Planning units of instruction: Using a 'Focu' approach

In her book Approaches to Art in Education, Laura Chapman talks about the idea of using different “Focuses” in the planning of instruction units. This paper presentation describes how a group of pre-service art teachers, in one of their curriculum & instruction modules, study and explore the concepts behind this approach. The focuses were Issues and Goals in studying art; Approaches to studying Art; Art forms as a focus; Subjects and themes as a focus; Design principles as a focus; Media and process as a focus and Purposes of Art as a focus. The pre-service art teachers formed small working groups to investigate and prepare teaching materials for each one of the focuses. Lesson plans and full teaching packages with visual aids, samples of finished works, learning activities, assignment tasks and criteria were developed to be tried out in teaching practice. The paper will present their ideas development, process of constructing the teaching packages and the results of the pre-service teachers’ trying out of their products and ideas. Examples of students’ artwork will be shown in slide format. This paper reviews how a group of pre-service art teachers investigated “Using Focus In Planning Lesson Units” as proposed by Laura Chapman in her book Approaches to Art in Education.