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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

AP Art to include service element

AP+Art+to+include+service+element

In the hallway, a poster reminds students of teenagers living in poverty, both raising awareness and encouraging these students to donate their time and supplies for this cause. Posters like these, the ones created by Johanna Rapport, class of ‘15, for the service learning project her junior year, are part of the vision for a new part of the AP 2D art class.

Posters for Claire V's Stroy  made by Joanna Rapport.jpgNext school year, AP 2D art students will have the option to pilot a new portion of the AP curriculum that is focused on service learning. In collaboration with WE.org, a company that designs service-based learning, the College Board designed a path which links community service with the pieces traditionally created in AP art.

“This program has been developed because the College Board has been looking at engaging the students, not just within the academic setting, but within their neighborhoods and their world,” art teacher Gillian Bailey said. “Connecting learning to what is really meaningful to students outside of school, to improve engagement in learning.”

Except for the added service learning component, the AP class will be the same, with students being able to choose to complete the added service learning requirement. The service learning portion will require 20 hours of community service related to a student’s work in the class and the path’s completion will be noted on student transcripts.

“I think this is an exciting opportunity to connect things that you are talking about academically, as a senior you go into the adult world more and have an ability to see how, as a student, you can effect change,” Bailey said. “Not just with educating yourself and expressing your feelings through art but as well as impacting others through the artwork you create.”

Bailey will test lessons from the new curriculum for art III during fourth quarter so that students can experience what the program looks like and so she can provide feedback to the College Board. For art II students, Bailey already assigns a similar project in which students research and then create a piece, such as a poster, that revolves around a social issue.

“I think that the service will vary widely,” Bailey said. “We have some students who volunteer at hospitals, we have some students who work in the community with Key Club, we have some students who visit nursing homes, students who build homes in Mexico, students who work with Rebuilding Together Oakland as well.”

Art III students juniors Katy Savage and Char Nakashima-Conway both plan on completing the service learning portion of AP art. Savage thinks that she will create art relating to her time spent volunteering at an animal shelter, possibly in the form of photography or posters.

Nakashima-Conway is currently in contact with a knitting teacher at the Piedmont Adult School and is considering crocheting portraits or dolls of children in shelters for the project.

In order to qualify for this pilot program, teachers must be willing to teach new lessons, deliver feedback to the College Board, encourage students to choose the program and teach students who have the ability to participate and complete the required number of hours, Bailey said.

“I am pretty busy so that could be an issue, but I think that if it is important to me, because it is school and an important issue, that I would be able to make time especially on the weekend,” Savage said.

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