Lesson 1: Introducing Big Ideas
Lesson 1: Introducing Big Ideas
Goals: To introduce the learner to what big ideas are, why they are important in the art room, and how big idea curriculum is different from design-based art education.
Introduction: A big idea is a universal experience that is used as the base of projects that are then built upon. For example, a big idea would be something like memories, and then the teacher would begin thinking about what kind of memories, what medium would the student use, and so on.
How do you identify a big idea? A big idea is something general that every person in the world experiences regardless of race, religion, sex, gender, and location. Some examples of big ideas are:
Adaptation, Adventure, Aging, Afterlife, Alienation/Loneliness, Anxiety, Beauty, Boredom, Celebration, Chance, Communication, Conflict, Consumerism, Courage, Culture, Diversity, Divinity, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotions, Environment, The Everyday, The Extraordinary, Family, Fantasy, Fate, Force, Fortitude, Food/Nutrition, Fun/Joy, Group Identity, Heroes, Home, Honoring, Human Commonalities, Identity, Individual, Inventing, Invisibility, Leisure, Life, Love, Loyalty, Maternity, Materialism, Meaning, Memory, Memorializing, Music, Nature and Culture, Opposition, Patience, Poverty, Power, Pride, Prophecy, Protection, Public, Race, Reality, Reflection, Reinventing, Relationships and Resources.
Big idea art education came about around 2010, but it only became more prominent in the art education field within the last 5-8 years. Big ideas came about in art education, and education in general, because it was realized that students needed to form deeper connections in regards to what they were learning rather than just memorize facts and skills.
Task: In this lesson, there are two readings provided about design-based art education and big idea art education. The task is to read both articles and complete a venn diagram that compares and contrasts the two teaching frameworks. Once you complete the venn diagram, use the link to naviagate to the google slideshow. Once there, create a new slide, and insert your ven diagram into the slideshow so that the class can see.
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