Grade 7 · secular
This is a semester where your child learns to actually see art, not just look at it. They start by making the basic building blocks — line, shape, value, texture — with a pencil and paper, then learn a simple four-step way of talking about any piece of art (describe it, dig into how it's built, guess what it means, decide if it works). Once they can do that, they use it to look at real art from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, and end up understanding why a Japanese woodblock print and a Renaissance painting are both "right" — just playing by different rules. It ends with them picking their five best pieces from the whole semester and writing about them like a real artist would.
The whole year, in plain English. Tap any unit to see every skill inside, nothing is hidden.
Your child makes each basic ingredient of art — line, shape, value, color, texture, space, form — with their own hands, using just pencil and paper, before they ever look for it in someone else's work. Alongside that, they learn a four-step way to talk about art: describe what's there, analyze how it's built, interpret what it might mean, judge whether it works. This is the foundation the entire semester stands on.
Given an unfamiliar photograph, student identifies at least four of the seven elements of art present and names each correctly.
Student produces a 9-step pencil value scale with each step visibly and consistently darker than the last.
Student distinguishes shape from form by explaining that value change is what creates the illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface.
Student creates an implied-texture study using hatching or rubbing and explains why the paper's actual surface did not change.
Student composes a small drawing using overlap and relative size to create the illusion of depth, without being told which specific objects to draw.
Student writes one description-only sentence about a work of art containing zero evaluative or interpretive language.
Given two named museum artworks using the same element for different emotional effect, student explains how the artist's specific choices (not the subject matter) create the different feelings.
Student judges whether their own element study successfully demonstrates the assigned element, citing specific visual evidence from their own work.
Given two candidate artworks for the same element, one photorealistic but weak in that element, one visually rougher but strong in it, student selects and justifies the one that better demonstrates the element itself, not the one that looks most finished or realistic.
Now that your child can name individual ingredients, this unit is about how those ingredients work together to make a picture feel put-together instead of random. That means focal point (where your eye lands first), balance (symmetrical, asymmetrical, radial), repetition, contrast, and cropping. They apply all of it by making their own composition, then critique real ones using the four-step process from Unit 1.
Given a composition, the student identifies its focal point and states which visual cue (contrast, placement, size) creates it.
The student classifies a composition's balance as symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial and justifies the classification using visual weight, not just visual symmetry.
The student explains why an asymmetrical composition can be balanced despite not being symmetrical, using visual weight as the connecting idea.
The student applies a rule-of-thirds grid to crop a photograph to strengthen its focal point, choosing among portrait, landscape, or square format.
The student generates an original still-life or invented-scene composition that uses repetition and at least one type of contrast to unify the piece.
The student judges whether a composition with one visible technical flaw is still a strong composition, defending the verdict using only composition vocabulary.
The student compares two unrelated compositions (a painting and a photograph) that use the same balance type and infers the shared underlying structure.
The student writes a full critique of a classmate's composition applying describe, analyze, interpret, and judge in sequence to the whole piece rather than to single elements.
Your child takes everything they know about elements and composition and points it at real, named artworks from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. They also learn three new material words — medium (what it's made of), process (how it was made), and support (what it's made on) — and use those to understand why a tradition's choices, like flat space or no shading, are choices, not mistakes.
Given the terms medium, process, and support with a visual example of each, students correctly label these three parts on an unfamiliar named artwork.
Students describe a named non-European work (e.g., a Yoruba textile or a Japanese woodblock print) using Unit 1 element vocabulary and Unit 2 composition vocabulary before offering any interpretation.
Students explain why a tradition's use of flat space or absence of shading reflects a different representational choice, not a failure to achieve realism.
Students infer how a specific material (clay, ink, textile fiber, or oil paint) constrained or enabled a mark-making choice visible in a named work not previously discussed in class.
Students compare two named works from different continents, identifying at least two respects in which material shaped each artist's choices differently.
Students judge whether a work should be evaluated by the standards of its own tradition or by outside standards, and justify the judgment with reference to a specific case.
Given a completely unfamiliar artwork from a tradition never discussed in class (e.g., Aboriginal Australian dot painting), students generate a reasoned account of what its material and process might tell us about its message, using the describe-analyze-interpret-judge sequence.
Students classify unfamiliar artworks by likely support type (e.g., stretched canvas, wood panel, ceramic vessel, woven cloth) based on visible surface texture and edge characteristics.
Students continue weekly observational drawing of still-life objects, applying proportion and shape strategies from Unit 1 without new instruction.
This is the finish line. No new vocabulary gets taught here — your child picks five of their best pieces from the whole semester, revises one of them using something they've learned since making it, does one final observational drawing, and writes it all up using the describe-analyze-interpret-judge structure, but pointed at their OWN work this time instead of a museum piece.
Given four selection criteria (range of elements, growth, personal choice, technical control), sort a set of ten of their own works into 'meets criterion' and 'does not' for each criterion.
Given a completed criteria table, identify by name which of the four terms (range of elements, growth, personal choice, or technical control) a specific labeled cell refers to.
Revise one earlier piece by applying at least one element or composition concept not evident in its original version, and identify in writing what changed and why.
Produce a new observational drawing of a still life, applying proportion and shading strategies practiced in Units 1-3.
Compare the Unit 1 baseline drawing to the final observational drawing and explain, citing specific features, what changed in proportion and control of value.
Write an artist statement for each selected piece that describes it factually, analyzes its formal choices, interprets its meaning, and judges it against a stated standard, keeping the four moves distinct.
Given a classmate's five-piece portfolio, give feedback that names a specific element, composition, or material choice and states its effect, without evaluating the person.
Given an unfamiliar student portfolio (not their own, not a classmate's), infer what selection standard the maker likely used and justify the inference using only visual evidence.
Defend, in the judge portion of one artist statement, a claim about a piece's quality using a stated standard rather than personal preference alone, and identify what would count as evidence against the claim.
From the parent guide
This is a semester where your child learns to actually see art, not just look at it. They start by making the basic building blocks — line, shape, value, texture — with a pencil and paper, then learn a simple four-step way of talking about any piece of art (describe it, dig into how it's built, guess what it means, decide if it works). Once they can do that, they use it to look at real art from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, and end up understanding why a Japanese woodblock print and a Renaissance painting are both "right" — just playing by different rules. It ends with them picking their five best pieces from the whole semester and writing about them like a real artist would.
Unit 1 · what to expect
Your child makes each basic ingredient of art — line, shape, value, color, texture, space, form — with their own hands, using just pencil and paper, before they ever look for it in someone else's work. Alongside that, they learn a four-step way to talk about art: describe what's there, analyze how it's built, interpret what it might mean, judge whether it works. This is the foundation the entire semester stands on.
The full guide covers all 4 units: where kids get stuck, what to say, and how to tell it's working. Included with the course.
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