ADVANCED PLACEMENT ART HISTORY
CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
The central questions in this course include the following:
What is art and how is it made? Why and how does art change? How do we describe our thinking about art? Through these essential questions, students explore the big ideas of AP® Art History, effectively and precisely articulating an artwork’s meaning and function, its maker’s methods, and the ways it reflects and affects its historical and cultural contexts. With these core questions as the foundation, this course is organized into 10 chronological units, emphasizing daily practice of questioning techniques, methods of discussion, analytical paradigms, guided discovery, and independent learning. These enable our students to develop critical thinking and visual literacy skills with which they can mine meaning from any artwork they encounter throughout their lives.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Students will develop an understanding of the big ideas as outlined in the AP Course and Exam Description (CED).
The course provides opportunities to develop student ’ understanding of the required content outlined in each of the units described in the AP Course and Exam Description.
Students will develop Art Historical thinking Skills using Visual Analysis and evidence.
Students will develop Art Historical Thinking Skills using Contextual Analysis and back that up with evidence.
Students will learn and develop utilize art historical thinking skills by comparing works of art throughout time
Students will develop and learn specific attributes of a work of art.
Students will identify and explain why specific works of art are significant and identify artistic traditions within a culture
Students will be able to provide written Visual analysis of unknown works based on what they learned from the 250 specific works of art and make attributions of other unknown works.
Students will develop their art thinking skills to develop historical interpretations and argumentation.
COURSE ENRICHMENT
Enrichment will be provided through guest lecturers and trips to galleries or online museums.
COURSE EVALUATION AND GRADING POLICY
Personal growth, constructive use of time in class, and careful execution of assigned work are the major criteria for grading. Students will strive towards fluency in identifying and writing about visual evidence (form and content) along with contextual evidence (context and function in artwork). This may be in the form of research and writing. Homework and assessments are an integral part of your grade and they will be included in determining your grade.
Homework is 25% of your grade
Class participation is 25% of your grade
Assessments (Progress checks, quizzes, exams and review projects) is 50% of your grade
RESOURCE MATERIALS
Image set: Images of all 250 required works are available to students at the Khan Academy® website.
Image set with scholarly articles and analysis video on 250 artworks
Smarthistory https://smarthistory.org/curated-guide/ap-art-history/
AP Art History classroom provides progress checks, quizzes and exams along with videos pertaining to course objectives and the AP final exam.
Students are expected to keep an archive of snapshot notes in a 3-ring binder
TEACHER AVAILABILITY
Extra help will be available after school each day until 3:00 pm.