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Lesson Plans


Re: Is it the product or the process?

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Gary LaTurner (garyl.wa.us)
Mon, 29 Apr 1996 10:06:21 -0700 (PDT)

Your comments were excellent. Another issue is the teacher and his/her
willingness to draw and or paint etc. on student work. My preference is
to quickly create a similar form on a separate piece of paper and do my
work for the students there. I've always found teachers' drawing shows
and makes the students work inconsistent and for the most part takes away
ownership of the work. Students suffer more than they gain by having a
teacher work on their work.
G. LaTurner

On Mon, 29 Apr 1996 KatCascio wrote:

> In response to the question of how much input the teacher should have into
> "Student Art/School Art", I'm glad this issue has been raised. In writing
> curriculum, I've been dealing with the discrepancy between what we say and
> what we do. When we discuss aesthetics and try to get kids to understand what
> art is, it must be very confusing when we never allow them to actually BE
> artists. I have come to the conclusion that I would like teachers to
> understand and communicate the difference between "skill-builders" and
> "art-making activities". When we ask 23 kids to draw a scene using 2-point
> perspective, can we really call that art? No, but it can be argued that it
> is an important thing to teach. But there must another step. Once they've
> learned the skills that artists use, they need to be afforded the opportunity
> to include or exclude those skills in their own work. I like the analogy
> I've heard about skills (perspective techniques, color theory, etc) being
> related to vocabulary words. Once they understand the meaning of the word
> and how to use it, they can synthesize them into a sentence all their own to
> express themselves (not to express something on the part of the person who
> taught them the word). So if we teach kids tricks of the trade that we know,
> we should also respect them enough to allow them to make artistic decisions
> for themselves. Therefore the criteria for a lesson can be much broader. An
> example would be studying Faith Ringgold's work as personal narratives and
> having students explore that function of art. What can they tell us about
> themselves through their art?
>
> Kathryn Cascio
>