How Teaching Artists Can Better Understand Educational Standards

The National Common Core Standards are an essential part of our education system. They came out in 2009. The Department of Education used grant funding to encourage states – including Mississippi – to adopt the standards. We used them for several years until the public pushed for change. 

Teachers in the state reworked the Common Core Standards to make them specific for Mississippi. So, the two standards are very similar. Sometimes, the Mississippi Career Ready College and Career Readiness Standards have the same language as the Common Core National Standards. You should be able to go back and forth between standards with ease if you are in another state. 

We don’t use standards to build a script for educators. We’re trying to ensure that all students work towards the same goals. Standards are what we want students to know at different grade levels. We created them so that no student is left behind. The lesson plan, teaching, and curriculum are how we meet those standards. 

As a teaching artist, following the standards allows you to efficiently and effectively pair an art form with another subject so that kids are learning better and at higher levels. You must show your school how students are growing from your work. The language in the standards can help you explain that because it shows the significance of arts integration.

You can find the Common Core Standards on corestandards.org. 

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standards are broad, overarching standards that go from one grade level to the next. However, not all grades have anchor standards. 

National Arts Standards

You can find the art standards on nationalartstandards.org. These standards came out shortly after the National Common Core Standards. They’ve been a guide for states as they developed their arts standards. 

Each standard serves a specific purpose. Standard one, for example, ensures that students have a lifelong understanding of their curriculum. 

Mississippi Standards

You can find the Mississippi Standards on the State Department of Education website. The site has four categories, including one for educators. The Educators’ category shows every standard that applies to Mississippi's Pre-K through 12th-grade schools. 

The state Anchor Standards are worded similarly to the national standards. As a teaching artist, you need a clear understanding of the standards. When writing lesson plans, you'll need to include the number of the standard. You’ll find this number on the standards table. 

Remember that you don’t write lesson plans with Anchor Standards. Those are too broad because they apply to more than one grade level. You need to develop your lesson plan using more specific standards suitable for your state. And you must understand what the standards mean. 

Unpacking the Standards 

The first visual arts standard has two sub-standards that prioritize self-direction. The first substandard is: engage in self-directed play with materials, and the second one prioritizes self-directed creative making. 

Playing is more open-ended because there's no goal in mind besides having fun. So, you might give students paint, paintbrushes, and paper and allow them to play. You might show them how to use the paintbrush, how to wet their brush to use watercolors, and then let them explore that medium. 

Creative making is more structured than the first substandard. It requires critical thinking from the students. You could ask your students to create an art piece to meet the substandard requirements. 

When developing a lesson plan, you must ensure that you include all parts of the standard. Always remember that less is more, especially when you're writing an arts-integrated lesson plan. You want to make sure your students are doing what the standard says. 

If you have fifteen standards listed for your lesson plan, it’ll be hard to make sure that students do all those things in one lesson. It's better to hone in on one or two standards. For an arts-integrated lesson plan, you can focus on one standard from the content area and another from the arts area. 

You can watch my YouTube video here to see the detailed training session on educational standards for teaching artists. 

I’m Amanda, and I align standards and integrate content to help teachers meet the needs of the Whole Child in art class! I have yet to find a standard that I couldn’t teach through art, and I want to share it all with you.

Not sure where to start with bringing art and content together? This freebie guide is packed with 25 ideas to align your art lessons with math and ELA standards. Your students will be crafting art and practicing algebraic thinking. Win-win!

I want all students to feel successful in the art room, so I created a standards-based Daffodil Collage lesson to do just that! The lesson includes an artist study, student reflection, and more, so push your artists to their full potential.

Follow along on my Instagram page for more tips on teaching the Whole Child in the art room!

Connecting art and content together doesn’t have to be mind-boggling. I’ve made it simple with 25 math and ELA art lesson starters - for free! Plus, I included 15 worksheets for students to reflect on their art-making journey.