Sample Art Lesson Plan that Supports a Career Pathway FocusThe sample unit plan for art is designed as a thematic unit for students in a Fine Arts Academy (AFA) with an emphasis on a career pathway in the arts. In this unit, students will be asked to take on the role of a graphic designer and redesign the cover art for a preexisting novel or book. They will consider specific principles of design and elements of art while planning out their concept. Thematic Instruction to Promote Career Pathways within Academies/ Small Learning CommunitiesFor the past few years, I have concurrently taught school-wide elective art classes and specialized thematic elective courses designed specifically for students in the Fine Arts Academy. All SLC/Academies have their own specific thematic elective that are intended to further emphasize the theme of the academy, such as Constitutional Law for the Law Magnet or Latin American studies for the Agents of Change SLC. These thematic electives are also an ideal opportunity to incorporate a Career Pathway through thoughtful and relevant lesson planning. While all of my art classes focus on teaching the concept, techniques, and skills needed for the course, my thematic elective course ties in to specific careers for visual artists. For example, we cover lessons and activities that include the role of an art historian, a graphic designer, an art critic, etc. This allows this specific group of students to practice art as professionals do and how this can be transitioned into future experiences/opportunities. For the specific unit represented in this section, students were asked to take on the role of a graphic designer hired to re-design the artwork for a preexisting book/novel. Students were able to select a book of their choice that they had previously read and were familiar with. After having worked with the elements of art and the principles of design in previous units, they were asked to use their prior knowledge and skills to complete the culminating task for this unit.
Unit Plan for Book Cover Redesign Project(click link above to view unit plan) Suggestions for Application of Thematic Career-Pathway teaching in other content areas:Using the career-pathway focus in the core classes can be done by creating assignments or projects that address a real job task that is authentic to a specific career, a task that someone really does in their work life. Creating a career pathway unit within a core class begins with developing a scenario or problem statement tied to real-world roles to allow our students to learn content specific knowledge while still preparing for 21st century skills needed within the career force. Instruction can be further expanded through interdisciplinary lesson planning where parts of a task our completed in different classes based on content. Some examples are listed below:
REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
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