Newsletter Assignment

My content area is art, and I plan on teaching at the high school level. For this newsletter assignment, I chose the standard of Historical, Cultural and Social Contexts. Quoting from the Ohio Academic Standards, this standard ensures that students "understand the impact of visual art on the history, culture and society from which it emanates. They understand the cultural, social and political forces that, in turn, shape visual art communication and expression. Students identify the significant contributions of visual artists to cultural hertiage. They analyze the historical, cultureal, social and political contexts that influence the function and role of visual art in the lives of people."

So, from this standard I chose a benchmark of the 10th grade: "Explain the circumstances and events that influence artists to create monuments and site-specific works." I thought that this benchmark would be a perfect time to include word processing in the classroom, by having them create a newsletter about an artistof their choice that accurately describes that artist's background and influences in art.

Not only would this assignment fulfill the standard and benchmark, but it would also serve as a learner-centered activity. For this assignment, the students would learn just enough about the artist to be able to make their choice on who they want to pick to write about. From there on, however, it is the students teaching themselves. They would research and find the information on their own, using reliable sources, and then create the newsletter that they would later present to their fellow classmates, which puts them in the bottom level of the learning pyramid.