The Course

Pre-AP Visual Arts

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Course Overview

Pre-AP Visual Arts emphasizes the process of producing creative work, in addition to highlighting culminating finished artworks. Assessments are designed to be relevant and accessible, evaluating a range of skills, habits, and/or dispositions that are central to visual arts learning, including analysis and interpretation of works of art, experimentation with materials and processes, and reflective decision making. 

The Pre-AP approach to visual arts instruction centers on structured opportunities for students to generate, test, and refine ideas through sustained practice, peer-to-peer dialogue, and purposeful revision. Lessons include recommendations for adapting instruction to a variety of settings, making use of available resources already present in your school.

Arts Areas of Focus

The areas of focus are reasoning skills that provide vertical alignment within a discipline, giving students the opportunity to develop and strengthen these skills as they progress through subsequent Pre-AP courses and into advanced coursework.

  • Analysis and interpretation
  • Peer-to-peer dialogue
  • Experimentation
  • Reflective writing

Course Resources

Download

Pre-AP Visual Arts Course Guide

This is the core document for Pre-AP Visual Arts. It includes the course framework, offers a program overview, and describes the instructional approach and assessments.

  • PDF
  • 1.27 MB

Downloads

Pre-AP Visual and Performing Arts State Standards Crosswalks

Back mapped from AP course expectations, the Pre-AP course framework aligns with many state standards. These documents detail alignment coverage of the Pre-AP course framework and state standards to support teachers in planning their course. When designing their courses, teachers should consider the Pre-AP framework as well as state and local requirements.

Downloads

Pre-AP Visual and Performing Arts State Standards Alignment Summaries

The Pre-AP course framework is back mapped from AP course expectations and aligns with many state standards. These documents summarize the alignments to the state standards.

Course Content

Pre-AP Visual Arts has three modules. Review their key topics and the recommended length for each module:

  • Module 1: Sources (~25 class periods)
  • Module 2: Structures (~25 class periods)
  • Module 3: Iteration (~25 class periods)

These big ideas are integrated throughout all modules of each arts course:

  • Observe and interpret
  • Practice and experiment
  • Research and make
  • Reflect and evaluate
  • Revise and share

Each module contains:

  • Model lessons: Student and teacher resources that demonstrate how to translate the course framework, shared principles, and areas of focus into daily instruction.
  • Performance-based assessments: Arising from authentic work students complete within a module of study, the assessments are designed to evaluate an entire range of abilities: technical skill development, purposeful refinement and revision, and the student’s ability to reflect upon and communicate about their work.

Pre-AP Course Audit

Before implementing a Pre-AP course, teachers need to complete Pre-AP Course Audit. This process is required to: 

  • Grant teachers access to Pre-AP Classroom, including instructional materials, professional learning, and assessment tools 
  • Authorize the school to use "Pre-AP" in its course names 
  • Include the school in Pre-AP Course Ledger 

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Start Pre-AP Course Audit

Find more information about getting your course authorized through Pre-AP Course Audit.

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Search the AP Course Ledger

The AP Course Ledger lists secondary school courses offered worldwide that are authorized to include either AP or Pre-AP designation when listed on students' transcripts.