Play






Specifications:

As discussed in more detail in the Manual, Plug and Play works best with the following resources. However, they are NOT required. I've provided some suggestions for alternatives if your school doesn't provide all of the items below. 

Types of units:

There are four types of units in Plug and Play. Each is outlined below and colored coded throughout the scope and sequence. 

content

These lessons and units have very little, if any choice, but always ask the student to perform a task that allows them to practice an independent learning skill or apply the learning to their own experience.

The content contained in these lessons is needed by every student in order to meet standards or build knowledge and/or experience for student-directed learning.

passion project

These units come at the end of grading periods. They are an opportunity for you as an amazing art teacher to share some of your passion projects with your students. These are projects you love because the students love them.

They are not required and should include minimal assessment because they are designed as an extension for students who are on track with their work while also allowing those that need more time to complete the mandatory work to catch up. 

Skill goals

These first goals introduce students to the process that will ultimately become fully student-directed. 

To begin, students choose an art skill from a list and work through a prescribed artistic process. After writing a goal based on the skill they chose, they then research and practice before using their newly developed skill to create an artwork. Each day, they reflect on their work in their digital journal with a photo and at least 3 sentences. When they're done, they reflect on the process as a whole. 

expression goals

After practicing the goal process and participating in some content units on expression and copyright, the goal process shifts from one focused on skills and practice to expression and planning. 

The goal process continues to require students to reflect on their work each day in their digital journal, but they are now responsible deciding when and how much they need to practice and research. For these goals, critique is also added to the process. 

Scope and Sequence

Click the title of any unit for access to individual lessons and implementation notes. The number of lessons within each unit is indicated in parentheses. 

Each lesson is typically designed to take the average student a single day to complete, however with mastery-based grading and student-paced instruction the number of lessons does not necessarily correlate to the number of days for every student. Additionally, I never require students to turn in more than two items at the end of a lesson, so if more than two tasks need to be assessed, the work will be broken up into multiple lessons even if it will take them less than a class period to complete it. 

Students should be expected to move on to the next lesson when they complete one regardless of what the due date is. I tell my students that any time they save now, may be needed later if they get stuck or miss class. The passion projects are also a form or reward for students who have extra time at the end of the grading period. 

Discussion

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