In a message dated 04/08/2001 2:03:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
smckenna@cc-amana.k12.ia.us writes:
> With
> this particular student, in one of our
> discussions I told her she needed to
> spice it up a little, she went home and
> told her mom that I said her work was
> boring. In another instance I told her
> to rethink her color choices, this
> turned into the word ugly. When I hurt
> someone's feelings I feel evil. I feel
> evil because I have been hurting this
> girl for three years and had NO IDEA
>
Dear Former Lurker and Unintentionally Evil Teacher,
Writing again to share what I do sometimes to get my point across to my
students without sounding critical and controlling. I'm not claiming that
it's the best or only way, just that it works for me, so it might work for
you, too:
After I've demonstrated and modeled what I am expecting the goals of the
lesson to be, I will often circulate around the room to find a child who
"gets it". I try and find a student for whom art and/or creative thinking
doesn't come as easily as the gifted and talented ones (although I don't
discriminate and pick these children, also). Then I take his/her art, or
sometimes I ask the child if he minds doing this, to the front of the room.
Next, I ring my "stop what your doing" bell, and I announce, "May I have your
attention please? I would like you to look at John's work". I continue
saying something like, " I like the way he followed directions. Wonderful
choice of colors, looks like he gave a lot of thought to spicing up his work!
Congratulations to you, John!" The kids feel so good about themselves when
I do this.
I find this works very well because it encourages the other students to
evaluate and re-evaluate their own work. Another way to accomplish this is
would have been to find someone at this child's table who was working
successfully and point out the successes for everyone at the table to hear.
Often making general announcements gets your point across.
Or, in this case, you might have said to the class as a whole, "Look at your
sculptures and think about how your choice of colors. What elements do you
need to add? If you feel you need to spice it up, what do you think you
might want to do?" I also encourage them to discuss their work and share
ideas with their classmates at their tables. A lot of cooperative learning,
sharing, and students helping students, goes on this way.
I am convinced that when adults tell me they "can't do art" it's because an
art teacher along the way made them feel this way by criticizing and judging
how their art "should" look in a way to make them feel insecure. I'm not
saying we shouldn't uphold high expectations with our expertise. And I'm not
saying that addressing students individually isn't valid (and I do that,
too). My point is HOW we say it and go about it is just as important as WHAT
we say.
Susan on Long Island
