Familiarisation

How might your own experiences, perceptions and feelings towards visual art impact upon your willingness and preparedness to provide visual arts learning experiences to your students?

My feelings towards art could very much impact upon the learning experiences I prepare for my students (Dinham, 2014, p. 309). I understand this question is probably aimed at those who perhaps had a negative experience of art when they were at school. Luckily, mine was a very positive experience, and I have seen some wonderful lessons utilising fine arts during my professional experience placements, as shown below:

Images drawn by grade 5 students at a primary school in Launceston as part of their historical convict unit (Aug 2015).

What might you do to ensure you provide sufficient opportunity to ensure your students fulfil their right to experience the visual arts as part of their education?

I believe if I am guided by the curriculum, and be sure to incorporate visual art on a regular basis within lesson sequences and group rotations (Brown, Macintyre, & Watkins, 2012, p. 125). This will make it easy to be prepared and willing to provide positive visual arts learning experiences for my students. I am also keen to learn from Professional Development workshops and be inspired and network with like-minded teachers in my school or community. For example, I was quite inspired by the teacher next door to our classroom in PE3 who always seemed to incorporate interesting visual art ideas into her many lessons, and she was willing to talk about her techniques and ideas.

Breaking the ‘creative’ ice

Rich's hand drawing (without looking at picture while drawing)

Art class teaches kids to...

My primary school teaching, artistic cousin posted this on her facebook wall - very inspiring.

Lessons

• Mrs Brown's Art Class
• DickBlick - Lesson Plans for K-4 Art

References

Brown, R., Macintyre, P., & Watkins, M. (2012). Learning in and Through the Visual Arts. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, & J. O'Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 111-127). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford.

Dinham, J. (2014). Delivering Authentic Arts Education (2nd ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Cengage.

Children produce large quantities of art when they are young – particularly between the ages of four and six. (Boone, 2008, p. 30)

I can relate to this from the perspective of both of my children.  My daughter was a prolific drawer and producer of art from a young age.  My son, however, was completely opposite.  He would only draw when absolutely necessary.  He did like to construct things, both from Mobilio and in the sand-pit - his artistic endeavours were not on paper.


Theme 6: Children believe artistic ability improves with age.
Young children assert that physical development adds to a person's artistic ability.  As children grow, their fine motor ability (i.e., pencil grip) improves, which allows them to have more control and accuracy in drawing and painting. (Boone, 2008. p. 32)

 This links in with what I was discussing above.  My son has some artistic talent and this has improved with age.  He still prefers to make stuff and is an avid origami producer.  This shows that his fine motor skills have improved as he has matured to the point that he can make some very intricate things with paper. (See montage of pictures for his artwork.)  He may not be the conventional artist who draws, but he is an artist in his own right.

 

Early childhood literature acknowledges art for its contribution to the general development of children (Tarr, 1989), but does not specifically discuss the pleasure and social skills children derive from art experiences. Early childhood is exploratory in nature, so play-based learning is promoted within early childhood settings. (Boone, 2008, p .36)

This quote resonates with me as I really enjoyed art in my primary school: making bubble pictures, pasta cards, mirror images with paint, sewing pictures, etc..  It was only when I progressed onto high school that I began to feel that art was not my thing.  I did not fit into what the teacher wanted.  Art is a subjective subject, what I like or do not like does not mean that everyone will feel the same.  We have to take the creativity from the piece and appreciate it.

References

Boone, D.J. (2008). Young children’s experience of visual displays of their artwork. Australian Art Education, 31(2), 22-45.

Tarr, P. (1989). Pestalozzian and Froebelian influences on contemporary elementary school art. Studies in Art Education, 30(2), 115-121.

 

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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