The Art Docent System – The Program

As originally conceived the Art Docent Company’s Program and lesson plans were designed to provide enduring benefits to the students who participate in them in a variety of ways.

First and foremost was for students to receive nurturing, and develop skills in a discipline, which has been known to overwhelm and intimidate. We believe this is partly due to the vastness of the subject matter, its timespan, and the elitist attitude sometimes associated with the visual arts and fine arts.

Students are introduced to the chronological development of art, which instills and awakens their natural sense of order and aligns with the history of human development, the “Humanities.”

This is accomplished by the use of our revised, copyrighted and expanded visual timeline of art history, by our founder Mrs. Denise Federico. Our colorful, visual timeline of art history serves as the nucleus of our program and was prominently situated at the center of our classes, as was the map of the World.

It allowed us to demonstrate the importance and extensiveness of the multicultural experience, as the students traveled the timeline through the different periods of art and culture, and referenced these points on the map. These physical modes of viewing our program have been transcended by the utilization of digital technology via our newly created web-based program.

Another technique, which is particularly important in the design of our program and is highly visible in each of our lesson plans, is the emphasis we place not only on important, but also the more interesting and novel facts in each lesson plan.

This novelty assists students with their learning on a cognitive level, and is supported by current educational-neuroscience. (Sousa, 2011)

Our newly revised, digitally assisted, and web accessible program builds upon the strength of a solid foundation, which cannot be overstated. Overall, this increased level of knowledge gained by our students and exposure to the arts, has been well documented as being vital in the development of “Higher Order Thinking,” (HOT). This higher order thinking produces heightened self-esteem and what we at The Art Docent Company have coined a “Softening Edge.” Exposure to the arts creates many positive attributes, one such attribute being “classical enrichment,” which we believe effects a balance with popular culture, that far outweighs our ability as educators and parents to influence our children as much as we would like to.

Building upon our initial commitment to the therapeutic benefits of exposure to the arts, are the findings from multiple disciplines such as neuroscience, social and emotional learning (SEL), educational theory and therapy. These disciplines are aligned and attest to the negative and harmful effects of stress on a student’s performance and their overall health. This has reinforced our emphasis on developing stress reduction techniques, coupled with the natural stress reducing nature of the art making process itself. We have intertwined some simple techniques, procedures, and exercises such as: the creation of Mandalas, the power of suggestion, and deep breathing exercises, to guide our students to a more peaceful state, thus affording them more favorable learning experiences not just in our classes, but also throughout their school day.

In every Art Docent Company lesson plan we incorporate the use of a story appropriate for either K-3rd grade or 4th-8th grade, which is orally presented and visually exhibited.

These stories contain the key elements of each lesson plan being presented. This ensures that students receive the key facts of each class as well as increases their interest and better prepares them to participate in the ongoing class. Utilizing this bi-modal learning approach actually increases the student’s cognitive abilities and reading level.

“Understanding Creativity”: we explain the meaning of and present a description of creative ability and imagination to our students. We believe this fosters a better understanding of the creative possibilities within each student. It empowers them and allows them to recognize the effects of this special ability, creating a sense of fulfillment.

One of the key features of the Art Docent Company’s Program and lesson plans is to “Make Learning Fun and Interesting.” To ensure that we incorporate this belief into each lesson plan, we have utilized multi-media design concepts, such as the use of visual illustrations as well as the use of animation to present and explain the more complex or abstract concepts in our program. Our Avatar “Arte” is a very colorful character and effectively involves the students in each lesson plan.

Each lesson plan culminates with an interesting hands-on project, which is developmentally appropriate for students and is fun to participate in.

The students look forward to accomplishing their project and it allows them to gain a sense of completion and reinforces some of the skills and points that were covered during the lesson plan.

The Art Docent Program is a WIN-WIN situation for the students, where they all succeed and become more a part of a world where beauty is created, creativity is explored, and their industrious participation is encouraged and applauded!

We would like to emphasize that the Art Docent Company’s program and lesson plans have been designed by and for teachers. With special consideration given to allow the teacher to concentrate on the lesson plan at hand, to best utilize his or her time on effective presentation, the process of making art, and project development.

Our lesson plans and curriculum are designed in a matter of fact step-by-step method, whereby no modification of the lesson plan is required, unless the teacher feels she/he wants to elaborate on a certain point. This program is a self-contained web application available to anyone with access to the internet.

All media and supplies required for each lesson plan are not provided by The Art Docent Company and must be provided by the lessee of the program.

Note: All lesson plans meet and exceed National Standards for the Visual Arts which may be accessed via our standards matrix on our website at artedco.org.

Each lesson plan includes an easily utilized Assessment Component