Research Guides: Intermediate Senior Visual Arts: Lesson Ideas

Online Lesson Ideas

AGO Teacher Resources
"Find resources and activities you can use in your classroom to help students build visual literacy and develop their skills in observation, interpretation, critical thinking, and creativity."

Annenburg Learner
Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum.

Guggenheim: Learning Through Art
"LTA curriculum consists of two types of lessons: Art Investigation lessons are developed around specific artworks, with background and discussion questions, while Art Making lessons are studio projects that explore particular topics with hands-on, creative activities and active discussions."

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Lesson Plans
Although mapped to Common Core State Standards these lesson plans are easily adapted to Canadian needs.

National Gallery of Art
This website offers image downloads, lessons, and more resources.

Ontario Educational Resource Bank
See password page. Over 5000 lesson plans, activities, maps, and interactive multimedia objects.

Open Studio
Open Studio's goal is to make contemporary arts education more accessible to both teachers and students. Contains a collection of art-making activities, each presented as a free, downloadable PDF, with prompts, artist biographies, and images of the artist and their works.

Ottawa Art Gallery: Contemporary Indigenous Arts in the Classroom
"This project aims to provide elementary and high-school level teachers with curriculum-linked lesson plans designed by contemporary Indigenous artists. The goal is to build students' cultural competence and respect for diverse Indigenous peoples, while encouraging critical thinking about colonialism in Canada."

Vancouver Art Gallery
Downloadable Teacher's Study Guides.

Asian Art and Culture at the Freer Sackler Gallery
Educators resources: "one-stop destination for curriculum guides, lesson plans, classroom posters, and more."

Planning Art Lessons and Units
A resource discussing how to plan art lessons and units.

Lesson Ideas in Books and Classroom Textbooks

The first two titles are textbooks used in Ontario classrooms which are full of lesson plans. You can find them in the Textbook Collection.

For information on curbside pick-up see: https://guides.library.queensu.ca/education

Art works : Teacher's Resource by Janet Markus
Call Number: Floor 1, School Textbooks N 365 .C2 M37 2011 Teachers Guide
ISBN: 978-1552393208
Publication Date: 2011
TRILLIUM LISTED for Ontario's Grade 9 Open (AVI1O) and Grade 10 Open (AVI2O) courses.
Art Works — the first Canadian visual arts textbook in over 20 years — focuses on the issues, ideas, and themes that inform the art world today. Students will uncover trends, patterns, and approaches in art; understand connections, relationships, and causes and effects in art; and learn to recognize the factors that maintain, or change, the world of art.
Art Works is organized in a handbook-like format. Each topic is presented in discrete spreads of 10-14 pages to allow for easy reference and manageable, in-class reading. Topics are complemented by colourful, well-reproduced images of both professional and student artwork. Special emphasis is given to artwork by Canadian and contemporary artists. -- Publisher's website.
ETFO arts : dance, drama, music and visual arts in the junior/intermediate grades / by Bonnie Anthony
Call Number: Floor 2, Teaching Collection LB 1591 .E84 2014
Publication Date: c2014
A practical book for Junior/Intermediate grade teachers who are new or inexperienced in arts education. Introduces all the elements of dance, drama, music and visual arts and shows educators how to use the arts to support literacy and other subjects. Lesson ideas to help Grade 4 to 8 teachers integrate the arts into their classrooms, with a focus on selected elements for four arts areas. The music lesson ideas focus on duration, pitch/melody, timbre, expressive controls, harmony/texture and form. Includes an audio CD with sounds (rain forest, etc.) and a text CD with tif, jpg, & pdf versions of Untitled (1982) by artist Keith Haring, as both sound and Haring's image are used in activities presented in the book. - pub. website
Contemporary Indigenous Arts in the Classroom by by Stephanie Nadeau and Doug Dumais
Call Number: ONLINE & Floor 2, Teaching Collection, N 6549.5 .A54 C665 2018
Publication Date: 2018
"Contemporary Indigenous Arts in the Classroom aims to provide elementary and high school-level teachers with curriculum-linked lesson plans designed by contemporary Indigenous artists. The goal is to build students' cultural competence and respect for diverse Indigenous peoples, while encouraging critical thinking about colonialism in Canada." website
Teaching in the Art Museum by Rika Burnham; Elliott Kai-Kee
Call Number: Books (Education) N430 .B86 2011
ISBN: 9781606060582
Publication Date: 2011
At the heart of all good art museum teaching is an effort to bring people and artworks together in meaningful ways. But what constitutes an experience of a work of art? What should be taught and why? What kinds of uniquely valuable experiences are museum educators alone equipped to provide? This book--unlike any other publication currently available--addresses these and myriad other questions and investigates the mission, history, theory, practice, and future prospects of museum education. Every critical issue that has preoccupied the profession throughout its hundred-year history is considered, including lecture- versus conversation-based formats; the place of information in gallery teaching; the relation of art museum teaching to the disciplines of art history, curation, and conservation; the use of questions to stimulate discussion; and the role of playfulness, self-awareness, and institutional context in constructing the visitor's experience. The book will prove invaluable for all professional museum educators and volunteer docents as well as museum studies students, art and art history teachers, curators, and museum administrators. The essays distill the authors' decades of experience as practitioners and observers of gallery teaching across the United States and abroad. They offer a range of perspectives on which everyone involved with art museum education may reflect and in so doing, encourage education to take its proper place at the center of the twenty-first century art museum.
Activity-Based Teaching in the Art Museum - Movement, Embodiment, Emotion by Elliott Kai-Kee; Lissa Latina; Lilit Sadoyan
Call Number: on order
ISBN: 9781606066171
Publication Date: 2020
This groundbreaking book explores why and how to encourage physical and sensory engagement with works of art. An essential resource for museum professionals, teachers, and students, the award winning Teaching in the Art Museum (Getty Publications, 2011) set a new standard in the field of gallery education. This follow-up book blends theory and practice to help educators--from teachers and docents to curators and parents--create meaningful interpretive activities for children and adults. Written by a team of veteran museum educators, Activity-Based Teaching in the Art Museum offers diverse perspectives on embodiment, emotions, empathy, and mindfulness to inspire imaginative, spontaneous interactions that are firmly grounded in history and theory.
The Art and Design Teacher's Handbook by Susie Hodge
Call Number: (Education) N363 .H63 2010
ISBN: 9781847061508
Publication Date: 2010-09-02
"This comprehensive handbook provides art teachers with practical advice on -planning effective lessons -developing imaginative ideas for teaching art across the age ranges -developing students' creative, technical and critical skills -preparing students for coursework and exams This book is a must for all secondary art and design teachers, whether still in training, newly qualified or experienced." publisher

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LinkedIn Learning

Designing a Typographic Dada Poster
Nigel French, Graphic Designer, Author, Artist, Trainer, presents how you might teach students to use materials at hand such as Photoshop and Illustrator to mimic the Dada aesthetics. "These techniques include simulating imperfect baselines, creating an overprint effect, and adding texture."

Artsonia

Artsonia
Huge library of lesson plans for all grades. Register free to browse and share.

Agnes Etherington

Agnes Etherington Art Centre
School programs for grades 1 to 8, downloadable lesson plans available.

TVO Learn

Visual Arts (AVI1O) Grade 9
This course (not for credit) is intended for student-directed learning at home, but contains resources that may be good for the classroom. Modules can also be recommended to students to help further their understanding of difficult concepts.

Visual Arts (AVI3M) Grade 11
This course (not for credit) is intended for student-directed learning at home, but contains resources that may be good for the classroom. Modules can also be recommended to students to help further their understanding of difficult concepts.

Arts Visuels (AVI1O) Grade 9, French
This course (not for credit) is intended for student-directed learning at home, but contains resources that may be good for the classroom. Modules can also be recommended to students to help further their understanding of difficult concepts.