United States · Common Core State Standards
10th Grade Visual & Performing Arts
This course explores the intersection of technical skill and conceptual depth across visual and performing arts. Students analyze how artistic choices influence audience perception and develop their own creative voice through studio practice, performance, and critical analysis.
Foundations of Visual Composition
Students master the elements of art and principles of design through hands on studio projects and visual analysis. The unit focuses on how structural choices create focal points and emotional resonance in 2D media.
Exploration of how varied line weights and tonal ranges create the illusion of form and depth on a flat surface.
An investigation into the science of color mixing and the emotional associations of different palettes in contemporary art.
Students apply linear and atmospheric perspective techniques to create realistic and surreal architectural spaces.
The Language of Music and Sound
This unit introduces students to music theory, composition, and the evolution of auditory storytelling across different genres and cultures.
Analyzing how time signatures, syncopation, and tempo influence the physical and emotional response of the listener.
Students examine the relationship between melody and harmony, focusing on how different scales evoke specific cultural or emotional contexts.
A look at modern music production and how technology has expanded the definition of an instrument.
Theatrical Performance and Narrative
Students explore the craft of acting, stagecraft, and script analysis to understand how stories are brought to life in a physical space.
Techniques for building a believable character through internal objectives and external physical traits.
An analysis of set design, lighting, and blocking to understand how the physical environment shapes the narrative.
Deconstructing dramatic texts to identify themes and determine how to translate written words into action.
Dance and Movement Studies
Focusing on the body as a primary medium for expression, this unit covers choreography, dance history, and the physics of movement.
Understanding how dancers use the space around them to create shapes and convey meaning.
Students learn methods for creating original movement sequences using tools like repetition, contrast, and canon.
Examining how dance has been used historically and globally to protest, celebrate, and define cultural identity.
Art History and Global Perspectives
A survey of pivotal art movements and how they reflect the political, social, and technological shifts of their time.
An analysis of how industrialization led artists to abandon realism in favor of abstraction and expressionism.
Studying the visual traditions of Indigenous cultures and the importance of protecting traditional knowledge.
Exploring the rebirth of classical ideals and the development of perspective and anatomy in European art.
Art Criticism and Curatorial Practice
Students develop the skills to evaluate art objectively and understand the role of the curator in shaping public perception of art.
Learning the formal process of description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment to evaluate a work of art.
Exploring how the arrangement of artworks in a space creates a dialogue between pieces and tells a larger story.
Investigating the role of murals, monuments, and installations in public spaces and the controversies they sometimes spark.