TAB Thursday: Engaging Learners Through Art-Making Part 4
- colringbk
- May 1, 2014
- 2 min read
Chapter 3, "How to Structure a Class" is this week's read. It is a fantastic read for a novice teacher, and in an education class setting, this would fit great. In my case, it was a nice refresher. There were some new ideas I hadn't considered as well as some approaches that I already use.
WHAT I READ
This chapter broke the classtime into 4 parts:
Demonstration
Studio Time
Cleanup
Reflection
As Douglas and Jaquith discuss, the demonstration time is used to give the students the absolute information in a short amount of time. Think about, "What do these artists need to know" as well as consider what will they explore. Also, I had a difficult time before this chapter understanding how a demonstration fits in a studio art center setting. The authors discuss that in a demonstration, an art teacher may introduce a new medium or technique. Also, some students may respond to this and use these new ideas in their studio time. Alternately, some students may not respond to it at all and want to work on their own projects and media.
The other part that was really helpful was the part on Reflection. Here is an area that I do not use in my instruction because I feel like I run out of time in the classtime. However, the authors suggest strategies such as having students pair up and discuss something they worked on or tried. Also, for older groups, the teacher could have students write a short reflection piece in journals. I really like this journal idea and want to implement this quickly.
The final area in this chapter broke down 3 simple rules for the classroom:
Take Care of People
Take Care of Stuff
Behave Like an Artist
The 3rd rule is a neat idea. It opens up conversations on what an artist does and behaves like.
QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT I READ
I don't have questions this time. However, I do want to say that today in class I opened up a few art centers and did a fast demonstration on some of the art materials. I felt like it was a success. The students went about and began exploring some of the materials. One young artist even began using the demonstration as a jumping off point and latched onto the printmaking materials. Plus, I need to organize the cleanup a little bit better in this setting. More time? Sending certain students for various centers?
Comments