Mikaela Bugarin

Art 133
Unit 1 paper
1/31/17
Unit 1 paper
The first two weeks of the semester focused on big idea, identity, and
meaning making. Teaching art education is a secondary course to other subjects
such as math and science, so it is important to be aware of these misconceptions
are and create an openness to learn the value of art (Franco, Ward, & Unrath, 2015).
Once openness is implemented, curriculum can be made with stress to how art
making is meaningful. Making art meaningful can be taught in a constructivist type
of classroom where each person in class participate in a learning community where
they can have an active role to reach a common goal. Within curriculum, one of the
four avenues to make art meaningful is through identity (Franco, Ward, & Unrath,
2015). Identity is basically what an object is evoking, or who we are. Big ideas ties
in with the idea of identity because identity can be seen as a subcategory to big
ideas. A big idea of a piece can take the form of a portrait to which identity can be a
big idea. For instance, the class was presented a Frida Kahlo piece which displace
herself in the piece. The class developed what they thought was the big idea, one in
which is identity. Portraits, as we came to conclusion in class, can portray our
identities and even promote what we are not. To further explain what big idea, it is
complex and does not paint a complete picture; it is so abstract that it is
representation of many different concepts (Walker, 2001). One significant thing
about big idea is that it is creates meaning to a piece of art as a final product
(Walker, 2001). One big picture idea that can be grasp is a big idea and the
meaningfulness of artmaking have a corresponding relationship where one relies on
the other. How is big ideas important? This is because it brings meaning to
artmaking. How does artmaking produce meaning? This is accomplished through
creating curriculum that displays not only the four avenues of art, identity being one
of them, but also create an emphasis on capturing a big idea. Artmaking is driven
by big ideas which a body of work has and is adaptable considering the artists
needs which may extend over a period of time (Walker, 2001).

Im going to focus on the importance of presenting what I learned to

elementary school, specifically those for the first grade which is a grade level that
Im interested in. Before creating art curriculum for a first-grade class, it is
important to know what they can accomplish with art at this point of their lives by
reviewing standards for a first-grade class. During first grade, children may be able
to draw or paint still lives and produce secondary color. Another standard is that
children at grade level will be able to make observations around them through their
surrounding objects or sceneries to produce their artwork. Focusing on this
standard, I believe that identity can be taught to a child in the first grade by having
the child choose different kinds of fruits, observe them and create a dialog of how
each fruit presented them is different. Each fruit has their own identity which makes
them iconic and unique and being able to point out features of fruits shows that
objects such as fruit have their own identity. As for the other standard, creating art
in the sense of a still life revolves around a big idea. At the first grade, children can
produce art with a big idea that can be more meaningful than what others may
think is merely a still life of fruit. Children at this age are egocentric which means
that some of their ideology is from their point of view. Their big ideas are
meaningful to children at this age because they may try to incorporate their take of
still lives by utilizing their lives as an influence to create their own big idea. As a
child development major, I can utilize what I learned about art making to my
profession. Right now, I work as a teacher at a preschool and wish to bring what I
learned to my classroom. A preschool is a little different than an elementary school
classroom. I understand that this art class is centered towards elementary school. I
want to be able to make art meaningful to those that are younger than elementary
school age by implementing what I learned in class and use them in their small
group activities.