Week 3: Narrative Drawings

This week the kids finished up on their miniature collage boxes by making miniature sculptures to place inside them based on the theme that they chose. They also finished up on the small detail work of the boxes themselves and if they were done with that, they were given the opportunity to create an "environment" inside their boxes to enhance their sculptures. One of the kid's themes was "Space" and she had made a telescope for her box and then decorated the "roof" of the inside of the box to look like a night sky. This week they also shocked me with how tiny their sculptures actually were. They really seemed to get into seeing how small the sculptures could be. This lesson ended up taking a bit more time than I had thought it would because it ended up spanning three lessons but the kids really wanted to work on the boxes and I think that they turned out great! They really responded well to the artists that were shown and the presentations this week too. I was relieved that I had no technical difficulties this week compared to last week with sound quality, PowerPoints, and videos. Everything seemed to work pretty well and they also enjoyed the video clip that was shown during snack.
Since some were behind on their projects of the boxes I gave the kids the option before snack time to either stay and finish up on them or move on to the narrative drawings that were planned next. This seemed to work out well and alleviated the kids feeling rushed to finish but still gave the others a chance to move on to something else. After I gave my presentation for the narrative drawings the kids split up into two groups. The project was that the kids had to imagine themselves as either one inch tall or as big as a building and then think about the things that they would see around them and how they would interact with those things. I based my examples that I showed them off of the poem I used for the presentation---"One Inch Tall" by Shel Silverstein.The kids really seemed to have fun coming up with what they would look like and how their environment might look and they came up with some really imaginative stuff. I think this project was a great compliment to Jill's size stacker drawings that we did in the first week also.

I think that overall this week went really well. We also managed to get some great documentation and video footage of the class also. The kids really seemed to have alot of fun and I didn't wind up having any technical difficulties like I did last week so as a whole, I think it went great!

How do you talk with children about their drawings?

In Teaching Children to Draw, Second Edition, Wilson and Wilson discuss the ways that we question and guess children's drawings (p.41). What did you see on your students' sketchbooks? What did you ask them? Did you see their purposes and meanings? What were they?

Art as Social Activism

Melissa did a great job getting this lesson together, showing students how art can be used as a powerful tool to create change in the world. Adolescents are still exposed to the problems of the world, and they had strong opinions to share. Some created images dealing with environmental issues, others focused on animal rights, while others dealt with obesity.

We had a few glitches in the technology, but Melissa decided that she would teach the lesson by having them draw out their designs instead of using Illustrator. I thought this was a good solution to the problem, but luckily the 3rd floor computers worked correctly. We will make sure to test the computer labs out next time, before the day of the lesson, because technology is always funny.

I was really impressed with the ideas students came up with in the questions section, though only several of them were actually answering the questions. It was also interesting how almost instantly the students came up with their ideas. After the presentation, when I asked the students what they planned to do, none of them didn't know.

We didn't get as far in this lesson as we expected, because many of the students hadn't used illustrator before. We had to help them out a lot, and they helped eachother too.

The students all seemed very excited for the part of the lesson in the future where they will share their voice by distributing their artwork in the community.

Week 3, 2/26, Animal-Footed Pinch Pots (S. America)

This week I took over as the main teacher and came up with my own lesson. I was really determined to have it more structured compared to the last class, and include scaffolding, smoother transitions, more organization and structure. Overall I think it went pretty well. I tied up some loose ends in the beginning, and actually brought the map in this week, asking where we were and asking if anybody new of the places we were going (Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, etc.) I showed a slide show of examples of animal pots from those regions and then asked questions about them at the end. The structure of the class was very important this week and I divided the students into three separate tables in a long row (9 students at each). I had Jess, Myoungsun and my self at the head of each table where we gave demos. We showed how to roll balls, make coils into a beehive shape, make "pancake" sandwiches with scoring and slipping and pinch pots. We showed the technique first, then ask them to do the same. Once they were finished they went straight into making their own animal pots. Some finished quickly, and others took their time. I asked students that did finish early what else they could do to their pots, and I asked them to include more textures, or to score and slip pieces they wanted to attach. I was also excited to work individually with students and wish I had more time to visit with all of them! The end products ranged from extremely impressive, to only grasping the concepts. But I was happy that students were able to work with a new medium and learn about its properties.

Some things I need to work on are presenting information more slowly, concluding the lesson in a formal way, and having organized alternative activities for students to do when finished with the assignment.

Here are some pictures of the students and their work from the day:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturdayartschool/5480554992/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturdayartschool/5479954141/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturdayartschool/5480557182/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturdayartschool/5479956813/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturdayartschool/5480557646/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saturdayartschool/5479954369/in/photostream/

Paint can be very messy

Week 3: Dancing with Paint.

The third lesson for Saturday school was rough. Instead of dancing with paint it turned into chaos with paint. The students had fun and they were very much interested, however the lesson was not structured. The little things, like placement of materials, putting names on work, clean up time, and disposing of garbage, really mattered for the organization of the class. I failed as a teacher to even include that in the planning. Even though I taught without my partner and had to lead every part of the lesson, I missed out on a lot of things. Mostly, I wasn’t prepared for the outcome. In my mind, I imagined the students would have enough room to do their lesson, but as they were working on the big activity, I noticed that the tables were very cramped and since the big activity was on the table that left barely any room to draw on the table.

I could mention all of the negative things that happened on this day (the planning, the purpose of the activity and tying it back to the theme of the lesson, not clarifying the centers/big activity……), but what I’ve learned from Kris and Chris is that one of the things that matters is the student’s interest in the activity. They seem interested in the lesson. At first, some students said that dancing was boring, but I tried to take dancing to another level by demonstrating how paint dance on canvas. I believe that the first demo was my most successful part of the lesson. The students were very involved in how I splashed and dabbled paint on the canvas using different paint tools. They even started laughing when I made a sound for each tool that I used. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the lesson.

Although the lesson did not go as planned, I really learned a lot. Teaching is not just about the big idea of the lesson, but being able to organize, clarify, and knowing the purpose of the lesson. If you can’t determine the purpose of the lesson, then the students won’t know it either. So, for the next lesson, I will work more on those 3 steps.

I wish I had pictures to share with everyone, but I did not take any. There are some pictures on our flickr account of the day. If anyone has any pictures from my class, please share.

Week 2: Miniature Collage Boxes

Jill and I decided the first week to set-up our space so that the kids have a comfortable spot in the center of the room to watch PowerPoint presentations and that seemed to work well for the second week too. I noticed last week how much the kids really enjoyed looking at different artists and we both decided to show them a video during snack time of an artist that creates microscopic sculptures on grains of sand. They seemed to be really interested by this and some of them have even heard of the artist before. I was disappointed however, with the sound quality of the video because it wasn't loud enough through the laptop speakers. It was really hard for the kids to hear and I had to improvise and explain what the video was showing. That was something that I will have to plan for again next week but the kids really enjoyed having their snack lounging on pillows and watching the video.

This week the class worked on their miniature collage boxes that they started in the previous class. The kids had to come up with a theme for their boxes and then were going to create miniature sculptures revolving around that theme to put inside them. However, they did not have enough time to get to the sculpture part of the lesson this week. The boxes seemed to take longer than what I had planned and they seemed to be having fun working on them so I decided to hold off until next week for that part of the lesson. I think that time has been a real challenge for me so far. As far as staying on time, keeping track of the time, and knowing what the kids can accomplish with the time frame of the class. But here is what they were working on.





















































This week I also noticed that the kids really feed off of each other in their sketchbook drawings.
The conversation started somewhere about Justin Bebier and how much they disliked him. Pretty soon that was not only the topic of conversation but also the subject of their drawings. Even a child that usually doesn't draw in his sketchbook, but does math in it instead, was making pictures of how much he disliked Justin. This almost carried over to their boxes as well with themes of "I hate Justin" but we quickly informed them that they needed to pick another theme for their box.

Overall I think that this week went fairly well but there are still things that could be improved. I seem to be having technical difficulties from week to week with PowerPoints not coming up correctly, or sound quality being an issue but I'm hoping that next week that will improve.

Week 2, 2/19 Mysterious Hex Signs in Pennsylvania

I was excited to see the students again and thought our lesson would give them a lot of freedom to explore the meaning of hex signs. However, the day did not go as planned. I don't think we were prepared nearly enough to deal with the amount of problems we had. The power point didn't open, the paint was oozy, the kids were hyper and most didn't want to paint. And those that did, didn't quite get the assignment. So I would say the lesson was bad. But we know why. We should have re-arranged the tables in smaller formations instead of two larger ones. We should have had a paint station, or materials in a neater order on the tables.

The students also were interested in the presentation to an extent. Th

ey love answering questions and sharing what they know (even if it's off topic). But no matter how many times I explained the meanings, and what they should think about for their own, they weren't grasping it. They also start to get restless after too long.

So next time, the tables and format of the room really need to be calculated to suit the lesson. The presentation or introduction should be brief, or more interactive with the students. And the assignment really needs to ch

allenge their abilities, but also still be possible for them to complete.

Even though the lesson in my mind was failed, I am not discouraged because we still reached a few students and got some interesting hex signs! Plus, this is a learning experiment, and this will only make us better/more prepared for next time.

Classroom Space & Students' Attention

Did you make good use of your classroom space?
How good/bad was it?
How will you try to make the space more attractive?

Did your students listen to your instruction?
Were they interested? Why? Why not?
How will you do in order to grab your students' attention?

Pre K - Dancing with Shadow Week 3

This week LaMonique and I taught how shadows can dance. Our big activity was making foam stamps. The students would heat up the foam and press it into a textured object.  Then they would stamp it in black ink and onto a piece of paper of their chose, which were foam, water color paper, and construction paper.  Once they were done we gave them the options of going to one of the four centers set up or drawing on paper that was tapped to the tables.  The four centers were the book center, projector center, shadow play, and shadowed wires.  At the book center were books based on shadows and dance.  The projector center had objects the students could arrange with a piece of foam and sheet pinned to the wall.  Each student had the opportunity to use sponges and paint the shadows on the "canvas".  Shadow play was a center were a screen was set up with a projector behind it.  Here the students could go in front of the light and project their shadow onto the screen. They were also able to where masks, hats, and other objects to change the way their shadow looked. Finally, shadowed wires was a center where each student could insert wire into Styrofoam and see the shadows that were produced from the light.  They also had the chance to trace the shadow with a black marker.

This week I thought our materials and ideas were well thought out.  We really thought about what the students would enjoy and find interesting. For example, we added the paper to the tables as another thing for them to do so they are engaged before and after the big activity and as a way for us to not get overwhelmed. Our ideas took us a bit to come up with,  but once we did we really put them into gear and took risks. One that sticks out in my head was for the projector center. We originally wanted to use canvas however, after getting the rest of the materials we decided to get foam and a sheet.  We got these items because of the idea that the paint would go through the sheet and imprint on the foam to make a "shadow".  Even though a lot of things went better this week, I think there is still more to work on for next week. Hopefully it goes even better!!

The Power of SEEING

This week, as always, we started with 20 minutes of sketchbook time. When I visited two boys sitting next to each other I saw a pretty interesting drawing interaction. It looked like they were both drawing the same thing (a bowl of fruit) so when I asked if that was the case, they both said yes. After a minute, one boy claimed, "Oh! Mine's an ice cream sundae!"
It was interesting to see copying between the two boys but when it was pointed out one boy changed his drawing to be different.




After sketchbook time, Marietta taught her lesson on "The Power of SEEING". She taught the students how to take time in looking at the subject of their drawings (their shoes) and she emphasized seeing the details and seeing what is actually there instead of when they think they know about the subject.
Marietta chose to teach her lesson standing on a large wooden block in order to allow everyone to see the drawing demonstration she showed. Also, I think it was more interesting for them than a teacher standing on the floor as they are used to.

It's been a challenge to keep their attention while we teach the lesson. (The first week we had them stand around our bulletin board while we explained things and the second week they sat at tables as pictured above). I think next week I'm going to employ a PowerPoint when teaching in hopes that they'll stay interested for longer.

Students started with a practice blind contour drawing of crumpled up paper. When students were working on their blind contour drawings we encouraged them to look at their drawing as little as possible. Here, you can see Griffen holding the paper off to the side while he draws on the table. The majority of students were hesitant to do the blind contour drawing because they were afraid to do a "bad" drawing. We kept emphasizing that it was not about the "technical quality" of the drawing but more about the practice of actually seeing an object.

After they practiced blind contours with crumpled up paper, they moved on to drawing their own shoe. The project was to do 3 drawings: 1 blind contour drawing, 1 regular contour drawing, and 1 contour drawing with shading. The students were encouraged to do each drawing from a different perspective of the shoe.

Some students finished their drawings early so Marietta introduced the Exquisite Corpse game to them and most of them seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough so Marietta & I hung paper on the walls for them to draw on. They seemed to like that as well because they all flocked to the wall as soon as the paper was hung.

Overall, it was a very successful lesson and the majority of the kids seemed to enjoy it (one had even done it before).
To display their work we are planning to mount the 3 drawings side by side like a triptych on foam board or mat board.