The Real Product of Art Education

For years, I have asserted that the product in art class is not the artwork, but the child. The child is the product, the product is not the product. It is good to have validation on this point from one of the leading researchers in the field: (thanks to Kathy Douglas for bringing this to my attention)

"The real product of art education is not the works of art, but the child. We have to keep that firmly in mind–though it goes against several grains. If you are an artist and you want to make good art, I urge you to go into your studio and make good art. What you need to do as a teacher of art is create kids who make good art, create kids who think well as artists, who have an artistic mind.
As artists, kids have to learn to chase the quality of their work. Artists must make the best art that they can make, but that's not your job. Your job is to get your students to chase the quality of their own work and make the best work they can make. So it can be confusing. I think we get really trapped and stuck in thinking that it's our job to make really high-quality work, so that we can put it out in the hall and everybody will say that we have a good art program. I think we have to be careful of that trap because you can turn your class into a production factory and then your kids don't develop artistic minds, even though they may be making beautiful work that is hanging in the hall. What I'm really urging here is more autonomy on the part of the student artist–they need to be making the decisions if they're going to make a better mind."
~ Lois Hetland from Every Art, Every Child: A Look at Lois Hetland's Eight Studio Habits

Choice-Based Art at National Art Education Conference

There were many sessions presented about Teaching fr Artistic Behavior (TAB) and Choice-based art education in Chicago last month. Each that I attended were packed rooms, in many cases with standing-room only and spilling attendees out in the hall.

Nan speaking on the topic: "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way" 8am session on Saturday- packed!

 Interest is high nationally for learner-directed practices in art. The panel I spoke on included Julie Toole, an elementary teacher (from Chicago), me (Vermont, middle school) and Ian Sands, a high school teacher (North Carolina) and illustrated how TAB looks in these different settings.

TAB on a National Stage

I'm heading out to Chicago this afternoon for the National Art Education Conference. I am part of a "Hot Topic" panel with other choice-based art teachers from around the country. 

Below is the description for the panel discussion, join us if you are attending the conference!

NAEA Hot Topic Panel: Saturday 3/19 8:00 AM

Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way: Shifting Teacher/Student Roles

Experts in Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) and choice-based art education will share how they implement learner-directed programming. Join TAB founders, plus those from K-12 classrooms for timely dialog.
Purpose: To encourage teachers to examine ways to transfer ownership of both creative process and product to their students for more personalized, meaningful learning outcomes in art.
Professional Learning Outcomes: Teachers will gain a new perspective on the relationship between teaching and learning by assessing the merits of learner-directed, studio-based programming from a panel of experienced educators.
Overview: This panel, made up of uniquely qualified TAB teachers, brings their cumulative knowledge and experience with Choice-Based Art Education to disclose ways teachers can support student-led learning in studio-based settings at all levels, K-12.
Content: In art programs designed around authentic learning in studio-based settings, teachers’ roles shift away from mostly teacher-directed lessons toward more emergent curriculum and student-led content. By applying the principles of constructivist teaching and learning (Brooks & Brooks, 1999), students engage in learning through a program that is “just in time” rather than “just in case” (Partnership for 21 st Century Skills). Instruction and assessment focus on differentiated experiences to meet the varied needs, interests and learning styles of all the individual student-artists in each unique community.
There is a great deal of interest in student autonomy, both in general education and art education, as a result of Common Core and Core Arts standards, which identify learner-direction and choice as key to independent learning.  There are frequent questions about implementation of a learner-directed program, given the many constraints that art educators face in their jobs. This panel seeks to clarify misconceptions about choice-based pedagogy and offer real solutions to planning, management, accountability, and advocacy in the choice-based setting.

TAB founders and three teachers representing contemporary K-12 art education combine their 75+ years of Choice-Based pedagogy for this panel. The group consists of published authors, bloggers and frequent speakers at NAEA, State Conferences and professional development workshops and institutes.

Reflecting on Reflecting

"I am convinced that the time spent by the teacher in digging out of the child what she has put into him, for the sake of satisfying herself that it has taken root, is so much time thrown away. It's much better, I think, to assume the child is doing his part, and that the seed you have sown will bear fruit in due time. It's only fair to the child, anyhow, and it saves you unnecessary trouble." 
~ Anne Sullivan on her switch from teacher centered learning to student centered learning that lead to her pedagogical breakthrough with Helen Keller (This came to me via Facebook - is it really from Anne Sullivan? what is the source? Whether it is bona fide or not, I find the content interesting, and will endeavor to varify it so I'll know).

It's "grading" time again. 8th-graders have one more day of art. Some, forever. Some will go on to take art in high school and beyond. Some will continue to make art in their home studios: their kitchen table, a workbench in the cellar or the desk in the bedroom. It is a time for taking stock, of measuring, in one way or another what was learned. It is also a time to survey students and ask: "what was of value?"

 In the art studio, students show me each day what they "know and are able to do."

• Can students generate an idea for artmaking, or explore with materials and tools in order to develop an idea? 
• Are they able to choose appropriate tools, materials and technique to express their idea?
• Can students use media appropriately, creatively, skillfully?
• Can students take care of tools and materials?
• Are students willing and able to clean up and leave the studio ready for the next artists who enter the space?
• Do students reflect about their work - before - during-after creating it?
• Do students consider "what if?" and "what's next?"
• Do students participate in group discussions, conduct themselves respectfully toward others and engage with interest in the topic?

(the above list is taken from personal communication with TAB founder Katherine Douglas, and revised by me)

 

In the past, I scored to what degree students are able to meet the above criteria.  Some routinely and enthusiastically practice and apply the studio thinking habits of mind, which characterize the work of artistts. They would score the highest. Others are less engaged, less willing to take creative risk, less willing to work hard enough to learn a new skill, less motivated to break away from their peer group, or less able to sustain the focus required to craft an image or an object. Their scores would reflect this. Some students disregard much of what is offered, are unwilling to engage in artmaking and instead practice the art of disruption. They would receive the lowest, possibly failing, grades. Everyone would "get what they earned," or, perhaps, "what they deserve." But don't they get this anyway, with or without a letter or a number? The knowledge and know-how each student takes away, at the end of the term, is unique to each learner. The complexity of learning transcends traditional grading designations. At least in the art studio, we have left these conventions behind.


I make a few remarks, observations mostly, on students' report cards. I encourage students to keep learning. My few sentences disrupt the report card format and cause additional pages to be printed. Several sentences are too many, one is never enough. Assessment, grading and reporting is moving away from standardization, as is teaching and learning. New forms and practices will need to be designed to accommodate these changes.

Where Do Artist Get Inspiration?

The latest obsession in our studio sprang from my recent visit to our local clay studio. There was a "Seconds and Student Sale," sort of a white sale, studio-style, going on last month. While I didn't buy a single new student, I did make off with these two guys:

Tripod animal jars by Abby Dreyer

Abby Dreyer, the potter who made these, is well-known in the area for the  exquisite clay bird houses she makes. I have admired her work for years, so I was thrilled to find these little clay jars she made, and chat with her about them. She told me a little about how she made them and suggested that it's a great clay project for kids. 

Well. That is an understatement! My students and I have made around a dozen of them already. The simple structure of the jar lends itself to endless variation and combines the concept of form plus function This makes the idea tremendously appealing to my middle school clay artists. Thanks for the great idea Abby!

I wonder if I bought enough clay? 

Mid-Year Reflecting

 

Grade 6 at work on a collaborative mural project

     This week marks the beginning of the second half of the school year. A new quarter is one-week in, and a new batch of 5th graders are getting familiar with studio routines. 
     I am a week late in posting "grades." I actually don't give grades in art anymore, my students have made it clear to me that grades are not useful for them. Instead, I write a short narrative to sum up each students' work, approach, successes, innovations, and challenges in art. Our report cards are not set up for this, my sometimes lengthy additions throw off the formatting. But just as I ask my students to write a little about their experience as an artist is the studio after each term, I do the same on their behalf.

Print-maker in foreground, drawing group in the background

      Today I am reporting on the 6th graders who just completed their quarter in art. Below are the words of one student who I will not see back in the artroom until grade 8, because next year's 7th graders must choose between French and Art. French-learners sacrifice a year in the studio so they can be prepared to take French 2 in high school, or because they love learning French, or both. It can be a cruel choice to make. 

Paper Marbling is a temporary center students look forward to

Q; What did you like about art this quarter?
A: " I didn't like art this quarter, I LOVED art this quarter. I really enjoyed art because it felt like a 'safe place.' It was always calm, and just an enjoyable place to work. Also I liked art because there was no 'right' or 'wrong' way, you could just do 'your way.'"
      This year is the first in our implementation of Vermont's mandated "Personalized Learning Plans." Statements like "J's" above let me know that in the art studio, learning is always personal.  

   

Easy Does It

Aptly illustrates how I feel this week

There is a ton going on in the studio this week. I cannot believe it is only Wednesday, and that we are just three days in from our holiday break. We are neck-deep in: 

• Soap stone carving
• Mosaics 
• Sumi-e ink painting
• Paper marbling
• Mural painting
• and everything else

I have no one to blame but myself - it's just that there are only two weeks left in the quarter and 6th-graders keep bringing up things they want to do before they are done with art. Done til next year, or, in many cases, until the year after that. We are in a frenzy trying to get everything in that students love or want to try. 

 Meanwhile, my new batch of 8th graders are being treated to a couple of "8th Grade Only" options, like working with soapstone and designing mosaics. Add this to that, and, whew! It's a lot!

Today's button-popping pride moment went like this:

"Nan, can we grout our mosaics?"

"Of course" I say, pulling out all the gear and materials needed for this and swiftly setting up at the end of a table, on our last scrap of newspaper.

"Do we mix the grout?" asks one 8th grader to another

"No, Nan has to do that."

(Nan thinks - um...why do I have to do that? I bet they know how...)

"No," says Nan, "You guys can mix it up."

So they did. Perfectly.

Note to self: Release control of the things kids can very-well-do on their own, or with minimal supervision or coaching. Why is this such a hard lesson to keep learning?