Mapping a Course Outline
Chart your Course
You are the captain of your very particular IB Visual Arts ship, whatever kind of vessel that is. There is no one size fits all model, but there are outlines and planners to help steer your course. These planners are to help you meet necessary assessment goals and course requirements, while charting your own route across the IB ocean. Enjoy the journey!
Sketch out a rough calendar
In workshops we usually do a session on mapping the course and it is interesting to observe how many different approaches there are to scheduling activities, assessment deadlines, the quantity of guided work vs. independent work etc.. The bottom line is there is no prescribed method to teaching IB art, but there are certainly many tips and useful models to look at. As each school is different in it's breakdown of the academic calendar, I suggest you take your own yearly planner or a big sheet of paper and make notes from the examples in these pages, inserting activities and evaluations where they fit with your particular needs.
The section on Unit Planning has templates and sample unit plans with links to ATL, ToK, learning objectives and assessment, to help teachers filling out time-consuming but often required IB Unit Plans.
Curriculum Outlines and planners
If you are looking for a VERY basic course outline to customize with your own projects and assignments try this 
General Course Outline, a template for you to tweak and add to as you wish, or if you want something more complete try the hyperlinked 18 month course planner below and make adjustments and modifications to suit your specific needs. Have you used the student access feature? You can select the site pages for your students and design your course content term by term. Free for all subscribers. Go to pages on Student access
Sample 18 month planner
The IBDP course is actually less than 2 years, since assessment material must be submitted in April of year 2.
I have used terms rather than months or semesters because of time tabling and global calendars. Term 1 refers to September-December in the western hemisphere, term 2 January- March, in roughly 3 month blocks. Term 5 refers to the final run up to exams.
This 18 month planner is aligned with the core curriculum model that addresses the 3 areas of theoretical practice, art making practice and curatorial practice. For more on curriculum see Understanding the 2017 Syllabus and the upcoming Curriculum change change in 2025
Design the course that fits your school, your schedule, and your students using the resources available on this site. Everything you need is at hand. All of the suggested activities in the outline below are linked to pages on this website with full descriptions.
| IB Visual Arts | Theoretical Practice | Art Making Practice | Curatorial Practice |
| Term 1 (first 3 months) | Choose a comprehensive activity from Starting Strategies Introduce the Art Making Forms Table Introductions to techniques through Workshop Style Sessions | ||
| Term 2 (3 months) | Guided activities Comparing Images, Function and Purpose | Guided Studio Work Open Ended Assignments Guided Visual Journal Work Self-Reflection How to make PP screens from the Journal and ongoing experiments Student Guide to Creating a Process Portfolio | Curating an imaginary exhibition activity Curating a Virtual Exhibition Documenting your studio work, establishing good practice. Documenting Process invite an artist in or schedule a visit Visiting Artists |
| Term 3 (3 months) | Locating good Secondary Sources use Student Guide to Setting Up the Comparative Study First draft The Comparative Study | Studio Work, more independently Finding a Focus use class Critiques to develop critical understanding and self- reflection Set number of PP screens to be completed Reviewing, Reflecting, Refining, Critical Investigation in the Process portfolio | Curating a mini group exhibition: could be site specific Installation or a Collaborative Project Writing the Curatorial Rationale Curatorial Rationale Documentation of work Documenting Artwork |
| Term 4 (3 months) | Select Art and ToK topics from Art and Theory of Knowledge pages Complete the individual The Comparative Study (CS) CS, and for HL students HL Connections (F) | Focused Independent Studio Work to develop A Coherent Body of Work for exhibition Fill in any gaps in PP slides using PP Rubric for Students making sure to address all of the PP Assessment criteria | Exhibition Visit Gallery Visit on Curatorial Practice Reflecting on different approaches to curation ( journal) Methods of Display Planning Exhibition Space Exhibition Hanging Styles |
Term 5 (last 3 months) complete all tasks well in advance of scheduled deadlines, see E submission Guidelines and Internal Assessment for teachers and Uploading Visual Arts Checklist | Formatting CS/ add sources page- E submission Comparative Study | Process Portfolio final touches/edits Curating the Process Portfolio for E submission Process Portfolio | Selecting works and Preparing for an IB Art Exhibition writing Exhibition Texts Writing Final Curatorial Rationale Writing Guidelines for Rationale Putting together Exhibition Presentation for E submission E submission for Exhibition |