Lake Oswego’s Art Literacy Program is an entirely volunteer run program that acquaints over 5000 Lake Oswego students with art from around the world each year. The program is delivered in all of the Lake Oswego School District’s K-8 schools as well as Our Lady of The Lake’s elementary classrooms.
Our curriculum is designed to meet the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) Arts Education Anchor Standards.
We use the term “block” to describe the set of lessons a school will present in a given year. We use the term “unit” to describe the individual lessons that compromise a block.
Our program is discussion and inquiry based. All the units include video components as well as volunteer led components. Each art literacy unit also includes a hands-on art project.
The curriculum is created by the LOSD Art Literacy Advisory Board and is organized at each school by volunteer “coordinators”. Each school’s coordinators recruit and train classroom volunteers to deliver the individual classroom lessons. Volunteers are provided training and all the materials needed to succeed in their role. The program is generously funded by the parent organization at each school.
The elementary program contains two blocks of five units each year. One block for our north schools and one for our south schools. These units are selected to represent a diverse range of artists, art types, and cultures. The five units within each block rotate from school to school throughout the year. Each year we create or refresh five units. This means every active unit is less than two years old. The curriculum also has K-2 and 3-5 versions built-in so volunteers can present the appropriate level material to each age group.
The middle school program is tied to the social studies curriculum the students are currently studying. For example: when the students study Westward Expansion in 8th grade, they will have an art literacy unit on Westward Expansion. Each year the students will have two to three art literacy units presented within their social studies classroom. The units presented each year generally remain the same. As the students pass from grade to grade, they will experience the full variety of units that each middle school offers.