This year, almost accidentally, I hit on something that utterly transformed my
classes. Showing up for work has been a joy all year. Here goes, as best as I
can explain it:
The art program in our district has added an extra strand to those of the state
standards, 'habits of mind'. First semester, rather than stand up and review the
elements and principles, I led off with Habits of Mind. We began with a simple
abstract patterning assignment using sharpies, and after a couple of rules pretty
open-ended. I used it as a vehicle not only for taking them through rules and
procedures, the balance between instructional mode and work mode, managing
materials and cleanup, grading, working together as a class, etc.
I've always been forgetful about getting kids to sign things so I moved the
ceremony of the "artist's signature" up into the lesson also, and this is what did
it. So simple, but it opened up a natural way of talking about 'best effort' and
why art is different from other subjects in that you are not just showing the
teacher that you know the stuff, but creating art works that will go out in the
world and communicate ideas.
I could see that they were listening very intently when I said this, so "Being an
artist" became the thing that I kept coming back to all semester and the effect
was pretty amazing: 3 classes of 7th and 8th graders that I would say were 95%
engaged 95% of the time, right up to the end of the semester when we had three
different assignments going at once (triangle tessellations, sumi-e and
concertinas). Students were to do all three but plan their time and just get the
work done in whatever order worked for them.
(Hint: If you're thinking of trying this--do it with lessons you can teach out of
your hip pocket because when they are invested in one art work they don't want
to drop what their doing for a demo on the other--I went a little nuts, but with
the kids instructing each other, we all got where we were going.)
I have led off this second semester the same way, telling them, "While you are in
this class you are not only an art student, you are an artist." Same electrifying
effect. We've just done some right brain/left brain exercises where the silence
was so profound that all you could hear was the squeak of sharpies--and the
birds outside.
The implications of going in this direction is that you do have to be sure to have
assignments that will keep them engaged, and you also yourself have to teach
less and allow for more open-ended, higher level thinking and choice on their
part. No requiring they write down all the instructions in a notebook. When
they come up and ask "What do I do now?" the answer has to be "You're the
artist. You tell me what you do next." Usually a little smile appears on the kid's
face as this sinks in, because it's not how school usually is.
We talk about students being resilient enough to "take risks" in their art work.
Well, the teacher has to be willing to take risks too. The big risk is that a
student you were counting on might choose to do something different than you
wanted and leave you without a sure-fire example of the "lesson" to exhibit. I
only relaxed enough to really commit to this when I knew I had in the bag a
good class set of self-portraits for my January show in the district office, but
there were also exhibitable art works being produced right up to the end with
the choice-based unit. Our final activity was a self-curated show in the hall at
school. The students selected one of their art works for exhibit, learned how to
mat it, and organized in teams to write label copy and hang the show. It's as
good a show as anything I ever put up there for them.
Years ago when when I got my first teaching job (adult ed college art history),
the dean told me that the object is not to teach them everything you know; the
goal is to leave them wanting to come back for more. It works for middle
schoolers too.
