Integrated Art Documentation

Chenelle developed what I thought was a very well balanced and exciting plan for an integrated art lesson plan. She incorporated both LA and Art. She had us use poems and song lyrics as provocation for our themes and final products. It developed both LA concepts and art concepts very well.
Part of the process was listening to our music on shuffle and drawing blindfolded whatever we felt from the song. This was very fun and loosened us up and allowed us to just feel the music.
We used both oil and chalk pastels in all of our drawings. I felt this was a great medium to use as it was freeing and fun. We were allowed to experiment and try the medium before we started our project and were also encouraged to do thumbnail sketches of all our ideas.

Our final piece was based off our favorite song and lyrics to that song. We were encouraged to share our ideas with our peers which would validate each student in their experience with the project.

Drawing

My drawing history started when I was really young, as for most people. My parents always had art supplies handy for me to use. In kindergarten I was always drawn to the art stations, however after that I don't remember doing much more drawing in elementary school. Grade six had more art involved in the classroom and I always tried to incorporate drawing into my other projects. Grade seven was really the first time when I realized I could draw fairly well, and also enjoyed it. I had a great art teacher who showed us the basics of drawing well which boosted my confidence. I was always insecure about my drawing ability until I was shown the skills to do it well. Using different drawing mediums also encouraged me to continue drawing on my own time. When I continued in high school I wasn't shown any more formal drawing skills so when I started university I felt I had missed alot. It took a while to get back into it and I felt like I was in grade seven all over again.

Reflecting on my own art journey as a drawer can help me become a better teacher. Seeing where I was feeling insecure will help me prevent these insecurities in my classroom. In Kalin's chapter it talks about preventing the drawing activity from becoming a performance. When it becomes a performance, children will be worried about what others think of their work. At the age of 10-12 this is especially relevant because they will be comparing their work to the more realistic work of their peers or art they have seen. To confront these insecurities children should be exposed to artistic works which are not realistic. They should engage in drawing exercises which are provoked by memory, emotion or music. Sketchbooks or journals which can be a private exercise as opposed to a perforative exercise are also valuable. Collaborative drawing is also important as it allows students to become less attached to their work and focus on teamwork and learning from each other. Expanding the drawing possibilities is essentially the most important step in allowing students to become comfortable with drawing.

The benefits of peer teaching included:

• Having real experience teaching a module that would directly relate to what I may teach in the future.
• Trying a lesson plan and seeing how the different aspects either help or hinder the experience.
• Receiving feedback from peers on both the experience and the way I personally taught them.
• Improved communication of the lesson plan.
• I was able to learn new ideas from peers for other lesson plans and approaches to education in the art classroom.
• I was able to see the scope of the opportunities for integrating other subjects into the elementary art classroom.
• I was exposed to new mediums and provocation techniques which I can use in the classroom.

How you could incorporate peer teaching into the Elementary Art classroom:

• Have the students teach their peers about their culture and the art that it involves.
• Network with other art teachers to peer teach throughout the year to talk about ideas.
• Have the students talk to each other about their ideas.
• Put students in groups or pairs when working on projects so they can bounce ideas off each other and the stronger students can support the less confident students during projects.
• Have students ask each other for help.

Documentation

The importance of documentation to teaching and to a child's learning:

Teaching:

• Provides a memory, and evaluation a final report or an archive of the work and progress in a classroom.
• Provides a document of the teacher and child with their combined thought processes which improves communication.
• Enables the teacher to revisit learning experiences.
• Helps teachers stay close to the learning in their curriculum and helps improve the design of future curriculums.
• Improves sense of listening
• Helps recognize the value of other's point of view and interpretation.

Parents:

• Allows parents to witness what occurs in their child's classroom and see what their children might not be able to verbalize.
• Parents feel more welcome in their child's school when they see the documentation displayed.
• Strengthens home/ school relationships.

Children:

• Children will benefit from the increased awareness of their teachers and parents to their school activities.
• They will be validated and accounted for.
• Their voice will be hear through the teacher's increased listening skills.
• Curriculum will be more geared specifically toward their learning which fosters positive school experiences.

Challenges:

• Interrupting the flow in the classroom to document.
• Choosing a method of documentation that works best for the classroom situation.
• Finding time to document effectively where the information is still fresh in mind.

Strategies to address challenges:

• Chose a time each day where there is a break in the class activity to jot a few notes.
• Have a camera handy to snap documenting moments during the day and organize daily.
• Experiment with different documenting methods and organization to find the most successful one.

Important things to document:

• Deep joy, engagement
• Silences
• High Stress Moments
• Dead zones
• Avoidance
• Criticism
• Interaction
• Panned and Spontaneous provocation
• Arrivals and departures.

Media Art Documentation

Keeley introduced to us a lesson plan that included making finger puppets that represented our family and then creating a powerpoint presentation with photos that we took of our puppets with digital cameras. The intended outcomes of the project were to investigate family history, create a representation of our families and learn how to use power point to display our information. My impressions of this project was that the art experience was lost. The finger puppets were too small to allow for very much originality or creativity. The medium became very juvenile and the outcome looked a bit crafty. I could see 10-12 year olds feeling like this was a "kiddy" project and not feeling their artistic abilities were able to grow or be validated. As discussed in class, I believe making the medium larger (sock puppets) or using real people as the subject for the photos would create more success in this area. Also, the use of power point was well suited to the desired outcomes, however the artistic aspect of this could have been emphasized a bit more as far as discussing composition and design aspects. If more time could be allowed, using student generated backgrounds instead of images from the internet would be better. At first the power point experience was challenging as my Mac support Keynote. Adjusting to the new tools was a little frustrating, but I was able to figure it out in the end. I experimented with transitions and custom animations to make the presentation a bit more exciting. This lesson has a lot of potential, but I feel could use some reconsiderations as well.

Integrating art and other subjects...

I have noticed that many of my peers have been integrating different subjects into their lesson plans. Many times these lessons have been seamlessly integrated but sometimes it can be a "stick on" assignment where the secondary subject matter becomes secondary and not fully integrated. The benefits of integrating secondary subject matter into art lessons are that it becomes a basis to validate arts education within the curriculum. It pleases administration and allows the secondary subject matter to become more interesting for the students. By pairing art experience with any other learning experience it allows there to be more time for each lesson and therefore can provide room for more positive results. Some issues that may be encountered are seaming together to different subject matter and curriculum objectives, having one subject dominate over the art experience or having the lesson loose meaning. In the classroom these issues will present themselves through the attitude of the students (if they are bored or acting out, it is not going well), if there is confusion from the students or if the end result is vastly different from your predicted outcomes. In the classroom when these issues come up, depending on how serious, they must be taken into consideration and the lesson must be adjusted accordingly. If i is really not going well, the lesson should be reconsidered and continued another day to prevent frustration from the students. If dealt with in an organized manner, integrating other subjects with art can be very rewarding.

Popular Culture and Art

The range of media that children are exposed to these days is unending. It includes print media, television, movies, and the endless information available through the internet. Children are more tuned into advertising and pop culture more than ever. Popular media is a fact of our culture today and to a certain extent we need to be sensitive to what we expose children to; however we can also use the rich information available to our advantage as teachers. Popular culture has provided us with new avenues to discover art through advances in the way it is presented and in the way we can explore it. The internet provides us a click away from any piece of art work we wish to learn about. Movies are becoming more popular and lesser know film artists are becoming more mainstream. Advertising agencies are growing exponentially which provides opportunities for graphic designers. Popular culture brings information and communication around the world like lightning. This also allows artists to show their work more widely and allows the public to be exposed to new types of art.

Considering all of this it leads us to question what kinds of art media we should expose our students and children about. I believe it is important to show our children both historical and traditional media so that they can understand how the art today may have evolved and show them that all kinds of art are valid. On the other end, it is also important to show them contemporary and popular media so that they can think creatively about their own art. Showing art students a very wide variety of art medium and media will widen their imaginations and allow them to think creatively. "The More You Know the More you Grow!"

Classroom Safety

In Chapter 19 of "Starting With..." it discusses some guidelines for developing a safe environment in the classroom for your students. These parameters must meet the physical, emotional and social needs of the students while providing a meaningful art experience. Aspects of classroom management, discipline, student teacher relationships, classroom procedures and safety precautions should all be considered.

Classroom management:

• This includes considerations as far as what kind of environment the teacher wants to provide for their students. This environment is maintained through rules, consequences, atmosphere (noise level, music, treatment of students toward their peers)
• In my classroom I hope to have a fun atmosphere for my students to experience art, while maintaining a sense of order and emotional and physical safety. I would love to provide music for my students to listen to whether that be a classroom choice or allowing individual students to listen to their own music. Rules will be discussed at the beginning of the term, allowing input from the students as what they feel will give them the most positive experience. Similarly the consequences for breaking the rules will be discussed with some room for input from the students. Ultimately the final decisions will be made by me.

Discipline

• This includes considering the rules and consequences discussed by the class, understanding the role of the teacher in classroom disruptions, how to respond to misbehaviors and how to prevent these discipline problems,
• In my classroom I hope to have an understanding with my students that the rules and consequences are in place so that everyone can have a positive learning experience so that emotional and physical safety is always considered. When incidents do occur I will reflect on how my teaching has contributed to the situation. When I respond to the behavior I will be sure to do it in a way that does not bring negative attention to the student. Prevention of problems is the best solution to keeping the classroom a positive environment. Some things I can do to prevent disruptions are keeping a constant check on the energy in the room and making adjustments as needed to noise level, peer interactions and interest in the activity. I believe that discipline problems most often occur when the students are uninterested or invested in their projects, so ultimately having fun projects will keep the classroom under control.

Student Teacher Relationships

• Having a positive student teacher interaction includes fair problem solving, clear parameters for behavior, adequate time for projects, positive feedback, respect for differences, feeling of respect both ways and a nurturing atmosphere.

Classroom Procedures

• This includes having set routines for lessons including set up of materials, signals for students' attention, noise level expectations, movement boundaries, areas for materials, expectations for those who finnish early and cleanup procedures.
• I believe having expectations practiced and clear from the beginning as well as enforced every single time will create a positive learning environment for students.

Safety Precautions

• These precautions include art materials safety, understanding the physical abilities of the students, exposure to dangerous materials, storage of materials and classroom set up.
• For safety to be fully considered both the teacher and the students need to be educated about the risks and proper procedures of art materials within the classroom. The physical set up of the classroom is also important as lack of cleanliness can be a physical safety hazard.

Dewey in relation to the studio assignments...

According to Dewey a good experience has a goal for the community of the learner as well as a goal for the growth of the student. He believes that teachers need to give students the skills to function in the world as well as ones that will be valuable in the short term for the student. He also reminds us that each student is influenced by their current and past experiences. Our job as teachers is to open them up to new experiences in art and therefore in life. Finally he makes us consider what will be the best level of freedom or control in the classroom and what will be effective.

In response to the studio work I have done so far this year I believe my own painting activity has respond to several of Dewey's criteria for a good experience. The activity gave the skills and guidance for the student to succeed at the activity as well as in further painting projects. There was freedom for the student to include their own values and experiences. The meditation exercise will help them focus in the short term as well as relieve stress if practiced in the short term. The activity can be easily modified for any skill level or interest of the classroom.

The second studio project this year was the sculpture assignment. This activity functioned under Dewey's principles by giving them tactile building and problem solving skills. The new materials as well as the challenges with the medium will help them to create a sculpture in the short term but also foster problem solving skills for the future. The project gives the student a personal connection by giving them the freedom to come up with their own favorite creature. Freedom to create is very evident in this project but could be structured for those who need it within the classroom.

Peer Teaching Documentation

My first step in planning this activity began in the Doucette Library at the U of C where we were shown a variety of resources we had available to us to guide our lesson plans. I loved this experience and immediately started to explore the books and materials they had. I picked out a few picture books and a couple curriculum books for grade six art.

Prior to the Library visit I knew I wanted to incorporate a lesson with a guided meditation as provocation for the final product as well as a drawing and painting integrated activity. In one of the books there was a lesson for painting a tree, and I found a great book on imagination. Now my idea was growing. I decided to use the book on imagination as an opener to introduce the students to opening their frame of mind.

I asked my sisters to spend an afternoon with me painting so that I could try out the activity with them. The overall lesson included reading "Imagine a Night", introducing different painting techniques, teaching colour theory, showing photos of various artistic representations of trees, meditating an image of a tree, sketching thumbnails of the tree and finally painting a final completed composition of a tree. As my sisters were doing the mediation they started to laugh and I realized that it needed to be edited for "conciseness" and to take out all the "cheesy" bits. Overall it was a positive experience. Through this review with my sisters I cut down the meditation and focused more on materials and process of painting.

When I presented my experience for my classmates I was nervous but excited to do some painting. I walked them through the various aspects of the lesson and we got straight to painting. As we were painting many delightful surprises came up. Keely used her sponge in a different way that I had not demonstrated, Vince used exciting colours for his sky and ground, and Chenelle was excited that she could complete a project that was not as serious as her university painting class. As we painted I was sure to give praise for where the paintings took a more abstract approach. Part of this lesson was to emphasize that art can be good, even when its abstract. At this developmental level students are obsessed with realism. I wanted to make this lesson comfortable and successful for every learner. The result of this was with Vince's interpretation of abstract through his border, Keely's confidence in her painting result despite being new to the medium and Chenelle's excitement over being free to be more expressive in her work.