Marcell Ramish

Art 133
Unit Paper 1
02/01/2017
Unit Paper 1

Meaningmaking is a tool used in curriculums to help teachers conceptualize. It

is divided into four main parts however were only going to take a look into the first part

which is the concept of big ideas which are identity, relationships, story, and celebration

(Franco, Ward, Unrath 2015). Big ideas drive an artists artmaking over time (Walker,

2001). What I learned by this in this chapter is that obviously when one has an idea it

can go beyond ones mind. It can be super broad or you can take your idea and be

super precise. In this case, big ideas are what can expand the students artmaking

concerns beyond technical skills, formal choices and media manipulations to human

issues and conceptual concerns(Walker2001). Students can apply this to their daily life

or to their careers by using this tool and conceptualizing and utilizing this to help them

make decisions, create ideas through experiences and or in general just to create new

ideas.

When I become a teacher, I would like to apply this to my daily curriculums so it

can be a helpful and an effective teaching tool for my students. What I mean by this is

that I would like to encourage my students to be able to use their minds to the best of the

abilities. I want them to engage in deeper levels of thinking to enhance or broaden an

idea they possibly might have. For example when students pick a topic to write about

and it seems too broad of a topic, I would like them to be able to think and be able to

make it more specific.

References

Walker, S. (2001). Teaching meaning in artmaking. Worcester, MA: Davis.

Franco, M., &Unrath,K (2014). Carpe Diem: Seizing the common core with visual

thinking strategies in the visul arts classroom. Art Education, 67(1), 28-32.