Final Presentation Video

Last Day of Saturday Art School

It's the end of the semester and we have assembled our student's work into a fabulous exhibit. I'm hoping the weather conditions subside enough for us to actually have it!

This class has truely been a learning experience on many levels, professional and personal. I am once again working on a final video project and really hoping it turns out better than my last video endeavor. I will post it on here when it is finished. 

Saturday Art School: Clay Activities and Golomb

           In chapter three of Claire Golomb’s Child Art in Context: A Cultural and Comparative Perspective (2002) early observance is made that research of children’s art and art practice focus mainly on the two-dimensional. The author observes, and I agree, that clay is a “technically difficult and somewhat messy medium to work with” (p. 51-52). Ceramic art practice is also expensive to support. The space needed to store three-dimensional art is valuable, the equipment (kilns and wheels) is costly, and the time spent by those tending to the artwork as it processes through the drying and firing stages doesn’t often come free. These are all valid, albeit unfortunate, excuses to discourage the abundant presence of ceramic art in schools.

In our 5^th and 6^th grade class, the students possessed prior knowledge of working with clay. They all knew what a pinch pot was and had all seen a kiln. I feel the experiences noted by Golomb regarding the evolution and development of a child’s understanding of three-dimensional form through clay art described experiences our students had already had. In class they did not require much instruction regarding how to form shapes that somewhat represented the features they were striving to achieve, nor did they struggle to understand how to affix these pieces together. Golomb states that the young artist struggles with problems also faced by older students. Specifically, “how to create a satisfying representation in a medium that puts a premium on balance, uprightness, and the modeling of multiple sides, all of which require great skill and practice” (p. 76). We only had two students create standing figures in the week 4 activity so obviously there was some consideration given to what ability they could put forth to make their creature be balanced and stand upright. Most solved that problem by creating a creature that was sitting or lying down, 

It seems to me what our students had been denied in their prior experiences was time to develop their skills with practice time. I assume (due to the circumstances mentioned before and the student’s performance in class executing the processes they claimed to know) what experience they had been allowed in school was limited at best. Perhaps they made a pinch pot and were shown a kiln and that was it! It is for that reason I am glad we had the mishap regarding the unfired work. Prior to that I had a lesson planned to embellish and paint the clay creatures from week 4. Since these were still green and very fragile, we passed on that lesson and chose to do relief sculptures using clay tiles and underglaze for week 5. I think this lesson was a hit. Not only did the students gain more experience actually working with the clay medium, but they also learned something new. No one had prior knowledge of the relief process or the properties of underglazes. 

Saturday Art School: Clay Creatures

This week the 5^th and 6^th grade group created clay imaginary creatures. The lesson required them to develop a concept for their creature via preliminary sketch in their sketchbooks, view and participate in PowerPoint discussion and demonstration, create a pinch pot, and using tools provided and the score and slip method, attach features to transform the pinch pot into a creature.

When creating the lesson plan, I assumed many of the students may have already completed a similar lesson in school. Keeping that in mind, I chose to include elements that connected the activity to the real world. We did this by discussing Tim Burton’s use of model making to create characters used in his stories and film and introducing ceramist Eva Funderburgh who creates and sells ceramic creatures. The images chosen to speak of these individuals included scenes of each artist, sitting in their studio creating a clay creature. Both scenes had preliminary sketches of the creatures being made hanging in the background. I used that to point out the relevance of the sketchbook activities they participate in each morning when they arrive. Several students recognized Tim Burton and were able to identify and talk to each other about the characters he had created. Eva, not so much but we introduced them to someone new.

 

              Another element I hoped to add more of this week was allowing the students to participate in instruction. I had a student join me at the front of the class when demonstrating how to make a pinch pot. We both made pots to review the process. It was a short bit of the demonstration, but something about it really sparked my interest in involving that sort of interactivity a lot more in my instruction methods. In our reading this week, Thompson discussed the writings of Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky which support ideas that children develop and learn best via interplay of personal initiatives combined with intersubjective experiences (Thompson 132). I think this observation of childhood learning definitely applies to our class’ age group. They are very socially conscious little kids. Not all of them pose an extrovert personality, but they all seem to be very influenced by what others in their class are doing, perhaps more so than what Jinyi, Cassidy, or I are doing. So why not let them help teach? Last year in my Z531 methods class a different pair of students would present discussion on the readings each week. We taught each other to the best of our ability and the instructor filled in any gaps by generating key discussions not touched on by the student presentations. After reading the Vygotsky bit in Thompson’s article, I realize now how much that process in Z531 fostered my understanding of the material and of teaching. “What the child can do in cooperation today, he can do alone tomorrow” is a quote from Vygotsky shared by the author that basically defines the process (Thompson 132). A student (of any age, in my opinion) can master their own understanding of the material by sharing it and instructing others.  This has really made a connection with me.

Regarding our reading by Eubanks, we have at least two children in our class who speak a language other than English. I have not observed that any student in our class is having difficulty understanding the teachers. I have observed them using the other language when discussing the day’s activity or their completed product with their parent. If a language barrier did create a problem in my classroom, I really like the suggestions Eubanks makes to learn some simple phrases and learn basics about their culture (Eubanks 42-43). I believe having common knowledge always helps the relationship between teacher and student.

Saturday Art School: Color and Paint

Yesterday in class our group allowed the students to explore with paint. We started them off with a sketchbook prompt leading them to think about and draw a place of their choice. While the students arrived and were sketching we had music playing.  We experienced a small “hiccup” with that as a song triggered a sad memory for one little girl and made her cry. When we changed the song she was ok. At the beginning of the lesson, Cassidy used her Power Point to briefly explain that the swatches they would create today would be cut up in next class and used to create an imaginary landscape. The class split up then to the discovery stations at the back of the room. We had three stations set up with tempera paints, materials and tools to manipulate swatches of color the students painted. When asked, many of them already recognized basic color mixing formulas but not very many had ever had the opportunity to experiment with paint on the scale that we allowed them during our class. The kids loved the freedom we allowed them to have. One child even exclaimed her mother NEVER let he paint “like this!”

 

Altered with plastic wrap.

Altered with salt.

Altered with alcohol.

 

In our text Children and Their Art, Hurwitz and Day describe three general styles of instruction: directive, Socratic/questioning, and discovery (p.284). The lesson Cassidy has planned for us during this segment of SAS I feel weighs in strongly on the discovery method. She set the stage for an open-ended lesson requiring the students to speculate and problem-solve…and they loved it.  Our group (5^th and 6^th grade) stayed on-task. They were intrigued by the variables we presented and maintained active participation until class was over.  Each student completed 4 or more 9x12 fully painted pages.

There were several instances in class that recalled reading from our text by Smith. The students were very socially conscious, they did well working in a group where they could share experiences. I tried to stay conscious of my responses to the student’s work, responding in ways that affirmed they had done it correctly and why it worked. That seemed to really generate positive reactions and encouraged them to experiment more.

The Smith text also describes understanding three dimensional spaces as a challenge for this age group. I think the second part of Cassidy’s lesson, assembling an imaginary landscape, will be a good opportunity to teach them about how to manage depth and space in a composition.  One thing we did not do (that I recall) is share an example of the finished product. I think the students understood we will be cutting up their “masterpieces” from yesterday’s class, but I’m not sure they visualized the end product. I know Cassidy had a completed one in her book so we will have one to share next class, but maybe it would be wise to share a completed “end product” during first class in the future.

First Class Reflection

For our first class the lesson had to be about drawing from observation and introducing the theme of “Creating Imaginary Worlds.” Smith’s chapter on fifth and sixth grade observational drawing states that students of this age are “…beginning to struggle with the inner conflict of establishing their own identities and becoming individuals…”(Smith 86). For that reason I was a little unsure about introducing a strict self-portrait assignment on the very first day of class. I feel our group was on the right track with making the assignment an altered, embellished, or imaginative self-portrait, but our method of communicating the lesson idea was too complex and we were encouraged at the last minute to substitute it with an alternative plan. In hindsight, I think our original lesson plan could have been the more successful of the two had we just made it simple. I’ll be wary to change lesson plans at the last minute again.

Our class consists of eleven fifth and sixth graders, one boy and ten girls. Our boy shows evidence of talent and/or prior instruction; our girls are of varying artistic skill. Three girls know each other from school and immediately closed in together at the same table.  All students actively participated in the sketchbook prompt of drawing things that describe who they are. They seemed to enjoy introductions and expressed many things about themselves using their sketchbooks as a “show and tell.” I think this portion of our class time was the most successful part of our day.  

Instructional resources were not our friend on Saturday. Our projector did not work for us, which made use of the prepared Power Point ineffective. We attempted to share it by turning the computer screen around, but it was paid little attention. It would have also been nice to have working speakers on our computer. There were times we would have liked to play music to ease the atmosphere while the kids were drawing and while we were walking around helping them.  

I think we were also hindered this first lesson, obviously, by lack of knowledge about our individual students; mainly the pace at which they work and their skill levels. We ran out of time and many students did not finish the lesson. Most were on track until we introduced the second activity. That is when many fell behind, or lost interest. I think we will definitely keep that in mind when preparing future lessons. We did run out of time quickly and were not able to have sharing/critique time as a result.

Actions I think we should consider next week include: continuing to provide sketchbook prompts that correspond with the lesson, alternative table/seating arrangements, more instruction on media, quick and simple instruction on lesson expectation, not passing out the media until after the lesson has been communicated, and allowing more work time on projects.

Developing Reflective Teaching Techniques

In the article “Developing Reflective Teaching Techniques with Preservice Art Teachers,” Frank D. Susi identifies the benefits of using reflection as a vehicle to improve teaching methods. This idea is one that I support fully as my experience with reflecting, and more specifically, documenting my reflection via a blog like this one or a visual journal has helped me navigate some challenging issues so far in my art education.

Susi identifies reflection as:

• Looking back on one’s behaviors, strategies, and goals as a process of self-analysis and evaluation
• A basis for increasing self-knowledge about educational practice and improved instructional performance
• Promoting understanding of educational concepts while addressing perplexing aspects of classroom life

I think that it is very important that he points out the need to be open-minded and willing to consider the possibility of error. Leo Tolstoy said “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of
doubt, what is laid before him.” Reflecting on our planned lesson and its subsequent success AND failure, then adjusting accordingly is what will help us grow as educators and will foster student reception of the lesson. Once we believe one method is the best and only way to present a lesson, we fail the students who may have performed better had we paid more attention to their needs rather than our lesson plan. Reflection is cultivating awareness of what is needed to make the lesson successful.

Susi suggests questions we can ask when reflecting:

• To what extent did students understand direction and expectations?
• What factors helped or hindered during student work?
• What changes in classroom arrangement and space, sequence of lesson events, or use of time could be improved?
• What role did instructional resources play in motivation and clarification of procedures?
• What went as expected?
• What effect did critique and interpersonal communication have on individual students?

I think as I begin teaching I will develop questions of my own to apply to this list to help me evaluate my performance and make it better. Susi also discussed limitations that sometimes inhibit successful reflection such as recalling everything that happened during the lesson accurately, recognizing problematic events, allowing sufficient time to reflect, and not discussing the experience with others prior to documenting reflection. This is something very profound to remain aware of when deciding to teach reflectively. Reflection should be done as soon as possible and before discussing it with others. When I worked at the bank, part of our security training was to intensely observe the behaviors and appearances of individual(s) we were serving and in the event of a robbery, document those details before discussing it with anyone else. I find it crazy-ironic that I am actually going to get to use a bank experience skill I have honed for the past eleven years in my classroom!

For me, reflection’s most rewarding function is allowing me time to, as the author states, “come to grips with personal thoughts, frustrations, and concerns.” As you have all witnessed in my blog posts and potentially other places, I am a venter. I almost always say what is on my mind and I always throw a personal connection or spin on whatever it is that I am learning. This is not always a constructive thing! Having a reflection blog or journal helps me filter my thoughts into something useful. This method of self-study was introduced to me early in the art education program and I am a fan. I have already begun to use it in other aspects of my life as I believe it is a healthy way to deal with life…not just the classroom!

Becoming a Behavior-Minded Art Teacher

I rarely print out articles that I can view on my computer, but this one I did. "Becoming a Behavior-Minded Art Teacher" by Frank D Susi (1996)tackles the diverse realm of managing student behavior. I thought Susi set up a good framework to consider when creating art room curricula. I like how he acknowledged the work and consideration that goes in to planning classroom activities well before the first day of class and how to consider student behavior during that process. When he discussed the "humane and democratically oriented beliefs and values" set forth by Kindsvatter, Wilen & Ishler (1992)I felt he shared with us ideal qualities and actions of the perfect art teacher. So although I agree with that these practices outlined are proper and necessary goals for all art teachers to strive to reach, I do not have faith that any educator has ever successfully met 100% of these prerequisites. To exemplify my thought process here, let's consider some of the phrases/ideas shared in this instructional list: showing respect,preserving dignity,personal responsibility,not making a troubled child's problem worse, providing realistic opportunities, personal success, emotional comfort, expecting class members to cope, reasonable conditions and responsibilities, inappropriate behavior, dealing with misbehavior fairly, consistently, clearly, and finally, enlightened and well intentioned. That's a pretty excessive list of things that could have any number of definitions depending upon the ideology of the student, the parent, the educator, the individual. I think the probability that the stars will align during every instance of misbehavior and every individual will agree with the efforts put forth to resolve the problem is pretty slim. My students will probably be completely out of control because I carry quite a bit of insecurity in taking any disciplinary action on other people's children. I have also heard horror stories about lack of school support for their employee when faced with a parent angry over a teacher's use of disciplinary action. That kind of stress and confrontation is not something I think many of us considered when deciding to become teachers.

Play, Dreams, and Storytelling as Creative Development

This week’s reading from Golomb’s The Creation of Imaginary Worlds: The Role of Art, Magic & Dreams in Child Development discussed the roles of play and dreams in children’s imagination. I greatly appreciated the breakdown chapter two gives of child development in relation to the play activity common for specific age groups. Even with limited parenting/caretaker experience I recognized the activities as ones I had observed children participating in or recalled participating in myself as a child. I think that will help me with my interaction with my students because I will have some grasp on what level of discovery and play they could be expressing to me. It seems that there is a lot more understanding today of a young child’s need for play time interaction and space, but that understanding quickly diminishes as a child hits pre-adolescence. I was intrigued by the case study of Brittney, age 16, who participates in play in her own elaborately created imaginary world inhabited with the pipe cleaner action figures she had been creating since she was 7. My initial reaction was one of appreciation for the artistry and imaginative endeavors of this child…wait…she’s 16? My appreciation for her creativity was overshadowed by my socially-programmed ideology that a person of this age should not be playing in her room with action figures and imaginary friends. Ideally, such creative/abstract thought should be fostered shouldn’t it? Golomb notes that when emphasis is placed on “…continuity, sameness, and the preservation of the status quo, pretense play might not find much support” (p. 129). As an artist I am conflicted now with how to feel about Brittney’s activities because what she does is really pretty cool, but at the same time I am aware that popular opinion could be she is behaving abnormally. We kill childlike creativity with our expectations of acceptable adult behavior. The role of dreams in creativity I feel is such a broad topic. I think Golomb does well to reduce the coverage in her book to children’s dreams, remembered dreams, nightmares, dream interpretation, and daydreams. Though neither of this week’s chapters discusses art making much, dreams can serve as springboards for visual representation of imagery or as a response to it. I read an article a few years ago about Stephanie Meyer, the author of Twilight, a popular series of teen fantasy novels involving a vampire who falls in love with a human. Meyer reported having a dream about a specific scene played out between her two main characters. When she woke, she typed up a written transcript of her dream which became a chapter of the first novel. As an adult, Meyer was able to interpret her dream scene as fictitious and expanded upon it to create a fantasy novel. A child may process dreams of vampires differently, most likely as scary and not so loveable! The imagery could similarly inspire the child to create artwork or an expressive narrative but this could be in an effort to interpret and manage fear or other emotions triggered by the imagery in the scary dream rather than an effort to expand upon the experience. Imagination is influenced by so many things. Practically every experience we have contributes to our collective ability to imagine and create. I agree that play and dreams play a very significant role in the development of a child’s imagination and creativity. I hope to provide environments and interaction with my students that encourages all stages of their creative development.

Observational Drawing for Fifth and Sixth Grade

Cassidy Young, Jin Yi Kim, and I have been assigned to teach fifth and sixth grade during this fall’s Saturday Art School. I requested the older group of students on our placement questionnaire due to the assessment I have made that I enjoy interaction with older children slightly more than that with young children. Thursday after completing our first in-class group interaction I left feeling a little insecure about the notions I hold of 10-12-year old children’s interests. Our group project involved drawing a picture to illustrate a story-time narrative prompt that was somewhat a kin to the Candy Land board game. I feel our age group of children are bordering their teenage years and while most still participate in play, make-believe, and discovery, it is at a richer, more mature, social, and scientific level. These are our Harry Potter and Percy Jackson readers, our iPod listeners, Minecraft building, Kobe Bryant and Taylor Swift fans. I hold that they are capable of negotiating more mature fantasy realms as well as adult concepts and circumstances and should be allowed some opportunity to express and think critically about what they are learning about life while still enjoying the innocence and shelter of childhood. After reading Smith’s Observation Drawing with Children (1998) I feel a lot more confident in my expectations of fifth and sixth grade as some of my notions were validated in the chapter specifically about our group of kids.

I agree with Goldstein’s (1977) approach to observational drawing as responsive drawing. Observational drawing requires the artist to observe closely details of the object(s) that may have gone unnoticed if not trying to represent them on paper. It also draws out the artist’s experience and or inexperience with the object by challenging them to recreate the unique, personal understanding they hold of the object. As explained by Smith (1998) “…a 7-year-old’s figure drawing carries sufficient information for her, but not for many adults” (7). Observational drawing is about communicating one’s individual experience with the object presented. As the child grows in age and experience, their representation of items they draw will change and evolve communicating new meanings representative of their collected experiences and knowledge. Smith (1998) explains the developmental framework of fifth and sixth graders as being “on the edge of adolescence…beginning to struggle with the inner conflict of establishing their own identities and becoming individuals separate from their families” yet also “scrambling for acceptance within one group or another” (86). I remember being eleven years old and making that conscious step from being a little girl who loved playing with action figures and stuffed animals to a girl who chose to play with make-up and listen to rock music like the rest of her friends. It was rough! It seems this is the age when many children trade imagination and make-believe for social activity and seeking out truths about life. Having realized that while reading and reflecting, I question how our group will tackle that challenge of provoking participation in creating imaginary worlds in a group of kiddos who may be experimenting with a separation from that sort of play.

Children's Artistic Development

The Creation of Imaginary Worlds by Claire Golomb begins by discussing the evolution of child art. I found that the imagery discussed in this chapter were all familiar examples of child art. The connection the reading made for me was how that specific imagery often falls on a timeline of common ages and experiences. Also differentiating mark making and drawing was helpful to know because I had always assumed children drawing were trying to depict something they observe. I had not considered that they were making marks just because they had recently discovered the crayon, pencil, marker, etc. could do that! I also appreciated the acknowledgement in class by Mrs. Brinn that age doesn’t always correspond with the stage of art making the child is at as speed of development into these stages varies from child to child. I know when I was four years old, I was drawing Fred Flintstone and Woody Woodpecker quite well. I was well past the tadpole and trunk figures stage at that age. By the time I was ten I could draw very realistic human figures and I continued to develop my art skills through high school. My friend’s daughter also excelled past the beginning stages of art making quickly. I believed she would do as well if not better than I did in art. But she is a teenager now and never really progressed further than where our book shows a seven or eight year old artist's skill to be. So I feel our reading this week gave structure and understanding of the progression a child makes when learning to create art, but I don’t believe I will I will tie on an age to that expected level of development. I also don’t feel inclined to believe all children who excel early in their art making will go on to become great artists, much in the same manner I choose to believe children who develop slowly may in time take their art making practice much further than a child who excelled early on. What a great revelation to have.

Fall 2013 M301 Saturday Art School

In the past I have used this blog to share experiences and things learned from prior courses. Mostly I have shared lessons learned from using new technology. You are all welcome to look at my prior posts if you like. For the duration of this semester I will switch my posting purpose to sharing Saturday Art School experiences. This is new territory for me as our class begins to study the evolution of children's art making and its function. I have very limited experience working with young children. I believe my comfort zone is helping older students: middle school through adult. I'm excited and scared at the same time at the task of caring for a large number of young children. I feel the experience may rid me of some insecurity I feel when viewing myself as someone capable of caring for young children. I don’t believe I have any problem doing so, but I have never been afforded the opportunity to prove it. I have no children of my own. Even though that has been my choice for a variety of personal reasons, I carry a suspicion that my friends and family who have or care for young children on a daily basis have little faith that I am capable of doing the same nor do I want to be bothered with participation in child rearing discussion or practice. This is probably an opinion I have projected on to them, but nonetheless it is an underlying fear I have that their assumption of me could be true. I hope my experiences here help me to not feel that insecurity anymore, because most people who choose not to or can’t have children are capable of caring for them and shouldn’t be denied the opportunity to do so based on the assumption they don’t like children.

Social Network Addiction at its Finest

I am here to admit an addiction I have to Pinterest. Pinterest is an online bulletin board where members can collect and organize images of things they like. Most images include a link to the website where the image originates. This site is an art teacher's dream come true. I have been building up my boards with reference images, lesson plans, classroom organization ideas, and personal favorites. I have included the link to my boards if anyone is interested in following me. If you are not a member and would like to join, comment here and I will send you an invitation.

Enjoy!

http://pinterest.com/visualartsgirl/