I'm sure a lot of schools have a 'cafeteria' approach to art, but that's not been my experience in my Professional Experience placements, or when I attended Primary school myself.
Many of you would be familiar with rotations: when you split the class up into groups (e.g. 4 or 5 groups) and each day they do a different activity. One particular teacher made one of the rotations an arts corner. Some of these art activities were fantastic, and I was really pleased to see the students fully engaged with those units of work, proudly and happily displaying them on the classroom wall. I think it helped the teacher was quite 'arty' herself, and joined in with the task when possible. I, too, was asked to join in and create my own project with the students, not just assisting them with theirs, so it became a real enjoyable session.
Another teacher (different school) set aside a few lessons for students to draw pictures on small bits of card, which was to be used for a Principal's leaving gift book. They were able to be as creative as they wanted. Some children opted to do 'bubble writing' etc. instead, as that was their passion. The same class were involved in Readers' Cup which involved presenting a 4 minute retelling or skit on a particular book, in small groups. It was really wonderful to watch the students rehearse, make puppets, write scripts, make props and give their all in front of their peers.
I understand about arts being considered a 'non-essential' learning area, but what a difference it can make to other areas of students learning if they are given the chance to be creative, share something that is special to them, and be able to express themselves as individuals.
References
Speck, C. (1989). A depth art curriculum for the primary school. A Depth Art Curriculum. Retrieved from https://mylo.utas.edu.au |
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Hi Rich,
ReplyDeleteI too did not have a cafeteria approach to art education as I remember some of our projects lasting many weeks and being taught some intricate art techniques to make the end product.
I have begun to volunteer in a local primary school with the art teacher. She showed me some of her planning resources and she definitely does not use a cafeteria approach. Her weeks are planned out in blocks to enable each area of the curriculum to be covered. She does this by using one larger project to cover the curriculum content, such as textiles or painting and teaching the children techniques from that area of visual art. Over the course of the seven years in primary school, the children have built up a bank of visual art knowledge covering the whole of the curriculum.
I am excited to be learning from her for this term as I can see ways of working with the specialist art teacher to complement what they are doing and using it in my generalist classroom. After all, it is the 'fun' things we remember in life, not the drab, repetitive tasks, and art in my mind is fun.
Sarah, that's really great - what fantastic experience, and many ideas being gathered I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteIt's great that we can use the curriculum to incorporate art, it makes it so much easier, I think.
The students in my PE3 class attended art class 1/2 a block a week, but my CT chose to use this time to do other things like planning etc. so I didn't get to witness any classes. The students did say they really enjoyed art though, so I think it's great when schools have a specialist teacher for this, or when school heads encourage and support the inclusion of art.