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.