School Type: Public	School Setting: Suburban
Level: K-12	School Design: Traditional
Content Presented By:
Teaching for Artistic Behavior Partnership

Design and Implementation

1. Define the mission of your art education program. Art educator John Crowe states, "My mission was to make a dramatic point about artistic behavior. It was my opinion that my students needed to really play and truly care."

2. Figure out a year's schedule. Crowe used his school's four-quarter system to schedule the PLAY & CARE curriculum framework.

3. Determine topics/themes for the schedule. Crowe chose one for each of the four terms: drawing, painting, 3-D, and 'the best of' -- full student choice from the previous three terms.

4. Select the content of the centers themselves. Crowe established some media-based centers and some concept-based centers. All centers included appropriate tools, some handouts, and instructions for use and care. In addition, he established a resource center with books, prints, handouts, and a reading area rug.

5. Introduce centers through direct teaching. On the first day, Crowe introduced the essentials of all centers within one 45-minute period. The students even had time to try something the first day. By the second session of each term, all the centers were active.

6. Introduce the curricular themes in a repeated cycle.

• Crowe established a PLAY period and discussed what was expected in the PLAY portfolios. All the while, students were searching for clues for something they CARE about and would like to investigate further.
• He brainstormed qualities of PLAY and CARE with students. Discussion of these qualities were part of the one-on-one assessment meetings.
• He arranged for one-on-one meetings with each student about their PLAY experiences and discussed their thoughts for what they'd like to pursue for their CARE project. He repeated this at the conclusion of the term for the CARE project.
• He then conducted the PLAY & CARE cycle above for the painting, 3D, and the full student choice terms.

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