Getting Students Talking

Lately, art teachers have been focusing on creating more opportunities for reading and writing in their classrooms to align to the Common Core. This semester, I have begun using the discussion board in my classroom to provide students more opportunities for writing, but also in hopes of creating more of a sense of community in my classroom.
Each week, students have a prompt to respond to that uses an issue of Scholastic Art Magazine. This magazine has fantastic digital resources I would recommend to anyone trying to expand their text resources in the art classroom. I have tried to keep these prompts fun and intriguing to encourage engagement.
For Week 1, I wanted insight into students previous experiences with drawing and art. I found an interview with Tim Burton where he discussed his experiences as a student throughout school. I asked students to respond to the following:
Read or listen to the interview by Tim Burton (an artist who has worked on The Nightmare before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Edward Scissorhands...etc.).
1. Why do you think some children stop enjoying drawing?
2. When has a teacher inspired you in school?
The results have been very impressive. 73 of my students responded to my prompt which is an extra credit assignment in my class. Below is a student example.

During the first week, students were responding to me only. I made sure I replied to each student to show I am reading their responses and to model communication with others in the discussion board.
During the second week, I asked students to reply to each other using the prompt:
Read the article "Is there Art in your Xbox?"
1. Do you believe video games are art? Why or why not?
2. Respond to a classmate's post
Below is a student example:

As you can see, student responses started out generic. I provided feedback to help students expand their thinking and make sure they address specifics when replying to a classmate. I am hoping to see growth in their responses throughout the semester. So far, I am happy to see students engaging in this type of assignment and with each other.

                      

Aligning to Common Core in the (Online) Art Classroom

As the 2012-2013 school year continues to tick by, we continue to align the Art 1 classroom to meet the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which will be mandatory by 2014-2015. Though it seems far away, my teammates and I are already working towards 100% alignment. Of course we all still have many questions. We spent last week together in PD brainstorming ideas for aligning our Art 1 curriculum to the CCSS. In many cases we are adding small written assignments to accompany drawing projects. This has lead to some shifts away from reading quizzes and towards short writing assignments. We also have changed some projects to incorporate more ideas of visual communication as a form of writing. As far as CCSS, I am continuing to follow the idea that art is a text meaning students can read artwork as a text and write artwork as a text to meet these standards. 

One of the lessons we’ve changed is the still life lesson. Before: students are instructed to choose 3 objects, set them up in a still life scene, and draw them using 7 different values. After CCSS changes: students are instructed to look at examples of still life paintings/drawings that tell a story. They will choose 3 objects that tell a story (drawing instructions are the same as before) and they must title their still life drawing something that describes their story. A rather small change not only aligns with CCSS but also incorporates more meaning and excitement into this project.

In addition to artwork as a text, it is helpful to know what your school offers in the way of textbooks or online resources to provide students with readings at grade level that go along with your content. 

In the texture lesson, students currently learn the differences between simulated (2D) and tactile (3D) textures and create a texture study by drawing out 4 different textures. We thought this would be a good opportunity to have students look closer at sculpture through an article in Scholastic Arts Magazine. For teachers who don’t know about this resource, it is an amazing way to align to CCSS. It provides articles, images, videos, and even written and multiple-choice assessments for grades 4-12! Right now, all the digital resources including issues of the magazine are free, though at some point will become viewable only to subscribers. We are going to use the section on sculptures from a recent issue to have students write about the role that texture plays in whichever sculpture they choose.  

 Looking at our lessons to align them with CCSS has allowed my team to focus on changing lessons that have been weak in the past. A lesson many students have trouble with is our Cubism lesson. Students learn about the style of cubism and about Picasso and Braque. With this knowledge, they create 2 pieces of art, one that is realistic, and one that is a cubist version of that same subject matter. We discuss the differences and similarities between analytic and synthetic cubism but students still have trouble with this concept, especially when it comes to making their cubist artworks. Thus I have added a reading and sorting activity to this unit to help students spend time looking at synthetic and analytic cubism more closely. Students will get their reading from Encyclopedia Britannica and use the reading to guide them in arranging characteristics of analytic and synthetic cubism into the correct categories.  

Whatever lessons you teach in your art classroom, aligning to CCSS does not have to mean big changes and extra work. Small changes and additions can make your lessons more meaningful and help students succeed.

Thoughts on Common Core and the Arts

I just spent the last 2 full days learning about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the PARCC test that will go along with them. While at first overwhelmed and confused about how to apply these new literacy standards to the existing art curriculum, I have spent time researching what others are doing and working with my teammates to come up with some ideas. I am now very excited about these new standards. It has been said that the shift from the OGT test and current standards to the PARCC test and CCSS will switch our focus as teachers from teaching students what to think to teaching students how to think. And while the OGT’s never tested the arts, the CCSS for literacy is being introduced as everyone’s responsibility. They even have specific standards for us to meet, grouping all electives into a category called “other technical subjects”. Though this gives us art teachers more to cover in our classes and more curriculum to write, I am happily embracing this challenge to help our students become better thinkers. It seems to me that the CCSS are here to encourage us all to be better educators and really prepare our students for college and careers. Looking at the standards there were many things I was unclear about. One point of emphasis in the literacy standards was having students read complex texts. At first I wondered where we would find these complex texts for our students to read (online we do not have a text book to refer to) and also how these complex texts might relate to visual learning. I started googling “common core and the arts” and found a very helpful blog post (here) that outlines how a piece of art can be a “text” that students read. This really helped me get past my confusion and helped me come up with my first CCSS aligned lesson for my Art 1 classroom. Students complete a project in Art 1 where they create two portraits where at least one contains symbolism. In our live session we look at Renaissance portraiture and how artists communicate to the viewer about their subject such as personality or social standing. Though we always discuss this topic, I never have them write about it. Therefore, this lesson was one that could use a writing portion, and why not align it to the CCSS? Below is the assignment I came up with that I will be trying out next semester. It encourages students to “read” the pieces of art, analyze them, and provide evidence for their conclusions (evidence is very important in the literacy CCSS).

Portrait Analysis

You will begin your study of portraits in this lesson by looking at and analyzing the way that artists create portraits. Portraits often contain symbolism within them. Symbolism is the use of something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance. When artists use symbolism in portraits they are communicating about their subject to the viewer. For example, the type of clothing a subject is wearing in a portrait can tell us about their social class or the culture they come from. The objects surrounding the subject can tell about them too, if they are surrounded by books perhaps they are a student or scholar. For this assignment you will act as a detective to find clues within 2 portraits that inform you about the subject of the work!

Artemisia Gentileschi, 1615 Self Portrait as a Female Martyr	Paul Gauguin, 1886, Self-Portrait
Frida Kahlo, 1940 Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird	Kehinde Wiley, 2007, Dwayne I

Your Assignment

You will need to choose 2 portraits to write about from above. Write a detailed paragraph about each portrait answering the following questions: What kind of social class is the subject from? (wealthy, poor, middle class, royal...etc.) How does the artist communicate this? What do you think the subject's personality is like? How does the artist communicate this? Are their symbols present in the portrait? What do you think they mean? Why? Why do you think this portrait was created? Is there a story behind it? Why or why not? Make sure you are giving specific examples of evidence from each portrait for your answers. Think about how these artists captured their subjects in these portraits when creating your own portrait drawings! How can you show this person's personality and likeness? How can you incorporate symbolism? Submit your finished essay to the dropbox.

I am just beginning this task of aligning curriculum with the CCSS but I expect I’ll be posting more lesson ideas soon!