Olivia Gude response

I think Olivia Gude's ideas are really interesting and give good solutions to many different problems in art education and education in general. She her idea for creating curriculum are specific because they outline specific principles for students to learn and understand but they are also open enough that they can be used in many different ways. The changes that she suggests are important to understanding art and allowing students to create meaningful art.

I do sometimes wonder though, if her ideas don't give students the time to really master technical skills and the use of certain mediums.

One of my favorites of her ideas having a spirit of play in the classroom. I think that this is a very important part of making art that is easy to forget when we are constructing curriculums or in a public school setting.

James Mollison Evening for Educators.

James Mollison's choice of subject matter, the playground, is easy to relate to. The playground is a place where kids are free to have fun and enjoy themselves and the image of a playground is bound to bring nostalgia. The playground is a place where compared to the structure of a typical classroom setting there are almost no rules. But if you really look at a playground there are actually plenty of rules. There are rules to keep kids safe but there are also rules in almost any of the activities that children choose to engage in on the playground. Whether it's a sport, guessing game, or spontaneous competition, even play acting requires certain people to act in a specific role. What's different about this kind of structure though is that children create and choose those structures themselves. It is interesting to consider what rules children have when they make them up themselves.

This idea of creating your own constraints is an important one in art and James Mollison's photographs of playgrounds could be great way to introduce this idea to kids. Begin by showing students Mollison's images. Then discuss with them about the work. Why did the the photographer want to take pictures of playgrounds? Why do you like playgrounds? What kinds of things do you do on the playground? What rules do the games you play have?

Then introduce the activity. Students will be split into groups and each group will take a photograph based on rules that the class will make up. Ask the students for suggestions for rules. Some rules could be: the photo needs to include the entire group, everyone in the photo needs to be on top of the desks, or the photo needs to include a cat. Write all on the suggestions on different slips of paper. Mix them up and give each group three different rules for the photo to follow. Have the students set up and photograph their image using whatever iPads, camera phones, or cameras are available to you. Have students show their images with the class.

Chapter 5 Response

1. How do we know what our students know about the topics we plan to address?

One way we can evaluate what students know is to have them write it down. You could do this by having students fill out KWL worksheets saying what they Know, what they Want to know and later reflecting on what they Learned. You can also do this by having discussions at the beginning of a unit and also by finding out what students are learning in their other classes so that you have a basis for what the students should know.

2. How would you go about teaching for “deep understanding”?

I want to teach things that can have many different applications so that students will feel that what they are doing is meaningful and so they can make connections. I will also give them some ways for them to apply what they are learning in a relevant way and to always be making things that will help them to really understand the concepts I teach.

3. How would you teach for student relevance?

I want my activities and projects open enough for students to include something that interest them into them in what they do, while they are still learning about new ideas about art and different ways of making art. 

4. How might teaching for student relevance be a ridiculously bad thing?

If you are only teaching things that students already know about and like then they won't discover anything new that they might also be interested in. You may also end up limiting what you teach to things you think they may enjoy when the students could become interested in all kinds of things.

5. For the unit you are envisioning, what will be your “entrance strategy”?

Since my unit is about Observation and Perspective, I want my students to spend some time observing things that interest them and then allowing them to share their experience so that I can understand a little about their perspective. Then I can work to introduce new ideas to them in relation to the things that interest them.

6. In an inquiry based, constructivist approach, a key question is “What does that mean?  What are some other ways that you can ask that question?

Why is this important?

What effect does it have?

How should people respond to this?

Who would look at this art? How would they respond to it?

7. As art teachers, we often pose artistic problems for our students, defining the constraints that we hope will cultivate divergent, creative solutions.  How do you plan to have students become researchers and pose their own creative problems?

The first step is creating an environment where students feel safe to ask questions. This means that students need to see that their ideas will be respected and taken seriously. It is also important to be an example of the kind of questioning that you want students to do by asking the students really good questions. It is also important for students to learn many differents ways of researching and solving problems so they will be encouraged to do research and problem solving on their own.

8. At this early stage in your unit, how do you envision the sequential organization of learning experiences or activities? Make a list of what you plan to do in sequence.

Michelangelo and Breaking Things Down.

Impressionist and Drawing What You See.

Aesthetic Perspectives

Thomas Moran and the Constructed View.

Deb Sokolow - Stakeout!

Los Carpinteros - Messing with Perspective

9. How will you determine if what you are doing is working? What counts as evidence of learning for you?

I think that I will know if my classroom is successful if the students are engaged, are making work, are being thoughtful about their work and are improving their skills then I will know that what I am doing is working. I do want students to improve their skills, which can be measured by comparing what they could do at the beginning of the year to what they could do at the end of the year. Measuring their understanding of concepts could be harder. If I need to I can have them write or talk about the concepts to see they understand but I would also like to be able to see how they can use concepts in the artwork that they make.

10. What are the learning goals for your unit?  What kinds of understandings are you reaching for in these goals?

Students will learn observational drawing skills and understand how they can improve their skills.

Students will understand different perspectives that people have had about art and how those perspectives would change the kind of art being created.

Students will understand how artists might manipulate the images the make and how that can influence people's perspectives.

Students will understand different ways that contemporary artists have used the concepts of observation and perspective in their work.

Week 4 - Aesthetics, Criticism and Art History

Enduring Idea: Observation and Perspective

Essential Questions: How have people viewed art in the past? How does society's view of art affect the kind of art that gets made? What are the consequences of viewing art in that way?

Lesson: First I would have students learn about some different aesthetic theories such as Expressivist, Formalist and Institutional theory. I would have the students work in groups and each group would have one theory assigned to them to understand better. Then I would show different images from art history and have the students critique the artwork based on the theory they were given.

Objectives: From this lesson I hope that students will understand a little more about how art criticism works how it would affect art history and also allow them to understand how artwork can be viewed differently from different perspectives.

Week 3 - Chapter 4 response

I want my art classes to be artmaking based but I want my student's work to be base on big ideas so that the work that they do can be purposeful and art that they make can be meaningful. In order to do this students will need to learn about the meaning behind other works of art by understanding Art Criticism and Art History, but I want students to be able to take the ideas they learn from these sources and use them to make art.

Week 2 - Getting Noticed Lesson Plan

Enduring Idea: Getting Noticed.

Rationale: There are many reasons that people would want to attract attention. To sell a product, to inform, to inspire change, etc.  There are also many methods that people use to attract attention.

Key Concepts: There are many techniques that people can use to get noticed.

Essential Questions: What are reasons that people would want to attract attention? How do people elicit that attention?

Unit Objectives: Students will design and create an effective sign to publicize something that is important to them.

Lesson: Ask students what ways people have used to draw attention to ideas they feel are important. In the discussion talk about how people have had protests for many different causes. Discuss some of the challenges that protesters may have when they create a sign that can be seen from a large crowd of people. Discuss some of the ways they may try to solve these problems. Discuss some of the benefits and problems with this sort of communication.

Project: Students will each choose something that is important to them that they will create a sign with a message that is clear and can be easily understood from a distance.

Week 2 - Teaching Metaphor. Teaching is like telling a story.

Teaching is like telling a story.
When you tell a story you have an experience that you want to share with another person, just as when you are teaching you have knowledge and information that you want to give to students. A good story teller will be able to make the story be interesting and engage the people they are talking to. Their story will be relevant, relatable and will have enough information for other people to understand what is going on. All of these qualities that make a good story can also help me to become a good teacher.

Week 1 - Kehinde Wiley

Enduring Idea: Displaying Power and Status.

Rationale: It is important for student to understand how people have used images to display their power and status and why displaying that power can affect the way people view each other.

Artist: Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps.

Key Concepts: Power and Status can be expressed through appearance and portraiture.

Essential Questions: How have artists shown that a person has power or status?

Unit Objectives: Students will show that they understand how artists can show how people have power and status by creating a portrait that does this.

Lesson: Show students Kehinde Wiley's painting Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps and have them compare it to the painting Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques- Louis David. Discuss with the students how David portrayed Napoleon. What did David do to show Napoleon's power? Why did Wiley would choose this portrait to use in his painting?

Project: Have a selection of other portraits of people of power. Have students choose one work to use in a portrait and have them choose someone they know personally. Students will then create a portrait of that person using elements from the portrait that show the person as a person of power.

Week 1 - Conceptual Framework Verbs

Listen - to give attention to; to make an effort to hear; to take notice of; In order to be good artists, students will need to be able to take in information from the world around them. They will need to understand different perspectives and learn about different ideas.

Think - to consider; to judge; to imagine; Students need to be able to think critically. They need to take time to analyze the information they receive and make judgements on what that information means. They also need to be able to imagine possible ways to respond to the information they take in.

Make - to create; to construct; to form from other substances; Making things should be the main way that students respond to the concepts that they learn in an art class. It is important for students to learn how to use many different ways make artistic responses and it is also important for them to understand that if they put in time to practice the kind of art they make their skills will improve.

Share - to show to others; to contribute to a conversation; It is also important for students to share their work with others. This is the only way for them to get a response to their work and to see how people can connect to their work and how their work can be important to others. Getting feedback on their work can also be a way for students to understand how their work could improve.