Students discuss a 17th-century painting that depicts musicians in the middle of a fight. They will write a one-paragraph description of the painting in the present tense. Students speculate about what happened before and after the scene depicted in the painting, and then use past and future tenses to write narratives based on their speculations. In the narratives, each student will add descriptive idioms about characters in the painting and draw a visual representation of an idiom.

Advanced-level students will write narratives from the perspective of slaves depicted in rare photographs, and then create a print depicting a moment from the narratives.

Students will analyze the emotions and personality conveyed in an 18th-century sculpture bust of a strong and confident African man and learn that such a portrayal is unique for its time. They will then create an original portrait bust of a strong person who has faced difficult situations.

Students will learn about ancient styles of Roman portraiture and their influence on western European art, research and write a paper that compares Roman and American slavery, and produce an original sketch of a grave relief for a freed slave.

Students will explore contemporary artist John Baldessari's mixed-media work of art inspired by a 16th-century drawing of a beetle. After writing a story about a bug's journey, each student will create a mixed-media representation of a bug that is inspired by the contemporary artist's work.

Students gain awareness of shapes in architecture by creating a painting of their school and writing a reflective summary of their study of architecture.

Students create and use pinhole cameras to understand how artists use and manipulate light to capture images in photographs. They shoot and develop photographs made with pinhole cameras. They compare and contrast a nineteenth-century image, photographs taken with a pinhole camera, and pictures created with a digital camera or camera phone.

Students create pinhole cameras to understand that light travels in a straight path. They describe the lines and shapes in a nineteenth-century photograph of a building and then use their pinhole cameras to trace the architecture of their school building.

Students create pinhole cameras to learn how artists manipulate light to make photographs. They describe and analyze a nineteenth-century photograph and use their cameras to capture the architecture of their school or other buildings.

Students will examine the sculpture "Rearing Horse" by Adriaen de Vries. They will then draw and sculpt animals from life, trying to capture motion frozen in a moment.

Students will compare and contrast different perspectives of the French Revolution as depicted in two works of art. Students will discuss the use of satire and caricature to comment on historical and current events and will create satirical cartoons based on contemporary issues.

Students will analyze art elements and symbolism in a late-19th-century painting, create a self-portrait, and learn a dance depicted in the painting

Students will compare and contrast how two late-19th-century paintings depict celebrations in different ways through the artists' use of satire and color. Students will explore the historical context surrounding both canvases and create a painting of a celebration employing artistic techniques learned from the pictures.

This is the first lesson in a sequential unit. Students view ceramic vessels from different time periods and cultures and discuss their meanings, functions, and original contexts. They develop criteria for value and meaning of these objects, and create a timeline to situate the objects in history.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students are tested on what they learned about the history of ceramic forms in "Ceramics: A Vessel into History -- Lesson 1." They start work on a personal clay vessel that has a specific use or meaning in their contemporary culture, which could be discerned through study by future archeologists and art historians.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students begin work on a ceramic vessel, which they designed in "Ceramics: A Vessel into History -- Lesson 2." They discuss their artistic choices and identify elements derived from historical examples, while considering how artists appropriate ideas from earlier artists.

This lesson is part of a sequential unit. Students hold a critique session to evaluate the work of their peers using the criteria for value and meaning they developed in "Ceramics: A Vessel into History -- Lesson 1."

Students work individually and in groups to compare and contrast two chairs that were made in different time periods. They will then create a collage depicting an historic scene inspired by artist Nicole Cohen's video installation that incorporates historic and modern imagery.

Students learn about the evolution of landscape painting in France from the 17th to the 19th century. They will examine and compare three landscape paintings, emphasizing space, depth, and the concepts of foreground, middle ground, and background.

In this extension to the "Open Court Reader" unit on "City Wildlife," students look at a still-life painting. They discuss the observation of nature by scientists and artists and explore the symbolism of biological life cycles depicted in a painting.