The Painting Studio Opens!

This was the Junior and MS required Day 1 activity. Color Mixing Review: Please answer each question in paint, without words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second graders were challenged to mix as many colors as they could. Would you have any idea that I only give them red, yellow, blue, black, and white paint?

Juniors learned about painting backgrounds first, and building their image up in layers.

For some kindergarten artists, watching colors blend together and feeling the brush move on paper is the important part of the learning and creating process.

Splatter painting is really popular. We use a splatter box to protect other artist's work (and clothes!).

This 5th grader was inspired by Van Gogh.

A few more (almost) finished creations.

What is TAB?

If you’re a Sage student or a Sage parent who came to Back To School night, you’ve heard me speak about TAB and the new classroom structure in the art room this year. TAB stands for “Teaching for Artistic Behavior,” and is a method for teaching art that puts the student fully in charge of the creative process. Simply put, the student is an artist, and the classroom is their studio. In this model, rather than the teacher inventing projects for the students to do, the students choose what they want to make and how. Artistic instruction comes in the form of short demonstrations at the start of each class, or in individual lessons as inspired by the path a student chooses. Just today alone I’ve been asked to explain perspective, how to use polymer clay to transfer an image, and why subtractive color theory works. We’ve also had fabulous conversations on stereotypes that a viewer may bring to an artwork, or what it is that makes someone say “WOW” at certain artworks.

I find this change in my classroom incredibly exciting, but also a bit scary as I embark on something new. It’s hard to let go of some of the control I used to have over what students made and how they learned. A fellow TAB teacher posted her observations of this process on her blog. It's a description that I wholeheartedly agree with, and as she's more verbally inclined than I, I'll let her speak for me:

"I think all TAB teachers may go through buyer's remorse when they let go of the beautiful, teacher-directed projects that wowed adults and looked great on the bulletin board. To expect that the authentic art of K-3 children will approach this standard is unrealistic.   It takes some time to adjust and genuinely appreciate kid-art that is developmentally appropriate, but not always adult pleasing. Our ideas of what should be produced in the art room is skewed from prevailing practice in which children are manipulated to produce an artificial product – products that are naive-chic.   Have you ever taught that portrait lesson where you ask the kids to draw just head, neck and shoulders ("like your school portrait" I used to say – often timing this to be near school portrait time…)? Although you specifically instruct the kids to let the shoulders come right to the edge, and meet the bottom of the paper, some kids sneak their arms and legs into the picture, resulting in a huge head and neck and comically-tiny arms and legs? To them, it just doesn't make sense to crop the image in the way you suggest. Cropping is a concept that comes later on. WE like the way it looks, and appreciate the way it helps kids draw big (WE love it when kids draw big). How many of us have instructed kids that their image needs to touch 3 sides of the paper? That helps makes their art look great too ("their art?") We are experts at this subtle control to produce product. When students are allowed to explore, experiment, play and discover, it is not uncommon for them to take several steps backward developmentally – back to a more age-appropriate stage, or even earlier, to a less mature stage - if they have had little experience and opportunity to use art materials without adult control. Hand-printing, finger-painting, splatter painting and swirls of color are all pretty normal step-one (scribble stage) stuff – but kind of boring, so most students use that as a stepping stone toward work with more purpose.   I had an interesting experience today with a class made up of half old know-it-alls (students I started last year who were chomping at the bit to get to ALL the centers NOW!!!!!!!) and half new-to-me students. I TRIED to open centers slowly, but the experienced ones were getting ready to either explode or mutiny, so I opened drawing, painting and sculpture all at once, and asked their help to bring the new kids along.   After I said my standard "centers are now open – start your art" a new 6th grader came to me and said "I listened to everything you said, but I must have missed something – what are we supposed to do?" I explained that it was up to her – she should choose a center and begin. I watched as she started a painting and it was as if she had never experienced any of it before – what to do? What to make? How to make it? What next? And now what? Each mark she made delighted her – she made a blue heart outline (on a GIANT paper), and filled it with red (she was delighted with this too) then - made a red heart outline and filled it with blue (it was touch and go for a minute – had she started the second heart too close to the first heart? Would it fit? A cliff hanger!!!!) Then what? 5 minutes till clean up? Hurry! Scribble scratch paint a background! Ooo – that doesn't look very nice! Now what? Oh! Fill it in with black! Look it covers all the scratchy back ground! Time's up! Finish tomorrow.   I wish I video-taped her – it was like watching a baby take her first steps. Will it look good to the principal? Nope. Was it a good use for a 24" X 36"poster board? Probably not – could have used newsprint. What will it say about my program if I have an art show? Not much. What was the quality of the learning? Enormous. The student is the product – not the painting. The learning is the thing. The thing is not the thing. Will she charge into the studio tomorrow eager to get to work? I'll let you know (I am betting yes)."
     - Nan Hathaway, Rocky Mountain School for Gifted and Creative in Boulder, CO

The Drawing Studio Opens!

Drawings of the solar system have been really popular!

 

 

 

Some students experimented with the effects of oil pastel. Doesn't it look like the surface of a planet?

We tried some gesture drawing...

...and played with the effects of charcoal. Look at that bat swing!

Our observational drawing station

Our collaborative drawing station: take a piece of paper, connect it to the others around it.

2nd Graders drew from beanie babies. Look at how carefully they observed the toys!

The Art Studio turns to T.A.B.

The art room is up and running as a full choice studio! So far only the drawing and painting studios are open, but the variety and quality of work coming out of the art room has continually impressed me. For more information on TAB, go to http://teachingforartisticbehavior.org/ or http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/toolbox/TAB-CHOICE.htm

Here are a few highlights from the past two weeks:

   - a 4th grader approaching me, saying he’d like to learn how to shade with pencil better. I announced an impromptu lesson to the class, and a few others joined us to practice shading a flower pot from observation.
    - a 1st grader who usually rushes to be the first completed, instead spent an entire class period drawing on a single 6”x9” sheet of paper.
    - a 1st grader who drew people with a single circle and four lines for limbs, sat down to draw a favorite cartoon character from observation quite successfully! I had no idea he was ready for such a high level of drawing, and never would have provided the opportunity at such a young age.
    - a group of Juniors collaborating around a table drawing planets on black paper with oil pastel, discussing best ways to blend the colors to create the illusion of a sphere, and essentially teaching each other.