Grade 9 - Materials, Technologies, and Processes (Creating/Communicating)

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will create 2-D and 3-D images, demonstrating an understanding of a variety of media, materials, and processes, and use that understanding to communicate effectively.

It is expected that students will:

use a variety of materials, technologies, and processes, alone and in combination, to make personally meaningful images
select materials, technologies, and processes appropriate for a planned work
use, care for, and maintain materials, technologies, and workspace in a safe and environmentally sensitive fashion
invent and construct a tool for creating images
demonstrate a willingness to try unfamiliar materials and processes and adapt familiar materials for unfamiliar uses

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Materials, Technologies, and Processes (Creating/Communicating) in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Students create three variations in three different media of an artistic concept and identify which material they feel best suits each piece and why.
Students create functional pieces of art out of "non-functional" objects (e.g., a fountain out of an old muffler), or create "non-functional" (decorative) pieces of art using functional objects.
Students describe materials or sets of materials in terms of the visual elements (e.g., finding words for texture, colour, brightness of a type of Clay, paint, fabric). They then create things using those materials in ways that exploit or highlight the qualities described.
Identify the capabilities of several different computer-graphic software programs. Students create several graphic workseach using a capability unique to one of the programsor create single works employing several of the programs.
Students demonstrate the use, care, and maintenance of materials, technologies, and workspace in a safe and environmentally sensitive fashion by:
- completing individual research projects on the safety and care of art tools or materials
- using computer-graphic software to design safety posters
- role-playing a safety inspector, identifying exemplary practices followed by their peers
Students use materials and processes as metaphors for ideas or feelings in works they create (e.g., terra cotta to represent a southern landscape, plastics to represent commercialism, coloured felts to represent pageantry).
Students collect artifacts during a field trip. They use them to create works that reflect the mood of the events of the trip (e.g., a postcard collage, a dŽcoupage sculpture).
Students recycle old textbooks, using the material in a book-making project.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

As they explore and experiment with an increasing range of media, materials, processes, and increasingly complex technologies, students have opportunities to demonstrate growing repertoires of skills and understanding.

Work with the students to create a review form that considers:
- their use of new materials and processes
- the planning stages of image development
- new or alternative processes that could be used to communicate their ideas more effectively
- safe and environmentally sound practices for the use of materials and technologies in the various processes
This form could be the basis of a portfolio review or conference.
Students form groups to create displays that focus on their use of materials, technologies, and processes. Each group submits a plan for their exhibition, identifying the themes, the works to be included, a plan of the display space, a summary of how they plan to engage the viewers, and a viewers' response form. Work with the students to establish guidelines and criteria for self-, peer, and teacher assessment. Invite members of the community to the display.