Learning From Student's Explanations

This week I would like to think about how we learn about what students draw from what they say. I think that it is very important to take the time to listen to students both when they are making art, and after they have finished.

I took the time this week to ask students about their artwork. What interested me was listening to students describe work that is not yet representational. This can be seen in Elijah's work. The viewer most likely would not know what was happening in the drawing and must rely on the dialogue with the student.

Explanation of the drawing:

Me: "Elijah, can you tell me what you are drawing?"

E: "Just eyeballs. He got water on him. Its really really hot."

Me: "What does he do?"

E: "He gives eyeballs to everybody in case they fall out."

Me: "Is he a good guy or a bad guy?"

E: "Good guy but if he gets out of the water he's a bad guy."

Me: "Where does he live?"

E: (pointing) "See where this is? He lives in a stream."

From just looking at the drawing, I would of never guessed that Elijah had such a dynamic story line. Through this example one can see how students are constantly thinking about what they are drawing and have stories to go along with the marks. To the naked eye it may look like a green blog, but to a child, it's an eyeball monster living in a stream.

Jeffery the Art Model

Also here is a picture of Jeffery that I have to post because it is so adorable!

Learning From Others

This week I would like to discuss how students influence other students while working in a collaborative setting.

Students working together or even at the same table can both help, or hurt each others art making. Nonetheless it is clear that students effect each other's work.

One example of this happened last week. Last week's lesson focused on animals and their environments. The students drew pictures of animals either in a realistic or unrealistic environment. One table had very interesting results and made me really think about how students are influenced by other students around them.

Jeffery, Andrew, and Steven sit together every week. When working on their animal environments, the influence they have on each other is clear.

Here are their three artworks.

The top is Steven's

The middle is Andrew's

The bottom is Jeffery's

Just from looking at the drawings, one can see a clear connection. The table was interested in drawing snakes. Each child began by drawing a long snake that was not filled in. From there the students began to diverge. It seems that Andrew and Steven are closer friends with each other than with Jeffery. Andrew and Steven began to color over their snake with a blue color. At first I thought they were just scribbling over their drawings to black it out. After talking I learned that the snake lived under water and this was their way of representing this. I thought this a was really interesting way to do this. More typically I see children drawing the water at the bottom of the page with the snake hovering above it.

Steven chose to only add blue water over his snake where Andrew added more colors to the water. I would like to think this had to do with the assignment to draw realistic or unrealistic environments but I can't be sure.

Differing from Steven and Andrew's pictures is Jeffery's. I like being able to see how students who start with the same concept approach it differently. Jeffery is interested in precision in his drawing. He tediously began filling in the snake with different colors. These small careful strokes were a large contrast to Steven and Andrew's large gestural lines.

Whereas I feel that Steven Jeffery and Andrew's example is positive, another example of peer influence was more negative. This past week Christina and Soomin were drawing in their sketchbooks. Each girl is very interested in Hello Kitty and like to draw her. Christina began to draw Hello Kitty and Soomin, interested in what she was doing watched her. Soomin then proceeded to tell Christina that the drawing was bad and that she was a bad artist. This obviously led Christina to be very upset. Through out the rest of the lesson Soomin was continually interested in what Christina was doing but Christina stopped talking to Soomin all together.

From these two examples we can start to understand how children influence each other when making art both positively and negatively.

Week 3: Focussing on Sketchbooks

This week I tried to pay close attention to the students as they worked on their sketchbooks. Through my observations I found that some students were eager to tell me what they were drawing while others became shy.

One student name Jiyeon is always eager to discuss the things she is drawing. This can be seen in the two short clips.

In this video Jiyeon describes her drawing of her, a bunny, an apple tree, and picked flowers. I found that she was inspired by the stuffed animal rabbit that she had brought with her to class. I think this is important to realize how popular culture and consumer culture affect children's artwork. What they see around them permeates into what they create. Jiyeon is also interested in the idea of "girl things". She tends to draw princess like figures. In her drawing the figure and the bunny are picking flowers. The bunny becomes personified and is able to do the same things the figure can.

This is a video where I came back to Jiyeon later in the period. She has begun a new drawing.

In this video the bunnies becomes the central theme. Here the bunnies are holding flowers once again but this time are swimming in a pool. I enjoyed the fact that Rachel interjected in the conversation. This shows how children interact with others while they are creating in their sketchbooks. Rachel gave her interpretation of what she thought Jiyeon meant by swimming. Rachel interpreted that Jiyeon must have a swimming pool at her house and that is where the bunnies would swim. I can then assume that Rachel has a swimming pool at her house or knows someone who does. Upon asking Jiyeon she said she does not have a pool at her house. Through further investigation and luck I found out through Amanda, who works at the YMCA, that Jiyeon takes swimming lessons at the Y at least once a week. This activity is clearly something that is sticking in Jiyoen's mind as she is drawing in her sketchbook. I enjoyed seeing how her other activities cross over.

Week 2

This week was Amanda's first week as the primary instructor. Her lesson focussed on Andy Goldsworthy and the arrangement of nature. I think overall the students enjoyed the lesson and were responsive to the idea.

Here are some photos of what the students were working on.

This image shows Joshua drawing a shark. I find that students enjoy drawing in their sketchbooks. It is a time where they can be creative and create personal stories.

"Sharks can bite through metal." Joshua

This is a picture of Grace drawing in her sketchbook. Grace enjoys practicing writing her name.

After Sketchbook, Amanda introduced the subject and showed visuals to help the children understand the artist and the subject.

The students enjoyed the visuals. It helped them to grasp the concept of constructed nature. I think for future lessons visuals should be used even more. Explanation is an important part of working with younger children and the more we can explain the project the better they will do. I also would like to think about the incorporation of more artists in our projects. I think when varying artists are shown it allows the students to have more than one perspective on a particular subject.

Here are some images of the project.

This image shows materials used in the constructed nature project. Some of the materials such as the acorns were collected by the students while the shells were supplemented by Amanda.

I think the objects were good for the students. They were a manageable size for them. I think for the future it may work better if there are more options for the students to choose from.

This image shows the students working collaboratively on the larger scale final composition. The students separated into a few small groups and worked together arranging their elements of nature.

This image shows students placing items on their larger sheet of poster board.

This image is an example on a finished composition. I believe that the students really grasped the concept here. The only problem with this example is that the work was dominated by Yoon- Seo. While he did a good job at arranging his elements he was not open to the other students in his group making any changes or additions. I think in the future with collaboration we can stress the importance of working together as a whole. We can also emphasize how different opinions can lead to a stronger end result.

Here is another example of a collaborative group's work. I think that this is a good example of how the same project can be interpreted differently and how the concept of constructed nature is all about infinite possibility. This reminds me of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty.

For future lesson plans, things to think about are:

Using more visual aids

Showing multiple artists

Having detailed explanations of projects

Stressing the importance of collaboration and teamwork