| The researcher is a middle school art teacher with ten years of art teaching experience.;Literature is reviewed concerning the characteristics of trainable mentally retarded middle school students, curriculum design, and the variety of existing art programs. A broad-based art curriculum was designed dealing with three disciplines: art history, art criticism, and art production. In addition to the art goals is a list of life skills goals which are incorporated into each art lesson. Assessment tools were researched and then selected or created to evaluate this year-long curriculum continuously.;The curriculum was implemented with a middle school life skills class, formerly known as the Trainable Mentally Retarded Class. Their classroom teacher was the trained observer for the art lessons.;Data was gathered through a teacher-generated pre/post-test, individual lesson data sheet, and student report cards. Graphs and explanations of results are included for both the class and each student. The appendix includes the curriculum, lesson plans, assessment tools, and other relevant information needed to implement curriculum.;The researcher concluded 7 out of 11 students in her Life Skills Class benefited from the broad-based art curriculum. Also concluded was the life skills goals should be primary and the art goals secondary for this particular special education class. |
