Lessons Learned: Crafting a Career-Focused Art Curriculum

I taught elementary art for 7 years before transitioning to the high school level in 2019. During the COVID-shutdown in the spring of 2020, I decided to resign and move closer to home. I took a job teaching at a junior high in the fall of 2020. While I had taught sixth grade before at the elementary school, I had never worked in a junior high. I knew that I could adapt some of my elementary and high school lessons to the junior high level, but I still needed to create new lessons and units.

Fortunately, I was not alone, and had the unique opportunity to work in an art department with one of my grad school classmates, Mrs. Baker. She had an established curriculum and lots of great ideas for teaching junior high students. I learned a lot from her in the two years we taught together. She encouraged me to teach units that were unfamiliar to me and outside of my comfort zone. For example, I had never taught stop motion animation or used plaster cloth with students before. I use many of these lessons with my students today.

A Year-Long Curriculum for 7th Grade

​The biggest takeaway I have from those two years was the benefits of creating a curriculum focused on careers in art. Mrs. Baker and I taught units that allowed students an opportunity to work as animators, architects, and shoe designers. I really enjoyed teaching this curriculum every semester. I've carried some of those projects with me, and now I teach at a K-8 school. My middle school scholars have art every day for the entire year. I decided that my 7th grade curriculum would have a career focus. I've added new units to create an engaging year-long curriculum.

Exploring a New Career Each Month

I chose to plan my units by month this year as a way to keep myself organized and pace my lessons. In the past, I had a loose framework and taught units for however long students needed to finish projects. This led to rushing through two or three units at the end of the school year.

I wanted to be more intentional with my time this year. I won't say that I'm extremely firm and cut projects off as soon as the calendar turns, but in general, each unit is approximately one-month long. This planning strategy has worked well for me so far.

I first selected careers that I had some familiarity with, or previous experience teaching. Careers like: Animation, Special Effects Makeup, Architecture and Illustration came easily to me. For the remaining months of the school year, I tried to think of other careers in art that students would be naturally interested in. I chose Fashion, Video Game Design, and more to fill out the year. I looked for contemporary examples of artists working in each career to share with students. I made posters for inspiration and information.

I would say half of the units were new for me, so this meant I would need to research and develop new lessons. I enjoy writing curriculum, so this part was fun for me. I never structured my curriculum this way before, so it was exciting to come up with new ideas and create resources. As much as I enjoy feeling confident teaching a lesson I've taught before, I equally like to keep my teaching fresh and try new ideas out. I'm really glad I was inspired to create a career-based art curriculum this year.

Young Artists Acting as Professionals

So far this year, my students have responded well to the curriculum. I find that it is particularly well-received by students who were not previously interested in art. Many of the career-based units require students to solve a problem. For example, an animator needs to describe a story or movement from beginning to end. A fashion designer needs to create an outfit for a particular customer and/or event. Students approach each assignment not necessarily considering what they are creating is art. In a way, I'm tricking them into enjoying the assignment.

The downside of this curriculum is you may have students who are more interested in exploring media and techniques than experiencing a new career every month. Most recently, I've had a couple of students say, "I just want to paint." We have been heavily working in dry-media, drawing and collage lately. As I develop this curriculum more, I may need to address how to keep these students engaged with different media options for each career.

Animation Unit
Check out my Dongi Lee lesson plan!

​Special Effects Makeup Unit

Advertising Unit
Check out my Soda Brand Design Packet!

​Photography Unit
Check out my Kehinde Wiley Unit Plan!

​Illustration Unit
Check out my Adam Bertels Lesson Plan!

​Fashion Unit

​Interior Design Unit

​Additional Careers to Explore

As we close out the year, my plan is to have students imagine careers in Architecture, Video Games, and Cake Decorating. I think these will also be engaging lessons for students to create new projects.

In the past, I've had students work as individuals or in groups to create a 3D model of their dream home. Students used cardboard and paint to build their house. Some used the interior design plans they created as inspiration for their architecture project, but it was not a requirement. I want students to have the freedom to explore new ideas with the 3D materials.

I'm still thinking of how I want to approach projects inspired by a career in video games. I plan to research existing lessons that may be online, or brainstorm with my class what they would like to do. If anyone has had success with this type of lesson, please share your ideas!

For the cake decorating unit, I plan to use some inspiration from a former student. When my 8th graders were creating papier-mache sculptures last year, one student chose to create a slice of cake. After designing and painting her sculpture, she asked if she could make a second slice in a different style. I loved how they turned out and I think it could be a good design project for the end of the school year. Each student will create a basic slice form and then decorate it with an original idea. I'm looking forward to teaching this lesson for the first time. Stay tuned!

​What career-based art lessons have you found successful?
What are some other art careers you think students may be interested in?
Who are your favorite working artists/designers to inspire students?