- Consider the points below which are most relevant to the lessonyou are planning.
Art skills are things like: observational drawing, ability to makeclay do what you want it to, ability to make tools and materials do whatyou want, and so on. Will your lesson be easy enough so they are not discouraged?Will the students be challenged enough to keep their interest? Skills arelearned by practicing.
2. Their art world awareness: What artist's work can you refer toand expect students to know what you are talking about? What historicalexamples are familiar? What examples from other cultures are familiar toyour students?
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What new art terms will students need to learn, and which do theyalready know? What design principles do they know or need to learn? Howgood are they at analyzing the way art effects viewers?
4. Attitude:
How much enthusiasm do students show for learning new skills, forroutine skill practice, for new concepts, for other artist's work and ideas?
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Do the students make typical pictures, sculptures, and so on fortheir age? How many are more advanced and how many are less advanced thanexpected for their age?
- S ummarizethe specific art skills to be developed, thespecific art knowledge to learn, and the attitudes to be fostered. These are the goals and objectives of the lesson(or unit).
- Some lessons might concentratemore on skill building, others may be designed to encourage imaginationand creativity, and some may emphasize learning the design principles andart elements (structure of art). Some lessons may primarily teach studentsapproaches to style. Every lesson can end with some art world and/orreal world examples that review and build on the frame of reference providedby the lesson.
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vvvvv P lanof A ction vvvvv
T EACHING THE A RT L ESSON
Please note the sequence of these activities
Marvin Bartel - 1999, 2001
An ExampleLesson with all the parts is at this link .
- distributesupplies
- review
- introduce
- practice materialsand processes - subject ideas - composition - style - observation
- motivation
- main assignment
- timeon task
- impulsiveness
- selfdoubters
- howto help
- endings
- connections
- post script
- outline (briefsummary )
- who arethe learners?
- whyare you doing it?
1. ART SUPPLIES
Begin by having the class get settledwith as many working materials at their places as possible. Thisis done first to avoid the need for interruptions, commotion, and movingabout once they are concentrating on the tasks at hand.
Many teachers develop a routine where studentsare expected to pick up what is needed as they enter the room before theygo to their seats. Some teachers assign orderly tasks to certain studentsto bring supplies in order to limit mob movements. Some teachers withholda simple item in order to prevent students from starting beforethey have the motivation, focus, and instructions for the lesson.
2. OPENING WARM UP
At this point some teachers use a beginningritual or warm-up. It focuses attention and tunes in to art. A fewminutes of contour drawing could serve as a routine warm-up and providea chance to practice an art skill. Some teachers have a box in the centerof each work area with "Today's Objects" to practice drawing for the firstfew minutes as students settle down for class.
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A short review session is always appropriateat the beginning of the session. Ask students questions about the key conceptslearned in a recent lesson. See if they can recall recently studied conceptsand help them understand how the ideas and skills will help them with thislesson.
4. LESSON INTRODUCTION
Briefly introduce the goals and issuesof the lesson. Focus their thinking so that ideas have a chance toemerge during their preparation time. Wait to givethe detailed instructions until they are ready to work on the main lessonproject.
Avoid showingexamples from previous students or from other artists. The reasonsfor this see the list of Nine Classroom CreativityKillers . Numbers 1, 5, 8, and 9 speak directly to the reasonsexamples are not shown at the beginning of an art lesson. Art History examplesare shown near the end of the lesson .
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To quote a kindergarten child, "You can'tnever know how to do it before you ever did it before." Students need toknow how the materials and process work in order to be creative with theirinterpretations of the content and design of their work. If it is a newprocess, it is only fair to allow and expect them do a preliminary practicesession.
This part of the lesson might have sometime to "play around" with materials to see what emerges by accident.Limit the time for this. As soon as students cease to be involvedin a search, move to a structured activity. I may be useful at thistime to ask students to share their discoveries.
Example: Theclass is about to do a project where the medium will be transparent watercolorsover a crayon composition. Give each child five small pieces of paperand a total of two or three minutes in which to test out this combinationof materials allowing any sequence and any color combinations on severalsmall pieces of paper.
Present some carefully planned step-by-stepinstructions on the process. This is generally not a teacher demonstration,but hands-on participatory learning. Every student follows along usingart materials. This part of the lesson is probably not art, it isart skill or craft carefully presented by the teacher. The art immediatelyfollows when the students are in charge of their own ideas and work whiledoing the main part of the assignment.
Example: Theclass is about to work with B6 drawing pencils. These have soft graphitewhich allows for very bold dark black. Before using these pencilsfor drawing, have them make the following lines about five inches long.
If possible, do not doa demonstration for them to watch. Itsusually more effective to have them each actively do a small sample ofthe process themselves. Teacher demonstrations are only to be used if itwould be too dangerous or too complex to explain in a step-by-step waywhile they all do it. When a demonstration is the only way to introducea procedure, follow it immediately with preliminary skill practice beforerequiring art to be produced with this process.
5b. PREPARATION for t opicand s ubject m atterused
Nearly every art project includes subjectmatter. If the composition is to be nonobjective, you would skipto the next section, 5c. Preparation for compositional choices. Many teachersuse topic motivation related to student interests,experiences, and concerns. Consider student development. Younger childrenare more egocentric and respond to "I" and "My" topics while older elementarychildren are quite interested in group identity topics and activities.
Sometimes teachers feel that it is morecreative to allow students to have complete freedom to decide onany subject matter. This presents several problems . If theteachers says, "Do whatever you want for subject matter," most studentssimply do whatever was easy and successful in the past. This lassie faireapproach also implies that content is immaterial and unimportant.
Art lessons need to help students learnways to come up with meaningful and important content for their work. Howcan we expect ownership and motivation if the content is trivialized?
All art content comesfrom three sources: Observation, Memory , and/or Imagination .Lessons in observation are important for the student's skill formation.See this link fora list of helpful ways to help children learn observation skills .This Beginning Rituals page describes careful observation practice. This link discussesthe human need to give aestheticorder to our world.
Memory isrich if it comes from rich experience. We remember what we notice. Whena child is fascinated and absorbed in an experience, it will be a pleasureto remember and express it. Teachers and others can encourage curiosityand awareness. Teachers, parents, and others can make a point to ask manyawareness building questions before, during, and after field trips andsimilar activities. "Why do you think the giraffe has such a long neck?""What shape (color) are the spots?" "Are some a different shape?" Someon-site sketching can be done. In the class it can be developed into alarger drawing, painting, collage, diorama, and so on. Students shouldbe told in advance of the field trip that it will be the basis for artwork.This heightens awareness, attentiveness, and observations while on theouting.
Imagination gives us amazing power. It is what allows us to speculate about the future.It even allows us to imagine what others think of us and how our actionsmight effect others. It allows us to think of alternative ways to act.Art, creative writing, story telling, pretend play, drama, songs, etc.allow us to practice and develop our powers of imagination.
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Art lessons need to help students learnways to use the visualelements and principles of design to achieve the effects they wantto express in their work. Good design generally seeks unity, harmony, andgood integration of diverse visual effects. On the other hand, it needsstrong interest, emphasis, repetition, variation, motion, emotion, andexpressive content.
Consider special motivational activitiesto enrich their frame of reference for creative media work projects. Thesemight be sensory exercises to make them more aware of texture, tone, hue,size, depth, intensity or some other visual quality being learned.
Preliminary sketching and planning onseparate paper are an excellent way for students to prepare for the mainproject. For many lessons it is appropriate to require some preliminaryplanning. It is also a chance to help them learn about quality by helpingthem learn ways to discern their best ideas and the best ways to arrangetheir compositions.
5c. PREPARATION for stylisticapproaches
Art lessons can to help students learnways to understand and develop style in their work. This may seem difficultto do without showing examples of artists' work. However, there aremany examples of individual style in other areas of our students' livesthat they already understand. They know about style in music, inclothing, in dining, in hair, in handwriting, in cars, and so on.All these areas have are large categories as well as individual variations.We do not develop a personal style though copy work or even by mimickingsomebody else's style.
Most mature artists fall into one of fourlarge categories, but also have a very individual recognizable style withinthe larger category. Most art styles fall under realism (naturalism),expressionism, formalism (including minimalism), or surrealism (fantastic).
Students often experiment with severalstyles. Ideally, we want students who can experimentally developoriginal styles rather than students that mimic or copy established styles.Since it may take years and many works before an artist can be expectedto have a mature distinctive style, students are encouraged to experimentwith style, looking for effective ways to achieve results. In thefollowing experiments, every student is likely to see individual styleemerge.
Preliminary experimentsdirected to style might include:
- Listening to short sections of several verydifferent styles of music. Students can do 30 second mark makingsessions in response to contrasting music sounds and rhythms.
- Using a dark marker, each student signs theirname across the paper. Compare them.
- Making a series of descriptive lines acrossthe paper such as, "calm and nervous" "waltzing and . . . . " "runningand swimming".
- Filling textures into pre drawn boxes.Do not allow images or subjects. Have the textures represent noisesthat can not be identified so that each student will have to listen tothe texture of the noise.
Periodically,during these experiments, the teacher points out that every person is findinga unique way of doing this. Every person eventually, with lots ofexperimentation and practice, develops their own "aesthetic stance" andtheir own "signature style". Great artists are not great becausethe learned how to copy or mimic another style. They are great becauseof what they contributed that was unique while still making a connectionto their audiences.
5d. PREPARATION for observation
RecentlyI was teaching this first grade girl who wanted to make a drawing of ateapot she had selected in my studio. |  |
- I said, "WhenI draw something new, I like to sit and look at all the shapes and linesbefore I start. When I look at this part (pointing to the top) ofthe handle, I notice that the top here is more round, when I look at thispart down here I notice that it is almost like a straight line. Ialso like to look at how big the different parts are, and compare the sizeof the handle and the spout, or the size of the handle and the belly ofthe pot."
I know that childrenfail to learn because the are afraid to fail. I talked about all the mistakesI make when I draw something. I said, "Usually,I draw a line, but after I draw it, I can notice that it should have beena little different shape or a little different size, but I don't eraseright away. I just leave it and I try another line. When Iam finished, I might go back and erase some mistakes. My mistakesare good because I learn to see better from them - they are my practicelines. Whenever we try a new thing we expect to make some mistakes,but with practice we get better at it."
She was noticablypleased with her own achievement. In this one drawing of the teapotshe moved from the "schematic" stage of geometric simplification to the"dawning realism" stage in her drawing. She now has a basic foundationfor learning to observe. She can now draw anything she wants to (withsimilar observation and practice). With this kind of practice, shecan be spared the crisis of confidence that many third grade children experience.
The problem withmany drawing instruction books is that they prescribe shortcuts and formulasthat give success without any real observation. They destroy themotivation to actually learn. See thislink for more observation drawing ideas. Thislink tells more about observation practice.
6. DEFINE and Begin THE MAINPROJECT
This is the time to give the detailed explanationof the assignment. Be sure instructions are understood, and they feel comfortableabout your expectations. Empower them to create. Define limits to encourageproblem solving, but allow individual ownership of ideas and work. Explainthe main points that you plan to evaluate. This linkhas a rubric for grading artwork. Some teachers make a poster withtheir assessment points. Some use a handout.
Be especially sensitive to questions asthey first start to work. If there are more than one or two questions,stop and clarify things for the whole class. If there are slow starters,make sure they understand, but allow time to think, to experiment, to plan,and time to look at more than one option.
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While they are working, stay tuned tothe class and be thinking of ways to keep them on task. Art teachers sensewhen a class is getting off track. Students begin to discuss their sociallives and other topics that have nothing to do with the problem at hand.
A series of focused but open questionscan bring the students back on task. Good open questions bring richnessand content into their work. "Does the dog have a special smell? What isthe part of the dog that is the darkest? ... the lightest? How much largerdoes the dog's body seem than the dog's head?" Questions help passive knowledgebecomes active knowledge and gets it included in the artwork. Openquestions (those with many possible answers) stimulate the imagination.
If they are working directly from observationof the subject (the dog is in the room), they will be encouraged to makebetter observations if the teacher goes over to the dog and asks aboutspecific aspects of the subject. Ask, "How does height and lengthcompare?" while placing hands near the subject to show height and width.Focused but open questions generally result in much richer student work.They surprise themselves with how well they can do. This works with anindividual or with the whole group. If several students are flounderingat once, it may be more efficient to call the whole class to attentionand take time to refocus.
What questions might have been asked relatedto the tennis picture shown at the top of this page?
7a. IMPULSIVE QUICK WORKERS
Some students are impulsive and rush tofinish without giving enough attention to important aspects of the work.You should encourage them to develop more complex products. "Thispart looks really interesting. I wonder what could do to make this otherpart as interesting." "Here's some empty space. What could you put hereto balance it out?" A teacher can help these students become morethoughtful and deliberate by raising issues to think about in their work.Eventually, the student's habits will improve if the teacher is consistent.
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7b. DELIBERATE AND SELF-DOUBTINGSTUDENTS
Other students are handicapped by beingvery slow and deliberate. They may be perfectionists because they are afraidto make a mistake. Reassure them. They need confidence to experiment withexpressive approaches. They need to appreciate the learning that comesfrom mistakes and to see how "happy accidents" happen. Sour lemons makegreat lemonade with the right additions. Empower them by building theirconfidence. Don't encourage these students to start over unless they havea better idea they are anxious to try.
Do not be temptedto tell them that quality doesn't matter and don't say, "I'm not an artisteither." Say, "I often make mistakes when I am learning a new thing, butI like my mistakes because they help me learn my pointing out what I needto practice more. Often I don't erase my mistakes until I finsihso that I can learn from them. When I finish I even leave some mistakesbecause they add motion or extra excitement and magic to the work.Sometimes my mistakes are the best part. Sometimes they give me anidea for something better to try." E ncourage them by pointingout that some things are only learned by practice and the more we practicethe better it will get.
Find the best part of what they have doneand tell them what parts of their work are best and explain why you thinkso. Don't use praise that is empty or general, but praise together withspecific information so they can learn from it.
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8. PRECAUTIONS and HOW TO HELP WHENIT IS TOO HARD
Never do any of the work for the students.Do not draw on their papers. There are other ways to help withouttaking away ownership and empowerment . Goodteaching is making the hard stuff easier and making the easy stuffharder , but a good teacher never does the work and never solves theproblem for the student. If you must draw to illustrate a point, do iton your own paper - never on theirs.
If they are having trouble drawing or modelingfrom observation, go over to the thing being observed and ask in detailwhat they see. If more is needed explain in detail what you see.If they are working from imagination or memory, use detailed questionsto help them remember and value their own past experiences.
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When a student is afraid to try something, givethem extra paper on which to make several experiments or to practiceon. Artists frequently do experiments, practice, and research before theyfeel ready to try it in their actual work. Of course artists work accordingto many different styles and strategies and some of them want all the expressivenessof mistakes and false starts to remain as evidence of the creative process.For an abstract expressionist (action painter) much of the meaning andfeeling of the work would be lost if they pre planned or practiced it,but for most art styles it is common to practice or make sketches aheadof the actual work.
9. MEANINGFUL ENDINGS - making c riticism p leasant
Discus the finished work as a way to affirmstudent efforts and review the concepts learned. Be fair and inclusive. Everybody can answer the question, "Whatdo you notice first?" , but not everybodycan explain the reasons they notice something it first in a composition.Have them practice the analysis and interpretation of work. Requirecomments that speculate about why we notice something first. Helpthem learn to analyze the effects of color, size, brightness, uniqueness,subject matter, and so on.
Never allow judgmental comments like, "Idon't see why anybody would use that color for . . . " When commentingon a perceived weakness allow only neutral questions so the student artistmay be asked to explain rather than defend a choice. "What effectdid you want when you used this color?" Frame the questions in non-judgmentalterms. Use questions to raise awareness, not to declare mistakes.
Don't only discuss works you happen tolike, but allow time to include each work. Emphasize the positive and usequestions to get discussion going. Take advantage of learning opportunities.Some situations may work better if this is done in smaller groups as.This might begin when the first four to six students complete a project.Each time another four to six students finish, another discussion groupis formed. Written forms can also be used at times.
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10. CLOSING CONNECTIONS
Finally, relate the lesson to some significantwork from the world of art and/or help themmake connections between this project and the real world.
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Your planning strategy can start by thinkingabout the closing portion of the lesson. What creative activities willbest build a frame of reference for this experience? What do you want studentsto take with them from the experience? Just as a beginning ritual can helpfocus and center the class's attention, an ending ritual gives meaningand relevance which is so vital to learning. This link is a beginningritual that includes an ending connectionfrom art history .
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You may be thinking, "This is too muchto do in one art lesson." An ExampleLesson with all the parts is at this link .
When students are meaningfully engagedin learning, it is not time wasted. Because art is experiential learning,and because they are doing things about themselves, children often havea much longer attention span for art lessons than for other studies. Ifso, use the art lesson as a way to develop their attention span capacities.Too often art has been a waste of time because it was only taught as an"activity for the hands" resulting in products for decoration at best,but without learning about art as a discipline and without ownership ofthe ideas by those who made it.
If possible, budget time to teach the wholelesson. Many teachers successfully continue one lesson over several sessions.Think of it as a unit if that helps. This is a much better optionthan leaving out the meaningful parts. You can repeat the opening ritualsto start each session, and include a short review before each session.
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Follow the above guidelines is DBAE (disciplinebased art education). DBAE includes the four disciplines of art production,aesthetics, art criticism, and art history. Additionally, these methodswill foster creativity and can be used to foster awareness of artwork fromother cultures and from both genders.
Be sure to do the activities and projectsyourself before you teach the lesson. Make a list of the materials as youuse them. It is best way to be sure you have planned for everything.
What I Learned from planning and teaching this lesson:
Teaching is practice. Every experienceis a chance get better. Make notes of successes and shortcomings. As inany skill, we seek to make the best of our strengths and try to remedyour weaknesses.
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2. Make yourself notes to repeat the best parts of the lesson nexttime you teach it.
3. Make a list of ideas to try to improve any part of the lessonor experience that seemed less than ideal. It is often helpful to discussthese issues with other teachers with similar experiences.
Outline
(the short version)
- distribute supplies (avoid disruptions later)
- review and introduce today's work
- practice whatever may be new before they areasked to be creative with it
- present main assignment, motivate
- student time on task
- endings and connections (discuss related arthistory and art in their lives)
Artand National Tragedy CreativityKillers CreativityLinks CreativeTeaching CollageLesson DrawingLesson EverydayLife Art Choices Goodand Bad Art Teaching Learningto Learn to Draw LessonPlanning MotivatingNon Drawers MulticulturalArt Observingin the Art Room Ritualsin the Art Classroom Rubric- Assessing Artwork Rubric- Assessing Art Talk SixthGrade Sketches SketchbookEvaluation Sourcesof Inspiration SuccessfulThird Grade Syllabus- Art for Children Syllabus- Secondary Sch Art Bartelart.com
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Notice: © 1999, 2001, Marvin Bartel, instructor. Goshen College students mayprint out a copy for personal use. Others who wish to copy or publish anypart of this electronically or otherwise must get permission to do so.E-mail: marvinpb@goshen.edu Updated November 2001 |
