Colorado Academic Standards Online

Use the options below to create customized views of the Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.

Visual Arts - 2019

High School, Standard 1. Observe and Learn to Comprehend

Prepared Graduates:

1. See oneself as a participant in visual art and design by experiencing, viewing or making.
3. Practice critical and analytical skills by using academic language to discuss works of art and visual culture.
6. Create works of visual art and design that demonstrate increasing levels of mastery in skills and techniques.

Grade Level Expectation:

1. Utilize the inquiry method of observation and the language of visual art and design to gather information and determine meaning.

Evidence Outcomes:

Students Can:

Develop observation skills to generate and synthesize ideas and interpret communicated meaning.
Connect and compare information gathered through observation in order to articulate the human experience.
Discern and interpret nuances of meaning and intention of visual art and design across cultural contexts.
Critically analyze the origins of visual art and design across cultures.

Academic Contexts and Connections:

Colorado Essential Skills and Meaning Making:

Make connections between information gathered in visual art and design and personal experiences to broaden thinking. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
Students can cite evidence from content-specific texts and works of art to demonstrate understanding and support an analysis of the text or work of art, conduct experiments and apply learning. (Entrepreneurial Skills; Professional Skills: Information Literacy)

Inquiry Questions:

How can students analyze and discuss works of art and design?
How can students research personal questions, experiences outside the art classroom and interdisciplinary knowledge?
How do students acknowledge multiple ways of knowing?

Learning Experience and Transfer:

Prepared Graduates:

1. See oneself as a participant in visual art and design by experiencing, viewing or making.
5. Interpret works of art and design in the contexts of varied traditions, histories and cultures.
6. Create works of visual art and design that demonstrate increasing levels of mastery in skills and techniques.
7. Allow imagination, curiosity and wonder to guide inquiry and research.
8. Participate in the reciprocal relationships between visual art and communities.

Grade Level Expectation:

2. Interpret, analyze and explain the influence of multiple contexts found in visual art and design.

Evidence Outcomes:

Students Can:

Analyze visual art and design traditions to understand the influence of historical and cultural context on works of art and design.
Identify unexplored ideas to gain understanding of works of art.
Research and document visual art, design and architecture identifying various themes that communities experience across cultures and throughout time.
Connect unexplored works of visual art and design to the lives of students.
Identify and analyze innovations in visual art and design from diverse cultures to inform about the present and future works of art.
Analyze and debate the consequences of replicating images or icons that are culturally or spiritually sensitive.

Academic Contexts and Connections:

Colorado Essential Skills and Meaning Making:

Look for and value different perspectives expressed by others in visual art and design. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
Analyze and use information presented visually that support an argument. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Professional Skills)

Inquiry Questions:

How can students contribute to their lives and the lives of their communities through artmaking?
How can students give form and expression to their stories?
How can students distinguish the difference between telling their story and telling the story of someone else?

Learning Experience and Transfer:

Prepared Graduates:

1. See oneself as a participant in visual art and design by experiencing, viewing or making.
6. Create works of visual art and design that demonstrate increasing levels of mastery in skills and techniques.
7. Allow imagination, curiosity and wonder to guide inquiry and research.
10. Develop new knowledge by actively doing and making (artistic praxis), acknowledging relationships between materials, objects, ideas and lived experience.

Grade Level Expectation:

3. Use artmaking processes as forms of inquiry to increase independent reasoning and perception skills to increase knowledge.

Evidence Outcomes:

Students Can:

Examine how connotation and denotation are used in visual art and design to express multidimensional concepts.
Compare personal work within the larger discourse of visual art and design practices to identify purpose and function.
Critically analyze selection of materials that inform conceptualization and expression of ideas and aesthetic experience.
Investigate and articulate the aims of disparate art practices to foster critical thinking about visual art and design.

Academic Contexts and Connections:

Colorado Essential Skills and Meaning Making:

Focus on learning goals in visual art and design by employing motivation and familiar strategies for engagement. (Personal Skills: Perseverance/Resilience)
Evaluate progress in visual art and design making necessary changes to stay the course. (Personal Skills: Perseverance/Resilience)
Students can analyze content-specific texts and works of art to distinguish the factual evidence offered, reasoned judgments made and conclusions drawn, and speculative ideas offered. (Entrepreneurial Skills)

Inquiry Questions:

How can students document the process of building an enduring understanding from the early stages of uncovering thinking to fully realized knowledge?
How can students become aware of how their perceptions and experiences influence their ideas?
How can students use ideas to communicate meaning?

Learning Experience and Transfer:

Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us