American Art at the Core of Learning

American Art at the Core of Learning (AACL) offered resources and strategies for teaching with American art that connect with K–12 English language-arts standards in use throughout the United States. The website project grew out of a learning community for Chicago-area museum educators from 12 local institutions. AACL tools and materials helped teachers to use artworks as texts that can motivate students to do the kind of close reading, analysis, evidence-based and reflective writing, and critical thinking that the standards call for.

Sample Resources

The following resources from the project have been consistently popular with teachers and reflect the opportunities that effective teaching with the diverse subjects, styles, and creators of American art can bring to learning.

Tools for educators address visual literacy and common language-arts standards through American art. These tools are adaptable to both museum and classroom teaching contexts.

Project History and Goals

American Art at the Core of Learning was created to demonstrate the relevance of museums and works of American art for K–12 education. It was launched by the Terra Foundation for American Art in 2012.

Learning Community

The institutions represented in American Art at the Core of Learning collaborated to develop standards-aligned projects for K–12 audiences with their American art collections. This learning community of museum educators from across Chicago gathered regularly between 2012 and 2014 for professional development about the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) and to share their best practices in engaging students with American art in their collections. Members collaborated with Chicago-area teachers and literacy specialists to create lessons and teaching tools and write informational texts for students about art in their institutions’ collections.

Participating organizations included the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago History Museum, DuSable Museum of African American History (since renamed the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center), Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, National Museum of Mexican Art, Newberry Library, Smart Museum of Art, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

The foundation also provided grants to help participating organizations develop new CCSS-aligned museum programs and materials for teachers and students or to modify existing programs and materials in order to strengthen CCSS connections.

Learning Community Objectives

To deepen understanding of the reading, writing, and speaking and listening areas of the CCSS-ELA.
To build museum educators’ capacity in writing about American art for student readers.
To create CCSS-ELA-aligned teaching resources and materials about works of American art.
To share progress with and support the development of CCSS-aligned museum programs and materials that focus on American art.

Project Objectives

Leadership Team: A cadre of museum educators and teachers better equipped to address the CCSS-ELA through American art and to train teachers.
Common language and focus: cultural organizations more attuned to Chicago Public Schools’ needs and priorities, able to speak the language of the schools, and explain the relevance of their programs.
More CCSS-ELA and American art-focused teaching resources and programs available to schools across the region.