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.