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Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
The 16 visual arts lessons in this program are based on the Grade 6 TEKS but can be simplified for elementary school TEKS or made more elaborate to meet high school TEKS requirements.

General requirements.

When Grade 6 is part of a departmentalized middle school, students may select the following art course: Art 6.

Introduction:

1. Four basic strands--perception, creative expression/performance, historical and cultural heritage, and critical evaluation--provide broad, unifying structures for organizing the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire. Students rely on their perceptions of the environment, developed through increasing visual awareness and sensitivity to surroundings, memory, imagination, and life experiences, as a source for creating artworks. They express their thoughts and ideas creatively, while challenging their imagination, fostering reflective thinking, and developing disciplined effort and problem-solving skills

2. By analyzing artistic styles and historical periods students develop respect for the traditions and contributions of diverse cultures. Students respond to and analyze artworks, thus contributing to the development of lifelong skills of making informed judgments and evaluations.

Knowledge and skills:

1. Perception.
The student develops and organizes ideas from the environment.
The student is expected to:

A. illustrate themes from direct observation, personal experience, and traditional events; and
B. analyze and form generalizations about the interdependence of the art elements such as color, texture, form, line, space, and value and principles such as emphasis, pattern, rhythm, balance, proportion, and unity, using art vocabulary appropriately.

2. Creative expression/performance.
The student expresses ideas through original artworks, using a variety of media with appropriate skill.
The student is expected to:

A.express a variety of ideas based on personal experience and direct observations;
B.describe in detail a variety of practical applications for design ideas; and
C. demonstrate technical skills effectively, using a variety of art media and materials to produce designs, drawings, paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, fiberart, photographic imagery, and electronic media-generated art.

3. Historical/cultural heritage.
The student demonstrates an understanding of art history and culture as records of human achievement.
The student is expected to:

A. identify in artworks the influence of historical and political events;
B. compare specific artworks from a variety of cultures; and
C. compare career and avocational opportunities in art.

4. Response/evaluation.
The student makes informed judgments about personal artworks and the artworks of others.
The student is expected to:

A. conduct in-progress analyses and critiques of personal artworks; and
B. analyze original artworks, portfolios, and exhibitions of peers to form conclusions about formal properties and historical and cultural contexts.

Source: The provisions of this §117.32 adopted to be effective September 1, 1998, 22 TexReg 4943.