Boys' Latin offers a full range of Fine and Performing Arts educational courses and extra curricular experiences at the lower, middle and upper school Levels to ensure our young men develop an appreciation for these art forms.
Lower School Music
The lower school curriculum reflects what is known through scientific research about the development of boys, and it meets state and national education standards. Our interactive program involves vocal and rhythm-based activities combined with movement. These activities incorporate both brain hemispheres and are designed to boost self-esteem and promote team building, while enabling students to develop listening and communication skills.
Classroom activities are frequently integrated with other core subject areas and focus on singing, performing on instruments (recorders, percussion, and barred instruments), reading, writing, and composing or improvising music, as well as exploring music of various styles and cultures. Students play a role in performance-based assessment, of which there are three components: self-assessment, team assessment, and individual assessment. Musical skills are showcased during school year.
Lower School Art
The students are engaged in the process of creating art in a structured environment that encourages hard work, the development of artistic skills, creative thinking and problem solving. The content of the program draws on emotional, environmental, and imaginative experiences, as well as coordinated activities with classroom teachers.
Students are exposed to painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, ceramics, and other three dimensional activities. All the boys in the lower school exhibit work in an annual art show that is based on a three-month investigation of a historical or cultural theme.
Middle School Music
The study of music in the Middle School stresses the interrelationship of the basic components of music: pitch, duration, timbre, form and style, with a very hands-on approach to learning. Sixth grade boys are required to sing as a chorus, as well as understand the ever changing male voice. Seventh graders learn to play guitar and sing various genres from pop, rock and blues. Eighth graders learn to play the piano and handchimes. All grades learn to read music and eventually write a 12-bar blues song as well as a song in ternary format, ABA. In addition to classroom experiences the Middle School has opportunities for singing in the Middle School Chorus, the BL STOMP band as well as grade level instrumental ensembles. There are many opportunities for performance throughout the life of the Boys’ Latin Middle School.
Middle School Art
Students study prehistoric art of the Ice Age to art of the Renaissance. Areas of study include art of Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the medieval era, the Orient, Africa, and Native America. Students emulate the styles of major periods in history using a variety of materials.
Seventh grade students study art from the Renaissance to the Impressionists of the early 20th century. The students also take part in a five-month architectural course, which includes floor planning, elevations, site-plan views and scale models with an emphasis on green design. The student will create architectural plans with using compuer aided design (CAD) software. The course offers visits from practicing architects. The local professional architects critique and evaluate the work of each student. A trip to an architectural firm adds to the program. If time allows, the student may study printmaking, cartooning, sculpture, ceramics, weaving or perspective drawing.
The eighth grade students prepare for the upper school studio setting. Following the seventh grade program, the students study and work with materials of contemporary artists of the abstract and narrative 20th century. The students learn to identify these artists on interpretation and judgment of the concepts of art. The students’ projects are displayed within the school, at neighboring schools, and within the community.
The students have their art projects displayed at an annual art and music show and are involved in various museum trips. Students showcase their work in an annual springtime art and music show.
Upper School Music
The Upper School music curriculum includes 9th Grade Music Appreciation, which explores music through various periods including a study of Antiquity, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century music. Multiple music mediums are also explored. Students are assigned to create original compositions based on the music they are studying in class. These assignments include the use of form, style, rhythm and meter. Chorus is one of the Upper School performance groups. Each year the chorus performs a Holiday Concert, a Spring Concert, and at various school and community functions. For the 2010 school year a Music Theory/Piano Keyboarding class has been added to the Upper School Music Curriculum.
Instrumental Music
The Upper School offers a modern and diverse instrumental music program. The US Rock Ensembles and Jazz Band perform a range of pieces appropriate to the technical capabilities of the students, which exposes them to a variety of styles and challenges. Students are taught basic scales, chord progressions, and music theory to advance their individual performance, technique, and improvisation. All groups perform several concerts each year and have opportunities to tour, be recorded, and play at several school events.
Private instrumental lessons are offered on campus to those students interested in Guitar, Bass, Drums, Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone, Clarinet, and Piano. Boys' Latin brings in outside private teachers to supply lessons before, during, and after the school day. Lessons run $25 per half hour.
Upper School Theater Arts
The Boys’ Latin Theatre Art program provides students with a variety of exciting and engaging opportunities to become involved in and to learn Theatre Arts. By staging two productions yearly each fall and spring, students explore their imaginations as playwrights, critics, audience members, directors, tech crews and actors. Our spring production exclusively allows for the student body to cast, direct, and produce their very own play! In addition to the play production experiences, students produce monologue parades, scene showcases from our acting classes, and two Coffee Houses which promote artistic and creative abilities in the Theatre Arts. Three times a year, Introduction to Acting students are exposed to our Regional Theatre, Center Stage, where they embark on theatre tours, watch performances, and listen to in-house guest speakers. In addition, a spring trip is taken each year to New York City to see a Broadway show.
Upper School Visual Arts
The Upper School visual art program at Boys' Latin School of Maryland stresses the importance of understanding the basic elements of art and principles of design. The program emphasizes basic drawing and visual perception while tapping into a variety of mediums including conte crayon, pastel, charcoal, pencil and ink, acrylics and oils. Each successive studio course introduces more complex techniques and a greater understanding of themselves through conceptual thinking and choice of subject matter. In addition to the studio classes, a computer graphics class is also offered using Adobe Photoshop.
Please view the Online Laker Gallery
Sample student projects follow:
Sequential Apple Portrait
Hand - Octopus Morph Sketch
Double Portrait
Profile View Portrait
Map - Oil and Rope