Age Appropriateness

Hola!
This week we have to design or find an art lesson for a given age group and say why it's appropriate for that age group.

I found a lesson plan about Henry Rousseau and 'stained glass' windows. I tweaked it to meet the standards for the Utah State Core. This lesson plan is age appropriate because it matches up with the standards and objectives of the state core. It also uses the affective, cognitive and psychomotor skills developed at that age. They should be able to know how to use the oil pastels and the gel glue without making too much of a mess. I focused my lesson plan towards 4th graders. According to our textbook (p 210), 3rd-4th graders will typically:

• Create space and depth by employing vertical placement, diminishing size, and overlapping shapes
• Draw and compose with more conscious, deliberate planning and show more naturalistic/realistic proportions
• Mix and experiment with an expanded range of colors, including tints and shades
• Select and arrange objects to satisfy their compositional needs

All of these fit in well with my 4th grade lesson plan.
If you want a copy, just email me and I'll send it to you. I was going to have a link or something on my blog, but I'm not sure how to make it work. :S sorry

Art or Craft?

What is art? What are crafts? Are they the same or different? How do you distinguish between the two? Which is better to teach with an elementary art curriculum? Why or why not?

As you may have guessed, our reflection is based off of the difference between arts and crafts since it is often confused by outside onlookers as the same thing. You'd probably hear comments such as: 'Why does art matter? Don't you guys just make mother's day gifts?' or 'Don't you just create tangible items in art? Like your pile of popsicle sticks, yarn and glue.'
Art is different than Crafts. At dictionary.com, I looked up art and craft. It said that art was defined as: Art (n) the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. At the same place, craft was defined as: Crafts (as in arts & craft) (n) the handcrafting and decoration of esp. utilitarian objects. Art uses the principles and elements of design to create, where as crafts are more of creating decorations using tangible objects. In one article I found on suite101.com, a woman describes her theory in the difference between art and crafts: "Here's my theory: A craft is usually a cookie-cutter or close-ended activity. The craft activity is based on a formula or recipe and all participants follow the same directions and end up with roughly the same result every time. For example, creating a god's eye from two sticks and colored yarn is a great craft example. Yes, it involves creating something, but the end product is most always the same and there's not a lot of room for variation. While it may be possible to create a work of art in the cookie cutter style of a god’s eye, 99.9% of the time, the god’s eye will be a pleasing, colorful design, nothing more. This makes the god's eye project a craft.

An art activity is more open-ended, meaning the end product is not always going to be the same. So for example, in a drawing project all students may start with the same materials of paper and pencils and maybe they are asked to create drawings that represent their family. The results of this project will create many different drawings and therefore many different solutions to the same problem."

As teachers, we're going to experience a lot of both aspects, art and crafts, in our classrooms. Especially around holidays and vacation time. I know that a lot of people are going to observe everything we do in both categories as the same thing from an outside view. They aren't going to understand the differences between them. In my opinion, as an artist myself, I feel that it is more important to teach art over crafts. Art has more structure (terms and criteria-wise) than crafts. Crafts are fun and should still be included in the classroom. But I think it's better to teach students (any age curriculum) about the elements and principles of design in relation to their artwork. Help them to see what makes their art, art. Can art and crafts cross? OF COURSE. But they are in fact different categories that should be taught as such.
Think about it. IF we teach that they are the same thing, how're they going to understand the art world later on in life? How're they going to know how to creatively think of solutions to problems? Or understand how/why form, line and color work together to produce something intrinsically beautiful and fascinating? In a book (Art, mind, and brain: a cognitive approach to creativity)by Howard Gardner, I read an excerpt that helps to bring across my point. He says: "In most areas of development, the formula is simple: Youngsters get better, more skilled, more sophisticated with age." (think of why it's better for youngsters to learn a different language when they are small vs when they're high school/college age) "...In some ways, young children are especially intimate with the arts, and the story of artistic development is replete with declines, zigs and zags, rather than following an upward progression. It is crucial to understand what is distinctive about artistic development and to consider its unusual trajectory may have implications for development writ large." Artistic development at a young age opens up neurological parts of the brain that decrease gray matter. Through the arts with observation and creativity, students learn to problem solve and think out of the box, they're able to grasp concepts a lot easier than with out the arts in their lives.
With this in mind, how're you to ever cognitively open children's minds with crafts (not much structure) only when it's more effective to teach the arts (lots of structure and concepts)?

Picture Posting Updates

I haven't been posting my pictures of our art assignments for awhile. So... Here's an update. :)

We had to look at shapes and real life "insects" and then create our own.
We then had to use create a print using cut-out shapes of cardstock. The top is our crayon-rubbing print. And the bottom is our ink print

With this next one, we created another ink print using styroam sheets. We talked about line and how it can imply texture. My print was inspired by my neighbors downstairs. They are all boys, all from Tremonton area, all athletic, all into football and quite a few of them longboard. We also discussed visual culture. Considering I see my neighbors (both apts) quite a bit throughout each week, I decided to recreate them as my visual culture. :)

This next one we had to paint what food we tasted with watercolor. As well as use different watercolor techniques that she showed us. I learned that it's kind of hard to paint the taste without painting the color of the object or it's packaging. We associate color with so many things around us, it's hard to distinguish said objects with out the colors and symbols that come with it.

Lastly, we created a color wheel poster for our future classroom. Each color wheel had to have primary, secondary & tertiary colors, a distinguish between warm & cool colors, and show complimentary pairs. I did my poster so it would look nice and use the space efficiently. I decided to label my primary colors too. Plus I think the poster shows part of my personality.

There are probably going to be more art postings along the way. :)

Motivation!

This week's reflection is about motivation--something I know I can talk about.

What motivates you as a learner? What do you think will motivate your future students?
For myself, I learn best when I have an interest in it. That goes for younsters too. If there's no interest, they're going to get bored and tune out (much like college students today when teachers drag their lectures on and on and on....). When I was younger, I remember my dad trying to teach my older brother countless times about the mechanics and necessary actions required for car care. My brother had no interest in it growing up. Now-a-days, he does cause he's married and sees how important it is. But he's still not very car smart. I'm sure if he would've paid attention or had interest in mechanics, he probably wouldn't have so many car problems. Influential educators of the past, such as William James and John Dewey, regarded interest as central to educational theory and practice. They examined and studied the psychology of education throughout their lives in the early 19th century. (http://www.aare.edu.au/99pap/pre99584.htm) Dewey said, "It is not enough to catch attention; it must be held". As teachers it's our job to focus on our students and meet their interests. Get to know them. Find out what they like and don't like. Use their interests as an advantage to teaching. We're all curious and social creatures, so it'd be a good idea to have creative, interesting lessons that will spark their interest.
And if what I'm learning matches up well with how I learn, which is mainly visually, I do better at absorbing the content. Experts say that there are several different kinds of learning, but the main 3 are: auditory (listening), visual (observing) and kinesthetic (doing). I think this is important when dealing with our students. Not every student is going to learn the same. Some will learn best through our lectures. Others will have to try it out themselves to learn it. I think it's best that we teach our lessons in such a way that they meet the needs in all three ways of learning. No one way of learning is better than another, either.
Now sometimes, we may not be able to find their interests or figure out their learning style. It'll happen, it's a part of life. In that case, we might have to think of other ideas to motivate our students. This website as several ideas of how to motivate students in your classroom: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/motivate.htm

Artist Statement

This week we played with food. Fun! right?

But also, we have a reflection as well.
Reflection: How to teach artist statements.
As educators, what's the best way to teach students the fundamentals of art in the simplest way possible? What's a good way to show them what an artist statement is and how it works with their artwork?

To start out, we need to tell our students what an artist statement is and how it is a valuable piece of our artwork. In my own words, an artist statement is a paragraph describing their art pieces and why they created it the way they did as well as how they created it. Ariane Goodwin said, "A good statement allows people who love your work to find out more about you, offers your audience more ways to connect with you, and increases their appreciation and perceived value of your work. Equally important, an artist statement gives you the opportunity to see what you do through the eyes of language, to validate your creations from a new perspective." You may have the sculpture or canvas in front of you, but without the artist statement, how can you really get to know the artist and their work?
I would try to explain to my class exactly what Ariane Goodwin portrayed, but on a simpler note (because of age and grade). They need to know what it is and how it applies to them with the class. I would also ask them questions about their work to help them form their artist statements. And then have them work on them on their own.
Another way to teach them is through a webquest like this http://www.suite101.com/content/scripting-an-artists-statement-a108847. A webquest is an online lesson/activity for your students. They can interact with peers, do projects, do assessments and online research as part of the lesson.
You could also use Art History as an example when teaching your class about them.
Artist Statements help explain the artwork and it's expression better than the just looking at the piece itself. It can explain how you created it, why you created it and the artist views about the meaning of the piece. In chapter 18 of our textbook, it talks about teaching art history to your students. If students know the era of art, it can help explain why the artist did what they did as well as explain different art aesthetics. This could be useful for teaching artist statements to your class. Although we may not particularly know what art era we are in today (I think it's contemporary, but I'm not sure), we can help our students to understand how to take their own culture and experiences using art history as an example. That way their artist statements have meaning with the depth of creation and context instead of being vague in explaining their art.
Sometimes, it's hard to think of what to write to describe your work. Which is why it would be a good idea to break it down simply for your students as you would break sentences down to understand it's different parts.

More Postings...

I forgot to post our contour still lives, so here they are. :) Sorry that they are so dark and that you can see my shadow. I don't have a scanner so I had to take a picture of them.

Simple Things
I tried to convey simplicity through using simple objects from my room on the cream carpet of my living room.

Neighbor's Couch
I was studying at my friend's place and I just liked the form of lines from this view

Bathroom Joy
I walked into my bathroom and really like the organic shapes as they fit with the hard straight lines of the counter and mirror. Again, it's aesthetic pleasure in the simplicity of contour line. Have you ever notice how many fluid lines are in a faucet? Try drawing one and see for yourself.