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What does a student learn in ?

This is the year students start thinking like media makers, not just consumers of videos and images. Students plan a project from a first idea, shape it through drafts, and polish it for an audience. Along the way they look at how their own life and the world around them show up in the work. By spring, students can share a finished video, photo, or digital piece and explain the choices behind it.

  • Planning a project
  • Video and photo
  • Drafting and revising
  • Sharing finished work
  • Talking about media
Source: Maryland Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards
Year at a glance
How the year usually goes. Every school and district set their own curriculum, so treat this as a guide, not official pacing.
  1. 1

    Getting started with media projects

    Students brainstorm ideas for media projects like short videos, podcasts, animations, or digital images. They learn to pull from their own experiences and from work they have seen to come up with something worth making.

  2. 2

    Planning and building the work

    Students organize their ideas into a plan, then start producing. They practice the tools and techniques needed to put a project together, whether that means filming a scene, editing audio, or designing on a screen.

  3. 3

    Revising and finishing strong

    Students step back from a draft, decide what is working, and fix what is not. They learn that finishing a media project means more than one pass, and they get their work ready to share with an audience.

  4. 4

    Sharing and responding to media

    Students present finished projects and look closely at media made by classmates and professionals. They talk about what the work means, how it connects to culture and history, and use clear reasons to judge whether it works.

Mastery Learning Standards
The required skills a student should display by the end of Grade 6.
Connecting
  • Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art

    Students connect something they already know or have lived through to a media arts project, using that personal knowledge to shape the choices they make while creating.

  • Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural

    Students look at a piece of media art and connect it to the time, place, or culture it came from. Understanding that context helps them make sense of what the artist was doing and why.

Creating
  • Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work

    Students brainstorm and develop original ideas for media art projects, such as short films, photo essays, or digital animations, before they start making anything.

  • Organize and develop artistic ideas and work

    Students plan and arrange their media project before building it, making deliberate choices about images, sound, or layout that support the idea they want to communicate.

  • Refine and complete artistic work

    Students review and revise a media art project until it's ready to share, making deliberate choices about what to keep, cut, or improve before calling it finished.

Performing/Presenting/Producing
  • Analyze, interpret, and select artistic work for presentation

    Students choose a piece of media work to share with an audience and explain why it fits the message or purpose they have in mind.

  • Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation

    Students practice and improve a media project (a short film, a digital image, a podcast) until it's ready to share with an audience. The focus is on craft: making deliberate choices about how the final piece looks, sounds, or reads.

  • Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work

    Students share their media art project with an audience and make deliberate choices about how it looks, sounds, or reads so the message comes through clearly.

Responding
  • Perceive and analyze artistic work

    Students look closely at a media artwork, like a short film or a designed image, and explain what choices the creator made and why those choices work.

  • Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work

    Students explain what a media artwork is trying to say and why the creator made the choices they did, such as color, sound, or camera angle.

  • Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work

    Students use a checklist or set of criteria to judge a piece of media art, explaining why it works or where it falls short.