Elementary Art - Lesson Planning Using Traditional Media

"Learning how to manipulate materials is an important part of developing a sense of self in relation to the physical world.  The use of a variety of materials can help young students to begin to understand that they can make their own mark on the world.  In learning that they can create something, they begin to develop a sense of the power of humans in general to create their environments, and their own power as individual to make a contribution.  In this way, students can develop a sense of their relationship to visual culture, including an understanding of the specific ways in which they can contribute to it." - Boughton & Freedman

As I mentioned in my previous post, I truly believe that knowing the origins of something, not just reading about but actually partaking in the actions, materials and ways of doing something that is considered "old fashioned", "obsolete" or "traditional" is very important to the development of artistic ability and also appreciation.  It creates a respect not just for the ways things were, but also for the new technology that we have, which makes thing so much easier and accessible.  The very act of "getting messy" with materials ignites all of the senses, and connects on a deeper level than just using a digital or computerized tool.  New technology can sometimes separate us from what is created as if we are surgeons performing a delicate procedure through a curtain.  The traditional methods of art making give us the opportunity to know creating at the most base level - through touch, sight, sound and smell (and taste?).

During my time as a clinical teacher, my fourth graders first project was to create a collage (or assemblage) out of several materials including magazines, stickers, sequins, ribbon, glitter and more.  They used glue to assemble their works on canvas boards.  At one point, one of the students poured some glitter onto her canvas board that had glue and let some of it spill off onto the table and floor.  She expressed some concern about the mess.  I came up and said "Making the mess is part of the fun, isn't it?" She laughed and relaxed a bit, and agreed.  It was fun to give them a safe space to make a mess, because that can be a huge part of the creative process.  Sometimes neatness and order are necessary for a calming and productive environment, but the opportunity to create without fear of keeping things "clean" can lead to greater risk taking and more meaningful art.   Of course, I would still encourage students to clean up after themselves, but not to worry about the proverbial "staying within the lines." That tactile experience of feeling and working with materials can lead to "more state mindfulness and broader attentional focus (Kaczmarek, 2016)." Those are working skills that are not just beneficial to creating art, but also throughout other school subjects as well.  This speaks to the interdisciplinary aspect of art, as well as combining things such as visual culture within the school curriculum.  The more interested the student is, the more focused and aware they will be and willing to learn.

References:

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d). Chapter 1 – Introduction to Art Education. In Elementary art education: A practical approach to teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Stanko-Kaczmarek, M. & Kaczmarek, L. (2016) Effects of Tactile Sensations during Finger Painting on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Scope of Attention, Creativity Research Journal, 28:3, 283-288, DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2016.1189769 

Elementary Art - Understanding and Using Visual Qualities

Teaching visual culture at the elementary level requires a deeper knowledge of the elements that go beyond the traditional ones of line, value, color, shape form and texture.  As educators, we must be aware of the  ideational content as well.  “Ideational content refers to the ideas people express through art and about art (Freedman & Boughton, nd).”  This can include the subject, story or symbols used to express meaning in an art work “through the use of technical skills and the visual tools used to create form (Freedman & Boughton, nd).”  Four tools that are used are objects, space, light and time that are combined to create new forms of visual culture that must be critically examined in an artistic way.  Ideational information, along with formal qualities and technical skills, “must be infused into a visual culture curriculum so that their relationship is understood by students as they learn (Freedman & Boughton, nd).”  This provides a dynamic experience for students to learn about art, their culture, their histories and apply their knowledge inside and outside of the school environment.

Lessons that combine all of these elements are important to implement, especially as technology and the access to it advances.  A “1 to 1” classroom environment  - where students and mobile learning devices such as iPads are in equal numbers and used throughout the day to teach, learn and create - is becoming more and more commonplace, even at the elementary level.  In order to combine this part of our culture - which could be described as “digital visual culture,” teachers must be prepared to have a knowledge of how to use the technology and how to effectively apply it to art.  For a previous curriculum class, I combined a lesson I had found from Tracy Fugelstad’s blog, http://drydenart.weebly.com/fugleblog, and combined it with an art lesson about one point perspective and character creation.  The lesson included working with a student to teach him about one point perspective, had him create his own character, the environment his character would be in, then draw the environment using his perspective knowledge.  Then, instead of keeping the lesson as a drawing, using green screen technology and his iPad, I had him insert himself into the scene as his superhero character.  He performed as his character, and was able to see how the use of one point perspective made the environment look more 3 dimensional.  This combination of traditional and digital techniques provided him a more dynamic lesson that kept his interest and taught him a multi faceted lesson, rather than just a single technical skill. 

This lesson used the tools of space and time, as well as visual culture to teach my “student” (my son) about more formal artistic qualities.  It was a learning experience for both of us, and was fun at the same time. 

References

Freedman K., and Boughton D. (e-version) Elementary Art Education: A Practical Approach to Teaching Visual Culture.

Elementary Art - Themes of Visual Culture

There is such a vast amount of visual culture that we can teach our children, it is hard to choose where to begin.  However, working with students and asking them what they are interested in is a great way to start exploring visual culture. "If we intend to develop interpretive skills in children it is important for them to have opportunities to study topics that are of deep interest to them since learning is motivated best if interest is already established the child (Boughton & Freedman, nd, p. 1)." In addition to that, categorizing the types of visual culture into themes can provide a great way to organize what tools can be used to teach students in a focused and interdisciplinary way.  A " thematic approach provides infinite possibilities for the development of ideas that builds upon the interest of students (Boughton & Freedman, nd, p. 24)." As an art teacher, I hope to connect what I teach to what students learn outside of the classroom, and in that way, they can apply their learning to their lives.  

Even though I have yet to have formal teaching experience, I do remember as a child learning lessons from my visual culture that I was not aware of learning until much later in life.  For example, one of my all time favorite fantasy movies, Labyrinth, has a female protagonist that overcomes a powerful male adversary to save her brother.  Her tag line "You have no power over me," is her secret weapon she uses to thwart his attempts to control her.  As I watched this as a young child, I had no idea that this was highly influencing me to recognize the control I have over my own life, and as a female, it also had important strong undertones for me to learn such as feminism, female empowerment and self confidence.  These topics were a big part of my identity formation, and still influence me today. 

For my tech class this semester, we have to create a video game (will post link below once it is completed).  I decided to base my game on the movie Labyrinth.  It will feature the main character, Sarah, in a scene where she is trapped in a bubble in a ballroom setting.  Although it is a beautiful fantasy, and her foe, the Goblin King, has set it up to make her forget about attaining her true goal, she knows in her heart something is not right. After some time spent dancing, she runs away and uses a chair to break the bubble and escape.  The game will feature this same theme, but as a teacher, I can discuss how this also mirrors social issues that are part of our lives today.  We often hear about how everyone lives "in a bubble," satisfied to be unaware of what is happening outside of our lives, communities and cultures.  By breaking through those boundaries, we see that there are many challenges, but they are worth the ultimate goals we can achieve.  In the movie, Sarah was able to not only get her ultimate goal, but she also was able to gain friends she didn't expect and realize the strength she has, giving her more self confidence and self love. Using these types of visual culture artworks, we can combine art making with identity formation, life skills, community involvement (or the inspiration to reach outside of your own bubble) and eventually, the power to change the world. 

Although I have had a great life, I wonder how different it could be if I had been able to explore my interests in school at a young age, and taught to think critically of the things I was able to watch and see on a daily basis outside of school.  Seeing both the bad and the good of visual culture is important, even at a young age, and I look forward to helping my students take their interests to the next level.

References

Freedman K., and Boughton D. (e-version) Elementary Art Education: A Practical Approach to Teaching Visual Culture.

Elementary Art - Making and Viewing Visual Culture

In order to create visual culture, one must view it.  In order to do that effectively, we have to create critical thinkers of our students, rather than those who take our visual culture at face value and enjoy imagery based on what is most popular, or what someone else feels is important. “Critical reflection is important to artistic production and to everyday viewing experience in a democracy where analytical viewing skills are ideally necessary to assist individuals in making important decisions” (Freedman & Boughton, p.4).  I think an important part of critical reflection is to look inward, not just at what you like and dislike, but examine the place you come from, the culture you are a part of, and how you are privileged or otherwise.  Starting from a place within, rather than the socially influenced is important in developing the confidence in student’s criticality, so that they can form their own opinions, make informed decisions and ultimately, create more meaningful art that is both powerful on a personal level and engages with society.

It is important to maintain this level of constant investigation, into ourselves and what we create, as well as what others think and do.  We can start by teaching this to the very youngest of children, as they do notice their worlds around them and their visual culture, practically from birth.  My children have been viewing television and You Tube from a very young age, however, visual culture is not just what we see on our screens.  It is all around us and influencing us on every level.  Today, I took my kids to Dairy Queen, which we pass almost every day on the way to and from their school.  Although we have been there many times and they love ice cream in general, today my 8 year old son noticed the Dairy Queen logo, and he said “It looks like lips.” Instead of saying “Oh yeah, it does!” and leaving it at that, I kept the conversation going and said, “Maybe they did that on purpose, so that you would think of your mouth when you saw it and how delicious their ice cream is.”  He found that interesting, and I told him that a lot of logos are made to give us messages that aren’t readily apparent, so that we get the message they want to give us without knowing quite why.  This type of critical thinking is important for self-reflection, because you want to understand your feelings and why are you having them when you react to imagery, and not just make snap judgments.

Image retrieved from: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf/2017/12/dairy_queen_sign_auction.html

Image retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/en/lips-lipstick-mouth-red-teeth-2024681/

It is also important to teach students that visual culture is not just trickery or subliminal, but that it can be used to inspire new ideas.  My brother, Andrew Lowery, started a company called RealWear, which created the HMT-1,  a wearable tablet computer, meant to facilitate training and industry.  The design was based on the character Boba Fett’s “Range Finder” from the Star Wars movies (check out the full story athttps://www.realwear.com/products, and scroll to the bottom of the page).  Although the original was not functional, the idea behind this inspired new technology, and that type of art making and popular culture has done the same thing many times before and probably will far into the future.  Not just in a galaxy far, far away, but on our own planet.  The meaning behind art does not just have to be an emotional response.  It can be functional as well.  It can inspire us to live better lives.

Images retrieved from: http://www.realwear.com

References

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d.). Elementary art education: A practical approach to

teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Products - RealWear. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2018, from http://realwear.com/products

Elementary Art - Introduction to Visual Culture

Visual culture encompasses a broad range of what we, as a society, see every day.  From the moment we wake up and check our cell phones, or turn on our TV and computers, our eyes and minds are bombarded with an endless barrage of imagery that defines who we are, what we like, what we want to buy and who we are buying it from.  It encompasses the aesthetics of the every day, and the imagery and items we create that come from those aesthetics.  The broad term of visual culture includes fine art, however, the definition of “fine art” is transforming itself.  The future seems to be leaning towards a melding of everything we see and all that we create as “art”, in one form or another.   Culture is created through a group of people or beings that influence each other, and this can easily be seen throughout our lives in the clothing we wear, the cars we drive, the movies and tv shows and comic books at which we look.  With the advent of the Internet, the world has become a smaller place to live, as we can now not only see the culture of own lives, but those of others all over the world.  Needless to say, visual culture and art is everywhere.  It is not just a part of our lives, it has become life itself.

How can we, as art educators, ignore the visual influence that is constantly with us from the moment we wake up to the moment we sleep at night?  To teach about a single timeline, or a single group of people or a single way to make “fine art” is to say that that which makes up our history and has influences our lives to this day should be disregarded, seems to be at odds with living a complete life.  Education does not begin and end when a student enters and leaves a classroom, it is constant and unending throughout life.  John Dewey said in The School and Society (1956):

“From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning in school. That is the isolation of the school–its isolation from life. When the child gets into the schoolroom he has to put out of his mind a large part of the ideas, interests and activities that predominate in his home and neighborhood.”

To combine those influences and to critically investigate art, visual culture and history is to combine the lives we lead every day with the atmosphere of learning.  It takes a once narrow road of education and splits it into a lattice of ideas, images, cross cultures and information that was not previously accessible or attainable.  It teaches an ethic of understanding to our children and also teaches them to question everything, to see it from different perspectives, and in that way, they will better know themselves and each other.  “In order to effectively teach art today, interdisciplinary and multi-modal connections must be made for students, culturally diverse experiences must be provided, and visual technologies must be understood” (Freedman & Boughton, p.12).

Works Cited

Boughton, D., & Freedman, K. (n.d.). Elementary art education: A practical approach to teaching visual culture. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Dewey, J. 1956. The Child and the Curriculum and The School and Society. Chicago: Phoenix