Sunday, November 18, 2012

School Art Is....

"School art isn't art, it's garbage."  So says the 10 year old who actually loves art, loves to draw, create, and illustrate his writings.  Then he went on to say, "all we have done in art this year is leaf rubbings (like in Kindergarten) and tracing a pumpkin that we colored and cut into three pieces."  "But only three pieces."  "Then the pieces were glued on another sheet but had to be separated with space!"




Is this 5th grade art?  Can we do better?  The addition of hand drawn pumpkins would have brought character to the pumpkins but that is just my 2 cents.

I asked, "What was the purpose of this art project, which is now hanging on the wall because that is what one does with their children's art?"  The answer, "I have no idea."  Well, so much for that lesson.

We've discussed how it can be difficult to integrate art into the curriculum.  However, I have seen it done with ease in the Middle School where creativity is running free.

As we want students to take pride in their writing, which improves the quality, we should do the same with art at every grade level.

And we should always remember that there is a purpose to our lessons but if we don't tell our students what it is we shouldn't presume that they know.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2012 at 1:55 PM

    I think the point the student is missing is the purpose for the lesson. Perhaps the pumpkin art lesson wasn't described properly? I'm guessing it was a lesson in negative space and using space in art. Knowing that may have made the project more interesting, or at least provide value for the student. It's a good reminder to make sure our lessons are specific and meaningful.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 24, 2012 at 12:11 PM

    I think it's a common theme at all grade levels, we simply don't place enough purpose behind art lessons. With the importance place upon Math, Reading, and Writing, art is very easily pushed to the side. It's also much easier to do an art lesson without ever having said the purpose behind it. Why are the students painting a turkey, why are they cutting out a cornucopia, why are they making pilgrim hats? Is it for fun or is there a purpose behind it? Not only should we as teachers be able to state the lesson objective for the activity, but students need to as well. Art is another opportunity for student voice! TPA TPA TPA

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  3. AnonymousDecember 4, 2012 at 8:53 PM

    Instead of thinking about just creating an art lesson, we should be thinking of ways to incorporate art INTO other academic areas. By thinking about it this way, I think it would be easier to find a purpose behind the art, and there would be specific learning targets since the art would be contributing to a themed unit.

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