What This Means for Instruction

An aesthetic classroom should be visually inviting, with varying colors, shapes and textures. Displays on the walls should invite student curiosity and interest. The classroom design also should include music and sounds, movement and kinesthetic experiences, and other dimensions that appeal to the senses, especially in the early grades.

Teachers should prompt students to reflect on how and why they make aesthetic responses and judgments. Reflection should be an active component in all lessons, especially during assessment. Aesthetic judgments can be applied to a wide variety of subject areas, so they should be built into integrated and interdisciplinary lessons and units.

Performance-based assessment should be part of every teacher’s varied repertory of tools for gauging student learning. Students should be permitted to choose the projects and works they would like to include in their portfolios. Students also should be involved in developing criteria for assessment and creating scoring guides and rubrics.

For lessons that meet this standard, refer to the following lesson plans on the IMS Web site at http://ims.ode.state.oh.us/ODE/IMS/Default.asp?bhcp=1: