We all know the focus in education is reading and math.. so what can I do to support that without compromising my own curriculum?
I came up with two small things, that will not only reinforce some of the core concepts that are being focused on in other classes, but also will help them to 'Think like an Artist!'
If students have art on Monday their classes are about 10 minutes longer than Tuesday-Friday classes. At my school we have something called I&E- Intervention and Enrichment, and its only Tuesday-Friday for about 30 minutes... but Ill get into that another day.
READing Into a Work of Art
So anyway, Monday classes complete a R.E.A.D during the first 10 minutes of class. They come in, and there is a work of art projected on the board (different for each grade level.) They are required to write 4 complete sentences.. a Response, an Evaluation, an Analysis and a Description of the artwork:
They have to write the artists name and the name of the work of art at the top. This one in particular was in response to Keith Haring's "Andy Mouse"
I really enjoy being able to see the things they write, and this lesson gives them the opportunity to be exposed to the work of other artists, and to actually think about what they are looking at, not just seeing it.
TAG IT!
Another opportunity that students in my class get for reflection is their peer reviews in the form of TAGs. Each time a student finishes a work of art they must get another student to TAG it before they turn it in. They get a post-it and give their artwork and the post-it to another student who has to
Tell the artist something they like about the work
Ask the artist a question about their work and
Give the artist a suggestion.
The student then sticks the post-it to the back of the artwork and returns it to the artist who can then turn in their work.We have just started this process and this is the first year I am trying it, so in a few months, ill update how its going :)
Spelling is not always a strong point with middle school students... "variety" "designs" and "maybe" :)
Great! Mt students often complained about writing about art, but the four steps of art critique are very helpful. I always started with description, but that doesn't flow with your READ order. I like your TAG peer assignment. I will be sure to give it a try. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIf you give it a try, please let me know how it works out for you! Id love to see if it works for others or if you have any suggestions for improvement :)
DeleteThis is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing. I can use this in my middle school as well as high school classes.
ReplyDeleteIm so glad that you can find use for this is your classes. Please let me know how it works for you, I love to see how my ideas work for other people :)
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