why & how to teach art

iWhy & How to Teach the Arts

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Why & How to Teach the ArtsContents

Artists & ArtworksTen Lessons the Art Teach, by Elliot Eisner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Posters of Quotes About Art) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8 (For more quotes, check the image CDArt LessonsThe Nature of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Art Is About Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17What An Artist Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25The Beginnings of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Prehistoric Art: Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39When to Start Teaching Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Why and How to Assess Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43From Art to Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Art Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Aesthetics: Painter or PachydermWho Can Make Art? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Quick LessonsArt is a Kind of Thinking (4 drawing lessons) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Blind Contour Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Hand Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Monogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Value Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Art History Spotlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83How to Integrate the Arts in other areas of the Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Storytelling: Who, Where, How & Why . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95The Why, What & How to Teach Dance Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Helpful Tips and Useful Information Drawing Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121Why & How to Develop and Encourage Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Visual Art Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Word WallArt Related Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

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Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131How to Legally Capture Images for Classroom Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Free Programs for Editing Captured Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136Utah Arts Council Grants and Free Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137National and State Art Education websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138Key Art Education websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139POPS organization information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141On the CDSA copy of the Utah State Office of Educations Rainbow ChartImages for the Art History LessonsIndex of lessons from past Evening for Educator packets

vWhy & How to Teach ArtArtists & Artworks

Lee Udall Bennion, First Love

Lee Udall Bennion, Horses

Lee Udall Bennion, Photograph

Lee and Joe Bennion Rafting

bottom left, Lee Udall Bennion, Joe, at the Wheel

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Lee Udall Bennion, Self at 51

Lee Udall Bennion, Self in Studio (1985)

Lee Udall Bennion, Sketch of a Boy

Lee Udall Bennion, Snow Queen: Portrait of Adah (1992)

Cyrus E. Dallin, Appeal to the Great Spirit

Cyrus E. Dallin, Don Quioxte de la Mancha

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Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary School, Arlington, MA

Cyrus E. Dallin, Portrait of John Hancock (1896)

Cyrus E. Dallin, Massasoit, Near Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Cyrus E. Dallin with Massasoit

Cyrus Edwin Dallin, The statue of Moroni

Cyrus E. Dallin, Olympic Bowman League, National Archery Association (1941)

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Cyrus E. Dallin, Paul Revere

Cyrus E. Dallin, Paul Revere in Boston

Cyrus E. Dallin Photograph

Photograph of Young Cyrus E. Dallin

Cyrus E. Dallin, Quote

Cyrus E. Dallin, Sacajewea from the back (1915)

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Lee Greene Richards, Sketch of Cyrus Dallin

Lee Greene Richards, Portrait of Cyrus Dallin

Louise Richards Farnsworth

Louise Richards Farnsworth, Capitol from North Salt Lake

Louise Richards Farnsworth, Hay Stacks (1935)

Louise Richards Farnsworth, Mountain Landscape (1940)

xLouise Richards Farnsworth, Springtime (1935)

Louise Richards Farnsworth, Storm Clouds in the Tetons (1950)

Lee Greene Richards, Lady with the Green Scarf (Louise R. Farnsworth)

John Hafen, Indian Summer (1900)

John Hafen, Hollyhocks

John Hafen, Springville, My Mountain Home

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John Hafen, painting

John Hafen, photographed in his studio

John Hafen, Postcard

John Hafen, Quote

John Hafen, Sketch of the Valley

John Hafen, Springville Pasture

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John Hafen, The Mountain Stream (1903)

John Hafen, Teepees

John and Thora Hafen

Charles L. Smith, Portrait of John Hafen (1910)

Mahonri M. Young, Portrait of John Hafen

1The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail. How qualities interact, whether in sight or sound, whether through prose or poetry, whether in the choreographed movement we call dance or in an actors lines and gestures-these relationships matter. They cannot be neglected, they are the means through which the work becomes expressive.

School curriculum, however, is heavily weighted towards subject matter that gives students the illusion that rightness depends upon following rules. Spelling, arithmetic and writing as they are usually taught are largely rule abiding subjects. This is not so in the arts. The arts insist that understanding relationships is vital and that valuable relationships are achieved when the mind works together with the childs feelings. It is when emotions connect with thinking that lessons more fully impact the learner.The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer. If they do anything, the arts embrace diversity of outcome. Standardization of solution and uniformity of response is no virtue in the arts. While the teacher of spelling is not particularly interested in promoting the students ingenuity, the arts teacher seeks it.

The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.One important lesson is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. This too is a lesson that is seldom taught in our schools. For example, the multiple-choice objective test celebrates the single correct answer. Thats what makes the test objective. It is not objective because of the way the test items were selected; it is objective because of the way they are scored. It makes no allow-ance in scoring for the scorer to exercise judgment, which is why machines can do it.

The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving, purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstances and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to sur-render to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.At its best, work in the arts is not a monologue delivered by the artist to the work, but rather, a dialogue of sorts. It is a conversation with materials, a conversation punctuated with all of the surprises and uncertainty that a stimulating con-versation can make possible. In the arts, one hopes for surprise, surprise that redefines goals; and purposes are held with flexibility. The aim is more than impressing into a material what you already know, but actually discovering what you dont.

Ten Lessons the Arts Teach by Elliot Eisner

2The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. Put simply, the limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition. The reduction of knowing to the quan-tifiable and the literal is too high a price to pay in defining the conditions of knowledge. What we come to know through literature, poetry and the arts is not reducible to the literal and neither is the world in which we live.The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.The arts abound in subtleties. Paying attention to subtleties is not typically a dominant mode of perception in the ordinary course of our lives. We typically see things in order to recognize them rather than to explore the nuances of our visual field. For example, how many of us here have really seen the faade of our own house? I suspect few. One test is to try to draw it. We tend to look at our house or for our house in order to know if we have arrived home, or to decide if it needs to be painted, or to determine if anyones there. Seeing its visual quali-ties and their relationships is much less common.The arts teach students to think through and within a material.All art forms employ some means through which ideas become real. In music it is patterned sound; in dance it is the move-ment of a dancer; in the visual arts it is visual form, perhaps on a canvas, a block of granite, a sheet of steel or aluminum; in theater its a combination of speech, movement and sometimes song. Each of these art forms uses materials that impose certain demands on those who use them. They also provide an array of distinctive opportunities. To realize such opportunities, the child must be able to convert a material into a medium. For this to occur, the child must learn to think within both the possibilities and the constraints of a material and then use techniques that make the conversion of a material into a medium possible. A material is not the same as a medium and vice versa. Material is the stuff you work with and a medium is the form through which ideas are commu-nicated using whatever materials have been chosen. A medium conveys choices, decisions, ideas and images that the indi-vidual wants to express. The challenge for the child then is to take a materialbe it color, sound, texture or movementto think within the limitations and possibilities of the given material and then to use the material(s) to shape their idea.

The arts help children learn to say what sometimes cannot be said.When children are invited to describe what a work of art makes them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will convey their message accurately.Talking about art makes some special demands on those discussing it. Think, for a moment, about what is required to describe the qualities of a jazz trumpet solo by Louis Armstrong, the surface of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh, the seemingly effortless movements of Mikhail Bary-shnikov or the poetic theatrical language of William Shakespeare. The task is to express through language the qualities that are oftentimes beyond words, hence the challenge is to say what can-not be said. It is here that suggestion and association are among our strongest allies. It is here that metaphor, the most powerful of language capacities, comes to the rescue.

The arts enable us to experience the world in ways we cannot through any other source. The arts communicate meaning and it is through artistic experiences that we discover the expanse of what we are capable of both perceiving and feeling. Some works of art have the capacity to put us into another world because the experience is so powerful. The wish then in teaching literacy is not simply to help children learn how to read a book but to help them use their reading skills to then imagine images while they read. In addition, literacy includes the ability to perceive our world through many different senses: visual, tactile, kinesthetic and auditory. It is because of more diverse literacy that children are able to understand the worlds artwork and subsequently, to access the joy, delight and insight those works of art make possible. Ultimately, when a child can perceive and understand a work of artbe it a symphony, a play, a dance or a paintingthey gain the skills to then perceive and understand the world in which they live.

3The arts position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.Without question, the curriculum of the school shapes childrens thinking. It symbolizes what adults believe is important in order for the young to be competent in the world and tells chil-dren which human aptitudes are valuable to possess. The value of a subject of study determines both its presence in the curriculum as well as the amount of time the school devotes to it. Indeed, the most telling indicator of the importance of a field of study is not found in school district testimonies, but in the amount of time it receives and when it is taught during both the school day and school week. Add to these considerations the relationship between what is tested and what those test scores mean to the overall evaluation of the student and you have a recipe for defining what counts in schools. Adapted from: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp.70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications.

Text abstracted from NAEAs pamphlet, Parents: Ten Lessons the Arts Teach. For more information call (703) 860-8000 or visit www.naea-reston.org.

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9Why & How to Teach Aboutthe Nature of Art

What is the Nature of Art?

Objective: Students will demonstrate an under-standing of the Nature of Art by researching, viewing videos, and discussing before writing down a brief description of what they think art is about.State Core Links: Rainbow Chart, Elements & PrinciplesThis lesson incorporates everything the student knows about elements and principles of art.6th grade: Standard 4 ContextualizingObjective 2a, Explain how experiences, ideas, beliefs, and cultural settings can influence the artists percep-tion. Materials: Video, Internet, handouts, paper and pen, and a fiery imagination.

Process: Notice that we are not defining art. We are writing a statement about the Nature of Art and what the individual thinks art is about. I usually start this process with a showing of a fine video entitled What Is Art?, produced by Discov-ery Education. This video attempts to make the visual arts meaningful and accessible to young students. It is an open-ended approach to the elusive question, What Is Art? The video focuses on how and why art is made and the role of visual elements, artistic intention, mood and styles in the creation of art. I have described this video in case you have your own or find another that you can use as well.After viewing the video and talking about it, stu-dents are asked to write down what they think

art is about. Have them address three ideas: 1. What do you think art is or what do you think is art about? 2. What do you think is not art? 3. What do you think is the purpose of art? Notice that anything they write is correct because the question is what they think. We share these ideas and then move on to what other artists and writers have said about art. I pass out a paper with some definitions and statements about art. We read over these ideas and discuss them. A list of quotations is included in the lesson. Students are then given a chance to add to or change their written ideas. A working understanding of the nature of art is a life-long pursuit, so we need room to change our minds.After students have created a document stat-ing what they think art is about or what art is or what the nature of art is or all of the above, it is time to turn the abstract concept into a work of art. This can be done in any medium. I usu-ally let students choose their medium with a due date. It is also just fine to restrict the work to a specific medium and incorporate the definition into another objective lesson based on medium or motif or historical style. As you know, an open-ended assignment usually does not get finished. To help students think of an example they want to make, I suggest that they work in one of the four motifs of Landscape, Portrait, Still Life or Design. This work should be exhibited with their state-ment about art clearly written and displayed with their example of the statement. This can also be done in class with each student having a chance to share his or her work and statement with the class. One of the ways I like to tweak this les

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son is to have students share their statement in class but assign the example to be done at home. Those who return with a finished example can display the work in the Hall Gallery. Assessment: If a student starts his or her state-ment about art, I think art is about then any-thing they write is correct. If you want to be more formal in grading this project, then you can grade the spelling and grammar and creative construc-tion of the document. You can also grade on the depth of the students thinking about this subject.

Images: photo: a definition with an example.

Sources: I would like to recommend several books about the nature of art. They dont particu-larly agree with each other but the purpose of this exercise or art for that matter, is not necessarily to convince everyone of a singular, restricted idea.What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoy the great Russian novelist. This book was originally published in 1898. It has been translated several times. I recommend Richard Pevears translation because it is currently in print and easy to find. This is a must read on the nature of art. Tolstoy criticizes the elitist nature of art in the 19th century and rejects the idea that arts sole purpose should be the creation of beauty arguing that true art must work with religion and science as a force for the advancement of mankind. He also explores what he believes to be the spiritual role of the artist.What Good Are The Arts? by John Carey. Carey is a former English Professor at Oxford University. His controversial thesis is that art is anything that anyone has ever considered a work of art. He puts forth an erudite and humorous argu-ment that art is a social phenomenon and should be treated, analyzed and valued as such. Art is floundering in the abyss of relativism he writes, Perhaps relativism is all we can hope for in a world perceived by over 6 billion minds a day.Provoking Democracy: Why We Need The Arts, by Caroline Levine. Levine discusses the role of art in a democratic culture and what roll art should, could and does play. Yes democracies need art,

especially art they dont like or understandart helps defend democracies from its worst excess-es--the muting of marginal voices, the oppres-sion of majority rule and the blind conformism of consensus politics.What Is Art For? by Ellen DissanayakeBut Is It Art? by Cynthia FreelandVariations: In the original lesson we had stu-dents in the 5th and 6th grade write what they thought the nature of art was, what art was not, and the purpose of art. A variation of this les-son is simply to have students do just one of these questions. At our school the students have already become comfortable and confident in writing about art. By the time they are in the 5th grade, it is pretty easy to get them to do some serious thinking and writing.Another variation is to have students do some research about what others think art is buy inter-viewing other teachers, classmates (not in the art class), parents, friends, and neighbors. Most stu-dents are amazed that other teachers and school workers wont even try to engage. We have been doing this for some time, and it is only new hires that wont play. Even if they cant get cooperation, students can learn an important lesson about art.Extensions: When defining art, most students want to define visual art. They are in a visual arts class, so it is obvious. There are at least 4 other genres in the arts and they each need some defining also. Have students answer the same questions, but specifically about Dance, Drama, Music, and Electronic Media. Electronic Media may or may not be its own genre of art. I think it is, but we get to disagree in art without becoming adversarial. OK?Try having students write about the similarities and differences in these different areas of art. You will be amazed that the students understand how similar all the different art forms are. This has something to do with the fact that it is ALL ART. Use Line, Shape, Color and Texture and see how these concepts are used in each of the art genre.

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This is Maddies fifth grade statement about the nature of art and her example.

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Art isbeautiful, wonderful, amazing, its what you imagine and what you draw. Its not a pen and a pencil, or watercolor with paper. Its what you see then write. Draw what you see its amazing. If we didnt know about art or drawing, our life would be boring, we wouldnt be able to show our feel-ings in different ways and it would be hard. I love art. I get to draw stories of my life and show how I feel and that is art. Some people might think art is a beautiful sunset but it isnt. Even if an artist is standing by it, its not art. If the artist makes something about it or even says something about it, then thats art. Art is something we do. The purpose of art is to draw what you see in your mind so others can see it too. It is to draw your feelings so others can feel them too.

This is Savanah Ps fifth grade example of art and her description of the nature of art.

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This is Zacharys statement about art and an example he choose to demonstrate his statement. Sometimes we choose from other peoples artwork as a visual ex-ample of what we think art is, isnt, and what is the purpose.

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This is a decorated contour drawing of Adison. It is an ex-ample of Elizas statement.This is the product of a lesson we do on contour drawings and then go in with textures and colors to find tangent and adjacent spaces.

This is Elizas fifth grade writing about art.

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THE NATURE OF ART:What is the nature of art? As redundant and rhetorical as this issue may be, it becomes very difficult to intentionally produce a thing that you cant define or even discuss. If one does not know what something isit is not possible to create it. If your definition of art is anything you want it to be, then there is nothing that is not art; there-fore, there is no such thing as art because a thing cannot exist without its antithesis. If you cannot determine what is not art, you cannot rationally know what is art. We are not trying to be exclu-sive about art. We are trying to clarify a confus-ing and nebulous idea that most people wont pursue to a workable conclusion. Abdication, what-ever, is never an empowering definition. Remember that understanding the nature of art is an ongoing, life-long pursuit. So, pursue it!Rather than defending some didactic, arbitrary definition of art that we have memorized, let us engage in an ongoing dialogue on the nature and meaning of art. Here are some starting points:Art, n. 1. The quality, production, or ex-pression of what is beautiful, appeal-ing, or of more than ordinary significance. RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARYTo evoke in oneself a feeling one has experi-enced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movement, line, color, sounds or forms expressed in words, so to transmit the same feelingthis is the activity of art. LEO TOLSTOYArt is the objectification of human feelings; and the subjectification of nature.SUZANNE LANGER in The Mind: An Essay. Art is human intelligence playing over the natural scene, ingeniously affecting it to-ward the fulfillment of human purpose. ARISTOTLE

the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and in-terpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives its final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten art-ists. MARCEL DUCHAMPyou make something, anything, then you show it to someone. If anyone notices that they are looking at itthen that is art. Art is a self-conscious social phenomenon de-fined by the viewer as much as the artist. KURT VONNEGUTArt is a verb. It is an action, a process, and a thing one does. Art is the physical, emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual dance between the artist and his medium. When the creation dance is over, the phenomenon that the dance produced is no longer art but becomes artifact; evidence that art transpired in that place at one time. The dance can be reengaged between the viewer and the artifact and once again, art is hap-pening, but it is difficult.

Art is a kind of thinking. Phenomenology is a byproduct of the idea. A portentous idea poorly executed is still a significant idea. A redundant, meaningless idea, well executed is still meaning-less. I reserve the right to change my mind with-out telling you. JOSEPH GERMAINE

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Why & How to Teach ThatArt is About Questions

Elementary Levelby Joseph Germaine

Objective: Students will demonstrate an under-standing of the inquisitive nature of art by brain-storming with the class to identify some thought-provoking questions about art, the nature of art, what part art plays in our real lives, where art comes from, when we should start making art, how to get ideas and how to get them out of our heads and how you can tell a good idea when you see it. These should be questions that the stu-dents can then illustrate with images of their own devising.State Core Links: From the Rainbow Chart (5th grade): Since this project is not directly about the production of artworks, use the blue column titled Explore, Contextualize: Discover, look at, investigate, experience and form ideas. From the State Core Curriculum in Visual Art (5th grade), use Standard 2, (Perceiving): The student will analyze, reflect on, and apply the structures of art. Objective 1. Analyze and reflect on works of art. Materials: Groups of thinking humans, white board to write on and then whatever medium the students (or teacher) want to use for the illustra-tion.Activity: Life is about questions. It is the ques-tions in life that drive our actions much more than the answers. Answers come and answers go, but the questions stay. Most questions are uni-versal, but nearly all answers change over time, geography, culture, age, gender, and inclination.

Significant questions cannot be answered quickly, didactically, or simply. We want to practice creat-ing that pointedly significant question that we can spend a lifetime working on. Visual art is about visual questions and visual answers as Music is about sonic questions and sonic answers and so on.Have students discuss questions that they can ask about art. Ask questions about the nature of art, the meaning of art, the purpose of and the pro-cess of art. Start with individuals writing down questions and then cooperating in small groups to get the best questions and then working as a whole class to come up with no more than about 20 really good questions. My classes are from

Can blind people make art? photo by Clara, 5th grade

Cat clay sculpture by Liz, 3rd grade. Liz is completely blind

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40 to 50 students at a time so 20 questions makes it possible for several students to choose the same question. If you have smaller classes, make a shorter list because we want to try to get several students working on the same question. These last questions should be written on the board. Notice that we have not started trying to answer the question. Each student will choose the question he or she wants to answer. They will group together to discuss answers. When they think they can answer the question, they should gener-ate a work of art. The artwork will be an illustration of the an-swer and probably also reference the question. Here is a list of questions about art generated in class by 3rd thru 6th graders over many years of doing the question project:Is a beautiful flower art? What is art like? Can art be ugly? What is the prettiest color? Can something be beautiful and ugly at the same time? Does art answer questions or ask ques-tions or both? Can you have an answer without a question? What is the best kind of art? Why does everyone disagree about art? Is it ok to disagree about art? Does art have be a picture of something? Is it still art if it is not very good? Is it ok to like someones art even if you think it isnt really good? How do you know if you like some-thing or not? Who gets to decide what art really is? Who is the best artist in the world? What is not art? Who invented art? Is photography art if a machine makes it? If you trace something is it still art? How old is art? Who was the first art-ist? Why is it fun to make art, especially painting and clay? Why doesnt everyone make art? Why do old people quit making art? Is art just for fun? How can an artist get money for making art? Why is the art room so messy? Do you think God is an artist?

When students are finished listing questions, give them some time to discuss these questions in small groups. Try to get everyone to participate. The smaller the group the more participation can be expected. Notice we did not say, have students answer the questions. We are going to discuss the questions. Maybe there is a better way to ask the same question. Perhaps each question reminds us of other questions. We usually end this project here, without resolv-ing many of these issues. The goal is to get stu-dents to learn how to ask significant and insight-ful questions. The well-crafted question lends itself to the answer. This should be remembered when crafting a test on any subject for your stu-dents.Assessment: All students who have participated in the creation of making questions and then discussing them have succeeded in this project. For a more measurable assessment have students write down what they think the best question of the day was. Have them write it clearly and succinctly. The question can then be graded on grammar, punctuation, spelling, and insightful content.

What is art about? This is a watercolor still life by Chandler, 5th grade

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Sources: DVD: Art Making and Meaning: Understanding Through Questions, by Anne Coe and Michael Brol-ly. This is a 143 minuet video, which is compiled from 54 brief videos that address 17 significant questions about art. There is also a companion CD of interaction activities. This is an excellent resource for older students. I use it for my 6th grade classes and some of the more advanced 4th and 5th graders.BOOKS: The Art of Asking Questions, Get Better Answers, by Terry J. Fadem; Open to Question: The Art of Teaching and Learning by Inquiry, by Walter L. Bateman; The Art Question, by Nigel Warbur-ton; Smithsonian Q&A: American Art and Artists, by Tricia Wright; Questions Kids Ask About Art & Entertainment, by Grolier Limited; How to Talk to Children About Art, by FranCoise Barbe-Gall; Puzzles About Art, by Margret P Battin & John Fisher; But Is It Art? by Cynthia Freeland; Letters To Young Artists, by Peter Nesbett & Sarah An-dress; Art and Fear: Observation On The Perils and Rewards of Art Making, by David Bayles.

I know this is a lengthy reading list. They are all good sources. Try the DVD, Letters To Young Art-ists and Art and Fear. I know we are all busy but my advice as a 33-year veteran in education and a life-long learner is to find and make the time and space to sit down with a book some time each day. You will be amazed. Life is good!Variations: A variation of this questioning agenda is a game we play entitled, Question me an Answer. In this game we take turns present-ing an answer to the class and then see how many questions we can invent that are compatible with the answer. We also try to use humor, but it is not expected that all questions will result in a funny. Here is an example: Emily answered, Red. The class asked, What is hot? What color is your nose on a cold windy day? What does your Mom see when you are naughty? What do you mix with yellow to get orange? This could obviously go on for a long time. The point here is to look at the relationship between questions and answers.

Where can you find art?

Pen and Ink and Colored Pencil by Caitlyn, 5th grade

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This is a somewhat twisted, childish take off on the ancient Geek style of debate know as the Socratic method, which is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing view-points based on asking and answering questions to stimulate rational thinking and to illuminate ideas.

Extensions: To extend this project into the production mode of art, we have students write down the question they want to focus on and then answer the question with an illustration. The me-dium and motif of the illustrated answer can be assigned or left up to the student. Some mediums and styles lend themselves more easily to some questions. Here are some examples:Where do you get art ideas from?

Pen and Ink portrait by Walker, 5th grade

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What is art about? This is a watercolor

still life by Morgan, 5th grade

How can you see a picture of your thoughts in art? Water color still life by Megan, 5th grade

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Can blind people make art? photos by Clara, 5th grade.

Self Portrait in clay by Liz, 3rd grade. Liz is completely blind.

Dinosaur clay sculpture by Kailee, 9th grade. Kailee is completely blind.

Dog clay sculpture by Paul, 5th grade. Paul is partially blind.

Mr. Germaine teaches art to blind kids who cant see. They come to our school at

night. I saw a table full of clay sculptures that they were going to put in a show. My question

was, Can blind people make art? because I never heard of it before. This is my question

and my answer. Now I know for sure. Clara, 5th grade

23Where can you find art?

Pen and Ink water color by Kate, 5th grade.

What does art sound like? Colored pencil drawing by Max, 5th grade.

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Why & How to Teach What an Artist Does


Objective: Students will demonstrate an un-derstanding of the role of an artist in the real world of art by looking at some media production on What is an Artist? and engaging in a class brainstorming process of listing and describing as many artist jobs as possible.State Core Links: Standard 3, Expressing, Objective 2, Discuss, evaluate and choose symbols, ideas, subject matter, meaning and purposes for students own artworks and Objective 3, Explore video, film, CD-ROM, and computers as art tools and artworks. Standard 4, Contextualizing, Objec-tive 2-a, Collaborate in small groups to describe and list examples of major uses or functions and Objective 3, Recognize the connection of visual arts to all learning and Objective 3-a, Collaborate in small groups to discover how works of art reveal the his-tory and social conditions of a nation.Materials: Video, I Want To Be An Artist by CrystalProductions or any other similar produc-tion on the nature of art in the real world. See Bibliography. Writing materials and time.Process: This lesson is oriented around the ques-tion, What does an artist do in the real world? We want to get past the idea that art is just for artists. The thesis here is that everyone en-gages in the world of aesthetic creation (art) all of the time. We want to debunk the idea that only cloistered-off tortured painters make art. The traditional stereotype of an artist does a lot of se-

rious disservice to all of those who engage in the world of art daily as part of their career or part of their daily life. We show the video I Want To Be An Artist to the class. This is a short video production, which highlights several types of jobs in the art world that arent necessarily the traditional painting and sculpting jobs. Art Gallery Owner, Restora-tion Artist, Art Teacher, Computer Artist, Pho-

tographer, and Fashion Designer are a few of the careers mentioned. After viewing this or a similar video, students should discuss several terms like career, art, artist, job, and hobby. At this point students should be led in a brainstorming process to list as many ways to be an artist as they can imagine. They should also write down how a par-ticular job uses art. For some classes, making it a slightly competitive thinking process might help motivate the students. I divide the class into four workstations and have each engage in a discus-sion about artists work. They choose a scribe to write down the ideas, and then we make a master

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list on the board. Sometimes we do this individu-ally rather than making it a group process. But we still end up with a master list on the board. Some coaching might be needed to elicit some out of the box thinking.Years ago I was shown an article in School Arts that said that at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) there were nine artists for every engineer. The article pointed out that the real job of NASA was not to go to Mars but to get money from Congress to finance NASAs research. This means they produce a lot of advertising, pamphlets, films, animations, and re-enactments. This is an unexpected example of what artists do. Here is a partial list of art careers thought of by fifth graders:Hair stylist, Grounds keeper, House painter, Tree pruner, Sign painter, Janitor, Housewife, Chef, Construction worker, Seamstress, Makeup art-ist, Actors, People who announce the news on TV, Dance teachers, Music teacher, Fifth grade art teachers, All the Elementary teachers, Whoever makes all that stuff the teachers decorate their rooms with. People who make Christmas Tree or-naments, Who make Christmas lights, Christmas card makers, Anybody who decorates a Christmas Tree, Movie set designer, T-shirt printer, advertis-ers who make commercials, The guys who paint the lines on the roads, Farmers who stack hay neatly, Saddle makers, Jewelry makers, Rock and roll stars, Guitar makers, Costume makers, People who design labels on food, People who print the art posters in our classroom, The guys who built our school and put the tile floor designs in, The people who design and invent flags for coun-tries, The musicians who write national anthems, Anybody who plays an instrument, Workers in an Art Museum like the leaders and the ones who walk around and tell you about the art and the lady who says hello at the front desk, The people who make the handouts and notes we take home almost every day, People who make basketballs and other sports equipment, The artist who thought up the Nike design and put it on my shoe, My mom when she curls my hair, Me when I brush my teeth and wash my face, Guys who think up

wallpaper, Whoever makes new colors of paint, The people who make those little pieces of paper at the paint store with all the colors of paint and the funny names, The artists who make toilets, The car guys who figure out how to make fancy letters in metal to put on cars, Font makers for your computer, Gardeners who grow house plants to decorate your house.Well, the list is much longer and takes a full day to compile. With 180 fifth graders we make a list of over 300 jobs and careers that a person who makes art can do. Of course this all depends on how you want to define art and artist. Our defini-tion is obviously an inclusive one rather than an exclusive one. It always seems more reasonable to define a thing by what it is rather than what it is not.Assessment: If you need to grade this project on a graduated scale then the obvious way is to give the group with the greatest number of con-tributions the highest grade and the individual students who contribute the most the highest grade. Although, one cutting, insightful, poi-gnantly poetic answer may be worth all the other answers combined. Be careful of the quantitative paradigm. An important part of assessment for the lesson would be to identify and recognize any

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Students having fun making the list.

The list in progress.

student who does not participate and develop a strategy to recruit that student into the process. It has been my experience that the best tools we have for convincing students to engage in the work of art are other students who are engaging. Sources: I Want To Be An Artist, a VHS video by CrystalProductions. This is an excellent starter for a discussion on careers in art.What Is Art? a VHS video by Clearvue & SVE. This video does not answer the title question but it does create a good starting point for discussion.Art City 1, 2, & 3, a series of DVDs directed by Chris Maybach. Each of these DVDs look into the life and work of real contemporary artists and discusses the hows, wheres and whys a person pursues a life and career in the arts by going into individual art studios of various artists in various medium. Art:21, in both VHS and DVD. This is a look at dif-ferent types of art in the 21-century and how the contemporary world of art is expanding to in-clude many art forms that have traditionally been excluded from the Fine Arts genre.I Can Fly, Volumes 1-5, VHS video. This is an excel-lent series for young students, which crosses over between the disciplines of Dance, Music, Perfor-mance, Drama, Literature, and the Visual Arts. It also focuses on three different artists in each of

the volumes and two or more dance and music performers.Variations: This lesson can be as simple as hav-ing students take notes (which they always do in my class) or as complex as dividing into competi-tive teams and keeping score on the number of art career options that can be catalogued.Extensions: Here are two other ways to use this brainstorming process to discuss the nature and application of art without it being a didactic lecture.WHO DOES ART?1. List all the things you did today that were some kind of art. Combed my hair, chose colorful clothes, made my bed, whistled a tune, danced a jig, wore a tie, chose a hat, planted a tree.2. Follow Mr. Huntington our custodian around for a day and write down everything he does that looks like art. Swept the sidewalk, mowed the grass, cleaned up a mess in the hall, straightened a picture. Try this on your teacher, your parents, and your principal.There will be those who dont see these daily activities as ART in any traditional way. There is a sense that art is artifact, and that it is primarily painting and sculpture. To see how this narrow-

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ness prevails, make a list of the famous artists who come to mind. Most folks will notice that these famous artists are primarily white, Europe-an, male painters with a sculptor thrown in there, perhaps. Of course this is not true for everyone, but then everyone does not concern his or her life with these issues.

Student Examples:

Artists design clothes like under ware. I dont really want to design under ware when I grow up. I want to be a basketball player like Michael Jordan. He de-signed his own under ware and that is a kind of art and a job in art so I guess if it is ok for Michael Jordon it is ok for me. Fashion designer is a career in art. Parker, 5th grade.

If there is an underlying sense of beautification and focus on the visual world in these daily activi-ties, then with just a little flexibility and inclusive-ness, much of what we do will fall comfortably within the greater aesthetic world of manipulat-ing visual elements to express ones concern and appreciation for others and oneself. Art is about the way things look, the way things are, and the way things might be.

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A job in art is to design and make labels for food. When you buy something in the store it has a label and artwork all over it. Somebody has to get the idea and design the wrapper for cookies. This is my idea for a cookie wrapper. The two little faces in the Os are the cartoon characters that I made up for the comic strip project. I think it would be fun to be an advertising type artist when I grow up but who knows. Im still kind of young. Paige, 5th grade.

A good job for an artist is to be a model. Mostly artists take the picture or paint it but being a model is art too. It is a kind of drama like acting. It seems like fun and sometimes I model for photographers. When I grow up I would rather be the photographer. Emily, 5th grade

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This is a logo for a worldwide telephone company. Some artists design logos for compa-nies. Thats what this is. Braden, 5th grade.

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Jewelry designer. This was thought of and made by a jewelry designer. People who design jewelry are artists and they make a lot of money. This is some jewelry that I designed and made. Sometimes you can just design an idea but if its a good idea it is fun to make it too. I want to make and design jewelry when I grow up. Savanna, 5th grade.

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WHERE DO YOU SEE ART?1. List all the things in this classroom that were made or designed or thought of by artists. Is it good art or not? How does it help you? This can be done individually or as a group or as a graded quantitative process. 2. Lets pretend there isnt any art anywhere. What would our school look like? What would our town look like? What would our homes look like? What would we look like? What would you miss most? Make a list.More Extension:The obvious next step is to have students choose

You might not think it is art when your Mom fixes your hair but it is. Some artists who do hair make a lot of money doing it. It is called a Hair Stylist. It is not like painting or drawing but they use lines and shapes and textures and sometimes even color to make things more beautiful and interesting. To me that is art. This is a hairdo that my Mom gave me. Hair styl-ists have to study at a school to learn how to do their job. I think it is a good career in art

one of the careers in art and create a work of art that corresponds with that career. If this is some-thing that cant be done in class, have students document their project with photos.

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Why Teach About theBeginnings of Art

WHY BOTHER TEACHING ART?In an effort to discuss why we bother with the expensive and time-consuming discipline of ART in the public schools we need to know first, some-thing about the nature of art, second, what part art plays in our real lives, third, where art came from, fourth, when we should start sharing the joy in the production of art with our children and fifth, some strategies as to how we can go about this awesome task.Art is distinctively human. To study art is to study what it means to be a human being. Art is a social phenomenon. To study art is to study about our relationship with our self and all other humans. Art includes all aspects of human existence. To learn about art is to learn about our human place in the rest of the non-human universe. To be-come aware of, comfortable with, coherent in, and skilled at art is to become human, which is significantly more than just existing. It is being ALIVE! To engage in the aesthetic paradigm is to engage in meaning. If aesthetics is about the search for beauty, then aesthetics is the only place in the educational world where we can discuss what causes beauty, what to do about it when we discover it, what it means, and why is it appropri-ate that we dont all agree. WHENCE ART?Whence: From what place, source or cause.Art is a part of the human condition. In fact it is the definitive part of the human condition. It is what makes us human. It is probably the only thing that humans do exclusively. What do hu-

mans do that is distinctively human? Reproduce. No! War and violence? No! Eat, travel, hunt, hide, and horde things?no, no, no! How about communicate by generating sounds? No! Again. Perhaps the only thing that human beings do for which there is no obvious counterpart in the rest of the animal world is to find beauty and share our responses to it with others. All academic disciplines are narrow spin offs of the human need to observe nature (by the way, we are part of nature so observing nature includes ourselves and others) and record our response. Art is the oldest academic discipline and integrally inter-twined with ancient religion. Art is the only pre-literate academic study. Literacy is a form of visual art, that is, it is an arbitrary symbol system drawn with lines and shapes to covey a predeter-mined meaning. We can use these squiggly lines

Close-up of horse heads from the Chauvet Cavehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chauvethorses.jpg

public domain

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and shapes to communicate novel and personal ideas and feelings and descriptions of our world. Sounds a lot like abstracted art to me.The following is a brief and incomplete discussion about where art comes from. We are focusing on the visual arts because the record is available, but there is very strong evidence that Music, Dance and Drama (story telling and ritual) is at least as old as visual art and perhaps older. It is just very difficult to document the sound of prehistoric mu-sic although some of the oldest rock art we have from Spain shows figures that are either dancing, hunting or fighting. Perhaps it is all part of the same thing. Some of the oldest artifacts found are musical instruments. We will start with written language to demonstrate that visual communica-tion is much older than literacy and is at the root of all reading and writing. To ignore the legacy of visual art is to deny the root source of all the academic disciplines, which rely so exclusively on literacy. Why do we start preschool children on PICTURE BOOKS?

The earliest written language we know about is Cuneiform from the Sumerian culture in Mesopo-tamia, (or possibly early Egyptian) about 34,000 to 3200 BCE (5000 year ago). Cuneiform was drawn with a wooden stylist on clay tablets (see image, bottom left).Bone and ivory tags, pottery vessels and clay seal impressions bearing hieroglyphs unearthed at Abydos, Egypt have been dated to between 3400 and 3200 BCE, making them the oldest know ex-amples of Egyptian writing. The Tags, each mea-sure 2 by centimeters and containing between one and four glyphs were discovered by excava-tors from the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo in the pre-dynastic ruler Scorpion Is tomb. For some great information about the earliest hieroglyphs I recommend an online article by Marsia Sfakianou.

Drawing of hieroglyphic ivory tile. Original can be seen athttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/235724.stm another tile is available athttp://www.homepages.indiana.edu/041301/im-ages/scorpion.jpg

Left, Cuneiform tablet image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cuneiform_script2.jpgLibrary of Congress, public domain

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The Chauvet Cave is in southern France. It con-tains mans earliest known cave paintings. It was discovered in 1994. It is considered one of the most significant prehistoric art sites in the world. Cave paintings were being made about 32,000 years ago at Pont DArc, France.http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/ source for images

Chauvet Horses, largehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chauvet_cave,_paintings.JPG Charcoal and colored earth pigment paintings and relief carving from Pont DArc, France.Painting from the Chauvet cave, replica in the Brno museum Anthropos. 31,000 years old art, probably Au-rignacien. The group of horses probably does not picture a herd of them, but some kind of etological study, showing, from left to right, calmness, aggression, sleep and grazing.(2009-05-22)Author, HTO 22 May 2009

Cave hyena painting found in the Chauvet cave; now known to be 32,000 year oldhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20,000_Year_Old_Cave_Paintings_Hyena.gif Author, Carla Hufstedler 27 September 2006, 15:25:51

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Lion-headed figurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lion_man_photo.jpg Lion_man_photoAuthor, Gaura, 2007(2007) public domain

This lion headed figure, first called the lion man and later called the lion lady of the Hohlenstein Stadel Cave, is an ivory sculpture that is the oldest known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in

the world and one of the oldest known sculptures in general. The sculpture has also been interpret-ed as anthropomorphic, giving human character-istics to an animal, although it may have been the image of a deity. The figurine is determined to be about 32,000 years old by carbon dating meth-ods. It was first discovered in 1861 in a cave near Swabian Alb, Germany.The Lion Man, Water Bird and Horse Head sculptures from the Swabia province of Germany are dated between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago. See images at http://www.ice-age-art.de/an-faenge_der_kunst/fels.phphttp://archaeology.about.com/od/upperpaleo-lithic/ss/hohle_fels.htm has horse head, water bird, and VenusThe 40,000 year old Venus of Hohle Fels, from Schelklingen, Germany, was discovered in 2008. (www.thelocal.de). This ivory carving was found near Schelklingen Germany and is from the begin-ning of the Upper Paleolithic, which is associated with the assumed earliest presence of Homo sapi-ens (Cro-Magnon) in Europe. It is the oldest un-disputed example of Upper Paleolithic art and fig-urative prehistoric art in general and is about 2 inches tall.. Near this area in Germany have been found over 20 other carved artifacts including a 35,000 year old flute carved from a vulture bone. Because these artifacts are made of organic mate-rials (bone) they can be easily dated using carbon dating processes. (largest image at http://john-frederickwalker.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/hf_06.jpg found November 4, 2009. If no longer available, use Venus of Hohle Fels as search term in image search such as google.com. The oldest pottery found to date is about 18,000 years old found in a cave at Yuchanyan in Hunan province in China. By determining the fraction of a type, or isotope, of carbon in the bone frag-ments of the site and residual carbon in the clay body, the specimen were found to be 17,500 to 18,300 years old. The piece has incised decora-tions on the surface. (tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com) You can see (and get a personal copy for use in

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your class) from http://www.hnmuseum.com/hnmuseum/eng/whatson/exhibition/kg_2.jspThe oldest art objects found so far are a series tiny drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old--that were discovered in a South African cave. (http://images.livescience.com/images/060622_jewelry_02.jpg )This is pretty old and whether or not it is art is a lively discussion. The age can only be pushed back further. Long before what we would recog-nize as culture or civilization our ancestors were making art. This historical and chronological ap-proach is intended to demonstrate to those who resist Art Education as frivolous, non-academic or just play that art is the basis of all we teach and completely relevant to our real lives. Most of what we know about whom we are and where we came is documented in the arts. Try to imag-ine history without artworks or literacy without drawing lines and shapes to make letters and words or science without visual diagrams to show us what Science is trying to say.The oldest writing we have is about 5,000 years ago and it seems to be inventory lists and legal documents. Who would have guessed that law-yers invented literacy? Initially, literacy was a secret and one had to hire a scribe to write a document and then hire another one to read it. Until the 19th century, universal literacy was not an idea anyone espoused. It is irrational to believe that the human experience started with literacy. It is irrational to think that the academic disciplines of literacy, math, science, history or social studies can exist without the endemic hu-man experience in visual communication. Art is the only preliterate discipline in the school cur-riculum. We dont have to read or write to do art but we do have to do art to be able to write and read. We learn by art, we teach by art, we work by art, we play by art and we love by art. It there-fore seems obvious that we need to include a far-reaching, discipline based authentic art incre-ment into all subjects at all times and at all levels. We also need to secure a place in the curriculum where the arts can be taught as primary and not just an effective way to teach another subject. Art

is the educational glue that connects all things. It is the historical and systemic glue of our lives. The aesthetic life is life. We live by beauty, just ask any Navajo or Polynesian.Other examples of prehistoric art:

Egyptian Funerary Stelehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_funer-ary_stela.jpg

Graeco-Roman period hieroglyphs http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Egypt_Hi-eroglyphe4.jpg

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/na-ture/235724.stm

One of the Earliest Known Realistic Representations of a Human Face Circa 23,000 BCEVenus_de_Brassempouyhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Ve-nus_de_Brassempouy.jpgAuthor, PHGCOM, 2009 pho-tographed at the Musee dArcheologie NationalePublic domain

The Narmer Palette, shown below, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NarmerPalette_ROM-gamma.jpgphoto by Captmondo, gamma adjusted to bring out more detail at lower resolutionsPublic domain

Other Good Sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_art good source for info and images

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotost-recke-22586.html 5 pieces small ivory sculptures

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeit-geist/0,1518,489776,00.html35,000 year-old art

Timeline http://www.historyofscience.com/G2I/timeline/index.php?category=Art+

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Elementary LevelPrehistoric Timeline

Objective: Students will demonstrate an un-derstanding of the long and ancient tradition of visual art in the human experience by researching and creating a Timeline that documents visual arts prehistory and that ends with the introduc-tion of the first codified written language.

State Core Links: From the 5th grade rainbow chart use the orange column, Research/Create, Study, explore, seek, be creative, imagine and produce.Materials: Lots of research materials, art sup-plies to reproduce the preliterate images of our ancestors.Sources: Prehistoric Art: the symbolic Journey of Humankind, by Randall White; The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art, by Paul G. Bahn; Prehistoric Art and Civilization, by Denis Vialou; The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the Worlds First Artists, by Gregory Curtis.Activity: Students need to be introduced to the long and glorious prehistory tradition in the arts. Since it is prehistoric, it is only tangently covered in a history curriculum. Students should organize in groups based on the medium (cave paintings, sculpture, and carvings, and pottery) and the time period and culture. The body of information is huge and most young students and their schools do not have access to the full range of informa-tion. This problem is exacerbated by the ongo-ing nature of the research into the archeological record. I was taught as a graduate student in Art

History that the cave paintings at Lascoux and Altimira were the oldest and that the oldest sculp-ture was the Venus of Willendorf. Subsequent finds have made my education out dated and inaccurate. Learning is a life-long endeavor. To compensate for the abbreviated nature of the time line we dont try to hit everything out there, just a few of the high points. In my class we di-vide up geographically. Africa, Europe, Asia (India and China/Japan/Korea), Americas, and Austra-lia/Oceania are the basic areas. We can divide each area into smaller areas like North and South America, Northern and Southern Africa, Mediter-ranean and Northern Europe, Asia Minor, Eastern and Western Asia, and all of Southeast Asia in-cluding the Indonesian archipelago. Groups of 4 to 6 students seem optimal with my classes of 45 or so students 4 times a day. No shortage of bod-ies here.An introductory lesson at about third grade on the nature of a timeline and the chronological sequence of dates including things like BC and AD and BCE and CE and why this Christmas will be the 2009th one, theoretically, is a good way to start this lesson. Time sequence and chronology are a little evasive to most third graders but you can get their attention by explaining that this is the year 2009 because it is the 2009th Christmas. A little discussion on the nature of Calendar is appropriate and how dates get larger as they get older after the Christian Era and that there are other calendars used around the world like the Hebrew, the Chinese, and the Arabic calendars. Some mention of the Gregorian and Julian Calen-dars might also be a good idea. The specifics of

How to Teach About Prehistoric Art

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dating are not the important thing in this lesson as the accuracy of most dates is in some doubt. The idea of pushing back the horizon of the art world is the agenda.Try starting with the oldest art your research can discover and move forward to about 5000 years ago when the earliest forms of written language that we know of were introduced. Of course the timeline doesnt end there, but that becomes a historical lesson. This is a prehistory lesson. Use the Internet. What a great library. We have sever-al terminals in our art room and they are in nearly constant use on one project or another. I refer to my laptop as my portable library. The kids get it.Look for images of ancient art from all of these cultural and geographic areas because we want to make our own version of these images. The best way to actually see an image of anything is to try to duplicate it in some art medium. We are in the process of building this timeline but it will take most of the school year, and we will rotate the project between all the age groups at our school. The bulk of the work will be done by 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, but others will help. When the images are ready we will write a short didactic statement to be displayed with the images. The statement should include approximate dates, lo-cations, when discovered by whom, a short writ-ten description of medium and proximity of the work, and what it might actually look like today. You may want to include some of the scientific speculation as to the purpose and meaning of the images. When this is completed, the images should be prominently displayed in the class-room, adding new work as it is finished with the appropriate dates and in the appropriate position relative to the other works.Variations: Try music, dance, and drama time-line. Try geographically and culturally specific timelines. Try medium specific timelines (paint-ing, sculpture, pottery).Extensions: A wonderful way to extend this lesson is to have students research and recreate three-dimensional sculpture and artifacts, includ-

ing pottery, for the prehistoric record. There is a wealth of artifacts from all over the world. It might be interesting to see when pre-history started in different places. Prehistoric means, Before there was a written record, not before existence. For example: There is no written lan-guage in Hawaii. The Hawaiians occupied the is-lands about 300 AD. The first European to arrive in Hawaii was James Cook and his expedition on Feb. 14, 1778. That means for about 1500 years, Hawaii was a prehistoric culture.These are the kind of illustrations we use in the Prehistoric Art Timeline.

by Savannah, 5th grade

by Paige, 5th grade

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When to Start Teaching Art

WHEN TO TEACH ART:I have heard it said by skilled and dedicated educators that art is a thing that cannot be taught because it is a gift that you are either born with or not. I believe that they mean that children are hardwired to engage in personal expression through body language (dance), sounds (music), acting out (drama) and scribbling on the bath-room floor with a red marker (visual art). It is not that this cannot be taught; it is that the need to express ourselves this way is already in place. It is a biological imperative that cannot be taught because it is already there. It can be untaught, squelched, and degenerated, but it is difficult to eradicate. There is always hiding deep within us THE NEED. It is skill, poignancy, astuteness, clarity, creative invention, technique, apprecia-tion, observation, and inclusiveness in the arts that can and need to be taught. Let us not forget that TEACHING and LEARNING are not the same things.As a veteran of the Elementary Educational process, I have observed that at about the same time a childs brain is through growing (not to be confused with learning or developing), about 9 years old, the childs focus in life moves from the internal locus to the external locus. That is, they become more stimulated and motivated by social awareness and inhibited by social criticism. Because there is no more brain to be grown, it is the social animal that rears its beautiful head. If at this transition in a childs life, the child is ridi-culed or strongly criticized about his or her art, the child will close down and frequently never pick up the gauntlet again. In my workshops with Elementary teachers I have heard this story many

times by the teachers themselves. Many actually remember the name of the person who embar-rassed or criticized them. It is frequently a third or fourth grade story. They then determined that they did not possess the gift in art. If we can get to the students before this crisis in their lives, we can arm them to persevere through the critical time and not abandon their passion for artistic communication. Here are three strategies to help students with-stand the negative external locus:1. If someone says to you about your drawing or painting, That doesnt look like a horse, then an-swer, Horse? You got what I was trying to say. I was trying to say horse with this picture, and you got it so that makes me a successful artist. Thank you very much.2. If someone says about your painting or sculp-ture, That doesnt look like a horse, then an-swer, Horse? You thought I found a dead horse on the road on the way to school and skinned it and glued it to the paper? No, no, no! This is just lines, shapes, values, colors, and textures that are supposed to remind you of a horse, and it obvi-ously does. There is no horse here!3. The third strategy is easier than you can imag-ine. Learn to look at a horse until you can see a horse and then learn to render accurately what you see. If you can see it, you can draw it.All three of these strategies work and will keep you in the game. By the way, the gift in art is not SKILL, it is TENACITY and PERSEVERENCE. The only failure in art is to quit. If you start learn-ing to make art when you are 5 years old, your

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artwork looks like a beginner. It looks that way not because you are a child but because you are a beginner. If you start to learn about making art when you are 15, it looks like a beginner, and if you start at age 25, it will still look like a beginner. Most adults dont want to make art that looks like a beginner so they dont start.

43

Why & How to Assess Art


Criteria Slips:

Objective: Students will demonstrate an under-standing of self-assessment by filling out a per-sonal criteria slip on their finished work of art.

State Core Links: State Core Standards and Ob-jectives: Standard 2, (Perceiving) The student will analyze, reflect on, and apply the structures of art. Rainbow Chart: Use the light yellow column, Ana-lyze/Integrate, Compare, contrast, distinguish, examine and incorporate.Materials: This can work for any visual arts production assignment. All you need is a quarter sheet of paper.Activity: The Criteria Slip can be printed ahead of time and passed out to students or copied off the board. The idea is to give students specific criteria for determining if they are finished with the project and to evaluate their own perfor-mance. This can be applied to any project.This is a criteria slip we used for a project we call, What did I do this summer? In this drawing and painting lesson we focus on the figure action ges-ture. This is a somewhat corny project and has been run into the ground by teachers for genera-tions. However it is rather new for the students and it is about the student. These are the two important parts for a successful project: new and about the student. Art is always personal. Notice also that the assignment is formed as a question that they are supposed to answer visually. This

lesson is not a complete description of how the lesson is introduced and modeled. This is just the assessment part but you will be able to see what the lesson expected.WHAT DID I DO THIS SUMMER?Name:Title:Date:o 1. Pen and ink. Black ballpoint.o 2. Show an "Action Gesture" of the whole person. Something you actually "DID"!o 3. Use five values of light and dark.o 4. Use five textures of rough and smooth.o 5. Put yourself in a place by using a horizon lineo 6. Include four ways of showing near and far. (overlapping, size, detail, placement0o 7. Use good coloring techniques: short strokes, same direction, slowly and carefully, cover the whole space, no blank paper showing through, don't rub your hand where you already colored.o 8. Mix colors to make your own. Don't let Mr. Crayola Brand tell what color the sky is.COMMENTS:This may seem like a lot of criteria but in this one 5th grade assignment we are reviewing the whole previous years curriculum in landscape and figure drawing and coloring. We don't always list all the elements of each criterion. The class usu-ally understands the verbiage since we have been using it since kindergarten.

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Assessment: I am not sure what assessment tool we should use on a lesson about assessment tools. I suppose that if a student engages in the self-assessment process then he has achieved the objective.

Frequently we write the criteria on the board and students make their own sheets. This is the crite-rion for a Cartoon Storytelling project. Sources: There are a lot of good sources for information on assessment in the Fine Arts. Try the easy one first. On the internet go to the Fine Arts Education-USOE site, under your teaching as-signment appropriate heading go to General Re-sources. Here you will find a series of articles on several subjects including assessment in several areas of the Arts. I recommend the one under Assessment for Learning by Rick Stiggins. He includes some good assessment rubrics that are specifically directed to be used by students, teach-ers, parents, and administrators. There is even an assessment rubric on how to assess assessment tools and a rubric on target areas to be assessed. There is another short article on this site by John Kuzmich, Jr., Alternative Assessments for Main-

stream Programs and there some articles on Music. Lets hook up folks.

Variations: The Criteria list can be applied to younger students but keep it short and specific. A good criterion for completion with kindergarten and first grade is to have each student check to see if they have covered all the paper without any white paper showing through. Frequently with first and second grade we use the criteria sheet to see if they have mixed colors to get their own color. It can be this simple for older students such as, Did you use complementary colors? The point is to focus on the learning objects of the project and see if students can recognize them and tell when they have achieved the objective.Will students try to fudge on it and just fill it out? Well of course! They are human too. Make sure they know you will read and evaluate the sheet also. Remember that when you are driving on the freeway the only time you think you actually have to go 65 is when you see a policeman. This seems to be an unfortunate part of the human condition.Extensions: This approach can also be used to have students ask specific critical evaluation questions such as: Do you like it? Why? What does it mean? How do you feel about it? Where did you get the idea? What is the best part of this artwork? If you do it again, how would you change it?

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Throwing Frisbee, by Spencer, 5th grade

This is Spencers self-evaluation of his artwork. By the way, it was framed and exhibited in the front hall gallery at our school.

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This is Jaxlyns self-portrait portfolio cover.

This is Jaxlyns self-evaluation of the portfolio cover project. By the way, we always store our rare and precious artwork in interestingly decorated portfolios.

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Assessment Alternatives:This is not in a lesson format because these are only some alternative assessment ideas for self-assessment in the arts. In the previous lesson we have seen the Criteria Slip, a form of self-assess-ment. Another form of self-assessment is to have each student write a self-assessing criticism of his or her own work (or of others). Im sure you have all learned a critical model or two at some time in your education. I use a modified one for young students that looks like this: 1. Description: with title and artist 2. What was your favorite thing about this artwork? 3. What was your least favorite thing about this artwork? 4. What is this artwork about? What does it mean?This is a fairly primitive approach to evaluation and very subjective. It can be used with very young students. Of course there are more sophis-ticated critical models available such as Stephen C. Peppers four-step model that includes: Mecha-nism, How do I feel about it?, Formism, What does it look like?, Contextualism, Where did it come from? (historical, social, political, spiritual) and Organicism, How do the parts work together? I also recommend the work of Theodor Adorno, Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, (2005). This is a reworking of his two semi-nal works, Interventions: Nine Critical Models, (1963) and Catchwords: Critical Models II, (1969). Both of these authors run to the philo-sophical but then, What causes beauty and what do we do about it? seems pretty philosophical to me.Another quick and functional self-assessment model is called the KQS model. Students answer three questions about their work or the work of other students or the work of famous artists. 1. What is there in this artwork that I should KEEP doing? 2. What is there in this artwork that I should QUIT doing? 3. What is there in this artwork that I havent done that I should START doing? A form can be used for this evaluation but I usually just write KQS on the board and the students understand. It only takes a time or two for them to get comfortable with self-assessment.

It actually consumes very little time and acts as a great closure to a project. The first time students are required to think critically they will rebel; the second time they will acquiesce, and the third time they will feel empowered.In my situation I am constrained to give Pass (P) or Fail (N) grades exclusively. This is not my choice, but it is doable. I grade on a quantitative scale rather than a qualitative scale. That is, I dont give a scale of points for each project. Rath-er, I give a full 10 points if the project is complete (by the criteria slip) by the due date. The phi-losophy here is that the lessons are deep enough that some level of learning is inevitable, especially if they have a completion checklist. My com-puter, the district, cuts off the passing grade at 64%, so basically everyone passes. There is a % score accompanying the P or N so those who have completed all the projects will also get a 100%. I think of this as a quantitative scale. It seems to work.Just in case none of these self-assessment ideas appeal to your style of teaching, try looking up the SUNY Fine Arts Assessment Rubric. It uses a graduated grading scale of Exceeding, Meeting, Approaching and Not Meeting in the three areas of Portfolio/Performance, Craftsmanship and Inter-pretation/Analysis. SUNY is the State University of New York. Google Geneseo campus website for a full graph of the rubric. It is very workable and I have used it in the past. The same rubric can be used for other subjects and this has the effect of legitimizing the Arts curriculum.

48This is Parkers Criteria Slip for his Comic Strip, 5th grade.

This is Parkers pen and ink Comic Strip, 5th grade.

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WHAT DID I DO THIS SUMMER?Name:Title:Date:

1. Pen and ink. Black ballpoint. 2. Show an "Action Gesture" of the whole person. Something you actually "DID"! 3. Use five values of light and dark. 4. Use five textures of rough and smooth. 5. Put yourself in a place buy using a horizon line 6. Include four ways of showing near and far. (overlapping, size, detail, placement0 7. Use good coloring techniques: short strokes, same direction, slowly and carefully, cover the whole space, no blank paper showing through, don't rub your hand where you already colored. 8. Mix colors to make your own. Don't let Mr. Crayola Brand tell what color the sky is.COMMENTS:

PORTFOLIO COVER:Name:Title:Date:

1. Chose one of five portrait views: front view, profile, up, down, or view. 2. Use "face mapping" proportions 3. Use at least 5 values of light and dark 4. Make a back ground 5. Create a design border 6. Make a nameplate with a border 7. Color is optional 8. Glue it all together on the cover of the portfolioCOMMENTS:

Some Examples of Criteria Sheets for Specific Assignments

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KQS:

Name:Project:Title:Date:

KEEP:

QUIT:

START:

COMMENTS:

CRITICAL MODEL:Name: Date:

DESCRIPTION: with title and artist:

What do you like about it?

What do you dislike about it?

What does it mean? (What is it about?):

Other Comments:

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Why & How to Teach from Art to Writing

Elementary Levelby Vicki GehringArt helps us identify who we are. Beverly Satch ManghamLessons based on the Elementary Poster setsObjective: Students will discover things about themselves and about how they are connected to the past by studying some reproductions of art and writing papers on a chosen topic.Materials: Choose one of the following posters from the Statewide Art Partnership Elementary Poster sets: Game of Marbles (UMFA set), Cyrus Dallin Sculptures, Richards Camp, Holiday Park- Weber Canyon, Immigrant Train-Away, Away to the Mountain Dell: The Valley of the Free (all others SMA set), writing paper, pencils or pensLesson:Discuss the following: What is in the picture? 1. Is the subject of the picture depicting a historical event? What is that event, or what period of history is the picture portraying? 2. Describe or tell about the historical event or period of history. 3. Tell the students the name of the picture and read the artist biography on the back of the print and the information about the artwork. Then ask them if this information helps them understand more about the picture.

4. Ask the students to look at the picture carefully again, and see if they can notice other things in the picture. A. What kind of clothes are the people or person wearing? How is it different from how we dress today? B. What are some other things in the picture that are different compared to how things are today?

Cyrus E. Dallin, Sacajewea (1915)Springville Museum of Art

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5. Discuss the colors the artist has used and if the picture has a mood, if they can guess what time of day it is depicting, 6. Continue the discussion about the picture until the students have explored it well enough to have a firm understanding of the time period, historical event, and the people portrayed in the picture.Project: Suggested writing topics: (choose the ones that correspond with the chosen print, and have the students choose one topic)Game of Marbles

1. Write short story about whats happening in this picture. 2. Write a compare and contrast paper about the lifestyle of the children in the picture and your lifestyle. 3. Write a story about the boy who looks sad. 4. Write an essay about what you like or dont like about the painting and what kind of art you do like. (Be specific)Cyrus Dallin-sculptures 1. Write a one-page paper on the things about America that are important to you. 2. Write a one-page paper on why art, such as these sculptures, are an important way to keep in touch with the history of our country. 3. Write a paper on why you think Cyrus Dallin thought it was an honor to come from Utah. 4. Write a one-page paper on what you like about Cyrus Dallins sculptures and why.

Richards Camp, Holiday Park-Weber Canyon 1. Write a story about the people in the painting and what they are doing in this camp.

2. Write a story about where the people in the picture came from. 3. Write a one page paper on what we can learn about history by looking at this painting. 4. Write a one page paper on why you would or wouldnt have like to live in this camp.

Immigrant Train-Away, Away to the Mountain Dell: The Valley of the Free 1. Write a one-page essay on why you would, or wouldnt have liked to be a pioneer. 2. Write a one-page paper about a real pioneer in your family, or one you have learned about. 3. Write a paper on why you think the artist painted this picture and what he wanted people looking at it to see. 4. Make up a story about one of the people in the painting and tell things like where the person came from and some experiences he/she had as a pioneer.Assessment: Does the students writing show they have an understanding of the work of art? Are there references to the art in their writing either directly or by inference? Does their writing conform to the topic they chose and is it com-plete? Can you as the teacher tell that the student has made a connection to the artwork? Assess whatever writing skills your students should be demonstrating.

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How to Use Art as Therapy

Elementary Secondary Levelby Joanne SealAbstract Family Portraits

Objective: To allow children to visually express themselves in abstract (safe) and very personal ways. Making Thought (and emotion) Visible is the second section in a book by Betty Edwards, which I read a few years ago. The book describes the process by which children can draw and reveal what they perceive is going on inside them. This process can also be cathartic. The activity assumes the following ideas: 1, that all humans have subconscious knowing activity that the conscious mind may be unaware and 2, that there are archetypical meanings to shapes, colors, proximity and mark making, which we all share.Family portraits can be decoded by adults using simple archetype concepts and by verbal-izing what is seen in each picture. Insights can be gained by child and adult facilitators by verbal readings of the picture portraits with the child. Activities that allow the subconscious to speak can greatly help upset children deal with un-wanted changes and conditions in their lives or validate peaceful and happy conditions. Materials: Paper, white drawing, usually 9x12 and colored media such as oil pastel sets, colored pencils, markers, or crayons. It is important that children have access to many colors. 8 to 12 is best.

Activity: Drawing a family portrait without people. The teacher will draw some simple geo-metric ( straight lines and corners and angles) and biomorphic shapes ( rounded forms) on the board and get the children to name as many as they can. The students will begin to think of a shape or combination of shapes that represent themselves, and then think of shapes that can represent their parents, siblings, and pets. After distribution of materials, students are told that they can draw their family using only shapes and colors and marks. They begin with a one-inch border all around the paper. The border serves a twofold purpose: first for identification, and second, as a visual barrier. There is only one rule: they cannot draw faces or anything that can be recognized. Do not give students any instruction on color or shape symbolism. Shape and color application is highly personal. When students are finished, have th

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