Maricruz Armenta

Professor Teri Abbott

LBS 400
19 November 2014
Visual and Performing Arts Reflection
This Visual and Performing Arts Framework goes over the different areas of standards
based instruction for visual and performing arts. These different areas are dance, music, theatre,
and visual arts. The five strands of the content standards are: artistic perception; creative
expression; historical and cultural context; aesthetic valuing; connections, relationships, and
understandings. The four areas of the standards are available for each grade level. The skills and
levels of development are taken into account in order to decide what the expectations should be
for each grade level. As the students' skills improve, the standards become a lot more intricate
and sophisticated. They build upon what the students learned in the grade before.
After reading the visual and performing arts framework, I learned that in order to teach
visual and performing arts in an elementary school classroom, teachers need to have a strong
foundation in music, theatre, dance, and visual arts. For music, teachers should know how to read
and play music. They need to know the important concepts in theatre performances and dramatic
plays. In order to teach dance, teachers need to know how to dance themselves and they need to
know how lead students in performing various movements and rhythms with their bodies.
Teachers also need to know about the basic art principles in order to teach visual arts to students.
The class that helped me the most in preparing for teaching the visual arts was ART 301.
In this course, I learned many easy techniques that allowed me to create different pieces of art
through different mediums. We used tempera paint, India ink, watercolor pencils, charcoal,

graphite, and pencil drawings. We created different pieces with each of those mediums and
learned about techniques specific to each medium. For example, the way you hold a brush with
India ink is different from the brushes and the way you paint with tempera paint.
I feel very well prepared in the area of visual arts because art is very enjoyable for me. I
think I would do an outstanding job in showing students how to recreate their own works of art. I
would also be able to guide students in analyzing other people's works to find common themes
and ideas. I feel less prepared in all the other areas of performing arts. I have never liked acting,
so I cannot imagine how I would teach theatre to somebody else. Dance is also not my greatest
strength. For music, I am also worried because I do not play any instruments. I took an
introductory music course at a community college, but that was years ago and I am not sure that I
remember everything I learned.
For this area of my portfolio I plan to share some of my drawings and paintings that I
created in ART 301. Those work samples demonstrate my knowledge in visual arts because they
show that I understand different concepts and techniques that are necessary in creating a piece of
art. However, I must admit that I do not have much to show for the areas of performing arts.
Before I begin teaching, I need to take courses in those areas that would help me become a better
teacher because, as of now, I would not be an efficient performing arts teacher.