Linda,
Excellent thoughts. Could you expand just a bit with an example or two of anticipatory questions? Are these teacher generated or student generated questions?
Marvin
>Mine isn't a choice-based room in the sense of having stations, though at the
>end last year I did have the supply table set up with everything needed for
>whichever of the three assignments they were doing. What's more important--
>indeed necessary if this is to succeed for middle schoolers--is the habit of mind
>thing, theirs and yours. You have to build agency into your art room from the
>beginning. On a practical level this means having them drilled to respond
>quickly when you need their attention, and in being responsible about
>cleanup--otherwise at the end of class the kids will be gone and you'll have a
>sinkful of brushes with no way to which kid who left them there.?
>
>More importantly, your own habits of mind have to change too. You'll know
>you're getting there when a student comes up to you with an idea for doing
>something different that what you've instructed. Do you immediately say "No",
>or do think out the implications of changing the lesson and discuss this with the
>student? You are on your way when you feel comfortable responding, "Well,
>this is what we are practicing with this assignment. Can you do it your way and
>still get your practice in?"?
>
>Oh, and one more thing--group work shakes them out of the passivity that
>they've all been trained to by this point. After a couple of rounds of Elements of
>Instruction training by the district, I now routinely have them discuss the
>anticipatory questions in table groups and then go around the room calling on
>tables for a response. We've also done Mark Kistler drawing lessons where the
>tables prepare one of his mini drawing lessons and stand up to teach the rest of
>the class.?
>
>Also, the Notan Expanding the Square lesson can be adapted to group work by
>putting one huge sheet of paper on the table. The kids each cut a square and
>arrange all the squares in an overall design. This changes the lesson a bit-- the
>focus becomes the interrelationship of the squares and their relationship to the
>shape of the paper. "As a class, we are more than the sum of our parts," in
>other words. (Hey, I might use that this time!)
>
>Linda
>
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2006 17:18:08 EST
>>From: StacieMich@aol.com?
>>Subject: Re: [teacherartexchange] Taming wild MS students?
>>To: "TeacherArtExchange Discussion Group"
><teacherartexchange@lists.pub.getty.edu>
>>
>>Linda,
>>Very inspiring email. I was actually telling a coworker the other day that
>>if I had the supplies and room to do it, I would probably try setting up a
>>choice-based program for these students. While I don't know too much about
>it, I
>>told him that I thought that these kids would probably be more interested in
>>my class if they could be more in control of the projects. I've toyed with the
>>idea of giving them more options, but I'm just not sure how to do it. Since
>>this is my first year, and I've been researching lessons online and out of
>>magazines, I'm not very confident in my lessons and teaching ability. So far
>the
>>lessons that have worked well are the Op Art lessons and mandala lessons.?
>>The other ones I have done have had different degrees of success. The collage
>>lesson I tried last term produced boring pieces with very little aesthetic
>>appeal. I have tried two watercolor lessons, a perspective city and a
>>larger-than-life O'Keeffe styled flower. Some turned out very nice, but other
>students
>>had so much difficulty handling the watercolor and were disappointed in the
>>results. I recently did the Kandinsky abstract cities from SchoolArts with my
>>elementary students and am thinking about doing with the middle school
>students
>>because the results have been wonderful. I've also tried the surreal hand
>>project with mixed results.?
>>
>>I'm looking for projects that will not require too much research or
> >preparation on my part and which will be easy for the students to understand
>and do.?
>>
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