High School Block:

Visual Arts 9

In Grade 9, learners consolidate concepts and skills to ensure readiness for more advanced learning in the arts.
Learners continue to connect music and visual art learning to personal experiences; explore the role of the arts
in society and its power to affect change; use music and visual art to communicate, create, and compose with
intention; develop competency in some areas while developing new skills in others; use transferrable skills in
creating, connecting, and communicating; demonstrate increased confidence as performers and creators; and
demonstrate respect for varying opinions and tastes.

CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS

Application

Create

  • Create art with skill and purpose
  • Create art in a variety of genres
  • Create art using a variety of technologies
  • Develop skills to support making art in a specific medium

Connect

  • Connect the ways visual art is important to communication, history and understanding each other

Communicate

  • Analyze artistic intent to determine meaning
  • Justify choices in making art
GRADE 9

Strand: Create

Big Idea: Exploration and Process

Skill Descriptor: Synthesize the elements of art and the principles of design to develop skills, language, techniques, and processes.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

  • Describe a variety of traditional and non-traditional art forms as well as genres
  • Identify properties of a variety of media and technological processes by their sensory qualities and ability to convey message and meaning
  • Manipulate and organize design elements to achieve planned compositions
  • Invent and incorporate unique visual symbols to create personal meaning in their art
  • Make use of visual, spatial, and temporal concepts in creating art images
  • Use materials and tools safely

Big Idea: Application and Product

Skill Descriptor: Create and present expressive work in visual arts for a range of audiences and purposes using a variety of art media, including technology.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS

Achievement Indicators:

  • Demonstrate increasing complexity in art skills and techniques through artwork created
  • Integrate themes found through direct observation, personal experience, and imagination
  • Analyze elements of art and principles of design in artwork
  • Curate a display of work from their own portfolio

Strand: Connect

Big Idea: Art and Culture

Skill Descriptor: Analyze the role of visual art in creating, expressing, recording, and reflecting culture and human experiences.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS, SASM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Evaluate the ways visual communication systems are a part of everyday life
  • Describe ways that past events and the way people live have influenced visual art
  • Compare the characteristics of art styles from a variety of historical, and cultural contexts using the language of visual art
  • Describe the role and influence of visual images in daily lives, including mass media and popular culture
  • Explain how skills gained through visual arts are transferrable to a variety of career pathways
  • Identify opportunities to participate in the visual arts in school, community, and the world of work
  • Analyze ethical, legal, and moral considerations involved in copying works

Big Idea: Art Form Relationships

Skill Descriptor: Interpret the relationship between visual art and other art forms.

Global Competencies: CM, CTPS, SASM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Interpret visual parallels between the structures of natural and built environments

Strand: Communicate

Big Idea: Reflect and Respond

Skill Descriptor: Critique artistic intent in their own and others’ expressive works.

Global Competencies: CL, CM, CTPS, ICE

Achievement Indicators:

  • Analyze how elements of art and principles of design are used to solve specific visual design problems
  • Discuss the source of ideas behind their own work and the work of others
  • Analyze artwork and determine the artist’s intention
  • Examine the influences of expanding technology on individuals and society
  • Critique the work of self and others constructively
  • Analyze their own artworks considering their original intent using feedback from others
  • Analyze how meaning is embedded in works of art