Sweden Åk 8 Curriculum - Art

Aim: The Art curriculum aims to develop students' understanding of image creation and interpretation. Students will explore visual cultures encompassing film, photography, design, art, architecture, and various environments. The curriculum encourages creative development and initiative, fostering an investigative and problem-solving approach. Students will learn to produce and present their own images using diverse methods, materials, and forms of expression. They will also analyze how visual messages are constructed in different media, critically examining various forms of visual communication. The curriculum emphasizes developing an understanding of images in diverse cultures, both historically and in contemporary society, and applying this knowledge to their own creative work. Specifically, students should develop the ability to:

• Communicate messages through images.
• Create images using digital and traditional techniques, tools, and materials.
• Explore and present different subjects through images.
• Analyze the content and function of historical and contemporary visual documents.

Core Content (Years 7-9):

• Producing Pictures: Creating narrative, informative, and socially oriented images reflecting personal experiences and perspectives. Combining images, sound, and text in image creation. Repurposing images, materials, and objects in personal artwork, such as installations. Digitally manipulating photographs and other images. Presenting their own artwork. Understanding rights, obligations, ethics, and values related to image use, including freedom of speech and personal integrity in media and other contexts.
• Tools for Producing Pictures: Understanding the expressive qualities of forms, colors, and pictorial compositions, and how they can be used in image creation. Utilizing materials and tools for two- and three-dimensional work for specific purposes.
• Analyzing Pictures: Examining images dealing with identity, sexuality, ethnicity, and power relations, and how these perspectives are constructed and communicated. Analyzing the communication and influence of mass media, and developing critical thinking skills. Interpreting contemporary art, documentary images, artworks, and architecture from various periods and cultures in Sweden, Europe, and globally. Developing vocabulary for interpreting, discussing, and writing about the design and message of images.

Knowledge Requirements: (These are progressive, building upon the previous level)

• Grade E (End of Year 9): Students can create various types of narrative and informative images that communicate experiences and perspectives using a basic visual language and somewhat developed forms of expression. They can use various techniques, tools, and materials in a fundamentally functional way and explore how to combine them for different expressions. They can combine forms, colors, and pictorial compositions in a fundamentally functional manner. Students can contribute to developing ideas in different subject areas by repurposing contemporary or historical images and other reference materials. They can contribute to formulating and selecting actions for improvement during the work process. Students can present their images with some adaptation to purpose and context. They can make basic assessments of their work processes and demonstrate simple connections between expression, content, function, and quality. Students can interpret contemporary and historical images and visual culture, applying basic and somewhat informed reasoning connected to their own experiences, other works, and phenomena in the world around them. They can describe images and their expression, content, and function in a simple way, using some subject-specific terminology.
• Grade D (End of Year 9): Achieves the requirements of Grade E and most of Grade C.
• Grade C (End of Year 9): Achieves the requirements of Grade E and demonstrates more developed skills and understanding in all areas, including a more developed visual language, more varied use of techniques and materials, more refined presentation skills, and more complex analysis of images and visual culture. They use subject-specific terminology more effectively.
• Grade B (End of Year 9): Achieves the requirements of Grade C and most of Grade A.
• Grade A (End of Year 9): Demonstrates a well-developed visual language, creative and varied use of techniques and materials, sophisticated presentation skills, and insightful analysis of images and visual culture. They can systematically experiment with combining elements for different expressions. They demonstrate complex understanding of the relationship between expression, content, function, and quality in their work, and use subject-specific terminology effectively. They can develop their own ideas in different subject areas by repurposing images and processing reference materials. They can formulate and choose actions that lead to improvements in their work.