International Baccalaureate Organization

IB Requirements

• Math, Science, English, Theory of Knowledge, Fine Arts/Psychology

• EE- Extended Essay

• CAS- Creativity, Action, Service

IB Learner Profile

• The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognize their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world.

• Inquirers• Knowledgeable• Thinkers• Communicators• Principled• Open-minded• Caring• Risk-takers• Balanced• Reflective

IB Visual Arts Aims

• Investigate past, present, and emerging forms of visual arts and engage in producing, appreciating, and evaluating these.

• Develop an understanding of visual arts from a local, national, and international perspective.

• Build confidence in responding visually and creatively to personal and cultural experiences.

• Develop skills in, and sensitivity to, the creation of works that reflect active and individual involvement.

• Take responsibility for the direction of their learning through the acquisition of effective working practices.

Visual Arts Assessment

• Visual Arts students are required to complete Investigative Workbooks (IWBs), complete a body of studio work, have an art exhibition at the end of their final year, and be interviewed and graded by an art examiner who will see the students show and their workbooks.

Visual Arts Assessment

• Moderation is achieved by the teacher grading the work, the visiting examiner grading their work, and having copies of the student’s candidate record booklets (pictures of their studio and IWB work) sent off to another country to be reviewed and graded again.

Visual Arts Assessment

• Option A:

Studio Work 60%

Investigative

Workbooks 40%

• Option B:

Investigative

Workbooks 60%

Studio Work 40%

IWBS

• What are they? They are more than simply sketchbooks. They are research books that incorporate writing, thoughts, sketches, experiments, etc.

• IBO states that the purpose of the investigative workbooks is to encourage personal investigation into visual arts, which must be closely related to the studio work undertaken.

IWB

• Students should be taught to develop strategies and skills that enable them to make informed decisions about the direction of their investigation, taking advantage of the resources available in their locality. They should also be encouraged to present arguments and points of view.

IWB

• The content of the IWBs can vary considerably, but must show evidence of investigation into artistic qualities and cultural contexts from different cultures and times. (A culture can be described and learned and shared beliefs, values, interests, attitudes, products or patterns of behavior. Culture is dynamic and organic and operates on many levels- international, national, regional, local and social interest groups.) A developing use of the specialist vocabulary of visual arts is expected.

IWB

• Workbooks are working journals that should reflect personal approaches, styles, and interests. They are not simply scrapbooks, sketchbooks, or diaries but may be a combination of all three. They may contain weak initial ideas and false starts, but these should not be seen as mistakes and can be used as a means of identifying a student’s progress over the course.

IWB

• While the teacher is expected to guide and support the students, workbooks should reflect the students’ personal interests. Students should be encouraged to investigate “around” ideas, themes and issues, make links and connections, speculate, hypothesize and draw conclusions that may support or challenge artistic conventions. The work should be presented in a way that is appropriate to visual arts, rather than isolated ideas or formal essays.

IWB

• Information may be recorded in a variety of ways. This is a good opportunity for visual experimentation, and may be both critical and creative. Written work must be legible and all sources, both written and visual, must always be acknowledged properly.

IWB

• Meetings with local artists, and visits to museums, galleries, and libraries provide first-hand opportunities for investigation. Students’ personal responses to these visits should be documented in their workbooks and may well influence some of the studio work they produce.

IWB

• Class notes and handouts should only be included in the workbooks if appropriate. Visual material should be relevant to the investigation and not simply used to fill space. Photographs, copies, and magazine cut-outs are acceptable if they are relevant to the investigation, are accompanied by an explanation or critical comment and are acknowledged properly. Copying from internet sites, books, and other secondary sources without personal and critical reflection should be avoided.

IWB

• Teacher feedback in the workbooks should include pertinent comments, questions, pointers to resources and constructive criticism. (As students often value their workbooks as personal record of their artistic development, it may be appropriate for teacher observations to be presented in such a way that they can be removed after the examination sessions is closed.)

IWB Dogma and Good Practice• Student name, school name need to be inside your IWB. List the book(s) as

#1, #2, etc. Student name should also be on the outside spine. • Pages should be numbered.• Date pages.• Written content should be in blue or black ink.• While it is expected that research in the beginning of the course may be

teacher driven, students need to demonstrate personal involvement in the research.

• Use appropriate vocabulary and not slang. • It is insufficient to download information from a website. This is not

considered research and is a passive way of collecting information. • NO WIKIPEDIA!• Digital art needs to have the process documented in the IWB.• Student needs to record cultural and historical research but also draw some

conclusions and actually do something with the information found (there is no benefit from noting that a certain artist painted during the crash and burn of the Hindenburg unless it is of major significance and that connection is made by the student).

• The most successful students are those that make in-depth analysis of their research.

IWB Dogma and Good Pratice• Too much reliance on the same well-worn examples of artworks, artists, cultures and

periods of time for research is not advised on a constant basis – take some chances! Explore things! Have fun with it for crying out loud!

• Students will be engaged formally and informally in evaluating their own work in written form and as part of their thinking process for the studio works.

• Students need to do more than just make observations for critical analysis. Too few students seem to be able to analyze their own artwork and the artwork of others using the formal elements and principles of design with specific and appropriate vocabulary.

• IWB should not be edited but should be kept in chronological order. • Visual research is important criteria, however, decorating or attempts to make pages

look “pretty” are counterproductive and make the research and critical analysis seem frivolous and unreadable.

• Research may be recorded by any means such as drawing, painting or word processing. However, it is preferable for the student to write out the information.

• Beginning elements and principles of design should be only a minor portion of the IWB.

• Students very early on begin drawing their own conclusions and integrating research\with studio including their own viewpoints.

• Students who focus on photography will need to include test strips, work prints, and contact sheets in the IWB. However, this should not take up 50% or more of the IWB.

Getting Started

• Giving the students strict guidelines about what you want from the beginning and developing a routine early on is very important.

• How you approach the workbook will make all the difference to them. What you call it, how seriously you take, and how urgent you make it sound to get started on one is what makes this work. Students LOVE to be challenged and get feedback from you.

Getting Started

• The very first assignment I have my students do during the first week of school is write an autobiography. It must be a minimum of three pages and contain 50% written information and 50% visual. Visual could mean drawing, painting, magazine clippings, photographs, or found objects that are taped or glued in to the IWB.

Getting Started

Getting Started

• After the autobiography assignment we typically begin contour drawing and a few pages are devoted to drawing themselves in a mirror at home. I do not give them a lot of direction at the beginning so that I can see what they do and do not know and how confident they are. This opens up discussion for what direction they want to go in and what they think they need work on. Critique is vital. This means that your students may all be going in different directions and working on different weaknesses and interests.

Getting Started

• My goal is to get the students out of the “school art” phase and develop more meaningful and thoughtful work. I do this by initiating prompts, suggestions, and giving them a jumping off point rather than having them all do the same rigid assignment.

Other Prompts

• I expect all of my students to research numerous artists throughout the course of their studies. They generally have freedom in their choices, but at some point I do have them randomly assigned to a specific, well-known artist. I have them draw numbers from a hat. Each number is assigned to an artist which I do not reveal. I proceed to give students hints about who their particular artist is over several weeks. They have to then research and investigate those clues in order to discover who their artist is. This provides historical and personal information about the artists that the students find interesting and forces them to stumble upon other artists as they search. Once their artist has been discovered students must research them and their style of art in depth.

Other PromptsCombine 2 or 3 random phrases and create a piece of work • The people • By the water • You and I • He called me. • What did they say? • No way • One or two • More than the other• Write your name. • That dog is big. • Two of us • The first word I like him. • Out of the water • It’s been a long time. • Give them to me. • Now is the time.

• How many words? • This is a good day. • Sit down. • But not me • Not now • From my room • Will you be good? • Then we will go. • An angry cat • We were here. • Could you go? • We like to write. • Into the water • Which way? • He has it. • If we were older

Completion

• Once students are ready for their final exams their top workbook pages and their studio work are photographed, labeled, and sent away to another country to be moderated.

CRB

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Top IWB Pages

Top IWB Pages

Top IWB Pages

Top IWB Pages

Top IWB Pages

Top IWB Pages