This thesis presents a visual art curriculum designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades six and seven over the duration of a nine-week session in a public middle school. It is intended as an instructional resource for middle school visual arts teaching practitioners to guide their sixth and seventh grade students to develop greater proficiency towards the mastery of drawing skills with activities that promote those skills at the time when many learners often express great interest in learning to draw more realistically. The study and practice of drawing allows invaluable opportunity for students to learn to analyze, sustain focus and concentration, compare and contrast, observe closely, expand upon ideas in a creative manor, and utilize the combined efforts of our two most powerful human tools; our minds and our hands.

This study discusses the importance of theories of care that are especially relevant to students in middle school art classes. Middle school students are going through an increasing number of changes emotionally, mentally, and cognitively that can be explored through an art curriculum that teaches them the value of caring for themselves and others, while also meeting their developmental needs. In this thesis research, teaching strategies are discussed that will cultivate an environment of care in the middle school classroom. This information will be used in the construction of developmentally sequenced art lessons that put these caring attitudes, strategies, and practices into action through art studio and criticism lessons incorporating the national art education standards.

This thesis is an auto-ethnographic study of teaching methods proposed to be effective in developing thinking skills that advance meaning making in my middle school art classes. The study explored the use of Visible Thinking Routines Ritchart et all, 2001) and Art Investigations (Herz, 2010) in middle school art classes.Reflections and other field texts reveal the extent to which I found these methods effective in guiding students to develop higher order thinking skills that support more meaningful outcomes in art and could be beneficial in other areas of their lives.

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