Bamboo and "Chinese" Writing

In class, we learned techniques to paint bamboo on rice paper. I like how mine turned out once I got the hang of it- but I had a couple that were disastrous- mainly because there was a shortage of black paint. But it was fun to learn different ways to handle a paintbrush, and even more fun, I think to design the Chinese- like writing out of English letters. It took me a long time arrange 7 letters then decide on which one I liked best, but it was worth it- I really like it! I would definitely use this in a classroom.

Let's Assess the Situation

Art teacher Linda Carson stated "Grading art isn't subjective, it's qualitative. Instead of tallying the number of answers you get right, an art teacher assesses the qualities of the work, such as your choice of subject, handling of media, and control of the composition. That means, incidentally, that it's harder to grade art than a spelling test, an arithmetic quiz, or a multiple choice history exam. In general, it's hard to grade any assignment where the answers don't fit neatly on a computer card."

I completely agree. A teacher has to know his stuff to slap a grade on something a student's put her heart and soul into. In thinking about being an art teacher, I'm actually terrified of grading students. Grades were super important to me and stressed me out. I want art class to be something that's not stressful for my students, but that's hard to do while still maintaining high-quality expectations. This is what I had in mind when I thought of my formative and summative evaluation strategies-

Formative:
I think it's very important to be encouraging throughout the formative process, guiding a student through their piece not in a constrictive way, but with open suggestions and an attitude of helpfulness. This way you can make sure they're going in the right direction and fulfilling the assignment requirements. Ask questions about the art to steer them in a good direction, and also be very accessable so they can ask you, the teacher questions.

Give adequate time for them to complete the project. It's important to be lenient when it comes to art. I'd have them turn it in, but they can always keep working on it if they want a higher grade. I'd give final grades after viewing their entire portfolios.

Have a healthy mix of exercises and projects. You may not want to hang up a color wheel, but it's important to know that kids understand colors, and a color wheel's the best way to do that.

Finally, it's the teachers job to keep the class under control. My last formative strategy is to remove distractions, and pay attention to the effort the students are putting in. You can usually tell when someone is trying hard and when they're goofing off, and it almost always reflects in their craftsmanship.

Summative:

At the beginning of the year, I'd ask the students to do a picture of whatever they wanted with no instruction, just to show me what they can do, then I know what level their starting out on. What a great summation technique to have a visual comparison of how they improved when they compare that to their final pieces.

I find it really hard and time consuming to self analyze, but it's still helpful. I think they should tell me what grade they deserve and why before I determine their final grade.

I'd use a rubric for parents' sakes and probably write a note too. See http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/rubric3.html - it had some great criteria.

Rather than having them take assessments I would have them keep a sketchbook. I'd give them a little bit of time in class, but they could always make it up by doing a sketch at home. At the end, they'd turn in their sketches. I think this is a vital way to tell if a student is learning how to perceive shapes and growing as an artist.

In the book, it mentioned a summative evaluation method that I actually saw my teacher use. "From the following list of what we did in art this year, mark those activities that you really liked, or from which you learned a lot. Write if there was anything about the activity that made it especially good." I think this would help SO much in choosing what things to keep in the curriculum.

I gave a few more than 6, but I find all these practices important. It's hard to grade art, and it was brought up in class- what if a student produces a beautiful piece that doesn't follow the instructions? I think, if you're doing your job as a teacher, it wouldn't even come to that. If students are working closely with an art mentor, it's unlikely that they would go in the completely wrong direction. However, if it came to that, I think you should doc a good chunk of points. There of course should be some given for artistic merit, craftsmanship, creativity, etc, but until they turn in a piece fitting the criteria, full points should not be given.

In short, if students have everything turned in, make good use of class time, and you can tell puts effort into their work, they deserve high marks.


http://lindateachesart.typepad.com/linda_teaches_art/2008/09/how-to-you-grade-art-assignments.html
Text
http://www.suite101.com/content/teacher-strategies-for-improving-instruction-a202797
www.goshen.edu/art/ed/rubric3.html

Line upon line

Here are some lovely still life contour line drawings made with a view finder. I threw in one I did of my apartment last year cause it's my favorite contour line drawing- and it's actually because of the only part that's not just a line! I love the soup can. It's on a really clear emphasis and I just love the juxtaposition of all the lines, then a super detailed can of soup, which is somewhat iconic because of Andy Warhol.
It's fun to be in 3-D design because I'm beginning to see how strong lines are important in every media.

A critical subject...

How should an elementary critique be run? Critiques can be harsh in college. I had a professor tell me how he had his peice ripped up in front of the entire class during a critique. Thankfully, I've never had a critique that harsh.
Critiques for elementary students are a completely different ball game. The main purpose of an art class for younger grades is to promote a love and appreciation of art- not scare them away with feelings of inadequacy. On the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge website, it emphasizes that the teacher should lead the critique in a positive direction, prompting students with the right questions to help them hone their persuasive, oral and writing, information-gathering, and justification skills.
I have had really positive experiences with critiques and have gathered what I thought was constructive. My professor would usually ask the artist what he thought of his piece, to describe it to the class, and at the end, asked the artist to identify things he would change, wrapping up with constructive criticism. For elementary students, I don't think any realm of negativity should exist in the critique, but I think the aspect of the artist presenting the peice is an important component of a successful critique. Shirley Ende-Saxe, a teacher at an elementary in Ohio, wrote of how she had the artist run the critique, giving them the freedom to call on classmates once the critique was opened for comments.
I once had to judge artwork of the Reflections Contest, a PTA art competition. It was one of the hardest things! Children are so creative, but sometimes their motor skills aren't completely there, and it's hard to judge the level of effort and craftsmanship. The reason I bring this up is because I had to decide which piece was better than another, comparing them side by side. This is NOT the mindset we should be in at a critique. It is so important to avoid comparisons; rather, we should completely focus on each piece one at a time.
As an art teacher, I plan to post up the students' art and go through them piece by piece. I'd let the student tell about it, then open it up for positive comments and let the student call on them (I really liked that idea!). I'd prompt questions if necessary to emphasize judgment, description, analysis, and interpretation, then wrap up each one with my comments. This way, I feel like I could keep control of the class, boost the confidence of each student, and help students learn how to critique.
In FranCoise Barbe-Gall 's book How to Talk to Children about Art, he writes that we need to educate kids about paintings by artists as diverse as Botticelli, Vermeer, Degas, Chagall, and Pollack. In addition to critiquing each other's art in an elementary class, I think teachers should consider choosing a piece of fine art each day for the students to write about, then talk about it once they've thought through their responses. I think analyzing great artwork would greatly benefit the discussions in classroom critiques.
If a teacher can initiate and maintain a positive atmosphere for students to think and talk about their artwork, guided by questions and inspired by analyzing recognized artworks, critiques are a positive activity for a classroom of any grade level.

How to talk to Children About Art, FranCoise Barbe-Gall

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3338/

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+elementary+critique%3A+talking+about+children%27s+art-a09048848

I'm SO Vain...

I probably think this blog is about me...
Haha but really! I feel so vain after doing a life time of self portraits. A self portrait is like an art autobiography. Rembrandt, one of my favorite painters, did more than 90 portraits of himself from the start of his career in the 1620s to the year of his death in 1669. I haven't done that many, but I've done enough that I feel vain when I showcase my art!

I remember attempting self portraits all growing up from memory, from mirrors, and from review mirrors on vacations. It wasn't until I was sixteen that I did a really respectable one using a photograph and grid method. In high school, I did a self portrait of me in a broken mirror (see slideshow), and a quick sketch of me falling asleep reading a textbook...which happened all too often! Then enter college. O MY. My first and last assignments of both my drawing classes were infamous self portraits, plus all the in class ones. When we were assigned to bring pictures of ourselves in El. Art Methods, I knew what was coming. Self portraits are a staple for art classes, why would this class be an exception?

This self portrait assignment taught us different methods of drawing which yielded different levels of accuracy. I already had a self portrait done via grid method, so I decided to turn that one in rather than do another one. Here's the two I did in class, and a myriad of other random recent- ish self portraits. (click to enlarge)

Textures, blind contours, and Picasso

In this assignment, we did a few blind contours of our neighbors, then for a separate assignment we demonstrated color schemes and textures in different boxes. We then used these textures to fill in our Picasso- like blind contours. I wasn't a huge fan of my textures, so I threw in some ones I loved on my Picasso head and really liked how it turned out!

Why is it important to teach art?

I feel as though I would have answered this question differently just three months ago. Art has been a quintessential part of my existence and identity for as long as I can remember, but just this last summer I attempted to teach drawing and share my love for it. I noticed a few things.
One was that each student grew in confidence. They had no idea they were capable of creating a masterpiece.

Whenever I tell someone I'm an art major, I often get an shrugging response of "Haha, cool, I can't even draw a stick figure" or "I have no artistic ability." What they don't understand is that they do. Creativity is intrinsic to all human beings. They don't understand what my students learned.

Everyone has a basic understanding of math, but that is only because at some point, someone walked them step by step through math problems until they gained the confidence to work through problems on their own. Seldom does the average person practice algebra in their every day life, but being required to learn it gave them skills of logic that are beneficial.

What boggles me is that art is much the same way, but people don't treat it as such! Anyone can be taught step by step how to draw (just ask Bob Ross). Art, like math, involves a process of encountering errors and coming up with how to fix them. Like it said in The Arts and the Creation of Mind, every medium in art poses a wide range of problems you have to work through. PLUS it makes you use your imagination, something math never made me do!
I saw my students gain a sense of pride and confidence in their work, but they also learned that anything worth while comes with a price. I saw them persevere through dilemmas, analyze their work and recognize how to improve. “Arts education helps develop the skills necessary to persistently and adaptively work through problems,” said Kim Kanatani, Deputy Director and Gail Engelberg Director of Education, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. “By asking students to think like artists, we are imparting 21st-century skills in encouraging them to approach problems with creativity and analytic thought rather than just recitation of facts.” I love that! I feel that so much of my education has been mindless recitation of facts. Thinking like an artist is something everyone should have the opportunity of doing.

Like Sir Ken Robinson suggested, we need to develop our whole beings, not just one side of our brains. In his lecture, he presented the idea that no child could know if they were creatively minded unless presented the opportunity to explore and grow in things besides academics. People seem to think that there's not room enough to give students a well rounded education, but having things like art increases a child's likelihood of succeeding. According to a study in '93, SAT takers who had four year’s study in the arts scored 53 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 37 points higher on the math portion than did the students who had no arts coursework. The arts obviously has an effect on academic performance along with developing personality and a sense of self and accomplishment outside the academic realm.

According to an official statement by the U.S. department of education responding to why art was required in the No Child Left Behind Act,
"Similar to English, math, science and the other core subjects, the arts (dance, music, theater, and visual arts) are challenging subjects with rigorous content and achievement standards at the state and national levels. They require highly qualified teachers who challenge all students, not just those who are considered artistically talented, to perform works of art, create their own works, and respond to works of art and the ideas they impart.

In addition to studying the arts for their own sake, experiencing and making works of art benefits students in their intellectual, personal, and social development, and can be particularly beneficial for students from economically disadvantaged circumstances and those who are at risk of not succeeding in school. Research studies point to strong relationships between learning in the arts and fundamental cognitive skills and capacities used to master other core subjects, including reading, writing, and mathematics."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I was a novice art teacher last summer, but I saw first hand that every kid in my class gained not only an understanding of color and proportion, but also patience, grace under pressure, and a new way of seeing. Most importantly, I know each one of them left with the thought of "I'm good at art." The best part of my experience was always taking the art they'd focused on for hours and revealing it to them from more of a distance. The satisfaction and pride can't be described. Getting a good test score can be great too, but nothing compares to that. Nothing can replace that. I think anyone skeptical of the arts in public school would have much of the same reaction- satisfaction in the long run. Art being a beneficial and valid thing to learn and teach is not just a theory. Art enriches lives and that's a fact. It must be taught.

*Sir Ken Robinson, ideas worth spreading
*The Arts and the Creation of the Mind
*http://www2.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/updates/040826.html
*http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/releases/3400-aps-release

Symmetry

Mandalas then and now...The first is from seventh grade and took me a week. The second is from now and took me a day! I think this is a great project for students to do. I like it now and I liked it in seventh grade as a student. For the one we did in class, the mandala had to represent our personality and interests, which would teach creativity and be a good beginning assignment. The way I did it in the past focused more on shapes and symmetry. I like both!

Art?

There have been many attempts to come up with a philosophical, articulate definition of "art,"(as in visual art) but the fact is, every time you put rules on what art is, someone breaks them. So what is art? What should be considered art? How is the value of art determined?
In my opinion, art is not a product, it's a perception.
Finding yourself intrigued by how light is reflected or how an egg shell cracks, seeing the beauty or allure in the banal; this is what it means to perceive like an artist. With that definition, I consider Marcel Duchamp an artist, who took a commonplace object and saw art, naming the urinal "Fountain" and putting it in a museum. At first, I didn't appreciate "Fountain" to say the least. But it has line, form, shape, color, and in a museum, it would hold my attention for more than three seconds (every artists goal). It is art.
But does "Fountain" deserve to be put next to the work of Van Gogh and Vermeer? No. (At this point you may be thinking, 'but Caitlin, you just said "Fountain" is art! I'm so confused.') Well dear reader, "Fountain" is art, but according to me it is not artwork. It's called 'artwork' for a reason. Art is work! It takes time, energy, creativity, thought, flexibility, skill, and patience. If an artist actually creates something, that's a work of art. Duchamp didn't create the urinal, he only created the idea.
On a slightly different train of thought, I honestly believe the work of Jackson Polluck, the finger paintings of a child, and the paintbrush strokes of an elephant all have artistic merit. The uses of colors, composition, and processes each have value and interest me. So what makes one painting sell for thousands and the other get hung up on the fridge to eventually be thrown away?
The name.
It's as simple as the signature. It's the same reason my paintings sell for enough to pay rent for a month while others sell for well over the cost of my parent's house. Besides the dollar value, the worth of art solely depends on who's looking at it and what they choose to see.
In short, 'art' is determined by perception. Its value, determined by a name. Its overall worth, determined by the process and impact.

Hooray for starting a blog!