TAB Thursday: Engaging Learners Through Artmaking 1
- colringbk
- Apr 2, 2014
- 2 min read
Engaging Learners Through Artmaking
Introduction
I'm starting a new blog series this week making it TAB Thursday. The goal of this is to read about Choic-Based Art Education and determine if it is philosophy I would like to incorporate into my Art Room. To get started, I'll be reading Engaging Learners Through Artmaking by Katherine M. Douglas and Diane B. Jaquith. I'll take each chapter a week at a time, summarize what I have read followed by questions that I have about the passage.
What I Read
The introduction to this book brings about issues with current methods of teaching art. For instance, many classrooms, mine included, teaches art to children through discussion of an artist or a style, demonstrating the techniques and media, then having students create a project following a set of parameters.
According to the authors, they feel that this method isn't how artists learn. Art teachers need to be teaching students for artistic behaviors, which are "activities that inform and sustain creative process." They also discuss a list of behaviors that adult artists do as they create. I immediately connected to many of these behaviors. Some of those were
Play with materials
Mentally plan
Use the art tools in traditional and stylistic methods, and
Pursue multiple works at the same time.
As the authors begin to introduce Choice-Based Art Education and what it is, there was one statement that I found encouraging. Douglas and Jaquith say that the primary goal of TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) is to encourage and guide the creation of art ideas. Lately, I have been pushing my students to try ideas that are meaningful to them. Also, I use the phrase, "Take a risk" when they are starting a new project. Creativity is an important goal for myself in art, and I want my students to feel like they are creative.
Questions About What I Read
How will I keep students from making meaningless art that shows a sign with their name or a rainbow or ideas like that? Currently, in my art room, students are allowed to free create when they finish a project early. The products that come from this time show boredom and lack creativity. I'm concerned that if free choice of subject matter is common in my room, then I will see a lot of rainbows and names on paper.
What does assessment of these artworks look like? I use a rubric now that student artists self evaluate and peer evaluate before the teacher evaluation. It gives a time for growth and feedback.
What will I do for the student that just cannot generate an idea? I feel like with the art projects we do, all the students get started right away and create. But, if there are all of these choices of materials, it might feel so overwhelming that a student might feel intimidated.
Now, I know these questions will be addressed, so I'm not too worried. I'm excited to look at this art philosophy, and I hope that I'll have a better idea on how to approach it in my art room by the time I'm finished researching.
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