Students begin to explore issues of self-representation by looking at how others have used art and design to represent themselves and by thinking about how they can answer the question "Who am I?" through their artwork.

Students learn how recorded sound can be used to establish a setting, evoke emotion, and tell a story by listening and recording. Students choose a story for their audio story project, plan how to use sounds to tell the story, and outline the sound recordings they will produce.

Students begin to learn the fundamental skills of drawing and sketching. As they practice drawing and sketching techniques, students create two components of their unit projects: a drawing of an object that is important to them, and an avatar.

Students learn mixed-media and collage techniques and use them to create an artwork about an important element that shapes who they are: their family and/or their cultural background. Students also learn about the principles of design.

Students learn and apply organizational, creative, and technical skills to edit and produce their audio stories.

To complete their unit projects, students design and draw album art for their own solo albums, drawing on the other artworks they have created throughout the unit for inspiration. In the process, they learn about graphic design.

Students analyze examples of landscape paintings and concept art to see how artists express ideas, convey emotions, and create a particular atmosphere for a story. They look at how artists use color to create desired effects in landscapes and concept art.

Teams present their audio stories and reflect on their work in the unit.

For this project students create promotional art for a movie, TV show, or video game. Students each choose a media product to promote, and conduct preliminary research on promotional materials for this kind of product. As a class, students use a sample promotional illustration to examine how symbolism is used in marketing.

In this project, developed in partnership between Educurios and ConnectEd, students use evidence from the Hunger Games novel and additional resources to infer what event or series of events might have led to Katniss’s world (Panem) and make recommendations on avoiding a similar outcome for our world. Students write and present an argumentative essay which includes a call to action.

Students jump into working with video cameras by conducting a visual scavenger hunt in which they locate particular scenes and use different shot types. The class then analyzes movie clips to determine how stories are told through moving images.

Students work in teams to create a short video depicting a silent story. In pre-production, production, and post-production phases, students learn about constructing stories visually, using a camera, working on a production set, and editing.

In this project students practice drawing techniques by doing a series of quick sketches of the objects they have chosen to use for their still lifes. They analyze still-life artwork, using the Feldman method of art criticism, to gain an understanding of how symbols convey social, personal, and commercial messages.

For their community story video, students complete a planning document, develop a production plan for shooting footage, create a shot list, take on assigned production roles, and go into the community to shoot footage for their story.

Promotional pieces frequently rely on symbols to communicate a message. For this project, students examine company logos, analyze symbolism in the media and create their own logos all while using symbols as an identification tool.

Students continue to work on their community story videos, assembling and editing their footage, creating rough cuts, and getting feedback from another team. They learn about the role of music in creating effective media productions, and add a soundtrack to their videos.

In the final part of the unit, teams present the illustrations they created. Students will use the Critical Response Process they learned in Unit 1 to provide feedback on one another's work.

Students prepare for and stage a public screening of the audio and video work they produced during the unit. They write reflections about their work and complete their Career Profile project.

Students are introduced to ways that stories are told through visual elements. They analyze several works of art and media, including a painting, graphic novel, video game, comic book, and movie. They create comic book panels based on a piece of fiction.

Students research a traditional art form and analyze craft objects to determine the stories told by the objects and the principles of design each incorporates.

Students learn about the basic principles and techniques of animation through production of and analysis of animated films. Then, students practice a classic animation task, animating a bouncing ball, using both pencil-and-paper and computer-generated techniques.

Students create a storyboard based on the community story their team has chosen, bringing together what they have learned about visual storytelling, their own drawing skills, and their research during the unit.

For their unit project, students select a story, choose a scene from the story, and design one of the main characters. Students then create turnaround sheets, character studies, model sheets, and a simplified character design to animate.

As a final activity, teams present their work to their classmates and, if possible, to community members, and write and discuss reflections on the unit.

Students animate a moment from a scene in their story by creating a storyboard, drawing the frames, and using 2-D software, and revise their work based on feedback.

Students analyze ways that the visual background in media works can convey information about the story and set the emotional tone. Students also look at concept art and learn about related careers.

Students play and analyze a variety of digital and nondigital games, are introduced to the software they will use to create their games, and then use this software to create a simple game.

Students choose an existing video game, work backward to understand its different design elements, and complete a reverse-design document for their chosen game.

Students focus on the creation of their concept art paintings bu analyzing how the design principles of repetition, variety, and unity are used in paintings and concept art, and then use their inspiration boards to sketch design ideas and meet in concept art teams for feedback.

Students work with their project teams to develop their video game idea, create the game, and engage in play-testing and refining.

Knowing how to communicate ideas about works of art and media is essential for artists in the AME industry. Students practice pitching their concept art paintings, in front of the class, to another concept art team that is playing the role of TV, movie, or video game producers. Ideally, the team of producers will include one or more AME professionals.

Students complete their Career Profile projects, and prepare and deliver presentations for their video games.

Students focus on creating story-driven works of media and entertainment through character development. Characters tell the story, drive the plot, and engage viewer's emotions.

Students learn more about how animation works while continuing to develop their character's distinct look.

Students learn how 3-D sculptures are used in the animation process, look at maquettes, and discuss how they might help professional animators understand how a character looks and moves.

Students animate their character by drawing a flipbook. Students then present their characters to the class and, ideally, to AME professionals, focusing on the character development process.

Students begin planning for an end-of-year exhibition of their work that they will curate in teams and display for schoolmates, friends, family, or the community.

Students analyze three examples of art and media that address social issues, and discuss how art and media can influence and persuade.

Students brainstorm ideas for their video game concepts. They look at screenshots of video games and study the visual elements of games to analyze game styles and settings. Teams make preliminary sketches of concept art and get feedback.

Students analyze and critique video games in order to revise their own game concepts and one of their preliminary sketches in preparation for creating their final artwork. Students also learn about careers in the game industry.

Students create finished concept art and deliver a pitch for their games. They reflect on the work they did and the effectiveness of using video games as a means to inspire, inform, and motivate people about an issue.

In this part of the unit, students work on two types of presentation: the class exhibition and their presentation portfolios.

Students move on to the final stages of exhibition preparation. Teams prepare the exhibition space and install the works, in the process learning how to hang 2-D work and arrange 3-D work.

Each student curation team gives a brief presentation about its work during the opening of their exhibition, and there may be performances and opportunities for the audience to interact with students or the work.

Students work in teams to create a short audio story. The project is organized into three phases: pre-production, production, and post-production. In pre-production, students choose stories that they think other teenagers would find compelling, informative, provocative, or entertaining. They identify the types of sounds they need to record for their story and plan interviews and other recordings.

In this unit, students explore the power of the moving image as a medium for telling stories—both real and fictional. For their unit project, students create a short video that tells a story illustrating a strength their community has or a challenge their community faces.

Students learn first-hand the techniques and principles of animation. They learn hand-drawn pencil-and-paper animation, starting with the classic task of animating a bouncing ball. Students then learn computer-generated 2-D animation. Throughout the unit, they analyze animated movies made in a variety of animation forms and styles, looking at how the movies use the principles of animation as well as the elements of art and principles of design.

In this unit, students learn principles and strategies for designing games. For their unit project, students work in teams to design and create a simple video game using game development software. They test their game with classmates, and get feedback on how to revise and improve it. Teams then present their games to classmates and, ideally, to industry professionals.