Jenna Conrad

Unit Paper 1, Art 133

9/7/16
Unit Paper 1
The main concept that Ward, Walker, Franco, and Unrath mutually portray through their
excepts is that big ideas are essential and "do not completely explicate an idea, but represent a host of
concepts that form the idea" (Ward p. 147). Big ideas are there to guide the direction of thoughts, but
not direct them to a specific area. This is a concept that is being intigrated into the lesson plans and new
building blocks to the 21st century teaching. This main reason for this is due to the fact that instructors
will be able to give their students a clear understanding of what they are going to base their thoughts
upon, but it also lets them explore and find their own comfort levels. Big ideas is also tied into the
constructivist concept. It is a "learning theory that views students as active builders of their own
understandings" (Franco, Ward and Unrath p. 45). Eduactors want the students to have the ability to
express their own throughts and ideas through their work, being artwork, writing, to anything they do.
When portraying big ideas in the classroom settings, it is a great gateway into a number of
different questions for children to pose. This is going to expand their thinking together, letting them
bounce ideas off of each other. This also gives them more free range to think, letting the instructor find
out more about their abilities.
References
Walker, S. (2001). Teaching meaning in artmaking. Worcester, MA: Davis.
Parsons, M. (2004) Art and integrated curriculum. In E.W. Eisner & M.D. Day (Eds.),
Handbook of research and policy in art education (pp.775-794). Yahweh, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.