School Board Approves Advanced Graphics Curriculum

By Susan Coney

The Newtown Board of Education recently convened on August 16 and approved the Newtown Graphics — The Company curriculum.

Newtown Graphics — The Company is a two-semester course open to students who have successfully completed the Graphics Arts Industries course of study. It is an advanced course that requires responsible students to act as decisionmaking members of a group that designs and produces printed products for customers within the Newtown Public School District and the Newtown community.

The course, taught by Kurt Ryder, is unusual because it is comprised of students who design and run a business. Mr Ryder, who has been teaching the graphics art courses at Newtown High School for the past 22 years, said, “All the kids I have in this program I know and have worked with. It is a great group of kids. Usually the number of kids in this class runs about 25. The kids work in teams and also individually. There are no tests in the class; the final customer product is their assessment.”

  The company is organized into design and production teams. Each student has a specific job function to perform for the team. All students, however, must become familiar with all characteristics of all jobs in the team, so that they may be able to carry out any job, at any time.

As customer jobs flow into the company, teams take full responsibility for the jobs from dealing with the customer, to design, production, finishing, packaging, and ultimately delivery of the product. In addition to team-based projects, students are required to work on a personal job of his or her own choosing. This job acts as a filler for down time that is experienced in the production of a team project and also has an added benefit of allowing students the opportunity to expand their knowledge in a direction of interest for them.

In the company students produce such graphic projects as newsletters, brochures, business cards, concert and play programs, letter heads, and logo designs. There is a great deal of room for individual creativeness and the opportunity to work as a team player in this course.

Students who participate in the company have more than a passing interest in the graphic arts department. In addition to work they have completed in other graphic arts courses, the students will gain experience with publishing programs such as Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Microsoft Word. They will have experience using scanners, laser printers, offset press, screen printing press, heat transfer equipment, digital photography, art and design, to name just a few. The course is designed for the advanced graphics art student.

As part of the assessment of the course the student will have their progress tracked through the use of three vehicles: personal and customer job evaluations, keeping of a daily journal, and by maintaining a portfolio. The goal of the program is to offer a course that will allow the student experiences that will lead to the development of positive personal and career-making decisions.

After reading and contemplating the curriculum guidelines for Newtown Graphics — The Company, school board members were clearly impressed. Vice Chairperson Lisa Schwartz commented, “I read over the curriculum guidelines and I really liked the toolkit for the program. I think it is really helpful. I liked the way the curriculum is laid out. It sounds very interesting.”

Fellow board member David Nanavaty said, “What they offer in this class is phenomenal. It’s almost like an independent study program. If somebody hasn’t started this by the tenth grade, they won’t be able to take it.”

Assistant Superintendent Alice Jackson, who heads up the curriculum department for Newtown schools, said, “There is a mixture of the kinds of students found in this program. There is some room for a student to take this as an elective; however, they must have some graphic background. There are prerequisites for the course.”