Further Essential
Questions for the Team
• How can we ground the
curriculum to include the
TEKS standards?
• How can we center the
curriculum on Big Ideas
AND preserve skill
building?

23. Facet of Understanding
Application

24. Essential Questions for
the Team
• How could we preserve the
Big Idea units that assist
students in creating deeper
meaning in their art?
• How could we ensure the
courses would have core
learning objectives for
materials, processes, and
techniques but still be true
to the UbD principles?
• We reached a point that
required compromise in our
collaboration.

25. Big Ideas in
Learning Objectives
• One example from 3D curriculum:
Unit of Instruction titled
“Armature” with a relevant Big
Idea of “inner Strength” linked to
it.
• Essential Questions for the Unit:
• Where do you find strength?
• How does form evolve from
structure?
• What factors influence
chosen materials as
structural components?

26. Big Ideas in
Learning Activities
• More personal
meaning to the
students
• Connections to the
real world
• Relevance to their
lives
• Expand thinking
beyond the classroom
• Opportunities for
advocacy on social
issues

27. Facet of Understanding
Empathy

28. Essential Questions for
the Team
• How could we create a new
curriculum that also had
elements of what our district
art teachers were already
teaching?
• Don’t all teachers want their
students to have more
meaning and relevance in
making art?
• Can we bring all of these
goals together and be
successful?
We wanted both teachers and students to be engaged!

29. Rolling out to our colleagues
• Feb. presentation
• Google space for
contributions and
collaborations
• Department meetings
• Still on going
• Follow before 17-18
School year

30. Facet of Understanding
Self-Knowledge

31. Metacognition –
Thinking about your thinking
• How can teachers
facilitate practicing the
use of metacognition in
our students?
• How can we support
them in finding out more
about themselves?

32. Student Input
Getting student feedback from final exams:
• We are building more questioning in art
class, both giving you questions to
answer and having you generate your
own questions. Do you think
questioning helps you learn better?
Student Response:
• “Yes, because it leads me to asking
questions I wasn’t aware I had. It
makes me see more and think more
about what it is I’m doing and why.”
• “Questions help me learn better. It
opens my mind and they help me inside
and outside of school. The questions
make me feel like I’m opening a new
path to my world.”

33. Student Input
Getting student feedback from final
exams:
• Do Big Ideas help you create a work
that is more meaningful to you? Can
you explain how it makes a difference
in your artwork?
“Big Ideas did help me because I was
able to make something about me that
was in my life. It made me feel the way
that real artists feel about their pieces.”
“Big Ideas made a difference because I
put my heart into it instead of my brain.
When you use your heart, you are fully
110% focused on making it the best you
can.”

34. Summary & Conclusion

35. Take aways
• Importance of leading and the
importance of compromise
• UbD delivers all that it promises
to be capable of.
• The framework has the flexibility
to adapt to special needs or
ideas about curriculum.
• The new Art I curriculum feels
true to our district’s goals, beliefs,
and objectives.
• We used the framework in a
creative way that fit the needs of
the PISD art education program.