TETAC Guidelines for Arts-Centered Instructional Units

Unit Foundations
The Unit Foundations are ideas that underlie our culture. They are drawn from philosophical, religious, ethical, and other sources. They are the big questions which artists and other thinkers have pondered over time. Additionally, the unit foundations include enduring ideas that are important for the arts. Each discipline brings a unique perspective to the exploration and expression of the human experience. These enduring ideas and essential questions guide students to understand what it means to be human, to live alongside others, and to live in the natural world.

Such ideas can serve as an overarching guide to aligning instructional activities to assessment. Unit goals and objectives will grow out of these ideas to provide paths of investigation through making and experiencing art. The process of developing the content of a unit begins with the unit foundations. You may start with a big/enduring idea or through the choice of artwork(s), but the key concepts and essential questions must provide the focus of the unit.

Criteria		Explanation		Examples
1. The unit addresses enduring ideas about the human experience.		Enduring ideas are those that have appeared to be of continual concern to humans at different times in different cultures. These are ideas that are taught and retaught throughout the unit.		Humans have explored themselves to achieve self- knowledge. Humans have explored relationships with other people. Humans have explored their relationships with nature. Humans have explored the world of ideas. Humans have explored their dreams and fantasies.
2. The unit addresses enduring ideas about the arts.		Enduring ideas are ideas about the arts that are essential, the keys to connecting and understanding knowledge through the arts. These are ideas that are taught and retaught throughout the unit.		Humans have expressed self-knowledge through the arts. Humans have expressed relationships with other people through the arts. Humans have expressed relationships with nature through the arts. Humans have expressed the world of ideas through the arts. Humans have expressed their dreams and fantasies through the arts.
3. The unit addresses key concepts and essential questions.		Key concepts and essential questions are derived from interpreting artworks in the context of the enduring ideas of the unit.		Enduring idea: Power Artworks: Francisco Goya, The Third of May; Diego Rivera, Man at the Crossroads and From Conquest to 1930. Essential questions: What are the consequences of power? Why can power become a source of conflict?
4. The unit objectives, instructional activities, and assessment tasks are aligned.		Initial planning is required to align what students will learn, how they will learn it, and how learning will be assessed.		Goal: students understand that artworks convey meanings. Objective: students will be able to construct a well- supported interpretation of an artwork. Instruction: small and large groups of students practice discussing and constructing interpretations. Assessment: students construct a meaningful interpretation of an artwork.
5. The unit goals and objectives are aligned with local, state, and/or national standards.		district standards. state standards. national standards.		National Content Standards for the Visual Arts: understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes. using knowledge of structures and functions. choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas. understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures. reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others. making connections between visual arts and other disciplines