Ebook: Creating Vibrant Art Lesson Plans: A Teacher's Sketchbook

Writing lesson plans is often considered busywork, but it can be a useful path for discovering what's important about artmaking and teaching. This book shows teachers how to slow down, breathe, and linger over the process of unit and lesson plan writing to uncover how much this process can support them professionally, creatively, and personally. The user-friendly text offers guidance for selecting an art project for the unit and then zooms into the nitty-gritty of specific lesson plans, including how to identify materials for a project and how to construct classroom dialogue to help students develop ideas for their artwork. The text also considers standards, assessments, and extensions to other subject areas. Featuring accessible language, clear definitions, practical examples, and self-reflection prompts, this unique resource will help pre- and inservice teachers create lesson plans that are useful to their specific contexts and methods of teaching.

"If you happen to be feeling weary, frustrated, or uninspired, this book sparks imagination, fuels hope, and gives you theories to support what you know needs to be done."

—From the Foreword by P. Bruce Uhrmacher, Christy McConnell Moroye, and Bradley Conrad, educational researchers

"Baxter invites us to slow down and consider the lesson plan as a creative catalyst to inspire our own artmaking, as well as a space to examine why and what we teach."

—Lisa Hochtritt, Maryland Institute College of Art

"An inspiring and playful resource that is much more rewarding than typical lesson planning. It will surely spark your imagination with every flip of the page."

—Hailey Adlard, art educator, Parkland School District, PA