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P LANNING A RT L ESSONS |
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P LANNING A RT L ESSONS |
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These
are suggestions for the Goshen College lesson planning sheet when planning
an art lesson
A Word About Sequence and Content: While planning lessons and field teaching in this course (Art 309 or Art 311), students may use other methods if they have them approved by the instructor before field teaching. Alternatives that are as apt to foster creativity and teach art well will be encouraged. However, to do the same things in a different sequence could reflect an entirely different philosophy of creativity and how it is fostered. The order in which things are done tells a lot about the teacher's philosophy of education. 
Table of Content Targets on this page - click to jump
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original is 3.25 x 5.25 inches by David, age 9 felt tip pen on newsprint
Drawn from
memory
of actual experience. A road next to the park
is represented at the top. Note the tree next to the tennis court is represented
as a negative shape against grass in the background.
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What do you know about the
students
that will influence your planning?
Art skills are things like: observational drawing, ability to make clay do what you want it to, ability to make tools and materials do what you 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 are learned by practicing. 2. Their art world awareness: What artist's work can you refer to and expect students to know what you are talking about? What historical examples are familiar? What examples from other cultures are familiar to your students? 3. Art knowledge/vocabulary:What new art terms will students need to learn, and which do they already know? What design principles do they know or need to learn? How good are they at analyzing the way art effects viewers? 4. Attitude: How much enthusiasm do students show for learning new skills, for routine skill practice, for new concepts, for other artist's work and ideas? 5. Art developmental level:Do the students make typical pictures, sculptures, and so on for their age? How many are more advanced and how many are less advanced than expected for their age?
1. ART SUPPLIES Begin by having the class get settled with as many working materials at their places as possible. This is done first to avoid the need for interruptions, commotion, and moving about once they are concentrating on the tasks at hand.
Many teachers develop a routine where students
are expected to pick up what is needed as they enter the room before they
go to their seats. Some teachers assign orderly tasks to certain students
to bring supplies in order to limit mob movements. Some teachers
withhold
a simple item
in order to prevent students from starting before
they have the motivation, focus, and instructions for the lesson.
2. OPENING
WARM UP
A short review session is always appropriate at the beginning of the session. Ask students questions about the key concepts learned in a recent lesson. See if they can recall recently studied concepts and help them understand how the ideas and skills will help them with this lesson.
4. LESSON INTRODUCTION
Avoid showing examples from previous students or from other artists. The reasons for this see the list of Nine Classroom Creativity Killers . Numbers 1, 5, 8, and 9 speak directly to the reasons examples are not shown at the beginning of an art lesson. Art History examples are shown near the end of the lesson . 5a. PREPARATION for m aterials usedTo quote a kindergarten child, "You can't never know how to do it before you ever did it before." Students need to know how the materials and process work in order to be creative with their interpretations of the content and design of their work. If it is a new process, it is only fair to allow and expect them do a preliminary practice session. This part of the lesson might have some time to "play around" with materials to see what emerges by accident. Limit the time for this. As soon as students cease to be involved in a search, move to a structured activity. I may be useful at this time to ask students to share their discoveries. Example: The class is about to do a project where the medium will be transparent watercolors over a crayon composition. Give each child five small pieces of paper and a total of two or three minutes in which to test out this combination of materials allowing any sequence and any color combinations on several small pieces of paper. Present some carefully planned step-by-step instructions on the process. This is generally not a teacher demonstration, but hands-on participatory learning. Every student follows along using art materials. This part of the lesson is probably not art, it is art skill or craft carefully presented by the teacher. The art immediately follows when the students are in charge of their own ideas and work while doing the main part of the assignment. Example: The class is about to work with B6 drawing pencils. These have soft graphite which allows for very bold dark black. Before using these pencils for drawing, have them make the following lines about five inches long.
Sometimes teachers feel that it is more creative to allow students to have complete freedom to decide on any subject matter. This presents several problems . If the teachers says, "Do whatever you want for subject matter," most students simply do whatever was easy and successful in the past. This lassie faire approach also implies that content is immaterial and unimportant. Art lessons need to help students learn ways to come up with meaningful and important content for their work. How can we expect ownership and motivation if the content is trivialized? All art content comes from three sources: Observation, Memory , and/or Imagination . Lessons in observation are important for the student's skill formation. See this link for a list of helpful ways to help children learn observation skills . This Beginning Rituals page describes careful observation practice. This link discusses the human need to give aesthetic order to our world. Memory is rich if it comes from rich experience. We remember what we notice. When a child is fascinated and absorbed in an experience, it will be a pleasure to remember and express it. Teachers and others can encourage curiosity and awareness. Teachers, parents, and others can make a point to ask many awareness building questions before, during, and after field trips and similar activities. "Why do you think the giraffe has such a long neck?" "What shape (color) are the spots?" "Are some a different shape?" Some on-site sketching can be done. In the class it can be developed into a larger drawing, painting, collage, diorama, and so on. Students should be told in advance of the field trip that it will be the basis for artwork. This heightens awareness, attentiveness, and observations while on the outing.
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 actions
might 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.
Art lessons need to help students learn ways to use the visual elements and principles of design to achieve the effects they want to express in their work. Good design generally seeks unity, harmony, and good integration of diverse visual effects. On the other hand, it needs strong interest, emphasis, repetition, variation, motion, emotion, and expressive content.
Consider special motivational activities
to enrich their frame of reference for creative media work projects. These
might be sensory exercises to make them more aware of texture, tone, hue,
size, depth, intensity or some other visual quality being learned.
5c. PREPARATION for stylistic
approaches
Most mature artists fall into one of four large categories, but also have a very individual recognizable style within the larger category. Most art styles fall under realism (naturalism), expressionism, formalism (including minimalism), or surrealism (fantastic). Students often experiment with several styles. Ideally, we want students who can experimentally develop original styles rather than students that mimic or copy established styles. Since it may take years and many works before an artist can be expected to have a mature distinctive style, students are encouraged to experiment with style, looking for effective ways to achieve results. In the following experiments, every student is likely to see individual style emerge. Preliminary experiments directed to style might include:
5d. PREPARATION for observation
I know that children fail to learn because the are afraid to fail. I talked about all the mistakes I make when I draw something. I said, "Usually, I draw a line, but after I draw it, I can notice that it should have been a little different shape or a little different size, but I don't erase right away. I just leave it and I try another line. When I am finished, I might go back and erase some mistakes. My mistakes are good because I learn to see better from them - they are my practice lines. Whenever we try a new thing we expect to make some mistakes, but with practice we get better at it." She was noticably pleased with her own achievement. In this one drawing of the teapot she moved from the "schematic" stage of geometric simplification to the "dawning realism" stage in her drawing. She now has a basic foundation for learning to observe. She can now draw anything she wants to (with similar observation and practice). With this kind of practice, she can be spared the crisis of confidence that many third grade children experience. The problem with many drawing instruction books is that they prescribe shortcuts and formulas that give success without any real observation. They destroy the motivation to actually learn. See this link for more observation drawing ideas. This link tells more about observation practice. 6. DEFINE and Begin THE MAIN PROJECT This is the time to give the detailed explanation of the assignment. Be sure instructions are understood, and they feel comfortable about your expectations. Empower them to create. Define limits to encourage problem solving, but allow individual ownership of ideas and work. Explain the main points that you plan to evaluate. This link has a rubric for grading artwork. Some teachers make a poster with their assessment points. Some use a handout.
Be especially sensitive to questions as
they 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.
While they are working, stay tuned to the class and be thinking of ways to keep them on task. Art teachers sense when a class is getting off track. Students begin to discuss their social lives and other topics that have nothing to do with the problem at hand. A series of focused but open questions can bring the students back on task. Good open questions bring richness and content into their work. "Does the dog have a special smell? What is the part of the dog that is the darkest? ... the lightest? How much larger does the dog's body seem than the dog's head?" Questions help passive knowledge becomes active knowledge and gets it included in the artwork. Open questions (those with many possible answers) stimulate the imagination. If they are working directly from observation of the subject (the dog is in the room), they will be encouraged to make better observations if the teacher goes over to the dog and asks about specific aspects of the subject. Ask, "How does height and length compare?" 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 an individual or with the whole group. If several students are floundering at once, it may be more efficient to call the whole class to attention and take time to refocus. What questions might have been asked related to the tennis picture shown at the top of this page?
7a.
IMPULSIVE QUICK WORKERS
7b. DELIBERATE AND
SELF-DOUBTING
STUDENTS
Do not be tempted to tell them that quality doesn't matter and don't say, "I'm not an artist either." Say, "I often make mistakes when I am learning a new thing, but I like my mistakes because they help me learn my pointing out what I need to practice more. Often I don't erase my mistakes until I finsih so that I can learn from them. When I finish I even leave some mistakes because they add motion or extra excitement and magic to the work. Sometimes my mistakes are the best part. Sometimes they give me an idea for something better to try." E ncourage them by pointing out that some things are only learned by practice and the more we practice the better it will get. Find the best part of what they have done and tell them what parts of their work are best and explain why you think so. Don't use praise that is empty or general, but praise together with specific information so they can learn from it. A serious mishap can justify a start over. Deliberate and self-doubting perfectionists may particularly benefit from assignments that begin with "intentional accidents" which are changed into artwork by the individual's creative efforts.
8. PRECAUTIONS and HOW TO HELP
WHEN
IT IS TOO HARD
If they are having trouble drawing or modeling from observation, go over to the thing being observed and ask in detail what they see. If more is needed explain in detail what you see. If they are working from imagination or memory, use detailed questions to help them remember and value their own past experiences. Avoid assignments for which they have no reasonable frame of reference. Amish children should not have to make art about TV characters. As you listen to student conversations, learn their real interests. Base topics on their interests, experiences, and what can be observed in or near the classroom. Click here to review list making and other ways to generate ideas.When a student is afraid to try something, give them extra paper on which to make several experiments or to practice on. Artists frequently do experiments, practice, and research before they feel ready to try it in their actual work. Of course artists work according to many different styles and strategies and some of them want all the expressiveness of mistakes and false starts to remain as evidence of the creative process. For an abstract expressionist (action painter) much of the meaning and feeling 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 ahead of the actual work.
9. MEANINGFUL
ENDINGS -
making
c
riticism
p
leasant
Never allow judgmental comments like, "I don't see why anybody would use that color for . . . " When commenting on a perceived weakness allow only neutral questions so the student artist may be asked to explain rather than defend a choice. "What effect did you want when you used this color?" Frame the questions in non-judgmental terms. Use questions to raise awareness, not to declare mistakes. Don't only discuss works you happen to like, but allow time to include each work. Emphasize the positive and use questions 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 group is formed. Written forms can also be used at times. Teach the students how to question, how to describe, how to analyze, and encourage them to speculate about possible meanings (interpretations) and feelings in each other's work. Help them learn to be careful viewers and critics with respect for each other's work, ideas and feelings.
10.
CLOSING CONNECTIONS
Your planning strategy can start by thinking about the closing portion of the lesson. What creative activities will best build a frame of reference for this experience? What do you want students to take with them from the experience? Just as a beginning ritual can help focus and center the class's attention, an ending ritual gives meaning and relevance which is so vital to learning. This link is a beginning ritual that includes an ending connection from art history . You may be thinking, "This is too much to do in one art lesson." An Example Lesson with all the parts is at this link . When students are meaningfully engaged in learning, it is not time wasted. Because art is experiential learning, and because they are doing things about themselves, children often have a much longer attention span for art lessons than for other studies. If so, 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 of the ideas by those who made it. If possible, budget time to teach the whole lesson. Many teachers successfully continue one lesson over several sessions. Think of it as a unit if that helps. This is a much better option than leaving out the meaningful parts. You can repeat the opening rituals to start each session, and include a short review before each session. If overall time is a real problem, consider scheduling the lessons less often rather than leaving out meaningful learning opportunities. The length of time we spend on each subject doesn't always make sense. It may simply be a result of tradition rather than meaningful research. In Japan, children spend about 3 hours per week learning art in the first three grades. Learning to observe carefully and in order to draw, seems to be educationally important because the skills developed helps with other learning. Drawing is a great workout for the brain.. Of course drawing, like writing, is a useful communication skill in its own right. Writing to read is effective and drawing to see is similarly important. Some of the Japanese children's lessons also deal with imagination and fantasy. Some projects are three-dimensional as well. Could it be that all this time with art lessons helps them developmentally become more efficient visual thinkers and better learners in other areas, thus saving time in the end?Follow the above guidelines is DBAE (discipline based art education). DBAE includes the four disciplines of art production, aesthetics, art criticism, and art history. Additionally, these methods will foster creativity and can be used to foster awareness of artwork from other cultures and from both genders. Be sure to do the activities and projects yourself before you teach the lesson. Make a list of the materials as you use 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 experience is a chance get better. Make notes of successes and shortcomings. As in any skill, we seek to make the best of our strengths and try to remedy our weaknesses. Next Steps -- where do I go from here:2. Make yourself notes to repeat the best parts of the lesson next time you teach it. 3. Make a list of ideas to try to improve any part of the lesson or experience that seemed less than ideal. It is often helpful to discuss these issues with other teachers with similar experiences.
Outline (the short version)
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