TEACHING STRATEGIES

FIELDTRIPS​

The strategy I am implementing is going on a field trip to facilitate and advance learning. Field trips are the act of taking students outside of the classroom so that they learn in a different environment, often with a hands on and face-to-face approach. Field trips encourage students to learn in a different capacity than that of the regular classroom, often prompting a different kind of understanding gained through experience. I once witnessed a field trip scenario in my high school art class focused on teaching the concept on landscape portraits. When my fellow students and I arrived in class, we were told by the teacher to gather our sketch paper, a pencil, and an eraser, and nothing more. The teacher then lead us outside of the school building to the woods that surrounded the back end of the school. First we walked around as a class, observing our surroundings while being prompted with questions about what we were seeing in terms of color, light, shadow, and movement. We were then told to choose an area to sit in and sketch our surroundings. This simple field trip brought about many beneficial ways in which the students could learn. The field trip gives students the opportunity to use their natural and personal surroundings as a means of artistic inspiration. Students in this particular field trip used their surroundings to draw inspiration for landscape portraits. The act of getting outside of the classroom also stimulates children in a fresh way that can lead to greater enthusiasm towards the subject matter. The more enthusiastic a student is about the new skills they are learning, the more likely they are to give their best efforts. Sketching direct objects in nature not only heightens the students awareness of their surroundings, but also helps the students drawing skills grow stronger. Sketching a landscape helps students to learn how to express 3-D objects in a 2-D drawing, as well as locate horizon lines, use shading to create depth, and lines and curves to create form. Furthermore, having the students sketch outside of the classroom implements the idea into them that they do not need to be in the art classroom to create art, and hopefully inspires them to create art on their own time, in their own various environments. A fieldtrip prompts creative thinking, causing the student to analyze their surrounding and think about it in the context of the subject that they are learning. In this particular lesson, the students had to analyze their surroundings then pick a section of their surroundings to use as the basis of their sketch. The students needed to apply drawing skills as well as inspiration from nature to create their sketches. Recalling what they knew about sketching and the various skills involved, they had to organize their drawing to reflect the actual space around them and understand how these skills can be used to do so. While this field trip was not particularly fancy or even “out of the box,” I still remember it because it was one of the first times I created art with my art teacher while not in a classroom. The benefits of this lesson were plenty, and will be used as a model for my own future lesson plans.

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ART CLUBS

“Art Clubs” can be an extremely effective strategy to harbor and expand students’ interest in art. Art Clubs function as a time outside of the school mandated art class period in which students can meet to further expand their artistic knowledge and skills. Art clubs can be either teacher lead or student lead with a teacher present to facilitate, and typically take place either after school or during lunch/recess periods. Within art clubs, students may have the opportunity to further discuss and employ what they are learning in the art classroom, as well as cover topics and mediums perhaps not covered in their normal art class period.
In my art classroom, a successful art club would be a cooperative effort between teacher and student. Instead of myself dictating how the club would be run and what mediums and topics would be explored, I would have an open format with my students where they could propose and vote on what topics would be covered and what projects they would be doing. I would want my art club to not feel like “extra school” but rather, a relaxed environment in which my students could expand upon pre-existing art knowledge and skill in a social manner. Art clubs also offer the chance for slower learners, or students who require extra time to finish projects, an avenue to do so in a setting in which they can have more one-on-one help not only from the teacher, but their fellow peers. The art club within my classroom would ideally not only be filled with the “most talented” students, but students operating at varying artistic skill and knowledge levels, with the common denominator being a shared interest in art. I would also encourage students who may seem to lack and interest in art to try out an art club, seeing as maybe experiencing art in a more relaxed social manner may spark an interest not previously there.
Art Clubs promote a plethora of ways in which students can learn, both from each other and from a teacher. By having students be just as responsible for the club as the teacher, students are creating a community and learning how to act in a democratic manner within that community. Students are also prompted explore skill sets beyond those learned in the typical classroom period. Within art clubs, students have the ability to be further inspired by social interaction and collaboration. Students participating in art clubs can also take on larger scale collaborative efforts that may not fit into the normal classroom curriculum, or perhaps are too time consuming for the art classroom curriculum. Art clubs are in my opinion a fantastic way to facilitate a genuine passion for art within all students of all skill sets, and can even spark a new found interest in students who perhaps lack interest during the regular school day

 

SKETCHBOOKS

The use of sketchbooks within the art classroom can act as a vehicle to not only expand on drawing skills, but also work through and create various ideas and versions of a project. Sketchbooks are notebooks of blank drawing paper in which an individual can draw ideas and basic drawings, which can act as the starting point for finer detailed replication in the future.
I have had several art teachers in the past use sketchbooks as an effective teaching strategy, and I will use their examples as a mold for how I will implement sketchbooks in my own art classroom. Ideally, sketchbooks would be given to each student at the start of the year and would be regarded as important as a text book, meaning they would be responsible for having it with them each class, taking it home each night, and taking care of it meaning not misplacing it and keeping it in good form. At the beginning of every project, students would be expected to use their sketchbooks to sketch and write down their ideas, a minimum of 5 different ideas would be required. I would also have students use their sketchbooks to complete at least two sketches per month outside of school which could be of anything they desired, so long as it is appropriate for classroom viewing, and would be checked for completion by me at the end of every month. Sketchbooks could also be used to complete daily mini exercises in the first five minutes of class that build upon basic drawing skills.
Sketchbooks operate as a means of holding students responsible for their own art, as well as a way to get them to create art outside of the classroom. Sketchbooks also act as a prime chance for students to see their own  artistic growth and development. As the year goes on, students can reflect on past sketches to see how their sketches have evolved and moved from sketch to full on art production. By using sketchbooks, students also learn how to start with multiple ideas for one project, then pick the best one to be fully developed, and learn that the first idea typically is not the best one, but that it may take multiple sketches until they are satisfied with their idea or concept.