Third Grade Arts Standards For The Classroom - Draft

Creating arts

Students know and apply the arts disciplines, techniques, and processes in original or interpretive work. Building on previous knowledge and skills, they:

• Describe art elements (review and new) and simple art structures; identify their own process for creating art to communicate with an audience (concept)
• Demonstrate personal, social and physical skills that prepare them for role of the artist as a communicator
• Perform, in informal settings, dances and music from diverse cultures, improvised scenes, and exhibit art works
• Improvise dance movement, musical ostinatos, and dramatic stories
• Create simple art works, expanding on media and techniques, to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories

Art as inquiry

Students reflect upon concepts and themes and assess the merits of their own work and the work of others. Building on previous knowledge and skills, they:

• Describe the interactive role of the artist and the audience in the communication of ideas, feelings, experiences, and stories (concepts)
• Describe and analyze the basic arts elements in their own art work and what they saw and heard in the creations and performances of others, to explain what is communicated to them
• Reflect on the meaning art works have for them (interpretation)
• Continue to be a respectful audience

Art in context

Students analyze works of art from their own and other cultures and demonstrate how interrelated conditions (social, economic, political, historical) influence the development and reception of thought, ideas, and concepts in the arts. Building on previous knowledge and skills, they:

• Describe the role of arts and artists in their community and countries being studied (function)
• Describe arts elements in exemplary works of art (dance, music, theater, and visual art) from or about selected cultures
• Identify sources from their culture that serve as motivation for dance, music, theater and visual art works (interactive effects of art and culture)

Third Grade Integrated Arts Standards for the Classroom and Suggestions for Performance Objectives/Activities

Creating arts

Students know and apply the arts disciplines, techniques, and processes in original or interpretive work. Building on previous knowledge and skills they:

Concepts

They describe art elements (review and new) and simple art structures; identify their own process for creating art to communicate with an audience

• Review art elements (see grades 1 and 2)
• Name and describe new art elements
  
  • musical elements: harmony (two or more melodic lines or movement phrases performed simultaneously) (M,D,T)
  • space and design elements: value (length of a tone, lightness or darkness of a color), balance (a satisfying arrangement of parts and elements) (D,M,T,VA)
    
• Describe simple art structures:
  
  • AB, ABA, call and response, verse and refrain (D,M)
  • story elements: beginning, middle and ending; narrative (D,T,R,W)
    
  • Describe what the arts can communicate (e.g. story, theme, idea, mood, etc.) and give examples from their work
• Identify the process of creating and performing art
  idea generation (perception and imaging),
  • research (finding out about the subject or the art process),
  • drafting (doing a first version, a sketch),
  • reflection (sharing and discussing the work in process),
  • revision,
  • reflection (on the final work, the idea and the process)

Personal skills/social skills

They demonstrate personal, social, and physical skills that prepare them for the role of the artist as communicator

• Continue to develop sensory awareness, observational and imaging skills
• Continue to use the voice and body, familiar and new materials and tools, in a safe and careful manner (D,M,T)
• Develop personal discipline to complete tasks, whether working individually or in a group
• Cooperate in small groups by listening to one another, building on others' ideas as they plan, perform, and evaluate classroom art work

Physical skills

• Continue warm-ups and discuss how warm-ups prepare the body and mind for expressive purposes and serve to prevent injury (D,M,T)
• Continue to explore the range of ones own movement in personal space and general space, moving the body as a unit and in isolation (D,M,T) (see also Grades 1 and 2)
• Demonstrate the ability to copy, lead, follow, echo and mirror (D,M,T)
• Maintain a steady beat (D,M,T)
• Differentiate and use appropriately the speaking voice and various ranges of the singing voice (M,T)
• Sing on pitch and in rhythm, using appropriate volume and diction (M)
• Demonstrate coordination in use of classroom instruments and body percussion (D, M)
• Demonstrate gross and fine motor control to produce pantomimed actions that communicate to an audience (T,D)
• Demonstrate volume and diction that will communicate improvised scenes and readings to a classroom audience (T)

Perform

• Perform, in informal settings, dances and music from diverse cultures, improvised scenes, and exhibit art works
• Perform short dances created by themselves or others as a class or in a small group (D)
• Make decisions about expressive elements (dynamics, tempo, timbre) for a musical performance by a small group or the class (M)
• Sing/play/move to folk and children's songs, rounds, dances, musical games and chants, as well as individual and class compositions (M,D)
• Accompany songs, movements, chants, and stories using appropriate instruments and playing techniques (D,M,T,W,R)
• Perform improvised scenes with several characters, making certain concentration is maintained, the story clear to the audience, and the dialogue heard (T)
• Identify the different steps in creating a simple exhibit (theme, selection of work, mounting, labeling, etc.) (VA)
• Select and contribute own work to be included in a classroom exhibit (i.e . demonstrating knowledge of sensory and expressive features of art--line, shape, texture, color, value, space, balance, and pattern--and a variety of art forms) (VA)

Improvise

They improvise dance movement, musical ostinatos, and dramatic stories (M,T,D)

• Improvise simple dance movements based on one dance element (e.g. time, space, energy/force, musical accompaniment (D,M,T)
• Improvise rhythmic or melodic accompaniments (for songs, chants, and stories) using body percussion, voices and classroom instruments (M,T,D)
• As a whole group or in small groups (with teacher guidance) plan an improvisation to dramatize, selecting characters, problem, environment and the moment for the improvisation to start
• Use appropriate language and movement that will communicate the story to the classroom audience (T,D)
• As a group select a place in the classroom for the dramatization, choose and arrange furniture, classroom lighting, etc. to suggest environment (T)

Create

They create simple art works expanding on media and techniques, to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories

• Dance
  
  • create a short dance study with a beginning, middle, and end in one of the following structures: narrative, abstract, or recurring theme (D)
    
• Music
  
  • compose a musical work in AB or ABA form, exploring a variety of sound media (body percussion, pitched and unpitched percussion, voices, found sounds, electronic sources) (M)
  • devise meaningful symbols to notate and record individual, small group, or class musical or movement ideas or compositions for performance (M,D)
    
• Theater
  
  • record the dialogue from short two-person improvisations with a beginning, middle and ending; edit to assure the meaning is clear; use appropriate play-form to indicate speaker and dialogue (T)
  • describe (e.g. through words, drawing, or technology) the setting of a story to be dramatized (T)
    
• Visual Arts
  • use sensory and expressive elements (line, shape, texture, color, value, space, balance, and pattern to communicate ideas)
  • create a story or communicate an idea using each of the functions of art (utilitarian, decorative, and art that depicts events)
  • select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate ideas, feelings, experiences, and stories through two and three dimensional art works which explore a variety of media (adding such media as batik, quilting, and applique) and techniques (see grades 1 and 2) (VA)
  • use found objects in printmaking or mosaics, making rubbings from a variety of surfaces
  • manipulate clay (slab, coil, and pinch) into a variety of forms and add textures by scraping, incising, stamping, or adding shapes
  • use natural materials (cotton, bark, leaves) to produce simple types of handmade paper - depict a still life in pencil, paint, or collage
  • work collaboratively to create a mural with colored paper, chalk, scrap materials, liquid paint, or other objects
  • use basic computer graphics programs to develop multiple illustrations for a story

Art as Inquiry

Students reflect upon concepts and themes and assess merits of their own work and the work of others. Building on previous knowledge and skills, they:

Concepts

They describe the interactive role of the artist and the audience in the communication of ideas, feelings, experiences, and stories

• Review the basic art elements specific to the art work being examined and questioned (see grades 1 & 2 Creating Arts, Concepts)
• Identify when they have been artist and when they have been audience and describe how they would like an audience to respond to their work and what they expect from artists/performers
• Describe the effect audience members can have on each other during a live production (e.g. how the performers respond if the audience is attentive, how the audience demonstrates appreciation by clapping, laughing at appropriate moments, being attentive, etc.) (D,M,T)

Students reflect upon concepts and themes and assess merits of their own work and the work of others. Building on previous knowledge and skills, they:

Description and analysis

They describe and analyze the basic art elements in their own art work and what they saw and heard in the creations and performances of others, to explain what was communicated to them

• Use basic arts vocabulary to describe a performance or art show as a whole to analyze the artist's choices and explain what was communicated to them:
• dance: the choreographer's choices (space, design, time, and musical elements); the use of the body in locomotor and axial movements (D)
• theater: the playwright's choice of character, problem, and environment (T)
• designer choices in dance or theater: the look of the setting (e.g. the colors and shapes), the costumes (e.g. plain or fancy, old or new, clean or dirty, loose or tight fitting), lighting (e.g. light, dark, color, patterns), special effects, sound effects (music and/or sounds) (D,T)
• music: the character, style, characteristic features or elements; differentiate identical, similar, and contrasting musical ideas or phrases within short songs or pieces of music; how musical elements change or remain the same during a composition; ensemble's performance choices (M)
• visual art: its
  function (decorative, utilitarian)
  form (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
  materials (clay, computer graphics, etc.)
  elements (color/value, line, shape/space, pattern, texture etc.)
  principles (balance)
  symbols (e.g. fire, water, heart, open hand, tree, rock, lion, bird, bridge, mountain, colors, dark, light, night, day, sun, storm, etc.)

Interpretation

They reflect on the meaning art works have for them

• (See Grade 2 re identifying symbols)
• Discuss individual responses to a work of art and its meaning for them (e.g. the mood or story of a dance, the mood or story of a song or the feeling of an instrumental piece, the story and theme of a drama, the story and/or symbols and meaning of a visual art work)
• Predict the events in a play (T,R)

Evaluation

They assess their work and that of others to determine what may have improved communication

• Identify what could be seen and heard, what actions were clear, those that were confusing (T)

Audience

They continue to be a respectful audience

• Describe the difference between the experience, as audience, when attending a live performance or when watching a film or television show and the difference in appropriate audience behavior (D, M, T)

Art in Context

Students analyze works of art from their own and other cultures and demonstrate how interrelated conditions (social, economic, political, historical) influence the development and reception of thought, ideas, and concepts in the arts. Building on previous knowledge and skills:

Function of the Arts

They describe the role of arts and artists in their community and countries being studied

• Discuss why various artists (e.g. composers, choreographers, painters, glassblowers, actors, playwrights, bootmakers, photographers, sculptors, etc.) might create and present their work
• Describe how arts and artists are portrayed in contemporary media
• Identify the similarities and differences between artists' roles and uses of the arts in their community and other countries being studied

Exemplary literature/art works

They describe art elements in exemplary works of arts (dance, music, theater, and visual art) from or about selected cultures

• Identify art objects, dances, plays, music from different places and cultures (preferably through live performances or viewing of original visual art work in museums, galleries or alternative exhibition spaces, but good reproductions and video or aural recordings are available)

Interactive effect of the arts and culture

They identify sources from their culture that serve as motivation for the dance, music, theater, and visual art works

• Identify various sources for creative work (e.g. nature, man-made objects, family stories, imagination, other works of art such as books and poetry, etc.)

(D=dance, M=music, T=theater, VA=visual arts, R=reading, W=writing; all unmarked items represent objectives/activities for all of the arts)