These are handouts that I created for my practicum in visual arts this fall. I had the chance to teach the elements & principles unit for grade 9 and 10 and faced the challenge of trying to make these terms easily accessible for a range of students.
I found that by going though each element and principle with examples from art history, and then applying this in a studio session, the students got the concepts. The problem was then being able to remember them all.
I tried these handouts and they worked surprisingly well. I gave out blank versions, and had the students fill out each term and definition as we covered them in class. The important part is the final step, the icon, where I asked students to come up with an icon that mattered to them, and that they felt comfortable drawing. This way, the terms were reinforced with an immediate visual reference that is more memerorable than a definition- the handouts also work well as a study sheet for the final exam.
A full Elements and Principles of Design Unit plan (complete with lesson plans) is also available on my Teachers Pay Teachers site, here.
The letter-size worksheets by themselves (without the lesson plans) are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers site, here.
- Patrick
