International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme:

VISUAL ARTS

Syllabus 2015-2016

P. Camacho: pcamacho2@cps.edu
Open Studio Hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays 2:30 - 4:00

AIMS : The aims of the arts subjects are to enable students to:
1. Enjoy lifelong engagement with the arts
2. Become informed, reflective and critical practitioners in the arts
3. Understand the dynamic and changing nature of the arts
4. Explore and value the diversity of the arts across time, place and cultures
5. Express ideas with confidence and competence
6. Develop perceptual and analytical skills
Visual Arts Aims: In addition, the aims of the visual arts course at SL and HL are to enable students to:
7. Make artwork that is influenced by personal and cultural contexts
8. Become informed and critical observers and makers of visual culture and media
9. Develop skills, techniques and processes in order to communicate concepts and ideas

OBJECTIVES & BENCHMARKS

Objective 1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of specified content
1a. Identify various contexts in which the visual arts can be created and presented.
1b. Describe artwork from differing contexts, and identify the ideas, conventions and techniques employed by the art-makers.
1c. Recognize the skills, techniques, media, forms and processes associated with the visual arts.
1d. Present work, using appropriate visual arts language, as appropriate to intentions.

Objective 2: Demonstrate application and analysis of knowledge and understanding

2a. Express concepts, ideas and meaning through visual communication.
2b. Analyse artworks from a variety of different contexts.
2c. Apply knowledge and understanding of skills, techniques, media, forms and processes related to art-making.

Objective 3: Demonstrate synthesis and evaluation

3a. Critically analyse and discuss artworks created by themselves and others and articulate an informed personal response.
3b. Formulate personal intentions for the planning, development and making of artworks that consider how meaning can be
conveyed to an audience.
3c. Demonstrate the use of critical reflection to highlight success and failure in order to progress work.
3d. Evaluate how and why art-making evolves and justify the choices made in their own visual practice.

Objective 4: Select, use and apply a variety of appropriate skills and techniques
4a. Experiment with different media, materials and techniques in art-making.
4b. Make appropriate choices in selection of images, media, materials and techniques in art-making.
4c. Demonstrate technical proficiency in the use and application of skills, techniques, media, images, forms and processes.
4d. Produce a body of resolved and unresolved artworks as appropriate to intentions.

CORE SYLLABUS AREAS

Visual Arts in Context
(Planning & Thinking)

Theoretical
Practice
(Comparative Study)

Art-Making
Practice
(Process Portfolio)

Curatorial
Practice
(Exhibition)

Students examine and compare

the work of artists from
different cultural contexts.
Students consider the contexts
influencing their own work and
the work of others.
Students make art through a
process of investigation,
thinking critically and
experimenting with techniques.
Students apply identified
techniques to their own
developing work.
Students develop an informed
response to work and
exhibitions they have seen and
experienced.
Students begin to formulate
personal intentions for creating
and displaying their own
artworks.

Visual Arts Methods

(Making)

Communicating Visual Arts

(Presenting & Exhibiting)

Students look at different

techniques for making art.

Students explore ways of

communicating through visual
and written means.

Students investigate and

compare how and why
different techniques have
evolved and the processes
involved.
Students experiment with
diverse media and explore
techniques for making art.
Students develop concepts
through processes that are
informed by skills,
techniques and media.
Students evaluate how their
ongoing work communicated
meaning and purpose.
Students consider the nature
of exhibition and thinking
about the process of
selection and potential
impact of their work on
different audiences.

Students make artistic choices

about how to most
effectively communicate
knowledge and understanding.
Students produce a body of
artwork through a process of
reflection and evaluation,
showing a synthesis of skill,
media and concept.

Students select and present

resolved works for
exhibition.
Students explain the ways in
which the works are
connected.
Students discuss how artistic
judgments impact the overall
presentation.

ART-MAKING FORMS:

Throughout the course students are expected to experience working with a variety of different
art-making and conceptual forms. The examples given are for guidance only and are not intended to represent a definitive list.
Two-dimensional Forms
Three-dimensional Forms
Lens-based, electronic and
screen-based Forms
Drawing: such as charcoal, pencil, ink Sculpture: such as ceramics, found
Time-based and Sequential art: such
objects, wood, assemblage
as animation, graphic novel,
Painting: such as acrylic, oil,
storyboard
watercolor
Designed objects: such as fashion,
architectural, vessels
Lens media: such as still, moving,
Printmaking: such as relief, intaglio,
montage
planographic, chine coll
Site specific/Ephemeral: such as land
art,
installation,
mural

Digital/Screen based: such as vector

Graphics: such as illustration and
graphics, software generated
design
Textiles: such as fiber, weaving,
printed fabric

ASSESSMENT

Benito
o
o
o

Juarez Community Academy grading policy:

10% SOAR
20% First Demonstration: Formative Assessment
80% Second Demonstration: Summative Assessment

IB Diploma Programme Visual Arts Assessment:

o 20%: Comparative Study (External Assessment)
o 40%: Process Portfolio (External Assessment)
o 40%: Exhibition (Internal Assessment)

(Please see the attached assessment overview for additional details about GROUP 6 assessment.)

Late Work & Benchmark RETAKE

o I will not accept ANY LATE WORK. You will be responsible for submitting new work that measures and assesses
your understanding of the objectives/benchmarks assigned.
o We will have recovery days throughout the school year.

ACADEMIC HONESTY
Academic honesty in the Diploma Programme is a set of values and behaviours informed by the attributes of the learner profile. In
teaching, learning and assessment, academic honesty serves to promote personal integrity, engender respect for the integrity of
others and their work, and ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they
acquire during their studies.
All coursework including work submitted for assessment is to be AUTHENTIC, based on the students individual and original ideas
with the ideas and work of others fully acknowledged. If a candidate uses the work or ideas of another person the candidate must
acknowledge the source using a standard style of referencing (MLA) in a consistent manner. A candidates failure to acknowledge a
source will be investigated by the IB as a potential breach of regulations that may result in a penalty imposed by the IB final
award committee.
Candidates are expected to use a standard style and use it consistently so that credit is given to all sources used, including
sources that have been paraphrased or summarized. When writing text a candidate must clearly distinguish between their words
and those of others by the use of quotation marks (or other method, such as indentation) followed by an appropriate citation that
denotes an entry in the bibliography. If an electronic source is cited, the date of access must be indicated. Candidates are not
expected to show faultless expertise in referencing, but are expected to demonstrate that all sources have been acknowledged.
Candidates must be advised that audio-visual material, text, graphs, images and/or data published in print or in electronic sources
that is not their own must also attribute the source. Again, an appropriate style of referencing/citation must be used.

OPEN STUDIO
You are not REQUIRED to attend ALL open studio sessions. However, attending OPEN STUDIO is highly recommended as it is additional
studio time outside of class. Not all projects will necessitate additional studio time. The frequency at which you attend OPEN STUDIO
is at your own discretion. OPEN STUDIO hours are Tuesdays & Wednesdays 2:30 4:00pm, hours are subject to change however I will
inform you ahead of time.

OUR COURSE
(The course outline is subject to change. Students will be notified of any changes ahead of time and will be given new assessment criteria.)

Dates
SEMESTER 1
September 8 October 16
October 19 November 24
November 30 January 8
January 11 February 4
SEMESTER 2
February 8 April 7
April 11 May 13
May 16 June 21

Weeks

Topic

Assessment Criteria

6
6
4

Observational Drawing
Freedom Principle
Social Commentary, Perspective & Bias

1c., 2c., 3d., 4c.

1b., 2a., 2c., 3a.
3b., 4a., 4b., 4d.

Comparative Study

1a., 1b., 2b., 3c.

9
4
5

Extended Project
Process Portfolio, Revisions, & Reflection
Curatorial Practices

1d., 4a.,4b., 4c., 4d.

1c., 1d., 3c., 3d.
1a., 2a., 2b., 3a., 3b.

HOMEWORK
Given that we only have 50-minute classes HOMEWORK is an important and necessary component of class. The amount of
homework will vary week to week, but the LATE WORK policy applies to homework as well.