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Beginning an AP Studio Art Program
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by Barry Lucy
Ruidoso High School
Ruidoso, New Mexico
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Where Do I Start?
I began by going to an AP Summer Institute. There is a wealth of information to be had from the College Board's trained veteran instructors and the additional advantage of sharing best practices with other participants in your group. More out of luck than foresight, I chose to attend an institute that was scheduled early enough in the summer so that I had a good six weeks before school started to restructure my courses and curriculum. I came back from that first weeklong institute with plenty to think about. Now that I do the presenting myself at summer institutes, I come back from them with even more ideas. That will be true for you, too, every time you go, so enroll in summer institutes and one- and two-day workshops often.
What Changes Will I Need to Make in What I Do Now?
That really depends on what you have in place now. There are as many models for course and curricula structure as there are AP Studio Art programs around the world. What you will need or want to do to incorporate the requirements of the portfolios into your existing courses may depend upon the amount of discretion your administration is willing to give you. The structure of the portfolios is such that if the existing courses were Art I, II, III, IV -- a survey of art in which a variety of media and methods are explored each year -- then more work might be required to restructure your course listing than if your current offerings were divided into, say, Drawing, Photography, and Ceramics or Sculpture I, II, III, IV. If your course listings are in place and cannot be changed, advanced students may still submit portfolios, regardless of the course title.
The chief reasons for listing a course as Advanced Placement are to give the same status to the level of work required for the portfolios as to academic AP courses, and in some states or school districts, where applicable, to reward that level of commitment with weighted grade points.
At a relatively large, suburban high school in Texas where I began my first AP Studio Art program, I switched from courses already divided by media or method and targeted the students in the III or IV level classes as a test group, depending on a particular student's level of maturity and motivation. After that first year's test phase, portfolio courses for AP credit were listed as such, and participant students were given weighted grade points. A Pre-AP component was incorporated into the level II course curriculum, whether the student chose Drawing or Photography, Design, Ceramics, or Sculpture as avenues or strands to pursue. As the program grew, we realized the need to develop vertical teaming at the middle school level and below. I would recommend the early implementation of the College Board AP Vertical Team development programs, "Building Success" and "Setting the Cornerstones." Building these programs into staff development days fosters AP awareness among your K-12 colleagues, and increases your team's sense of personal relevance and stake in the success of individual students.
Currently, the program I am implementing in Ruidoso, New Mexico, a 700-student high school, is in its second year of evolution from a generic survey of media and methods (Art I, II, etc.) to a structure of courses and curriculum designed to better prepare the students for the rigors of AP Studio Art portfolios -- although I kept Art I and II in place to provide alternatives for students who might, as underclassmen, initially lack the confidence to tackle an AP class. These courses have become a real recruiting ground for me since some of my more successful AP candidates have come from them, particularly after those students see themselves working side-by-side with the advanced students. I added a course offering in the Pre-AP years for motivated ninth- and late-blooming tenth-graders and created separately listed AP Drawing, 2-D, and 3-D Design Portfolio courses, with the incentive of weighted grade points.
Keep in mind that your state and individual school district's requirements are going to give you challenges to face and a different spin on this process that will necessitate your own inventive solutions to creating your first AP Studio Art program . . . and that is really what you want, your own program.
What About the Individual Curricula for AP Studio Art Courses?
The best advice I ever received was from an APSI instructor who said that "there is no such thing as a medium or method that is too simple for the portfolio, only simplistic results that might be, and it is often best to give those the benefit of the doubt." In other words, the projects you assign or the prompts you design for student-generated visual responses are limitless, from basic drawing and design exercises to conceptual installations. The students' individual creations will fit the rubric's descriptors as they will, keeping in mind that the Readers' guiding principle is to "whenever possible, reward student effort."
Keeping such sage advice in mind then, when you look at your existing curricula, look through the lens of design elements and principles at 2D and 3D design responses and confident mark-making when judging the results of drawing exercises. Keep what has generated good student responses, and rethink what has not before you decide to organize your new curricula. It could be, and probably is, that you were doing some pretty good teaching and having some success already. Don't sell yourself or your students short. If you weren't interested in becoming a better teacher and doing more for your students, you probably would not be reading this.
Once you have decided what to keep, what to revamp, and where the holes are in your current course structures, go back to the notes you took at your summer institute and fill in with the ideas for breadth and concentration assignments which suit you and your students best. Remember, only steal the best from the best, and then make it your own. It is what all of us do.
After you have organized your ideas into a sequence of lesson plans, make a list of the materials necessary to complete each project. Divide the list into supplies that you will provide through your school's budget and supplies that art students should be expected to be responsible for. The students' list should include inexpensive, possibly free or donated, alternatives to top-of-the-line art supply house materials. I try to make it almost impossible not to be able to afford to take a portfolio class. (Keep in mind the College Board keywords, equity and access.)
And when you think you are ready for more ideas, samples of student work and course syllabi, or to order resources from the College Board Store, log on and register at AP Central. You will find a storehouse of information and ideas that are for the most part free and downloadable. One of the truly invaluable resources available on this Web site is the AP Studio Art Electronic Discussion Group, which puts you in email contact with other AP Studio Art teachers with answers and empathy for you at the click of a mouse.
All Right, I Think I Am Ready. Is There Anything Else I Need?
You might want to use the checklist below for some final items:
- One dependable, but not necessarily budget-breaking, 35 mm camera
- Two 36-exposure rolls of color slide film for each student (for shooting extras, beginning mistakes in shooting slides, and your own slide library)
- Three 20-pocket slide sleeves for each student
- Large three-ring binder for keeping student slide sleeves safely organized
- Lockable, and if possible, fireproof storage for slides, drawings, and 2D design quality student work
- Name of your campus AP Coordinator (be careful who you ask for this information; you may discover that this thankless task belongs to you!)
- Knitted caps for design students so that dumpster lid grease won't get in their hair while diving for found objects
- Yoga class to develop the "nerves of steel" you will need on the day portfolios are due
- An unflappable, terrific sense of humor
- Motivated students (they are the ones who make good teachers great)
Good luck. I will look forward to hearing from you on the electronic discussion group!
Barry Lucy has been an art teacher in public schools in Texas and New Mexico for 24 years, a consultant for the Southwest Region of the College Board for 4 years, and a Reader for 2 years. Two years ago, he joined the faculty of Ruidoso High School in Ruidoso, New Mexico, where he initiated an AP Studio Art program; previously, he was AP Studio Art instructor at South Grand Prairie High School in Grand Prairie, Texas. He holds MA and BS Ed. degrees from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.
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