Our Members’ Projects
Visual Artists
Videos of Visual Artists in Greater Sudbury
Directed by Dr. Kathy Browning,
School of Education,
Laurentian University
Project Summary
Brief Background: This project interviewed 14 Aboriginal, Métis, Francophone and Anglophone artists in Greater Sudbury and Manitoulin Island about their art to support the new Ontario Ministry of Education: The Arts Guidelines, particularly Visual Arts. Artists were interviewed and videotaped in partnership with the Director of the Laurentian University Film Studio Dr. Hoi Cheu. Ten videos received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Education through the Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research (KNAER) with the University of Toronto and four videos from Laurentian University Research Fund (LURF). These fourteen videos will be distributed to locations and available on-line for knowledge mobilization and information access. Research Context: In the new Ontario Ministry of Education: The Arts Guidelines for Visual Arts, critical thinking is encouraged and while many questions are suggested that teachers can ask, there are no websites or texts suggested or descriptions of the artists’ work. Read more >>
Art Planning
Teaching Visual Arts
Paul Syme, Arts Education Consultant AVRSB, 2010
Project Summary
When developing a year plan for the visual arts, key concepts to consider are:
•Instruct through units: Avoid planning for classes to happen in isolation, each one should be part of a bigger picture (unit or module). •Identify, use and build background knowledge. You may have designed the most engaging unit, but if the students don’t have the background knowledge or skills in a particular medium or process, students will struggle unnecessarily. Therefore, it is important to set aside time in your unit plan to assess and build background knowledge and skills.
•Pull together the three streams: If a unit is to efficiently bring students towards meeting outcomes, the unit needs to incorporate outcomes and strategies for instruction and assessment from each of the three streams, Creating, Making & Presenting, Understanding and Making Connections to Time, Place and Community, Perceiving and Responding
Human Rights
UNICEF Teaching Children’s Rights Through Arts
Diane Lewis, Cape Breton Victoria Regional School District Katherine Covell & Justin McNeil, CBU Children’s Rights Centre
Project Summary
In the summer of 2006, I found myself at a conference called, “Teaching the Holocaust to future Generations” in Jerusalem, Israel. During that time, I had the opportunity to study some of the worst hate crimes ever perpetuated by man. Many of the presenters talked about the strategies for preventing genocide. Over and over I heard facilitators say that we much teach human rights in the schools. When I returned from the Middle East I contacted Dr. Katherine Covell, Director of the Children Right’s Centre at Cape Breton University to discuss the conference. A pioneer in rights education, she was not surprised that a Holocaust conference would promote human rights education in the schools. She suggested we collaborate on a book that took the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and found innovative ways to adapt the information to the classroom. As an Art Educator I decided to get my students to use the convention as their inspiration for a children’s rights art project. The following is our journey. I’d like to dedicate this curriculum resource to the memory of Richard and Michael Lewis whose tragic death constantly reminds me that life is fragile. Diane Lewis, Sydney, July, 2007