Designing Your Art Curriculum

In this practical course, you’ll discover strategies for designing a highly personalized curriculum specific to the needs of your unique students and your individual style through the exploration of various approaches in the field of art education and real art curricula samples from across the globe. You will discuss and analyze traditional and contemporary philosophies that drive curricula in the art room as you cultivate ideas applicable to your own classroom needs. At the completion of this course, you will have produced your own comprehensive art curriculum ready for immediate implementation.

For the official course description, see the course syllabus or Academic Catalog.

Required Materials

No text required for this course.

Additional Materials

Computer with basic audio and video output equipment
Internet access (broadband recommended)
Basic computing skills (see AOEU’s Technology Requirements)
Access to AOEU’s online learning platform, Brightspace, to view course content, submit assignments, and engage in discussion (provided)
Word-processing platform (Microsoft Office, Pages, Google Docs)

Graduate Credits

All courses will now close at 11 PM Central time on the 27th of each month. Graduate Credits 3 Graduate Credits

Price Graduate Credit $1047.00

Timeline

Mon 8 Sun

Dec 7 Weeks Jan 31

Upcoming Course Run Dates

Dec 7 Jan 31

Jan 4 Feb 28

Feb 1 Mar 28

Mar 1 Apr 25

Apr 5 May 30

AOEU Course Code

ARE507

Morningside Course Code

EDUC500 AOE007

Course Objectives

Discuss traditional and contemporary philosophies that drive curricula in the art classroom setting.
Evaluate trends that have impacted art education pedagogy on the local, national, and global levels.
Analyze diverse examples of visual arts K-12 curricula.
Produce comprehensive curricula for the art classroom setting.

Course Breakdown

Week 1

Reflecting Upon Your Curricular Journey

Explore why you teach art and what you hope students will take away from your classes.
Discover various art education methods and consider which ones align with the way you teach.

Week 2

Analyzing Curriculum Samples and Gathering Inspiration

Consider what a comprehensive curriculum needs in order to thrive.
Utilize backward design to build on your district, state, and/or national standards and create curricular documents to reflect your philosophy of teaching.

Week 3

Learning Outcomes, “I Can” Statements, and Essential Questions

Map out the basic standards and experiences you want students to have in the art room.
Develop learning outcomes for your classroom.

Week 4

Planning the Basics

Utilize backward planning to organize your curriculum.
Develop units, lessons, and projects to fit your teaching philosophy.

Week 5

Completing the Matrix

Investigate other critical elements that will round out the learning experience for students.
Develop assessment strategies to measure student learning.

Week 6

Teasing out the Details

Develop a detailed unit plan for use in the classroom.
Gain inspiration from a variety of unit plan exemplars.

Week 7

Identifying Curriculum Partners and Planning for Implementation

Identify potential curricular partners in your school community.
Make a plan to thoughtfully collaborate with other professionals in your working community.

Week 8

Reflection

Reflect on the process of developing a comprehensive curriculum.
Prepare a comprehensive tool kit that houses all of your matrices, lesson plans, organizational tools, and reflections from this class.

Reflecting Upon Your Curricular Journey

A sample assignment from Week 1 of the class Designing Your Art Curriculum

1. Research

Review a WebQuest of current art education methods such as choice-based models, project-based learning, arts integration, and discipline-based art education.

2. Discussion

Share your preferred methods of teaching art with educators around the country and world. Discuss ideas you gleaned from the WebQuest and identify the commonalities and differences in approaches among the group.

3. Practical, Hands-On Application

Reflect upon your position as an art educator, as well as today’s students, to complete a planning form which will inform your curricular planning.

Stormy S.

"This course helped my get organized with my art program. Through discussion board postings and collaboration from other students, I was able to learn new perspectives in art education and new strategies. This was a great experience and I learned more in this class about art education and curriculums then in my undergrad and grad school together."

Sheila J.

"This was honestly the most useful graduate course I think I've ever taken. What we did was so relevant, useful, and not available anywhere else. I wish my whole department would be able take this course. Thanks so much for offering it!"

Chris S.

"I took this class just to help me re-think my teaching. I have been teaching quite a while and although I feel that I am a seasoned teacher, I learned so much. Everyone should take time to re-evaluate their program and this class does such a good job in guiding you through the process."

What do past course participants think?

Hundreds of art teachers have taken the course Designing Your Art Curriculum. Here’s what they actually think — without cherry-picking.
(12-month rolling average from all post-course survey respondents – Updated 2/27/2020

93%

"THE COURSE CONTENT WAS RELEVANT AND UP-TO-DATE."

92%

"MY INSTRUCTOR PROVIDED VALUE-ADDED CONTRIBUTIONS TO ENHANCE DISCUSSIONS AND ENGAGE STUDENTS."

96%

"I ACHIEVED THE GOALS I SET AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS COURSE."

Let's Get Started

If you know what you need, then go ahead and register.

Don't worry if you still have questions. Our admissions counselors keep up with the requirements for teachers in your state and can help you choose a course that's right for you and your career.

All you have to do is reach out.