Roosevelt Art Blog - etcetera art

Exploring Layering Media

Susan Deming — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 23:19:05 +0000

Portraits

Tempera under-painting on white paper, worked with students' choice of a variety of drawing materials

Last spring, grades 3 - 5 worked on portraits in various mediums, including tempera paint. (Click here to see grade three examples.) As a continuation of that work, grade four and five students began the year with a portrait painting.

The starter was to draw a portrait (the portrait could be realistic or fanciful, human or animal) with black oil pastel on oblong paper. I gave students the oblong paper to give them a problem to solve--how do you fill the odd oblong shape with a portrait and a background?

Students then used tempera paint to cover the entire surface. The brushes were big, the paint thick so I suggested that students think big, bold and colorful and to not worry about small details during the painting sessions. The details were added in a final work session with a variety of materials: oil pastel, crayon, colored pencil stick, pencil, and black marker.

As students worked, I encouraged them to go with what was happening in the work, as can be seen in the painting on the left: the drawing of the face disappeared under a bold and colorful abstract pattern.

Grade Two, Fall Leaves Continued . . .

Susan Deming — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 22:10:07 +0000

Fall Leaf Paintings: Using the Branching Vein Structure in a Painting

Tempera Paint on White Paper

Listening to the rain today, trickling down the gutters, pattering on the roof, whooshing under passing car tires--I enjoy the sounds of rain as much as the look of rain and as I sit here writing, the sound of rain reminds me of one reason why I love water-based paints and being in the classroom with students while they paint: it's the sound . . . the sound of brushes swishing in the water containers. A gentle, slightly bubbly, rippely, splashy sound. And while I'm on the subject of sound . . . the other wonderful sound in the art classroom: a room full of students drawing with crayons on paper is like the sound of rain falling on the roof.

On to why thoughts about the sounds of painting are on my mind . . . the second grade students just finished their first painting of the school year. The students explored using the branching vein structure of leaves to create a painting with the tempera cakes. (Click here to read more about the leaf unit.) Tempera cakes are similar to watercolors, but because they are made from tempera paint, they can be transparent when watered down and opaque if used thickly.

I picked out a few paintings for you to see here and am putting up more in the hallway by Ms. Julin and Mrs. Papciak's classrooms. As you can see, the paintings are beautiful, bright and show a variety of ways the students interpreted the subject.

A note of gratitude for the inspiration for this lesson:

As you know from my previous posts, I've been working on starters. I recently came across a book at the library called Painting Your Way Out of a Corner by Barbara Diane Berry. In this book, Berry gives practical exercises to help readers get started on the creative journey through journal painting. I could hardly wait to try one of these exercises with the students. Since the second grade students were working on leaves, Organic Painting/Branching Out on page 75 was the perfect one to try first and so began the fall leaf paintings you see above!

A little bit about the starter and painting techniques . . .

The paintings were completed in three class sessions so students could experience painting next to and over the dry paint colors. The black paint lines were done the first day and the color was added the next two class sessions. In this way, students experienced wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry.

The starter for this painting was the black paint branching structure. I demo'd possible brush and paint techniques students might use while painting but left it up to them to make their own decisions on whether to use the techniques or not or use the branching structure as demo'd or not. The only 'must do' was to cover the entire surface of the paper with paint (no white paper left showing.) But as you might notice in the last painting above, this student left some white paper showing with great effect . . . so much for the 'must do'! How can I argue with 'breaking the rule' when it is accomplished in such a lovely, lively, thoughtful way!

In the demo prior to setting students off to paint, students observed:

Using a wet brush to draw a branching structure in black paint and how to keep the brush wet with a pointed tip
Lightly touching the brush tip to the paper to make dots, pressing down for larger ovals, brushing in larger areas of color and wet-on-wet effects
Swishing to rinse and wiping on the side of the water container
Swishing a wet brush on the tempera cakes to wet the cake and pick up paint

To look at and think about at home with your child:

Soon the leaves will drop revealing the branches of trees in our neighborhood. Take a look at the bare branches . . . isn't it interesting that the veins in the leaves have a branching structure and so do the branches on the trees?

Nurturing Creativity in the Art Room

Susan Deming — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 20:53:09 +0000

More about Starters:

Helping students gather visual knowledge & art skills at the same time as they develop their own ideas and thinking

A core component of learning in my art class revolves around this question: How can I balance helping students develop their art skills—use of tools, techniques, media and processes—and nurture and refine their ability to communicate imaginative, creative thinking in original works of art?

One way I do this is with what I call starters. Starters help students get their hands and minds moving to make those first marks on the paper at the same time as they practice specific art techniques, tools, materials and processes. In addition, the starter initiates a process for students where they access and use their own ideas while they draw or paint.

To read more about starters and how I help students develop their skills and creativity, click below to read my recent article on the Mills Teacher Scholars Blog.

Connecting to Creativity in the Elementary Art Classroom

First grade students are amazing. They come to art class full of stories and excitement about trying something new. It’s not difficult to connect them to their creativity—give first graders an opening and their creativity flows with ease onto the paper. The three images above were done while looking at flowers in vases set up on the students’ tables: there’s a still life on an earth with people, watercolor splashed freely over an ink drawing. . .and the third image . . . this student became so engaged with using oil pastel on her painting that the still life disappeared altogether under the energetic multicolor drawing and scraping.

Click here to read more . . .

Grade Two, Fall Leaves

Susan Deming — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 19:47:06 +0000

Fall Leaf Drawings

Crayon and Colored Pencil Sticks on 5 1/2 x 11 white copy paper

With all the hot weather last week it's easy to forget that over a week ago we officially entered the fall season. But all I have to do is look out my window at the Liquid Amber tree in my neighbor's yard to be reminded that the season is turning along with the bright fall colors of the leaves. In preparation for the annual show of fall color, second grade students have been exploring leaves in art. Students have examined the leaf structure, in particular the branching structure of the veins, have observed and drawn realistic silk leaves, have practiced drawing leaves using the vein structure as a starting point and next week will be completing a painting inspired by the branching vein structure.

For the drawing assignment featured in this post, students were given a realistic silk leaf to use as a starter to their drawings. (See the end of this post for more about the starter strategy.)

Below are examples of the variety of ways students approached completing this assignment. Because I structured the observation of the leaf as a starter, students could make any changes to the leaf at any point in the drawing--my only requirements were that students fill the entire page and show a background of their choice. I also encouraged them to think about if they could show any other details in the background that could tell the story of where the leaf is.

Second grade families, this is a great time to ask your second grade student about leaves. Find a few leaves and ask your child how those 'real' leaves are the same and how they are different from the silk leaves in art class. Examine the leaves together and find the veins--look at how the veins make a branching structure. Also look at the edges, how some are smooth, some are bumpy, some have lobes and some have points. Finally, invite your child to draw leaves at home, from imagination and from observation.

The leaf drawings below are examples of students who focused on carefully observing the leaf and recording the colors and shapes they saw.

This set of leaves show students who used a one color background and applied the color vigorously and with pressure to the crayon--the bold color really makes the leaves 'pop'!

These five drawings show students who imagined and drew the tree the leaf might have come from.

These leaf drawings show other ideas students had for backgrounds. It's interesting to see how some students used abstract designs, others thought about the environment a leaf might be in, one student imagined a leaf tower and another envisioned the first page of a book of leaves.

The leaves below are examples of student who worked on making changes to the leaf.

The Starter Strategy:

With the starter strategy in this observational drawing assignment, students practiced:

beginning an art-creating experience by going directly to the source (in this case, leaves) to observe the subject in multiple sketching sessions
incorporating their own ideas, primarily in the background of their sketches as they draw
making changes to the subject at any point during the drawing session
applying the Art Expectations:

Is My Drawing Is Done?

Use three or more colors
Fill the paper
Show details
Show the background and what the subject is sitting on or, if it is in the air, how is it staying in the air
If outside, show the time of day or night and the weather

What to Do if I Make a Mistake

First try to draw over it or turn it into something else
Next, turn the paper over or get a new paper
Never crumple the 'mistake', just set it aside

A few more examples of student work from 2015-16!

Susan Deming — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 02:30:21 +0000

Step into the art room and one of the first things you may notice are the flowers in vases around the room. All grades at one time or another have made drawings and paintings based on these still life flower arrangements. The still life flowers are colorful, easy to set on the tables and the students really like them! Last year, all grades made paintings from the still life flowers with second grade spending a bit more focused time.

Below is a gallery of second and fourth grade paintings that were created from direct observation of the still life flowers. The students started their work looking at the still life but were invited to make changes to their compositions at any point during their work. This is a core learning in art class: how to begin an art piece from observation and then diverge from the observation using imagination, memory and prior learning.

A couple weeks later students created a second still life painting using a frame. The frame I demonstrated for students was a U shape for the vase and three large sunflower-like flowers. Students were asked to fill the top part of the composition with flowers, small and large and add any other details they wished. Similar to the observational drawing described above, I invited the students to change the frame at any point during their work using imagination, memory and/or prior learning. Below are examples of this second still life painting from grades 2-5.

The first still life compositions based on observation and the second ones based on a demo'd frame are examples of what I like to call starters. The purpose of a starter is to help students start. The starter poses a problem for students to solve. It gives those who need some structure a frame to construct their work on or for those who are ready for more independence, a starting place to begin their personal creative journey.

To read more about starters, click here; for observational drawing, click here.

Back to school, 2016!

Susan Deming — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 23:21:37 +0000

Dear Roosevelt Families and Friends of Etcetera Art,

This is the place for information and news about the Roosevelt art class--welcome! I'm Ms. Deming and I'm your Roosevelt art teacher. All Roosevelt students grades 1 - 5 have art once a week for 50 minutes in Room A3.

To see when your child has art click here.

If you're looking for a place to begin exploring the etcetera-art website, take a look at the following pages: Creating Art at Home and Talking to Your Child About Their Art.

Curious to see examples of student art work? Take a look at the Student Gallery page.

Below are examples from last year's third grade students. The students spent much of the winter and early spring working on portrait drawing & painting.

I hope you'll be as inspired as I am by the bright colors and imaginative details in these grade three works of art!

Grade 3 Tempera Portraits

Grade 3 Portraits combined with a Setting, Markers and Colored Pencil Sticks

Stay tuned for more in following months . . . and, happy new school year!

Ms. Deming, Art Specialist, Roosevelt Elementary

Portrait of Ms. Deming by Grade Four Roosevelt student.

Buildings Combined with a Story Stick Prompt

Susan Deming — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 02:05:08 +0000

As time permitted, all 4th and 5th grade classes did short drawings where the students had the opportunity to play with the building theme in combination with their own ideas.

For example, one day, after doing 20 minutes of building quick sketches, Ms. Smith’s class spent the last 10-15 minutes of class creating drawings using a story stick prompt--the entry point to the drawing was to think about how to combine a building with the ideas in the prompt. The prompt was: an excited dancer on an island with sunny weather.

The results contain so much humor and life—I thought you all would enjoy seeing the funny, creative and expressive thinking I get to see everyday in the art classroom. Roosevelt families, your children are truly delightful to work with and I feel so lucky to be their art teacher!

Click here to view the Excited Dancer on an Island with Buildings Gallery.

Oil Pastel Buildings, Grades 4 & 5

Susan Deming — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 23:12:27 +0000

Basic Building Shapes from California Missions. Ideas for how to combine the shapes to create a new building: stack, side-by-side and one shape inside another shape.

For this oil pastel drawing assignment, I invited students to use their imaginations to create their own building compositions on black or purple construction paper.

They could start the building drawing using the basic building shapes from the California Missions and think about stacking, side-by-side or one shape within another (see photo to left). They could also use the photos of missions or houses as reference. Or they could use imagination or memory to begin the drawing. I mostly left the content of the drawing up to the students--my only 'must do's' were that the students use oil pastel, draw one or more buildings, follow the drawing expectations (see photo to left) with the addition that if they wanted an area to be black on black paper to use black oil pastel to fill in the space (the same for purple paper--spaces to be left purple must be filled with purple oil pastel.)

Drawing Expectations

I gave early finishers a challenge: draw a second scene with the building far away (in the distance) and think about if they could draw something else in the foreground (close up). See drawing # 6 below for an example of a student who took this challenge.

The examples below show the wide variety of ways the students approached this assignment. Some drawings are based on observations of the building photos--an example is #1 below. Other drawings, #2 for example, are drawn from prior knowledge of conventions for drawing a house. In other drawings (see #11), the students used combinations of the basic shapes to create their building compositions. In one class, students came up with the great idea of taping several sheets of construction paper together to create a larger drawing--see # 9 and #14.

To view more oil pastel building drawings click here and here. For the next couple months, the drawings will also be up on the bulletin board across from Ms. Smith and Mrs. Papciak's rooms.

Timed Quick Sketches, Buildings, Grades 4 & 5

Susan Deming — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 16:55:17 +0000

In the coming weeks, grade 4 and 5 students will be entering into a series of lessons working on 3-D forms, depth, shading and depicting images in space. As a lead in to these lessons, the students have been exploring buildings and basic building shapes and practicing short, timed observational sketches using soft lead pencils and crayons of 1, 2, 5 and 10 minute duration. The subjects of these sketching sessions are black and white photos of California Missions and typical houses they might see in our Bay Area neighborhoods.

For the past year, I have encouraged students not to erase during warm ups and short drawing assignments. Learning how to sketch, observe and block in the main shapes quickly without erasing has a practical side: live subjects (for instance, if you were sketching animals at the zoo) may not stay in the pose you started the sketch in for long! I also want students to feel comfortable with stray or awkward lines and working with what happens on the paper--going with the quirks of the sketched line instead of judging them and trying to 'fix' them too soon. In addition, a drawing is a record of the sketched moment--what you were doing, seeing, feeling, your level of skill in the use of materials and in laying down a sketched line--consequently, for these sketches, I asked students to leave them alone when the time was up so that the drawing could serve as a record of that moment in time.

The sketch below demonstrates the loose, expressive quality that can be achieved in a quick sketch. This sketch was completed in one minute.

In my experience as an artist and in my observation of students over the years, timed sketches seem to help the brain to 'snap to' attention and focus--I have felt this 'snapping to' attention myself and it is an intense and amazing experience. It is incredible to me how accurately the image can be seen by the eyes, sent to the brain and down to the hand and transferred to the paper when the mind is at attention in this way. An example of this kind of accurate observation can be seen in the student work below.

One of the objectives of these sketching activities is for students to begin to observe light, medium and dark areas and to use their fingers to smear the soft lead pencil or the side of a crayon to get shading effects. Students often comment to me that the building suddenly takes on a more 3-dimensional effect when they begin to add shading to the drawing. Below is an example of a student exploring shading with both the pencil and side of the crayon.

The student sketch below shows the wonderful, expressive quality of quickly drawn lines when the student is loose and relaxed.

It is possible to achieve very realistic depictions of what you see when you are practiced at observational drawing. But something that I find incredibly intriguing is the way an observation is altered by the journey through the brain and down the hand and onto the paper. I love the expressiveness of these kinds of drawings. This is another reason why I encourage students not to erase--some of the things that happen in a drawing, the quirks, the lines that were meant to be straight but instead curved, the shapes that somehow became elongated or squeezed or shortened or the enumerable transformations that can happen during sketching are delightful to look at and can be more expressive and tell a stronger, richer story than an accurate depiction. The sketch below is an example of a drawing where the house almost looks like it is breathing and attempting to stretch up and towards the top of the paper. To draw like this takes a relaxed and nonjudgmental mind that is willing to go with what is happening in the drawing.

Click here to view more observational quick sketches of missions by the 4th and 5th grade students.

Click here to view more observational quick sketches of houses.

For the next couple months you will also be able to see student sketches up on the bulletin board in the hallway across from Ms. Smith's and Mrs. Papciak's rooms.

Back to School, 2014!

Susan Deming — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 19:27:33 +0000

Hello everyone! It's great to be back to school in the art room creating art with the students!

The Art Class, Fall 2014

The art room has a new look this fall. I was able to exchange the four tables that seated six students with six tables that seat four. This table arrangement will be much more comfortable for students--a bit more room to stretch out and, especially for the upper grades, less bumping of elbows and feet! It will also enable a more efficient system for taking turns as table monitors and will be easier to split students into groups of 2 or 4 for cooperative learning experiences. I'm very much looking forward to all the things the students will be learning and creating this year . . . .

. . . Welcome back to Art--it's going to be a fabulous year!

Summary of the Inquiry Process, School Year 2013-14

Susan Deming — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 03:25:56 +0000

Click here to read my final documentation of the Art Inquiry Unit.

Click here to view the Mind Map for the Insect Inquiry referred to in the above summary (page 7).

Happy summer everyone! See you in August!

Bird Inquiry, Final Works of Art

Susan Deming — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 17:18:03 +0000

The grand finale! Students spent the last couple weeks creating original and expressive works of art using what they have learned about drawing birds. As the teacher, I had to let go of all my ideas of what the final works of art would look like--it was up to the students to create their own birds in their own settings--to think about how to draw their own idea of a bird and create their own environment for the bird. In summary, these are the steps the students took to get to the final work of art:

A memory drawing. What do I already know about birds that can inform this inquiry at the start?
Observational sketches. How can I look carefully and attentively to draw what I see?
Compare/Contrast. How are the birds the same as each other? How are they different?
Diagram. What is a basic structure of a bird? What are the parts of a bird? How can I 'play around' (explore) with the structure to create an original bird?
Drawing & watercolor techniques. For the watercolors: How can I get better at using the watercolors in a wet way with warm & cool colors, bleeding, 'lovely accidents,' wet brush and oil pastel resist.
Original art. How can I create my own original and expressive work of art using my own ideas combined with my observations and knowledge about bird structure and drawing and watercolor techniques.

Click here to view drawings of birds from the third grade. In these drawings I asked students to think about combining their observation of a bird with their own ideas: such as adding original colors and patterns, creating a new kind of bird and visualizing the setting, weather, time of day and feeling.

Third Grade Bird Drawing

Click here to view watercolor and oil pastel paintings from the fourth grade. For these paintings, I asked students similar questions about their bird as in the above third grade drawings . . . with the further challenge of adding a watercolor wash using bright, vibrant colors to help tell the story of the bird and where it lives.

Fourth Grade Bird Drawing

Check out the hallway by Ms. Smith's and Ms. Papciak's room to see the drawings and paintings--the light is a bit dark but I hope you can get a feeling for the wide variety of expressions and use of technique.

Studio Habits of Mind & Bloom's Taxonomy as Frameworks for the Artistic Process

In previous posts I have talked about how I use Bloom's Taxonomy as a framework to help me as an art teacher understand and teach students the creative process. I also use another very useful framework that was developed by Harvard's Project Zero: The Studio Habits of Mind.

The same way that I constantly ask myself questions about whether the student art works demonstrate that students are using deep and complex thinking to create original works of art, I also ask myself whether students are participating in the Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM) in my classroom and if I can visually see the SHoM in their works of art. Below is a diagram of how I visualize the interaction between Bloom's Taxonomy and the SHoM.

Bird Inquiry, Watercolor Technique Exploration

Susan Deming — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 17:00:15 +0000

For the Bird Inquiry, students delved deeper into exploring technique than in the Insect and Leaf Inquiries. Students love to paint, so I thought students would benefit from participating in a few watercolor technique lessons before making their final bird paintings.

The primary goals for the watercolor technique lessons was for students to experience warm & cool colors, color bleeding and what I like to call 'lovely accidents.' All students created watercolors layered on oil pastel (click here to view a post form last year on watercolor resist) and some third grade students made a brief foray into drawing onto their dry watercolor paintings.

The project below was a lesson that encompassed wet-on-wet, warm & cool colors, color bleeding and 'lovely accidents.' Students painted stripes of color with the watercolor using a wet brush making sure to touch the previous stripe so that the color would bleed into the new stripe. Students could also tip the paper or blow on the colors to see how color moves through the wet medium creating interesting and beautiful mixtures and 'bleeds'--the 'lovely accidents' mentioned previously.

After the paintings were dry, students quickly drew birds from observation and/or imagination and then cut them out. At first, I simply asked students to place their birds on the paintings and move the birds over the surface of their paintings to see how a subject would look on top of such a bright and vibrant background. But then a fourth grade student came up with the idea of using an accordion fold with construction paper strips to make the bird 'pop-up.' It was too great an idea to pass up and so, all the fourth grade classes explored gluing pop-up birds on their warm & cool paintings. Students also knew another kind of fold using two strips of paper folded on each other that also created a pop-up--this lesson turned out to be a great mixture of students using prior knowledge combined with new knowledge with students taking the lead in guiding the direction of the exploration. Click here to view the gallery.

Some students chose to explore the idea in their own way . . . the photo below shows an art work where the students explored the sculptural qualities of the accordion folded strips.

In the work below, the shape to the left of the bird is a suitcase!

This student was interested in how using rainbow colors on her birds made them blend into the background--she decided that the effect was stronger if she glued the birds flat. She ended up using her construction paper strips to make a sun.

The Bird Inquiry, Winter 2014, Grades 2, 3 & 4

Susan Deming — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 01:03:48 +0000

Since the holiday break, students have been working on the Bird Inquiry. This inquiry is structured much the same as the Insect and Leaf Inquiries. The birds students have been working with are all birds that can be seen in the San Leandro area: Robin, Towhee, Great Blue Heron, Red-Tailed Hawk, Hummingbird, House Finch, White-Crowned Sparrow, Blue Jay, Chickadee, Mallard Duck, Seagull and Golden Eagle.

To view student crayon observational drawings of birds, click on the links below:

Grade Four Bird Observational Drawings

Grade Three Bird Observational Drawings

Grade Two Bird Observational Drawings

After making a couple observational drawings, students sketched diagrams of a basic bird shape using simple shapes. Click here to see the gallery of bird diagrams.

Next, we discussed how, once you know the basic structure of a bird, you can then play around with the structure to make an original bird. Students were asked to make decisions about whether their bird would have a small or large head, short or long legs, big or little eyes, etc. Then the students created a crayon drawing of a bird using exaggeration. Click here to see the gallery of exaggerated birds.

Finally, students folded their paper in four and created several birds--the objective of this assignment was to again change the sizes of the head, legs, tail, head, beak, eyes and wings but to this time make the bird more 'realistic' and give it a name. Click here to see this gallery of bird sketches.

Going into the New Year, 2014: a Summary of the Art Inquiry Unit So Far

Susan Deming — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 03:06:22 +0000

Happy 2014 and welcome back after the holidays! In the last few blog posts, I described the work students did this past fall in the Leaf and Insect Inquiries. For those who missed those posts or would like to read them from beginning to end in order, below are the links . . .

Click on below to view the learning maps:

Click on below to read the about the Art Inquiry Unit:

Art and Thinking . . .

Bloom's Taxonomy Chart of Useful Action Verbs

On the Art Inquiry Unit Map, you may have noticed little grey boxes to the sides of the nodes labeled levels 1 - 6 and near the bottom right a key called Thinking Levels 1 - 6 . . . these thinking levels are derived from Bloom's Taxonomy--specifically the Bloom's Taxonomy Chart of Useful Action Verbs. I use these action verbs to ensure that I am giving students opportunities in art class to practice all kinds of thinking: my goal is for them to not only grow in their technical art skills but also in their thinking. I am especially interested in level 5, Synthesis, because that is where students do the kind of thinking that results in original and expressive art.

I think it would be useful at this point, in order to illustrate what I mean by synthesis thinking to compare some works of art by students.

In the group of art works below, I drew a very simple outline for a tree (specifically a chinaberry tree) on the board and directed students to draw a garden with the tree and children playing, to which they later added a watercolor wash. I thought the results were very lovely. But, these trees don't tell me much about the students. I can see that the students are proficient at copying my tree shape onto their paper and that they can apply a simple watercolor wash. All the trees look very similar, there are few details and little originality or expression.

In the next group of art below, I started students off with a Y tree. The Y is a frame or an entry point into the art making process. The frame or entry point was to show the students how to make a branching structure using Ys on the board and to ask them to use their imaginations to fill in the rest. By the time students worked on this project, they had practiced how to use their own thinking in the art making process through the warm up and other projects. Looking at some of the action words in Level 5 Synthesis in the chart above: change, combine, find an unusual way, design, create . . . there is little evidence of these actions in the trees above . . . but in the Y trees below, I see students using their own ideas to change, combine, find a new way . . . each drawing is very unique and original. I can see in the art that students are using deeper and more complex thinking--specifically, they are going beyond Know, Comprehend and Apply in Bloom's Taxonomy and entering into Synthesis thinking.

In order to grow in their ability to create original and expressive works of art, students need to practice technical art skills and thinking skills . . . my experience is that deep and complex thinking goes hand-in-hand with creativity and that it is impossible to create original works of art without it. Creativity is a process and artists connect to all the thinking shown in the Bloom's chart . . . but, as an art teacher, I can't help but be especially interested in helping students grow in synthesis thinking because that is where a drawing or painting transforms into a work of art.

Bloom's Taxonomy also helps to explain why, although lovely, the first group of chinaberry trees are the beginning step in the development of these student artists. And this is where I get to the work of the Observation Unit this fall and the three inquiries . . . my question for myself as teacher was: what if I could really get at the process of creativity (or as it might be called in other content areas, the research process) and teach students the authentic process artists use to get better at creating original and expressive art. The process where artists build their own bank of imagery to draw on so that they can become independent of the teacher's modeling. It seems so obvious that writers, for instance, need a rich vocabulary in order to write--artists are the same--they need a rich vocabulary of images. And the more imagery students have, the more material they can draw on to do synthesis thinking--students will have sufficient 'stuff' to combine or change or use in a new way. Furthermore, hopefully students will also understand that imagery doesn't all have to be stored inside their head--that there is a world of things to draw all around them.

Bloom's Taxonomy of Useful Action Verb formatted in a circle with an emphasis on Know, Comprehend, Apply & Synthesize

The Insect Inquiry: Oil Pastel Drawings

Susan Deming — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 22:11:08 +0000

For the last project of the Insect Inquiry, "Synthesize the Inquiry," half the third and fourth grade classes created a poster. The other third and fourth grade classes created a final oil pastel drawing instead of the poster.

For this assignment, students could draw the insect from observation, memory, imagination or a combination of the three. I asked them to cover the entire surface of the black paper with oil pastel--including areas that the student planned to leave black (i.e. use black oil pastel on black areas--do not leave the black paper showing.) Finally, students glued their drawings to purple construction paper and added an oil pastel design to make a border.

Below are examples of art students created!

To view a gallery of student oil pastel insects from Ms. Smith's class, click here; for insects from Ms. Epps' class, click here.

The Insect Inquiry Poster: Process for Artist Researchers

Susan Deming — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 21:37:47 +0000

Finally, the last project for the Insect Inquiry . . . on the Insect Inquiry map (click here to view map), notice that this section is labeled "Synthesize the Inquiry." A central objective of the Observation Unit was that by the end of the third inquiry, students would be familiar with how to conduct artistic research so that they would be able to make predictions on future learning experiences in my class and know how to conduct artistic research on their own . . . in other words, that the students would have experience practicing some of the things they might do on their own to get better at art.

What I wondered: after doing the leaf and insect inquiries, would the students remember the basic research steps? And, would the students remember and understand which art from their portfolios matched the steps of the inquiries? With these questions in mind, I decided to experiment with half of the third and fourth grade classes. I set the students the task of creating posters showing the steps they took in the inquiry matched with the art they created. Students could work with a partner or by themselves--most choose to work with a partner. I gave them a large piece of white paper, a worksheet with the steps to cut apart into separate slips, masking tape (to facilitate repositioning pieces), construction paper slips and their portfolios and set them loose. It was fascinating walking around the room listening in on conversations and lending a hand where it was needed. I could see right away that matching the art work to the steps was a challenge and also, that the making of the poster helped students to reflect and think about the connection with what they made to why they made it. Since I left the design of the poster completely up to the students, it was pretty much wide open for students to make their own aesthetic and organizational decisions and engage in conversations with their partners on how to place the pieces and what works of art to attach to the poster.

Below are examples of posters students made:

The Insect Inquiry: More Observational Drawings

Susan Deming — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 22:03:24 +0000

Next in the Insect Inquiry, in preparation for creating an original work of art, students drew a couple more observational sketches of the plastic insect models.

As mentioned in the posts on the warm ups, an important art expectation is that students, if they have time, will fill in the background of their drawings with interesting details and more than three colors. The background is a great place for me to encourage students to explore using their imaginations to create an environment around the insect. Since the overarching goal of the art class is that students learn & practice skills, techniques and methods and develop their thinking in order to grow in their ability to create original and expressive art, I am always on the lookout for places where students can use their imaginations in tandem with the practice of a technical skill like observational drawing.

The drawings below are examples of observational drawings where students have used their imaginations to incorporate their own ideas into the creation of the background/setting.

Click here to view the map of the Insect Inquiry.

The Insect Inquiry: Analyze & Synthesize by Creating a Work of Art

Susan Deming — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 22:03:24 +0000

For this section of the Insect Inquiry, students got to do what they like best in art class . . painting! And a chance to synthesize their work observing insects into an original work of art. In the oil pastel watercolor resist paintings below, students were asked to create a never-before-seen creature that was insect-like . . . in other words, a creature that had some things the same as and some things different from an insect. Students choose their own level of complexity: they could stay close to the insect observation by making changes to an observed insect or they could use their memory and/or imagination to create something completely new. The creature could have as many elements different from an insect but had to have at least one element the same as an insect.

After creating their paintings, students observed their creatures and filled out a T-chart. The directions for the t-chart were: "What can I locate in my creature that is the same as an insect and different from an insect? List them in the appropriate column." This was the first time students used a chart like this in my class and also a first foray into looking at their own art using analytical, compare/contrast thinking skills.

To view more student creatures, click here.

To view the map of the Insect Inquiry, click here.

The Insect Inquiry: Introduction

Susan Deming — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 03:40:11 +0000

After the final drawing of the Leaf Inquiry, students began the Insect Inquiry with a drawing of insects from memory. (Click here for Leaf Inquiry.)

Student memory drawing of an insect.

Next, students drew a couple short (2 - 5 minute) observational sketches of the plastic insect models using crayons.

Student observational drawing of an insect using a plastic insect model.

For the next step of the inquiry, I drew a diagram of an insect on the board and students drew it on their paper. The diagram focused on using ovals to show the way an insect's body is composed of segments. Students also labeled the three body parts (head, abdomen & thorax), six legs and antenna. We also reviewed and drew together samples of the branching structure of leaf veins and variations on leaf edges to facilitate a talk on what makes an insect an insect and what makes a leaf a leaf.

Below are student diagrams of leaves and insects.

Student diagrams of leaves & insects.

To view a map of the entire Insect Inquiry, click on the diagram below for a full size pdf version.

Map of the Insect Inquiry, click on image to view a larger pdf version.