What is a Curriculum?
A curriculum is the subjects comprising a course of studies in schools or college.
Why are they important?
Art curriculum's are very important, just like any other curriculum that would be apart of any program at any school. The rightly well thought out curriculum for a program lays out all of the facts about what children at different age levels should be able to do at their age and what they will be learning throughout the courses that they will take. Curriculum's are made for everyone to look at who have children to see what their child is completing at school each day, and to see what their child should be able to accomplish in the upcoming years or grades. This gives all an understanding of what to expect throughout each course that your child or students are given each year.
What does a good art curriculum consist of?
A good curriculum consists of everything that your child or student is going to learn throughout each course and what should be expected of the child in that course. Art curriculum's, for example, lay out everything that each grade should be able to accomplish. As an example, grade one students should be able to accomplish basic skills such as learning basic shapes, their colors (including primary and secondary colors), their seasons, be able to know how to use glue and scissors and other art materials such as paint, etc., and be able to arrange, cut and fold whatever they need to. Curriculum's consist of a course overview or description of what is expected, what the study will help with throughout the course, essential questions, the key concepts, a list of assessments that will be used, skills that the child is going to use, benchmarks, and applications with other issues or topics that can be related to what was learned.