Art & Music

Visual Arts at Danforth Middle School

Art Teachers:  Mrs. Teater   Mrs. Sutton   Ms. Pierce

             The Visual Arts classes at Danforth Middle School are designed to introduce and educate students to new art experiences.  At the same time, students will gain an appreciation for various artists, cultures, and basic skills needed to succeed in art at the middle school level.  Students will create projects that explore the different types of art and will also incorporate a way for students to express themselves through their art work.  In the course of creating their art work with various types of mediums, such as clay, graphite, oil and chalk pastels, paints, crafts, and digital photography, students will also learn to recognize and identify works of art, develop oral and written skills, build their vocabularies, compare and contrast qualities in works of art, and build an understanding across art disciplines.

            Throughout the Visual Arts program at Danforth, students will be required to participate in readings, to record vocabulary words from readings, as well as reflect on these readings through writing in journals and classroom discussions. Students will also be required to take tests or quizzes after a unit has been completed.  This is just one way to evaluate student learning and progress.  Students will also be evaluated on how they maintain their portfolio, which is kept in the classroom.  The student’s portfolio will be a compilation of his or her work, including various art works, journals, tests, quizzes, self-reflections, and work sheets that go with units or content being reviewed in class. Students will also be required to participate in studio activities.  Students will be evaluated on their effort in the process of completing the activity, as well as understanding and applying the concepts or objectives of lesson.  Students are also evaluated on their cooperativeness as a visual art student in the classroom environment, as well as being a responsible student taking care of art materials in the process of their studio activities, and following the four agreements of Danforth Middle School, which are Mutual Respect, No Put-Downs, Attentive Listening, and Right to Pass/Right to Participate.  We feel in the Visual Arts Department that it is extremely important to have a variety of methods in assessing students because students have different learning styles.