journal #1

Double Entry Journal- Chapter 1:  Teaching the Language Arts

Kimberly Artman- August 25, 2012

     Pamela Farris draws our attention to the importance of language in the book Language Arts: Process, Product, and Assessment.  She introduces the typical use of language arts with the beginning teacher (pg. 1-5) that uses popular children’s’ literature to entice open ended questions.  This sparks a discussion among the children and the teacher guides the discussion to include phonemic awareness, grammar and vocabulary with a word wall supporting the book she is reading.  This whole language approach is different than years past.  In the 1800’s the teaching method of choice was lecture style with a “listen only” mentality as the teacher was the only oral participant.  In the 1900’s however phonics were introduced as well as silent reading.  Basal readers became popular in 1950’s and individual integration along with whole language learning was introduced in the 70’s and 80’s.  It wasn’t until the turn of the century that balanced reading, including phonics and comprehension came into play.  The No Child Left Behind Act was introduced and the government held schools accountable for all children to become proficient in reading and math.  This high expectation to have all children reading at grade level, frustrated teachers and new techniques, in various forms, were applied.  Farris suggests teachers use a whole language approach that includes listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visual representation.  Farris says “As teachers we must understand each of the language arts individually so that we can better teach them in integrated fashion.” (pg. 32)

     I have been teaching for 10 years and it seems there is always a pendulum swing in styles of teaching.  Teachers are being introduced to new methods of curriculum instruction it seems on a yearly basis.  When No Child Left Behind came out in 2002, teachers were held accountable for instructing students to pass a test which heavily focused on reading and math.  All students were expected to be at grade level regardless of background, race, or cultural influence.  The expectations were set to high to not take into account all aspects of a students learning.  I teach visual arts and I did a year of student teaching in the 4^th grade classroom.  I asked the mentor teacher when I could incorporate more lessons that were visually stimulating integrating the arts to other subject area like Science, History, and Handwriting. I believed artwork would grab their attention and make learning more enjoyable.  She said the school system had adopted special books and teachers were to stick to the material. Math and reading were to take up the majority of the instructional time with little allowance for other areas.  It was if teachers were expected to follow a plan set forth by the school board and administration that allowed little diversity of the daily, scheduled routine.  I incorporated Readers Theater to add drama integrated with their daily reading.  I also incorporated journal writing and drawing into students reflections after an oral reading of a piece of literature.  I added a 3D assignment (sculpture) into the research of pit houses on a unit of Southwest Native Americans.  I have always thought that the arts were a vital aspect into any core subject area.  I love that this book believes on the integration of all styles of learning including visual representation.  Each child needs to experience lessons using all types of senses including sight, sound, and touch.  The fine arts bridge the learning style gap through music, dance, theater, singing, and visual arts.  

Journal #7

Double Entry Journal- Chapter 7:  Listening

Kimberly Artman- October 27, 2012

I really liked this chapter.  I believe skills in listening are needed in our society now more than ever.  Students are inundated with sound from cell phones, television, games, computers, iPods, and other interactive media.  I like that Farris mentions the different levels of listening like marginal, appreciative, attentive and critical.  Most people believe listening is just an on and off activity like a light switch.  I was also encouraged to use a higher level thinking technique by answering questions about the book that is going to be read like describing characters, sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, making predictions, and solving problems.  I believe by telling the students that these questions will be forthcoming it makes the student anticipate finding the answers.  Another thing I think people (teachers) forget to do on a daily basis is to create an environment for listening.  Some of the ways mentioned in chapter 7 included providing a purpose, providing follow up, and listening to other students when they are speaking.  I enjoy readers theater for this purpose because the students are waiting for their part to come up and have to follow along in the skit to know their place.  I am also going to incorporate the hand and finger method to make sure that special need and ELL students know the 5 given questions after a story is read (setting, characters, problem, plot, and resolution).

I don’t think I told you the story about one of the kindergarten classes that I teach once a week.  Well actually I have many stories and kindergartners are usually the main characters (so this is an additional story to ones I have already told you about).  At the beginning of the year I know kindergarten students don’t work long on manners or behavior in the classroom as they are new to the school environment.  A major component of classroom management is getting and keeping the students attention.  Kindergartners are very exuberant and it is hard to keep their attention for more than a few minutes at a time.  I wanted them to listen and told them I couldn't hear all their voices at once and needed to have them raise their hand when they want to talk.  As soon as I said this about half of their hands were in the air talking as if I had given them permission.  I said “why are you all talking at once?  I told you to raise your hands if you wanted to talk” and one boy said “we were raising our hand and talking” and then I knew it was the way I phrase the question.  This of course made me smile and shake my head.  I began my lesson after rephrasing the way I needed to talk before they were allowed to talk.  I was talking about colors and the feelings each color may portray.  I explained warm and cool colors on the color wheel and told them that the warm colors are happy, exciting, and fun and the cool colors were calm, relaxing, and even sad.  I then asked the kids to cut out pictures that had cool colors like purple, green, and blue from magazines and that they could only use cool colors.  One little boy was seated at the table and was pasting pictures very fast and full of excitement.  I looked at his paper and there wasn’t any cool colors but pictures of sneakers, sports cars, and music.  I asked him how those were cool colors and he said “you said to cut out the cool pictures and these things are cool to me”.  Then the kids in the classroom started to make comments like “Well I want a car on my paper” or “ I can add jewelry then” and I explained that it had to be one of the cool colors.  One student asked “cool to you and other art people or cool to kids?”  I started laughing and said that I didn’t make up the color wheel and I would like to stick to the rules of art.  I guess cool is different when you're 5 then when you are 42.

Journal #6

Double Entry Journal- Chapter 6:  Speaking

Kimberly Artman- October 14, 2012

Few things get me on a soap box and stressing the importance of creativity in children is one that I can’t hold back on.  When reading chapter 6 on speaking Farris points out the origins of language and the importance of the environment in which the students are raised in.  She also goes into detail on how as infants we learn to develop sound into words and eventually into sentences.  The use of oral skills is of utmost importance in society.  Communication is found everywhere and using oral language helps people put their thoughts into speaking, thinking, writing, and listening.  Conversational skills are needed now more than ever with the electronic era at hand.  When I asked a student to read back his notes on the elements of art he didn’t say anything.  I asked him to help me understand what he had written and he responded “I can’t read my writing”.  I asked him how he expected me to read it and he said “because you’re the teacher”.  I find all the skills found in language arts to be of vital importance in helping our students succeed in the future….just as I do creativity.

 Now… on my soap box I go….. I have always liked language and the study of words as stressed by Farris in chapter 6.  The chapter went on to linking oral skills in literature, poetry, choral speaking, and reading out loud.  Farris then started to highlight creativity as an important dynamic in the classroom.  I thoroughly enjoyed her views on readers theater, storytelling, and media as a creative outlet for speaking.  I began reading her stance on drama and puppetry and loved her connection to them as an extension of creative play.  I knew early on in life that I wanted to be a teacher of some sort of art (music, dance, theater, art, etc) because I was a visual learner.  Unfortunately many teaching styles only cater to those who can memorize and test well.  I liked the feeling of being in art class as I felt they spoke my language… creativity!  Sometimes I think we forget that many of our students are dominated by the right side of the brain.  Their language isn’t spoken frequently so it is important we allow them that outlet of expression through the arts.  I have been an art advocate for many years.  I believe art should be considered a core subject like math and reading.  I have run an after school arts program for the last 9 years.  Students could enroll in any art club for free of charge for a couple hours a week (see photos above).  As director of the program I enrolled approximately 150 to 170 students in various art clubs per semester.  Students enjoyed art, music, dance, theater, puppetry, dance, singing, crochet, digital arts, and set design.  I hired mostly Educational Assistants as most the licensed teachers were handling their classroom work after school.  This year our district implemented a rule that does not allow EA’s to put in extra time outside their regularly scheduled work week.  I lost all my arts teachers and now the program has been put on hold.  Licensed teachers do not have the time and professional artists don’t want to hassle with the hiring process through the schools.  I am devastated as we touched so many children's lives and invited the public to assemblies, shows, and displays throughout the years.  I implore anyone reading this to help the arts stay in schools and defend the creativity, imagination, and problem solving skills found only in the arts. Please look into Americans for the arts at artsusa.org as this organization is dedicated to keeping arts in the schools.  They have wonderful information and ways to contribute in your own school system.  I am thankful to Dr. Harvey for stressing the importance of art and the connection it plays in a well rounded student.

Journal #4

Double Entry Journal- Chapter 4:  Children’s Literature

Kimberly Artman- September 20, 2012

     Once again Pamela Farris has another informational chapter in Children’s Literature.  She explains that there are many aspects to making a well written children’s book.  She describes the importance of various aspects in literary elements such as characterization, plot, setting, theme, style and illustration.  Farris goes into further detail showing the different genre’s of children's literature like traditional, modern fantasy, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, biography and autobiography, informational and poetry.  One of the things that she also covered was multicultural books which expose children to different cultures.  Some  of the many books I have on my shelf are about cultures like Hispanics, Chinese, African Americans, and Native Americans.  I was excited to see that there is criteria set forth in multicultural books as some are indeed biased and not written to educate and connect various groups.  She also mentions thematic units for children and expanding these units to integrate Science, History,  and cultural studies. 

     I decided to do a thematic unit on storytelling.  I use the long connected computer paper and spread it out on my cafeteria tables.  The students were divided into groups of three and were given two sections of the paper.   The child that was sitting on the far left was to do the title page and first page of the book, the student in the middle had come up with a climatic point in the story, and the student at the end was to wrap up the story and provide a moral or lesson that was learned.  I also decided to use a different theme at each table so the whole class had to come up with a different story based on the books placed in front of them.  The sections of books for this theme based group lesson included some of the following categories:  Sea Life, Trains, Native Americans, Colors, Animals, Fantasy characters, and famous artists.  Children were told to look through the books but not copy the existing story but one that was produced by their specific group.  One group had famous artists and the books in front of them contained cartoon images by Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, Vincent Van Gogh, and Salvador Dali.  They were doing fine until one of the children started to cry.  She was the analytical, fact driven child.  I asked her why she was upset and she told me that they were drawing the book all wrong.  I asked her group what that story was about and it was based off a book by Salvador Dali called Dali and the Path of Dreams.  Dali was a surrealist and the book involved an adventure with long legged elephants, flying clocks and a magic key.  The students in the group decided to come up with a story with talking eggs, a giant cat, and an ice cream house.  The little girl was disturbed because she was at the beginning and drew a big cat.  The student in the middle drew eggs walking down a path looking out for the giant cat and the last student wrapped up the story with the cat leaping on the eggs before reaching the ice cream house.  She was upset that the story didn’t make sense and that cats wouldn’t eat eggs and if the cat did pounce on them that they would break.  Furthermore the ice cream house would melt as she drew a bright sun on her paper with the giant cat.  This was my first experience explaining that surrealist like imagination and the story doesn’t have to make sense.  She said she needed another piece of paper to take out the sun to make the story believable.  I let her redraw her part to specifications.  She was a cute child but needed to loosen up a little in imagination driven books.

  

Journal #3

Double Entry Journal 3

The author points out three main learning theories:  innative, constructivist, and behaviorist.   Each theory has a suggestion on how a child learns language.  Whether a person believes in the environment making a large impact, human intelligence programmed at birth, or driven out of reinforcement, those of us teaching needs to be aware of each theory as we design lesson plans.  Vygotsky’s belief in the zone of proximal development is that a child will use language to help them solve problems. When a child needs help and can be assisted by another person (or group) they are building on knowledge and learning a task through the assistance of language.  I especially like the breakdown of multiple intelligences into diverse categories:  linguistic, musical, logical-mathmatical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist, existentialist and spiritualistic intelligence.  So many times teachers forget that students learn on many different levels.  Children can fit into several of these categories and teachers need to diversify their methods of instruction to hit many diverse learners. Students can learn in a variety of ways and styles.  Having a classroom with an inviting environment will stimulate and motivate children to learn at a higher level while having fun.

     One of my favorite things to teach students (from kindergarten to fifth grade) is to learn the famous pieces of art.  I start off with ten pictures at the lower grades and eventually work up to thirty artworks by fifth grade.  Sometimes I have to offer hints as to what might be in the title of the artwork.  I use popular pieces like The Mona Lisa, Blue Boy, Whistlers Mother, The Scream, Starry Night, American Gothic, Blue Vase, Sunflowers, Waterlillies, Three Musicians, Girl with the Pearl Earring, The Old Guitarist, Still Life with Apples, Dance Class, and I and the Village to name a few.  Some paintings were easy to remember (Blue Vase, Dance Class, Sunflowers, The scream, etc.) while others we would need to give hints.  While flashing a card of Whistler’s Mother, I puckered my lips to show whistling and when the flash card of Girl with the Pearl Earring came up I would point to my ears.  One picture always stumped the class and that was American Gothic.  One day a student raised his hand enthusiastically and said “Mrs. Artman, I know where I saw this picture!” and I was so happy that someone recognized it for once.  I asked him “Where did you see it?” and he said “oh that’s easy…. Squidward did it on SpongeBob Square Pants!”.  I gave a big smile and the class started to discuss the episode it was on.  Another child said “Can I tell you where I saw another one of the pictures?” and I thought…. what the heck…. We are learning from SpongeBob…. and told the child to tell me her memory of a piece of art.  She said she knew The Last Supper and saw it every Sunday.  I said “I don’t think it’s the real one, it must be a print.” and the child said “No my grandma looks at it after church when we eat and says a prayer to the guys playing cards at the table.” I decided I was done with explaining prints and moved on to another lesson.  Yup…. They keep me on my toes!

Literature journal 2

Double Entry Journal- Chapter 2:  Children and Teachers in the Classroom

Kimberly Artman- August 25, 2012

     Teachers have a challenge to meet the needs of many diverse learners.  The way students learn is to feel that the knowledge being taught is applicable to their lives and it is presented in an exciting manner in which to engage their natural curiosity.  To know the background of the students is to know the students.  How do teachers know their students?  Various forms of information can be obtained through the school system, class work, parent meetings, anecdotal records, and simple observation techniques as Farris suggests in the second chapter.   “Children’s differences make the classroom interesting and teaching challenging” (pg. 44) and learning these differences can effectively guide the curriculum for similar students.  Children that come from a middle white class family may have a different background than that of a lower class African American family. Moreover their dialects may differ even within the same social group.  For instance Spanish speakers have the challenge of learning English but have an additional hurdle with someone trying to translate the information in a different dialect or geographical location.  As teachers we must realize the needs of each child and try to help them grow to the best of their abilities.  We can do that by being flexible, creating a safe and inviting environment, welcoming diversity, and creating lessons that hit different learning styles in the class.

     I have a funny story relating to the flexibility of lesson plans one day as I was teaching at a school close to the Mexican border.  I was fortunate enough to have an assistant that spoke fluid Spanish and I thought that was all I needed.  Other teachers had also informed me that most of the kids spoke English and that I wouldn’t really need to taper my lessons ( I go to this small town each Friday and have since learned my own abilities to teach a lesson to ELL students).  The day I am talking about was at the beginning of my teaching career and I was overly excited to present the visual arts lessons I had prepared.  My assistant was prepared to interpret the lesson but was new to the visual arts field.  The upper grades went relatively well.  I started out slow (I thought) and introduced the basic elements of art… line, shape, color, texture, value, and form.  The day switched tones when the kindergarten class came in.  They all stared at me with these big eyes.  I introduced the lesson and started talking about the 3 primary colors: red, yellow, and blue.  I asked my assistant to translate and she could translate the colors in Spanish but didn’t know the typical art vocabulary like primary, secondary, tint, hue, etc.  so we called the front desk to see if the secretary knew.  She didn’t.  She called the other teachers around that were fluid in Spanish and they drew a blank as well.  In the mean time I am standing in front of the class with a bunch of bewildered students.  I started to doodle on the board and the students responded in Spanish what I was drawing.  I drew a horse (caballo), a cat (gato), and a house (casa) and would try to say the names after the kids would shout the answer out.  I wasn’t very good and the children giggled and tried to help me sound out the words.  They would say “nooooo” and laugh hard.  I never got the answer to my question on art terms but spent the rest of the day learning my primary and secondary colors in Spanish (I still trip up on “anaranjardo” which means orange).  At the end of the day I was laughing as well.  I asked my assistant why the children kept yelling “maestra” and raising their hands.  She giggled and said “maestra means teacher in Spanish”.  Teachers learn something new every day.… at least I hope they do.

Discussion questions on Maria by Mary Wollstonecraft

Discussion question 1 (Maria by Mary Wollstonecraft)

Jemima is a very prominent character in the middle of the book.  She takes center stage as Maria and Darnford listen to her retell her life’s hardships.  I thought the memoir was lengthy as I was expecting to hear of Maria and Darnford’s relationship when in fact the story did not focus on their interactions but of friendship and hardship of all of them.  Jemima told of poverty, uncaring parents, run away, abuse and heartbreak which paralleled Marias story.  It was like a bond between two like women as they related through the darkest times.  A person can merely sympathize with someone who has been raped but a woman who has been abused looses part of herself.  Her inner being is changed and to be able to hear about another person who has experienced that deep pain as well brings forth a spiritual connection.  It is like Maria had liked Jemima but after her story she knew that their friendship moved to another level.  This relationship was similar to the one Maria had with Darnford.  She had a curiosity about him and even liked their brief conversations but it wasn’t until he told her of his darkened past that she truly felt the love enter her soul.  The story is about a friendship between Jemima, Maria and Darnford.  Jemima is definitely a character that enhances the story with parallel life similar to that of Maria.

Discussion question 2

Once again I see women being in love with being in love.  I have even noticed that students say they are bi-sexual in order to open up the field of possible lovers.  Many girls get knocked down by men that hurt them, yet they stand back up and say “I know the next one will different” or “men don’t treat me right so then women must be the answer”.  I think they look for the love they see in movies with all the romance, sex, and adventure whereas real love it holding hands, reading together, and growing old with your partner.  One of my friends was constantly being physically and mentally abused by her boyfriend.  She would get the courage to break up with him only to find another boyfriend that treated her worse.  She would ask me why I didn’t ever have a man beat up on me and I just said “because I don’t allow that type of person to come into my life”.  I would tell her that I am not afraid to be alone.  I am secure in who I am as a person and the morals in my life have to match the one I am going to be with.  With all this said, I think Maria is the type of character I have listed above as some of the teenagers with the same “desperate” love.  Like my friend, they look for love even if it is an abuse love.  Darnford is a player and Maria was just a passing play toy for him.  Maria idolized him as she wanted so much for “this man” to be the one.  In the end, he was similar to her husband that jailed her in the first place but only more spiteful in that he showed her love and left her with despair.

AP workshop (work in process)

Pre AP Studio Art Workshop

Foundation of Advanced Placement in Studio Art:

Starting at Elementary School

Kimberly Artman

Western New Mexico University

                                                                Introduction

     If you ask any Elementary Visual Arts teacher if art education is important to the overall development of a child, the answer would be an overwhelming response of “yes”.  The arts are linked to the core subject areas and are vital to a childs’ development in concepts, theories, multiple solutions, and of course, imagination and creativity.  What then can a teacher do to advocate for the development of the right side of the brain?  How can I assess the various works of art the students produce and give it a grade?  This was currently being done with high school students in preparation for college so I became intrigued and enrolled in an Advanced Placement Workshop held at the University of New Mexico the week of June 22 to June 25, 2012.

                                                  What was learned in the workshop

     I didn’t know what to expect from a workshop on advanced placement, as I often associated the classes with high school students who wish to gain college credit.  I was drawn in by the title of this particular workshop (Pre AP Studio Art) as it was designed specifically for middle and elementary art teachers in how to prepare the students before they enter high school.  The class was taught by Jane Harlow whom had 42 years of experience in education and was an APSA College Board reader for 18 years.  She had a lot of information and hands on assignments to share with us as we learned how to prepare our young students in visual arts.

     Ms. Harlow started the workshop for the week with a brief background about herself and the AP program mission for professional development for visual arts teachers.  She agreed that the visual arts are essential in the AP program and that knowledge started as early as elementary level students.  She hadn’t taught much in a middle or elementary school but knew of the importance of those teachers to the success of the students in the AP program in high school.

     The remaining teachers introduced themselves and the districts they represented.  We talked briefly about our classrooms and the ages of the children we taught in visual arts.  There were 3 middle school teachers and myself who teaches at 3 elementary schools.  We were excited to hear how we could help students, being elementary and middle school teachers, at a high school level and Ms. Harlow showed us a sample portfolio which included 2D, 3D, and drawing folders.  Within each of the content areas, students had to apply 3 levels of competency. 

     The first level called “Quality” involved the students understanding of a concept, composition and execution of a work of art they had completed within the last calendar year.  The student would submit 5 examples in each of the 2D and drawing categories and 10 examples in 3D work.  This part of the portfolio would receive 1/3 of the students’ grade.

     The second level called “Concentration” involved a theme or area of focus.  Students could use an object or image as part of their investigation in their work.  Students were to submit 12 images of work which included a close up view.  This section of the portfolio can show development of the artist from the first slide or picture to the last.  This section was also 1/3 of the students overall grade.

     The third level called “BREADTH” is an execution of the artist’s talents in variety and broadness in their work.  Students submit 12 images that show a range of artistic ability.  A variety of mediums and subjects are encouraged to be submitted digitally.  This shows that the artist has diverse talents in multiple fields.  Again this score represented another third of their combined grade.

     Ms. Harlow showed us digital examples of student artwork.  We decided on a score as a group (as the readers for the AP program do individually) and learned how to look for each of the levels in each concentration.  This gave us an idea of what type and level of artwork is needed for a high scoring portfolio.  The artist needed to know the basic concepts of art that are learned at an elementary level.  She also took some time for hands on projects which can teach our students various forms of expression.

     We had a compilation of lessons that we wanted to try as a group.  One of the lessons showed us how to use mediums of magazines and glue to produce a completed work of art.  Mrs. Harlow showed us levels in the lesson that can be used in the elementary school and more difficult techniques for middle and high school.  We covered a 12 X 14 piece of cardboard and images from quality magazines.  We glued a collage of our choice and each of us picked different colors and subjects.  Next we drew on the magazine collage with Elmers glue.  Mrs. Harlow explained that the contents underneath the Elmers glue would remain brilliant in color whereas the surrounding negative area would be washed or dulled with

Never Dull.  As the polish was added to the collage (after the glue dried) the background faded in color and the glue was then removed to show the magazine colors underneath.  What a great way to tie Science into the visual arts.

     The next project could also be used to link Science to visual arts as a lesson on color theory.  The teachers were asked to pick a particular color of construction paper and paint a picture of our choice on top of it.  We were told that the areas with the least amount of tempera would be dark in color as we were going to be adding black ink over the entire painting.  The areas left blank would be dark black as the ink would be readily absorbed in the paper.  The areas of the painting that had a heavy amount of paint would remain somewhat light.  It was a great project and a learning experience for those of us who did not typically use ink in the classroom.  After 20 minutes of drying the ink over the painting Ms. Harlow told us to rinse the painting under the sink water and gently rub the areas to the desired look we wished to achieve.

                                           How it will be applied to the classroom

     I like to demonstrate artwork because I am a visual learner.  The lessons I teach are written down on the board, restated verbally, and shown in a demonstration as I feel all areas of learning need to be taught.  The examples above show a more complex subject matter and would be made more generalized for an elementary crowd.  So instead of a complex tree drawing in glue or a heard of wild horses in ink, I would do a simple mountain or fish shape.

     The lessons above can be used at any grade level as the lesson can be tapered to the intellectual level of the audience.  Since I am an elementary school art teacher I would focus more on the basic elements of art (line, shape, form, texture, color, space and value) whereas a middle or high school teacher would teach the advanced techniques we did during the workshop.  I would use primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) for the magazine project and basic shapes for the tempera resist with ink.  One shape would be painted in and the other shape would be outlined only in order to show how ink absorbs into the texture of the paper and not into the paint that was thickly layered beforehand.  This activity gives a lesson in problem solving as demonstrated by my son who will be entering fifth grade.

                                                            Instructions

Step one:  Choose a colorful magazine that has quality photos.  Cut colors and images that are attractive.

Step two:  Glue colors and images onto a cardboard piece.  Images and color strips should cover the whole board and extend toward the back.  Make sure all pieces are glued flat.

Step three:  Add glue on top of the dried magazine strips.  Think of an image to draw with glue (possibly sketch it on the back or on a blank paper) and apply carefully.  The glue should be uniform and thick but not solid to allow the magazine colors to come through.  Let dry overnight.

Step four:  Carefully remove glue.  Use a rolling pin or cup to apply pressure as this will loosen the glue to be taken off.  Touch up any spot with glue or paint as needed to complete the artwork.

ART Assessment

Name: ______________________________________          Class: ___________

Ex	Ad	Ac	NW
Pre	Lesson
	3
	3
	3
	3
16	12
	Studio
	3
4
4
		2
	3
		2
24	18
	Work

4
4
	3
	3
	3
	13		24
+	12		16
+	18		16
	43		56
x	2	x	2
=	86		112

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Student                      max. total

Artwork Critique Form QUESTIONS Write your ideas here. Give first impressions. Make guesses. Say what you see, do not say what you like, or don't like. Do not judge.  Describe, analyze, and interpret. l. What stands out the most when you first see it?  The orange color on the top. 2.  Explain the reason you notice the thing you mention in number 1. It is a different color than the background.  It is a warm color. 3.  As you keep looking, what else seems important?  The cone below the chocolate top. 4.  Why does the thing you mention in number 3 seem important? It holds the ice cream and it has lines. 5.  How has contrast been used?  Yes, it has both white and black. 6.  What leads your eye around from place to place? The words make your eyes go around in a circle. 7.  What tells you about the style used by this artist? I used magazines and glue. 8. What seems to be hiding in this composition?  The magazine pictures in the back. 9.  Why do you think this was partially hidden?  I added stuff to the front. 10. Imagine the feelings and meanings this artwork represents?  When I look at my picture I feel relaxed because it is mostly cool colors. 11. What titles could you give this artwork? Sweet treat 12. What other things interest you about this artwork? I made it from glue and magazines…. And that was all.

Teacher Comments:

Brannan, what a great idea to use a simple design to try with this project!  I like that you used dark colors since you knew that the color would fade with the solvent.  I also like how you used texture on the cone and the ice cream.  Maybe next time you can add more glue on the top part so you don’t have to cover up with more magazine colors.  Remember to use complimentary colors to make the positive image stand out.  I am excited to see what the next design will be.                                                                          Mrs. Artman

I decided to use a comparative assessment similar to projects that he has have done in the past.  The only difference was that the one I had Brannan do after the workshop was removing elements from the piece of art instead of the addition of various mediums.  The artwork below shows the various types of assignments done by Brannan the year prior to the workshop whereas the assessments earlier were specifically for the assignment for this study.

                                                                            

                                                                  Summary

     One of the main things I took from the program was that vertical alignment is a must in all districts.  This can be obtained from a monthly or quarterly meeting with all the visual arts teachers in the district, by discussing ways in which techniques can be built upon to achieve a higher level of learning at a high school level.  For instance, if an elementary teacher taught students the primary and secondary colors, then the middle school teacher could teach about intermediate and complimentary colors.  Then the high school teacher and the student that may be interested in doing an AP class would have a foundation in which to use advanced coloring techniques like analogous, triad, or split complimentary colors.  If the skills were not acquired at an elementary level, time would be wasted on teaching basic concepts and the skill level would not be as high.

                                                                  References

American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.