Sara E. Thomas
I will use a variety of different teaching strategies to help students to understand how to better analyze artwork, learn different media techniques and express themselves personally in their artwork. I will do this by introducing Feldman's method, " do nows", sketchbook exercises, modeling, step-by-step examples and critiques. I will provide a lesson structure that becomes routine to students and incorporates teaching to all different learning styles.
Along with having an extremely diverse population racially, HSC also services a variety of learning styles, like any school. About one sixth of our population are students with special needs. I often find that these students can find success in the art room that they might not be able to find in other places. Because of the variety of learning styles and integration I make a point to try and structure each lesson so that it reaches every type of learner. Each lesson starts with a brief introduction (or "do now") usually through observation, writing and note taking which is also spoken for the audio and visual learners. Next a demonstration is given and then replicated by the students for kinesthetic learners. I hope that this unit will be designed to also focus on students intrapersonal skills in discovering their own identity, along with interpersonal skills through group discussions and projects. (Hancock June 14, 2005)
"Do nows" are a popular strategy at HSC and because they are employed throughout the entire school they provide a sense of routine and stability for students. In most classes that students attend they will have a "do now" waiting for them on the board when they arrive in class. This gives students an activity to focus on immediately and provides the teacher with the opportunity to either review a concept covered the previous day, or introduce something new. I use "do nows" as an opportunity to introduce students to new artwork, or to have them brainstorm ideas for their projects. They are often five minute writing or drawing assignments that get the students focused and provide an introduction to the lesson for the day.
One of my favorite "do nows" is putting a piece of artwork up on the board and having students do a thumbnail sketch of it, then analyze it. One of the most important jobs I have as an art teacher is teaching students to analyze artwork. I find that students initially have a very hard time doing this. They are used to analyzing literature, not visual information. They are often quick to make judgments and interpretations, but do not take them time to slow down and actually look at the artwork. I believe this difficulty arises because students have never been asked to analyze a piece of artwork before. In order to simplify the process I use Feldman's method which breaks the analysis down into four steps: describe, analyze, interpret and decide. (Simpson, 123) By placing a piece of artwork in front of the students and telling them nothing about it you encourage them to look more closely. The first step in Feldman's method is to describe. This means, simply describe exactly what you see: shapes, colors, objects and their location in the artwork. Students should not be making assumptions about the artwork in this stage, which they sometimes need to be reminded about. I tell students to pretend that they want someone to find this particular work of art out of an entire museum full of artwork. They need to include enough detail that someone could pick out this exact artwork and be sure it is the one being described. The next step is to analyze the artwork. This means to explain the different principles of design that the artist has used, such as balance, repetition, contrast, etc. This is the step that students have the most trouble with because they do not have the vocabulary or understanding of enough artistic concepts to successfully complete this part of the analysis. As the semester goes on I see great leaps and bounds in this area. The third step is for students to interpret the artwork. I often ask my students to put themselves in the artist's shoes and explain to me what they might have been thinking when they created the artwork. Why did they make certain decisions? What in the artwork leads you to believe that? The last step is to decide whether or not you think it is a successful piece of artwork. This is a personal decision, however, I always ask students to back up their decision with a specific reason, beyond "I like it" or "I don't like it". This process takes a while for students to get used to, however once they have a handle on it, it can lead to some very interesting discussions. This is one of my favorite processes to use for getting students to talk about abstract artwork because they often have a hard time doing so. It is always interesting to have them talk about a piece, and give them the title and some background history
after
the discussion to see how it changes their opinions.
Artists always keep sketchbooks as a way to record their ideas, brainstorm, try new materials and mostly just express themselves. To teach my students that this is an important part of the artistic process I have my students keep a sketchbook. I urge them to make it their own and include things besides only class work in it. I use the sketchbook as a place for students to experiment with new materials, brainstorm, collect ideas and images and as a journal to write in as well. I tell them that they may include anything in their sketchbook and if there are things they do not want me to see they can simply paperclip the pages together. Often times students will bring in their own personal sketchbooks to share with me too! I check the class sketchbooks at least once a week to observe student progress.
After students complete a "do now" in their sketchbook whether it be brainstorming for a new project, analyzing an artwork or responding to an assignment from the previous day, I then model for them what they will be doing for the rest of the class period. Since art is about a process it is important for students to watch me model what they will be doing, especially when they are learning about a new material. Often times by simply watching me do it first they avoid many problems they could encounter, and they waste less materials because they know how to use them correctly initially. Once students have learned to use materials correctly they are given more freedom to try using them in less traditional ways.
Looking at a finished artwork can be very overwhelming when you are trying to determine how the artist came to create the finished product. To eliminate the overwhelmed sensation I always have an example of the assignment students are working on up on the board, broken down into the specific steps it took to get there. For instance if students are working on a collage there will be an example up on the board, in steps. The first step will show the first layer or background of the collage only. The second step will show the background with the middle ground added on top of it. The third step will show the background, middle ground and foreground. The final step will show the completed collage, including all three previous layers and details added to provide finishing touches. This is very helpful so that students can identify what steps they have completed, and what they need to do next.
Although the process of creating artwork is important, the finished product is also important. Students should always have in mind the concept that they are trying to express, and should be thinking about ways that will strengthen that message in their artwork. In order to determine whether or not their artwork is expressing what they want it to students participate in group, peer and self-critiques. Group critique are helpful if a group works at about the same pace because students can look at each others' work and pick out what makes a successful piece. They can then translate this information into their own artwork. When doing group critiques I have students look at all of the artwork as a whole body, with no names and have them talk about the artwork as a whole, comparing and contrasting different pieces. Peer critiques can also be helpful, where students are paired up and given more specific questions to answer about one other classmate's artwork. I will usually have students do a peer critique when they are about three-quarters of the way through a piece of artwork because it gives them a second opinion other than mine about how they can improve their artwork. I have students complete self-evaluations when they feel they are finished with a piece. This way if there is something they are unsatisfied with we can look at it together and figure how to improve their artwork. Students fill out their self-evaluation using the same rubric that I use to give them a grade, this way they are grading themselves the same way I will be.
Students will be evaluated using a rubric to grade their artwork. The rubric will be broken down into three main categories. First will be
expression of identity
– have the students successfully expressed an idea about themselves even if it is not the original idea they had initially? Included in this category will be brainstorming to come up with ideas, and the process of learning the materials and editing ideas. Next will be
aesthetics
– is the artwork pleasing to look at and did the students use all of the elements and principles of design required? Did they master use of the materials? Lastly,
presentation
– Does the work look finished? Is it ready to be hung at school? Although I think that the artistic process is an extremely important one and do not like students to feel as though they can do "bad" artwork, as Delpit states "In this country students will be judged on their product regardless of the process they utilized to achieve it" (Delpit 287). For this reason I believe that it is important to include their effort and artistic process in their grade, while also assessing the final product.
