A Full Week of Sub Plans for Middle School Art

Quick answer: Give the week one theme and one material. Print five days of one-page briefs, put pencils, erasers and paper in a single labeled tub, and tell the sub not to open the paint cupboard. A week of drawing and printing on paper comes back gradeable. A week of free choice comes back as a mess and a supply order.

What do I set up first if I am out from Monday?

Decide the material before the content. A sub who is not an art teacher can manage graphite, colored pencil and paper. They cannot manage clay, glazes, a kiln, wet media or a shared brush sink with thirty twelve-year-olds. Once the material is fixed, everything else is easier.

• One tub per class, filled and counted before you go, with a count sheet taped inside the lid.
• Five one-page briefs, dated, in a folder on your desk in the order they run.
• A single drying rack shelf per period, labeled, so Friday's collection is not a hunt.
• A written line for the sub: no cutting tools, no water, no cupboard.

What does a week of art cover actually look like?

Run one project across five days rather than five unrelated activities. Students who lose Tuesday can still finish, and the sub only has to learn the rules once. A sequence built on printmaking with monotype and relief methods works well because each day has a visible product and the vocabulary is on the page.

A workable shape: Monday, thumbnails and a rule sheet. Tuesday, refine one thumbnail to full size. Wednesday, transfer and block in. Thursday, detail and contrast. Friday, mount, title card, and a six-line written reflection that gives you something to grade beyond the image.

What should I tell a sub who has never taught art?

Write the brief for them, not for the students. Three sentences: what students are making today, what finished looks like, and what to do with it at the bell. Add the sentence you would say aloud, in quotes, so they can read it out. Middle school art rooms run on routine more than on instruction, so name the routine: where paper lives, who hands out, who counts pencils back in.

Tell them what to ignore. A student who says the teacher lets us listen to music, or we always work at the back table, is testing. One line in your note settles it.

What goes wrong in an art room with a sub?

Free drawing time. It looks generous and produces nothing you can enter in a gradebook, and by Wednesday the class expects it. Video documentaries, for the same reason they fail elsewhere. Anything that requires the sub to demonstrate a technique. Group critique, which needs a teacher who can steer a comment away from cruelty. And open supply access, which costs you a term of consumables in four days.

If the week has to run long, move to something with a written spine. A workbook-based art bundle keeps students reading and writing about images on the days the making stalls.

Frequently asked questions

Can a non-art sub run printmaking safely?

Monotype and rubbing methods, yes. Anything involving a cutting tool, no. Leave the cutting stage for your return and let the sub run design and printing from prepared plates.

How do I grade a week I did not see?

Grade the artifact plus the reflection sheet. The writing tells you who understood the rule sheet and who copied a neighbor.

What if my classes are at different points in the unit?

Pause the unit. Run the same standalone week for every period and pick the unit back up when you return. Trying to keep five periods on separate tracks through a sub week is how work gets lost.

How much paper should I leave out?

Two sheets per student per day plus ten spares per class, counted. Leaving the ream out invites the whole ream to disappear.

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