At The Museum of Modern Art, we incorporate activities into every lesson with students, whether in the museum galleries or the classroom. We believe that active, hands-on learning is crucial to creating an environment where all students have an entry point into exploring artwork or expressing their own ideas. Activities can be a way-in, or a vehicle for interpreting a work of art. They can offer multiple entry points for students with different learning styles, students with English as a second language and students with learning disabilities. Activities can give all students options for investigating a work of art, sparking a creative response. At MoMA, we always teach thematically, meaning all of our lessons connect four to five works of art around a universal theme, such as Characters, Spaces and Places, or Society and Politics. Themes provide a unifying framework for connecting artworks across time, space, and mediums. And because the relationship between a theme and an artwork isn't always readily apparent, themes have the power to get your students looking deep below the surface. In our teaching at MoMA, we stress that activities, themes, discussion all support each other within a lesson. Let's begin with some definitions. When I say "activity", I don't necessarily mean a full-on art project. In the context of this course, an "activity" could comprise a way to frame a discussion, a game, or a quick drawing or writing exercise. Some activities involve the whole group, some ask students to pair off in partners, and others are done individually. Despite their variety, all activities have one thing in common: the focus is on process, as opposed to making a finished product. This course will break down many of our activity examples into two categories. Week two will explore activities for analyzing and reflecting. These activities give students a framework for looking, investigating and breaking down the information in front of them. Week three will explore activities for creating, imagining and connecting. These activities will help students to think creatively, while connecting the artworks and their own experiences to big ideas. Week four, we'll share our tools for assessing student learning. We'll look at examples of student work, and how they can be a window into students' thought processes and understanding. We'll also give you some resources to help you design tools that will help you assess student learning and engagement. We hope that by the end of this course, you will walk away with concrete activities that you can immediately put to use in your classroom.