Defining social justice art education can help teacher candidates understand what it is and how to use related pedagogies to address issues of access, equity, and power in their future classrooms. In this article, we explore social justice art education with preservice teachers through a lesson based on the work of socially engaged artist Aram Han…

H ow can we integrate art and social studies to advance art teacher education for social justice? This question has guided our collaborative journey as teacher educators at the same institution. At a public university in the southern United States, the first author is an art teacher educator, and the second author is a social studies teacher…

Concept mapping is a form of visual organization that can be used to categorize and represent knowledge about a particular subject or related subjects and foster development of these critical skills. A strategy initiated in the late 1990s (Novak, 1998), concept mapping employs concepts and propositions as central elements in structuring knowledge…

In this article, the authors share their experiences as art teacher educators using social media in innovative ways that stretch and strengthen modality in lesson design. Specifically, they explore their process of using the popular blog site Tumblr as a format to design what they have termed "tumbling lessons" with preservice art…

Teachers spend hours each week scouring the internet for lesson ideas. Hours of scrolling, clicking on links, and typing keywords into search bars on Pinterest, Facebook, and their favorite blogs. They do not walk through library stacks to do their research, and books are no longer the primary reference point. Most art teachers find the…

As defined by the Kennedy Center, arts integration is "an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both" (Silverstein & Layne, 2010). In arts integrated…

Art educators are concerned with exposing their students to contemporary art making practices. They aim to create fresh lessons that expand their understandings of art in today's world while highlighting the importance of imagination. With a personal interest in performance and street art (art forms that have gained popularity in recent years),…

What does an introduction to and engagement in performance art offer K-12 students? In this article, we respond to this question by proposing a lesson inspired by the artmaking practices of the contemporary artist Erwin Wurm. Performance art can be defined as any form of work that combines the artist's body and a live-action event with or…

Critical thinking is thought-focused on how to solve a well-defined problem when several alternatives solutions to the problem exist. Because critical thinking may help to build tolerance toward others, the author believes it is a worthwhile subject to investigate, given that people are living in an increasingly multicultural society full of…

Human beings are influenced by design every day through continuous contact with functional form in and through visual culture. They encounter a continuous current of such new styles as clothing fashions, architecture, furniture and advertisements. The American pursuit of happiness has become related to an increasing flow of products and…

The art room is the canvas, and all furnishings and objects are the art supplies. All art room surfaces and spaces can be used to communicate an art lesson. Artists in all media plan visually, and art lessons should be planned and preserved as are other works of art. As a young art teacher, the author felt it was important for his students to…

Presents a lesson plan uses Edward Hopper's painting entitled "November, Washington Square." The lesson illustrates, for students in grades K-3, the ways an artist interprets the city in which he or she lives. Includes suggestions for classroom activities. (AEM)

Creates a lesson plan using Mark Tobey's painting, "Flow of the Night," to illustrate to students in grades 10-12 that artists may interpret their environments in a variety of ways, from the subjective to the abstract. Includes suggestions for classroom activities. (AEM)

Based on a full-color reproduction of Marc Chagall's painting, "Wild Poppies," the goals of this lesson plan are to introduce students to artist's use of dreams and memories in making art, to communicate the idea that artists include their visual memories of people and things they love in their artwork, and to introduce the concepts of…

Thomas Cole's painting, "The Architect's Dream," is used to illustrate a middle school lesson on how artists interpret cityscapes. Includes suggestions for classroom activities. (AEM)