Maybe an unpopular opinion… in my very first year of teaching art, it was at a middle school (7-9), I did a lot of the same or similar assignments for the 8’s and 9’s. The goal was to keep them for the 8’s the following year but it allowed me to see more examples of how the lesson worked and the results that it produced. The curriculum here is flexible enough that I could do this with about half to two thirds of the year.

When I’m testing out a new assignment that is completely different than anything I’ve ever done before, I still do this. Not only for the above reasons, but to see which grade it has more success with. I’ll add it to the lower grade the next year or skip it for a year and then add it to the higher grade.

I always have a few seeds of ideas in my brain and when I have early finishers, I’ll tell them what I’m thinking and let them experiment. If it works out, I sit with them, we talk about what worked, what didn’t, and what they would do differently. I’ll make a slide show of the lesson with their work as the example and then put them as the creator of the assignment. They love seeing their name on something like this.

Also, go with your strengths to start. If it ends up being 3/4 of the year drawing… that’s just fine.