Arthur Efland is a professor at Ohio State University. He is the author of A History of Art Education: Intellectual and Social Currents in Teaching the Visual Arts (1990). At university we studied his work and we were shown something we came to call the "Efland Six Pack".
As you can see from above, there are two main areas of activities - Expression and Response. So that is where I start thinking about activities for students.
How could students express themselves around a theme? How could they respond to that theme?
In my example of the "Hero's Journey", I could ask the students to concieve of a project that demonstrated their own person "Hero's Journey". What is exciting about allowing your students to think of their own genre for the project is that you can spend sometime teaching the Creative Process.
I find that students like variety and choice; however, they also need direction or become lost in having too many choices. Therefore, I often spend time teaching students my own Creative Process, which I think allows students to make links to other subjects.
