James Mollison Workshop Proposal

Quotes from Mollison's Synopsis for this Body of Work

"...fascinated by the diversity of children's experiences, depending on their school."

"...struck by the similarities between children's behavior and the games they played."

Combination, Comparison, Pattern.

Workshop: After viewing the exhibit, participants will discuss the impact of the photographs as a body of work in comparision to the work as individual photographs. (i.e. how does the work act as a group or alone?) As the question arises: How does pattern contribute to the work as a whole and with individul pieces?

Relying on the functions of combination, comparison, and pattern in Mollison's Playgrounds participants will create a group show of group work. Each team made up of between two to five people will collaborate to diagram and illustrate one remembered playground game (Tag, Hide-n-Seek, Oly Oly Oxen Free, Kick the Can, Cops and Robbers, Ghost in the Graveyard, etc.). Before beginning the diagram they must write the name of the game on the board, so that the diagram isn't repeated. Each group must also write how they could use that game as part of a prompt for an art work in a teaching setting. This prompt will be listed next to the diagram as a label. Finished work will then be exhibited as an online collection in a blog (photographed and then uploaded using a mobile device) mimicking Mollison's website, or on the walls or tables the same way his work is on display in the museum. 

As a large group participants will answer the same questions about their own work as about Mollison's: After viewing the exhibit of their work, participants will discuss the impact of the photographs as a body of work in comparision to the work as individual photographs. (i.e. how does the work act as a group or alone?) As the question arises: How does pattern contribute to the work as a whole and with individul pieces?

Learning from Olivia Gude

"Encountering Others"

Chapter Five Reflection

Chapter Five Reflection

Engaging Students in the Classroom

• Point of Entry: I loved the example of students entering the classroom with a basic hands on activity that they could start right upon entering the classroom with minimal instruction (archeology of Mayan and Egyptian art). Perhaps not every class period will start out this way (depending on the age group), but probably every lesson and at least every unit should begin with a "point of entry" class period where we engage the subject, often with art making, but also with not strictly "art making" activities (field trips, guest professionals, interdisciplinary research, viewing and discussing artwork, etc).

Taking Responsibility for Their Own Learning and Engagement

• Allow Enough Time: Though this variable depends on the age and ability of a student, it is important to use discretion in the amount of time given for activities, making especially. Though often necessary, deadlines can stifle the freedom to explore and experiment and invest in work. Even so, too much time, especially with younger groups or projects where not enough scaffolding can be or was provided, can make a project quickly boring or irrelevant. To decide the appropriate amount of time it is vital to know your audience and your project (make prototypes, using smaller preparatory projects, etc.
• Reflection: At the beginning of a unit enable students to reflect on their own expectations for the class, unit, etc. and then how they will achieve those expectations and what I can do to enable them. In the middle of the unity reflection can enable them to adjust accordingly, and final reflection can be an opportunity for self-assessment and evaluation. In collaborative work, students can rate each other.

Kinds of Learning Experiences

• Personalized Projects: Though different students will require different levels of scaffolding or specificity I think the most obvious and effective way for students to feel and be accountable for their own learning and engagement is to feel ownership over their work. Projects and assignments that are relevant, purposeful, and leave enough room for personal application can be allow the student to explore what they feel is important and interesting.
• Variety: The chapter includes a great variety of types of learning experiences (p. 79, etc.) which I believe is in itself a vital strategy to include as many different students as possible.
• Collaboration: In supporting assignments (not usually final projects) can allow for idea sharing and development, expanded perspectives and different angles or opinions, "testing" ideas or how something will be communicated. Though I may not design any final projects to be strictly collaborative I think it can be helpful to allow students the freedom to work collaboratively if desired

Art History, Art Criticism, and Aesthetics as Interesting and Though Provoking

I think that at least initially I don't want to worry to much about labels and specifics until students feel comfortable talking about and comparing artworks in their context (historical, visual, formal, etc.)

Lesson Plan 

How Do We View America?

Enduring Idea: 

Perspective

For example I won't start out explaining "Today we're going to talk about art history or visual culture.... blah blah blah," but maybe have a bunch of magazines from today and then from maybe the fifties and have students compare them.

• On one side of the room will be a variety of lifestyle and fashion magazines from the past decade.

• On the other side of the room will be some older magazines.

• In their sketchbooks students will list themes, trends, or styles they notice in both

• What do these magazines say about the USA?

• How has the view of the US changed in these magazines? How is it the same?

Historical Context:

Then we can talk about the history behind it and then refer to some of the art work from the era and see how the history we talked about may have influenced the art of the time.

• Post World War

• Cold War: Video

• The "Modern"World

• Celebrities

Artist:

Jasper Johns

"Johns painted Flag in the context of the McCarthy witch-hunts in Cold War America. Then and now, some viewers will read national pride or freedom in the image, while others only see imperialism or oppression. Johns was one of the first artists to present viewers with the dichotomies embedded in the American flag. Johns referred to his paintings as "facts" and did not provide predetermined interpretations of his work; when critics asked Johns if the work was a painted flag, or a flag painting, he said it was both. As with other Neo-Dada works, the meaning of the artwork is determined by the viewer, not the artist."

Project:
Prompt: What is America to us now? How do identify our nationality?

Collage with the magazine and paint (like Jasper Johns) to communicate and explore your ideas. Consider the Neo-dada idea that the viewer not the artist determines the meaning.

Possible Concerns:
Could this get too political?


Other Ideas to make Art History, Criticism, and Aesthetics More Fun:
For a field trip we might visit an art museum and ask the students to write down the name of a work, artist, and year that they like, that they dislike and that they don't understand. Then when we are back in the classroom we can share a few examples and discuss why. For the like and dislike we can point out possible aesthetic reasons and for the works they don't understand we can explore different areas of art criticism and art world contexts (such as conceptual art, abstract expressionism, etc.).

Perhaps also to bring art criticism to the classroom we could ask students to swap completed pieces and present each others work as if it was their own to help the artist understand what they are communicating.

Another way to include all three would be to create connecting units such as starting with landscape paintings from the Hudson River School of Painting  and leading into talking about land art and then connecting it into a making and critiquing art made to explore the relationship between humans and the earth.

Response and Application (Ch 4)

This is the response and application from Chapter 4 of Rethinking Curriculum in Art by Marilyn G Stewart and Sydney R. Walker.

This may easily be my favorite chapter so far. I feel like I finally understand what we're talking about when we talk about "unit foundations". Most especially I appreciated and will apply this question:

"What do I want my students to retain and understand (about art) long after they have left my classroom?"

In quoting this question I put "about art" in parentheses because using the enduring ideas as my foundation I know that students will hopefully gain lessons beyond the art world about life and ethics and goals. 

But as an art teacher I appreciated this succinct list that helped me realize what I want my students to be left with:

• "Art is a purposeful human endeavor." > a free space for experimentation
• ART MAKING: a process of inquiry
• "Art attains value, purpose, and meaning from the personal, social, and cultural dimensions of life." > ART HISTORY 
• "Art raises philosophical issues and questions." >compassion
• "Artworks are objects for interpretation." ART CRITICISM 
• "Change is fundamental to art." > adaptation

Teaching is not.....

Teaching is not like filling up a bucket, or even planting a seed.

It is not like handling a fire or even starting one.

Students are first and foremost their own teachers. 

Teaching is a little like parenting, 

a little like unwrapping a present,

a little like climbing a mountain,

a little like having a best friend,

a little like running a business, 

a little like growing a garden,

a little like juggling ,

or being a movie,

or a politician,

or a big sister,

or a coach,

or glasses,

or light.

Teaching is like nothing else.

WEEK #2: How Do We Look? (Middle School)

Enduring Idea

Our context is our perspective.

Rationale

In order to gain a balanced perspective of an image
 it is important to understand the context 
from which it comes and from which we view it.

Artist/Artwork

Demonstration in Baton Rouge (9 July) Jonathan Bachman/Reuters

Key Concept

Visual culture influences how we see the world which influences how we understand images an

Essential Question

How do our beliefs affect how we see the world?

Unit Objectives

• Standards
• Compare one's own interpretation of a work of art with the interpretation of others. VA:Re.7.1.5a
• Identify, describe, and visually document places and/or objects of personal significance. VA:Cr2.3.5a  
• Identify and interpret works of art or design that reveal how people live around the world and what they value. VA:Re.7.1.6a
• Design or redesign objects, places, or systems that meet the identified needs of diverse users. VA:Cr2.3.6a
• Explain how the method of display, the location, and the experience of an artwork influence how it is perceived and valued. VA:Re.7.1.7a
•  Apply visual organizational strategies to design and produce a work of art, design, or media that clearly communicates information or ideas.  Apply visual organizational strategies to design and produce a work of art, design, or media that clearly communicates information or ideas. 
•  Explain how a person’s aesthetic choices are influenced by culture and environment and impact the visual image that one conveys to others. VA:Re.7.1.8a
• Select, organize, and design images and words to make visually clear and compelling presentations. VA:Cr2.3.8a
• Own Situation: I need to evaluate my own understanding of how I understand visual culture.
• Cross Curricular Application: History: Since the start of humanity we have decided our history in large part by the images that record it.

Instruction Plan

• Objective: Recognize how our own cultural context affects how we understand and read images. 
• Lesson: Analyze Our Own Understanding of Images
• Activities: 
• View Demonstration in Baton Rouge (9 July) by Jonathan Bachman/Reuters
• Discuss what students see and understand. 
• Open it up to why they think about the image the way they do?
• How might someone from 100 years ago in Africa view this image? What about 200 years ago in America?
• Brainstorm and create a mural collage to represent how they view their generation. 

WEEK #1: The Most Important Skill (Junior High/High School)

Enduring Idea

The most important skill is how to learn.

Rationale

The creative process requires a growth mindset.

Artist/Artwork

El Anatsui

Key Concept

Learning is Fluid

Essential Question

How does Failure help us?

Unit Objectives

• Standards
• "Redesign an object, system, place, or design in response to contemporary issues." VA:Cr2.3.IIa 
• "Visualize and hypothesize to generate plans for ideas and directions for creating art and design that can affect social change." VA:Cr1.1.IIIa
• Own Situation: Love for learning
• Cross Curricular Application: Psychology

Instruction Plan

• Objective: Experience and recognize the growth mindset
• Lesson: Skills and qualities can be learned and improved
• Activities: 
• Brainstorming: ten minutes "hash it out" through drawing or writing or compiling images from the internet to the prompt:
• Describe yourself now. 
• Describe who you want to be? 
• What do you wish you were good at?
• Cross Curricular Application: Take the mindset test as a class (students writing down answers).
• Watch video that introduces the idea of growth mindset. Discuss applications (personal life, future, history, making art.)
• Make stuff
• Explain project leaving room for suggestions.
• Each student chooses something they want to make a picture of  (anything: self portrait, animal)
• Each student draws a random scribble on a piece of paper and submits it to a basket. (rocks, clay bits, whatever can be used)
• Each students draws a scribble from the basket (or handed out).
• Using that scribble as the foundational structure for their picture they can add to it to create whatever they planned on making.
• Discuss how the scribble could still be what it needed to be. 

Conceptual Framework Verbs

E N G A G E

to be involved or to participate; to be a proactive participant in the learning experience, self-motivated and dedicated for your own learning

Through open-ended discussion art making, students will be empowered to lead their own learning and make their own discoveries through their own questions.

E N C O U N T E R

to experience; to face

With historical and critical context, students will be prepared and read and apply the meaning and significance of art work.

C O N N E C T

to join, link, fasten, unite between seperate entities

Armed with historical, current, and personal contextual awareness, students will seek out and create relevance of the conent to themselves, other disciplines, and other times and groups.

I N T E R A C T

to act in reciprocation; to have an affect on another

To expand their context, and to gain appreciation, compassion, and respect for those around them, students will work in collaboration with to gain additional perspectives and applications from their peers and community members.

U N D E R S T A N D

to construct knowledge from context

Students will learn how to learn beyond a set discipline through re-applicable interpretations of meaning, gaining an expanded perspective with greater compassion.