MTTC Visual Arts Education (095) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

DBAE four disciplines

Discipline-Based Art Education balances art production, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics. Each discipline contributes content and its own assessment evidence, so a unit is not production-only.

National Core Arts Standards count

The visual arts anchor standards total eleven: three under Creating, two under Presenting, four under Responding, and two under Connecting. Grade-level performance standards elaborate each anchor.

Studio Habits of Mind

Eight dispositions from Harvard Project Zero: develop craft, engage and persist, envision, express, observe, reflect, stretch and explore, and understand art worlds. They describe how artists think, not just what they make.

Backward design

Plan by first naming enduring understandings and essential questions, then determining acceptable evidence and criteria, and only then designing learning activities. Assessment design precedes activity design.

Descriptive critique sequence

A structured discussion moving from description to analysis to interpretation to judgment. Judgment is deferred until after close looking, which reduces premature evaluation and builds visual evidence skills.

TAB choice-based model

Teaching for Artistic Behavior organizes class into demonstration, studio work time, and reflection. Students choose media and subject; the teacher coaches and documents growth rather than directing one uniform product.

Formative versus summative

Formative assessment is ongoing evidence used to adjust instruction, such as critique notes or exit slips. Summative assessment judges achievement at the end, such as a rubric-scored portfolio.

Rubric analytic versus holistic

Analytic rubrics score separate criteria, giving diagnostic detail per trait. Holistic rubrics give one overall score from a described continuum, which is faster but less informative for revision.

Essential question

An open-ended question that recurs across a unit and has no single correct answer, such as what makes an image persuasive. It frames inquiry and connects studio work to broader ideas.

Enduring understanding

A transferable big idea students should retain years later, stated as a full sentence, such as artists use contrast to direct attention. It anchors unit goals beyond a single project.

Elements of art

Line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space. They are the building blocks artists manipulate; analysis of an artwork typically names which elements dominate and how.

Principles of design

Organizational strategies including balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, and unity or variety. They describe how elements are arranged to produce effects and structure compositions.

Color wheel complements

Colors opposite each other on the wheel: red with green, yellow with violet, blue with orange. Mixed together they neutralize toward gray; adjacent they produce maximum contrast.

Value and chiaroscuro

Value is relative lightness or darkness. Chiaroscuro is the strong modeled contrast of light and shadow used to suggest three-dimensional form and dramatic space.

One-point perspective rule

Parallel edges receding into depth converge at a single vanishing point on the horizon line. Vertical and horizontal edges stay parallel, producing a frontal, centered spatial illusion.

Two-point perspective

Two vanishing points on a horizon line govern two sets of receding edges; verticals remain vertical. It depicts a corner view of a form rather than a flat frontal face.

Atmospheric perspective

Distant forms appear lower in contrast, cooler, lighter, and less detailed because atmosphere scatters light. Artists use these cues to create depth without linear convergence.

Additive versus subtractive

Additive processes build up material, as in clay sculpture or collage. Subtractive processes remove material, as in carving wood or stone. The distinction guides tool and planning choices.

Glaze versus underglaze

Glaze is a glass-forming coating fired on clay, often functional and food-safe when rated. Underglaze is a colored decoration applied before glazing; it usually needs a clear glaze over it.

Bisque versus greenware

Greenware is unfired, dried clay and is fragile and recyclable. Bisque is clay fired once, chemically changed, no longer recyclable, and ready for glazing.

Silica dust hazard

Respirable crystalline silica from dry clay and glaze dust can cause silicosis. Controls: wet-clean surfaces, avoid dry sweeping, use ventilation, and prohibit eating in the studio.

Kiln ventilation rule

Kilns release carbon monoxide and fumes during firing. They require dedicated ventilation and clearance from combustibles, and firing should follow the manufacturer's schedule with supervision.

Printmaking: relief

In relief printing the raised surface takes ink and the recessed areas stay white, as in linocut or woodcut. Cuts must be reversed because the image prints mirror-image.

Printmaking: intaglio

In intaglio the incised lines hold ink and the wiped plate surface prints blank, as in etching. It requires a press and produces fine, embossed lines with rich darks.

Photography exposure triangle

Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO jointly control exposure. Aperture also controls depth of field, shutter speed controls motion blur, and ISO controls sensor sensitivity and noise.

Rule of thirds

A compositional guideline dividing the frame into a three-by-three grid and placing key subjects on intersections or lines. It often yields more dynamic balance than dead-center placement.

Visual literacy

The ability to interpret, analyze, and create images using conventions such as framing, symbol, color, and composition. It is taught through close looking and evidence-based discussion.

Reading an artwork contextually

Interpreting a work using its historical period, patronage, function, and maker's intent alongside formal analysis. Context prevents misreading symbols by present-day assumptions.

Portfolio assessment

A curated body of student work with reflection, scored against criteria such as growth, craft, and idea development. It documents process and revision, not only the best final product.

Adaptive art tools

Modified equipment such as spring scissors, pencil grips, easel clamps, and textured or high-contrast materials that preserve the artistic objective while removing barriers for students with disabilities.

Universal Design for Learning

Planning multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression from the start. In art, that may mean choice of media, visual and verbal directions, and varied ways to show learning.

Arts integration definition

Teaching that pairs authentic arts standards with another content area so both are assessed. Arts-enhanced lessons merely decorate content and do not assess arts learning.