Middle School Visual Arts Courses
Aims of Art in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme
Students are encouraged to develop their artistic skills to the best of their capacities. The Shaker Heights Middle School Art Department provides students with opportunities to imagine, think, and problem solve through a variety of mediums based on the Ohio Fine Arts Standards, which are: Perceiving, Knowing, Producing, Performing, Responding, and Reflecting.
Learning through the visual arts helps students to explore, shape, and communicate a sense of identity and understanding of the world, while providing opportunities to develop self-confidence, resilience, and adaptability. The need for well-rounded students who are able to think “outside the box” makes it imperative that the visual arts play an important role in their education.
The goals of the IB/MYP visual arts program are to encourage and enable students to:
- Create and present art
- Develop skills specific to the discipline
- Engage in a process of creating exploration and (self) discovery
- Make purposeful connections between investigation and practice
- Understand the relationship between art and its contexts
- Respond to and reflect on art
- Deepen their understanding of the world