The most heartbreaking thing for me as an art teacher is an art class display that looks like a wallpaper: all students' works are identical and represent the same subject, with the same technique, the same composition, and the same colors. Sure, even the most talented and passionate kids need those skill-building activities. But, if our art teaching is 100% based on a so-called packaged curriculum, then perhaps it’s time to think about why we even teach art in the first place. For the past few years, I’ve been exploring different ways of implementing choice-based art education in my teaching. From arts and crafts stations for early finishers in lower primary to TAB-focused units in grades 3 and 5, I found various ways to promote students’ agency in my PYP art class, and I LOVED IT. Now, the time has come to artify no-always-so-artful middle schoolers. There are many fantastic resources about TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) and choice spectrum in the art room. Still, I’d like to quote this great article from The Art of Education by Janet Taylor: “Trying something new and taking risks is a vulnerable expectation. To build social-emotional resilience, students can do this while sitting first in their comfort zone. When given too many options or asked to take too many risks all at once, most students become overwhelmed. The goal of choice is to empower students to make decisions, not to produce anxiety for fear of failure. While step-by-step instruction often feels comforting, we also want to support students to develop who they are as artists. By promoting student agency through safe practice, students build confidence to be unique thinkers and individuals.” Having this in mind, I decided to work on a series of skill-building activities with my grade 6 students before I give them more choices while working on their summative project for the current unit. Each could choose two out of the four following techniques they would like to explore for approximately one month: drawing, painting, printmaking, and collage. For those kids who were unsure how to approach the task, I selected a few activities they could be working on in each station to develop some crucial skills I want them to have (such as hatching and cross-hatching, shading, or using several watercolor techniques). All resources are shared on a Padlet that the students can access during the art classes or from home. It’s been great to watch the students explore the techniques they picked and develop some skills along the way. Hopefully, this will equip them with the tools necessary to make more independent artistic choices.
Check out the photos from class, and stay tuned!
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