Art Teacher Newsletter: How to Write Your First Unit Newsletter

The first unit newsletter is where families get their first real look at what art class actually involves. The beginning-of-year letter introduced your philosophy and the year's arc. The first-unit newsletter gets specific: here is what we are doing, here is what your student will produce, and here is what good work looks like in this medium. Written well, it converts families from onlookers into genuine supporters of the studio work.

Open with the medium and the project focus

Do not make families read three paragraphs before they know what their student is making. "We are beginning our first unit: observational drawing in graphite. Over the next four weeks, students will work through a series of increasingly complex drawing exercises that build toward a finished observational still-life study. The medium is graphite pencil on 9x12 drawing paper." That is the first paragraph. From there you can explain why and how.

For a watercolor unit: "Unit 2 begins Monday: color theory in watercolor. Students will work through a color wheel exercise, two value gradient studies, and a final botanical watercolor painting that synthesizes the color relationships we study in the first week." Same format: medium, unit duration, project sequence.

Explain what the unit is actually teaching

Families understand that their student is making a drawing. What they do not always understand is what skill the drawing teaches. Make that explicit. "This unit teaches students to see proportion, value, and edge. Proportion is the relative size relationship between parts of an object. Value is the range from light to dark. Edge is whether the boundary between two areas is hard and sharp or soft and gradual. Most beginning drawers make things too symmetrical, too dark, and too uniformly sharp-edged, because they draw from mental concepts of what things look like rather than from careful observation. The exercises in this unit directly address all three."

Describe the project in enough detail for families to ask good questions

Here is a newsletter excerpt that does this for a graphite still life unit:

"The final project for this unit is an observational still-life drawing of three objects. Students bring in two objects from home (any small ordinary objects: a shoe, a cup, a book, a piece of fruit) and I provide a third. They arrange them on their desk, choose a viewpoint, and work on a single drawing over two full class periods plus one practice session. The drawing is assessed on proportion accuracy, value range (do the light areas look light and the dark areas look dark?), edge quality, and overall compositional balance. The goal is not a photograph-realistic rendering. The goal is a drawing that demonstrates the student paid close attention."

Give the assessment criteria in plain language

Families and students who know how the project is graded before they start are better prepared than those who find out after. "This unit's drawing is graded on four criteria, each worth 25 points: Observation accuracy (does the drawing reflect what was actually there, or what the student thought was there?), Value range (do different surfaces show different values, from very light to dark?), Line quality (does the student use varied marks, heavy and light, to show different edges?), and Completion (is the drawing finished within the time given, with the full space of the paper addressed?). The portfolio reflection is a separate grade."

Tell families what to do if their student comes home discouraged

The first drawing unit is the most common time for students to feel frustrated. Name this and give families language to use. "Observational drawing is harder than most students expect on the first day. Students who have drawn their whole life sometimes feel more frustrated than students who have not, because the observational approach is different from the way most people draw for fun. If your student comes home saying they are bad at this, the most helpful response is to ask them to show you one thing they noticed about the object they were drawing that they would not have noticed before. There is always something. That noticing is the actual skill."

Name what students should bring for the project

"For the still-life project, students need to bring two small objects to class by Thursday. Any ordinary objects work: a shoe, a mug, a water bottle, a piece of fruit, a hand mirror, a tangled set of earbuds. The objects do not need to be beautiful or artistically significant. They need to be three-dimensional, small enough to fit on a desk, and interesting enough to look at closely for two class periods." Specific instructions produce the right objects. "Bring something from home" produces 30 smartphones on the desk.

Include a home observation activity that previews the unit

End with something families can do that connects to the unit without requiring any art supplies. "Before Thursday, ask your student to pick up any object in your home and look at it for one full minute without drawing or describing it. Just look. Then ask: where is the light coming from, and where is the darkest shadow on the object? Most people have never looked at an object this way. Students who do this before Thursday will arrive with a skill they did not have before: the ability to find the light."

Close with the project due date and your contact information. Families who know when the project is due can ask about it at the right time rather than asking on the due date when it is too late to act.