Wilton schoolApplied Arts
Curriculum Overview
Overview
Applied Arts courses offered at Wilton Public Schools provide students with the skills, knowledge and training required to succeed in future careers. Our goal is to create students who are lifelong learners. Applied Arts courses offer pathways for students to grow and develop their skill set in particular areas of interest including: Business, Computer Studies, Family and Consumer Science (Child Development, Interior Design, Culinary), and Technology Education.
Upon graduating from Wilton High School, our students will be exposed to a wealth of knowledge about the many career and educational options and develop skills to become both college and career ready.
Curriculum Resources and Guides
- Contact Information
- Learner Goals
- Program Guiding Principles
- Curriculum State & National Standards
- Course Outlines
- WPS Curriculum Materials
- Resources
Contact Information
Kristina Sluzewski - Instructional Leader - Applied Arts
Email: sluzewskik@wiltonps.org
Phone: 203-762- 0381 ext.6334
Learner Goals
Applied Arts Learner Goals
Through the Applied Arts coursework, students will be exposed to rigorous content that will equip them with the fundamental knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions.
Students will develop skills in at least one or more of the Applied Arts areas:
- Family and Consumer Science (Child and Human Development, Culinary Arts, Interior Design)
- Business
- Computer Studies
- Technology Education (Video Production, Architecture, Engineering, Stagecraft)
Through their exposure to Applied Arts courses, students will choose a meaningful education and explore possible college major and/or career options.
Plan education and career path aligned to personal goals.
● Applied Arts students take personal ownership of their own educational and career goals, and they regularly act on a plan to attain these goals. They understand their own career interests, preferences, goals and requirements. They have perspective regarding the pathways available to them and the time, effort, experience and other requirements to pursue each, including a path of entrepreneurship. They recognize the value of each step in the educational and experiential process, and they recognize that nearly all career paths require ongoing education and experience. They seek counselors, mentors and other experts to assist in the planning and execution of career and personal goals
Apply appropriate academic and technical skills in their area of interest.
● Applied Arts students will readily access and use the knowledge and skills acquired through experience and education to be more productive. They will make connections between abstract concepts with real-world applications, and make correct insights about when it is appropriate to apply the use of an academic skill in a workplace situation.
Demonstrate creativity and innovation.
● Students taking Applied Arts courses will demonstrate ways to think of ideas that solve problems in new and different ways, and they contribute those ideas in a useful and productive manner to improve their organization. They can consider unconventional ideas and suggestions as solutions to issues, tasks or problems, and they discern which ideas and suggestions will add greatest value. They seek new methods, practices and ideas from a variety of sources and seek to apply those ideas to their own workplace. They take action on their ideas and understand how to bring innovation to an organization.
Use technology to enhance productivity.
● Applied Arts students find and maximize the productive value of existing and new technology to accomplish workplace tasks and solve workplace problems. They are flexible and adaptive in acquiring and using new technology. They are proficient with ubiquitous technology applications. They understand the inherent risks -- personal and organizational -- of technology applications, and they take actions to prevent or mitigate these risks.
Model integrity, ethical leadership and effective management.
● Applied Arts students will consistently act in ways that align to personal and community-held ideals and principles while employing strategies to positively influence others. They have a clear understanding of integrity and act on this understanding in every decision. They use a variety of means to positively impact the direction and actions of a team or organization, and they apply insights into human behavior to change others’ actions, attitudes and/or beliefs. They recognize the near-term and long-term effects that management’s actions and attitudes can have on productivity, morale and organizational culture.
Program Guiding Principles
Applied Arts Program Core Principles:
(Adapted from NBPTS Career and Technical Education Standards)
The Applied Arts Guiding Principles center Five Core Principles which serve as the framework for all Applied Arts curriculum and assessments. Wilton High School Applied Arts teachers aim to embody all Five Core Propositions in their practices, drawing on various combinations of these skills, applications, and dispositions to promote student learning.
Applied Art teachers are committed to students and their learning.
Accomplished teachers base their practice on the fundamental belief that all students can learn and meet high expectations. They understand how students develop and learn. They consult and incorporate a variety of learning and development theories into their practice, while remaining attuned to their students’ individual contexts, cultures, abilities, and circumstances. They are committed to students’ cognitive development as well as to students’ ownership of their learning. Equally important, they foster students’ self-esteem, motivation, character, perseverance, civic responsibility, intellectual risk taking, and respect for others.
Applied Arts teachers are knowledgeable on the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
Accomplished teachers have a rich understanding of the subjects they teach and appreciate how knowledge in their subject is created, organized, linked to other disciplines, and applied to real-world settings. While maintaining the integrity of disciplinary methods, content, and structures of organization, accomplished teachers develop the critical and analytical capacities of their students so they can think for themselves.
Applied Arts teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
Accomplished teachers assess the progress of individual students as well as that of the class as a whole. They apply their knowledge of assessment to employ multiple methods for measuring student growth and understanding. They use the information they gather from monitoring student learning to inform their practice, and they provide constructive feedback to students and families. They collaborate with students throughout the learning process and help students engage in self-assessment.
Applied Arts teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.
Accomplished Applied Arts teachers possess a professional obligation to become perpetual students of their craft. Committed to reflective learning, they are models of educated persons. They exemplify the virtues they seek to inspire in students—curiosity, honesty, fairness, respect for diversity and appreciation of cultural differences—and the capacities that are prerequisites for intellectual growth: the ability to reason and take multiple perspectives, to be creative and take risks, and to adopt an experimental and problem-solving orientation.
Accomplished teachers seek opportunities to cultivate their learning. Striving to strengthen their teaching and positively impact student learning, teachers use feedback and research to critically examine their practice, seek to expand their repertoire, deepen their knowledge, sharpen their judgment and adapt their teaching to new findings, ideas and theories.
Applied Arts teachers are members of learning communities.
Accomplished Applied Arts teachers participate actively in their learning communities to promote progress and achievement. They contribute to the effectiveness of the school by working collaboratively with other professionals on policy decisions, curriculum development, professional learning, school instructional programs, and other functions that are fundamental to the development of highly productive learning communities. They work collaboratively and creatively with families and the community, engaging them productively in the work of the school and cultivating students’ connections with the opportunities, resources, and diversity they afford.