How to Approach DIFFERENT Students

It is obvious that they are using what they have learned in the class; using pattens?
More than that, how different is the way for them to use the place to draw?
How could teachers approach different-styled students effectively?

Check this out!

A website to check for ideas from England for using sketchbooks:

http://www.accessart.org.uk/sketchbook/

IMAGE RICH CLASSROOM

• How do we utilize images to enhance our classroom?
  
• How can images in our classroom support our teaching?
• How can images in our lessons help to facilitate our objectives?
  
• How can images function as a teacher in our classroom?

LEARNING FROM DOCUMENTATION

How can we expand our sense of student learning by watching this video? How is shared knowledge important here?

UNDERSTANDING THROUGH SKETCHBOOKS

Nearly every mark in Colin's picture is indicative of narrative and movement. How can sketchbook time help us, as teachers, to understand the child's understanding of the concepts we hope to teach? Here, Colin tells me, iceman is "throwing beans at the frozen things so they can look like themselves again, but really they just end up looking like pinatas."

Scaffolding Students' Learning

How do we provide the supports that students need to do the work they want to do?

How do we reinforce the scaffold as children work?

How can we continue to build the scaffold after our initial presentations?

On Your Mark...! Week 2- Exploring Water

This still life was one of three that we had set up on the three tables in the classroom. Each table had a different still life arrangement depicting texture, value or line. Students were asked to draw these objects in their sketchbooks. This activity was a great way to see student comprehension, retention and application of the concepts they learned last week. Part of this activity required us to go to each student and ask him or her which of the three options they thought the still life was and why they thought that. During our informal assessments, one of the students came up to us and asked if what we were doing then, we could do the whole day. That was such a touching moment because it displayed the kind of enthusiasm about art that every teacher loves to hear. However, not all the students were enjoying this activity. One thing that we can improve on and explore our options is how to inspire those students who are stuck or seemingly uninterested in the activity at hand. Part of our job as a teacher is to see where these students are at and relate the activity to them in such a way that they find inspiration or excitement about it so they can create something that is interesting to them.

This student is engaging a sensory drawing activity. Students were challenged to draw without seeing the object so that they had to rely on their other senses to inform their drawings. This activity pushed students beyond the traditional way of drawing. One student in particular had a hard time beginning his drawing because he was caught up on the idea that he could not figure out what the object looked like. He kept saying "I don’t know what it is.” Since he could not see the object, he had a hard time starting his drawing.




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This image shows a student being creative with materials for the musical watercolor activity. We gave the students a variety of materials other than paintbrushes such as cotton swabs, cotton balls, and eye droppers to use for this activity. We did not give them much instruction on technique because we wanted them to play with the materials and come about techniques on their own. This approach proved to be fruitful as you can see in this image.


The students were granted a lot of freedom in the musical watercolor activity not only in the actual application of paint but also the kinds of marks they were making. We discussed the idea of expressing yourself and what different types of music could lead the students to make different marks. The issue of ownership was a great discussion point within this lesson as well. Each student at the table worked on a painting for a short length of time and then passed it to the next person. By the end of the activity, every student at the table had painted on each artwork. There was some great dialogue that occurred during our discussion after the activity. One student said “I like the power of painting someone else’s picture.” This student had thought about the idea of ownership and collaboration and what that can make you feel like. Was it painting someone else’s picture or was the picture never anyone’s to begin with since everyone made marks on the paper? This idea was discussed further.
Teacher: “Why aren’t we putting our name on these paintings?”
Student 1: “Because everyone painted on it.”
Student 2: “Because the paint would get on the table.”
Teacher: “What do we call something that everyone painted on?”
Student 3: “A whole-table group painting.”

The students understood the relationship between collaboration and ownership.















This series of images shows the progression of the final activity of the lesson which related back to the still life drawings they completed at the beginning of the lesson. With a simple demonstration of how to use this watercolor technique, students had the freedom to explore different mark-making. Each student will also be able to keep the gourd that they drew in hopes that they will take it home and continue drawing and experimenting with marks. Taking the gourd home is one step in continuing and reinforcing what was learned in the lesson in places outside of the classroom. This communicates to the students that they can be practicing and thinking about what they learned in other places they live, not just when they are with their teachers in class.