Student Development and the Visual Arts

Review of Student Development and the Visual Arts

  For Toddlers and Year 2: Children are active and energetic explorers. Artistic images capture the physical and sensory aspects of discovery. They love to express the movement, feeling and tactile characteristics of animals, places and people. They combine observations with an inner world of fantasy to tell a story and contain details that capture important parts of the idea. Art making is an important stimulus for using one's imagination.

Elementary and 5th Grade Benchmarks: Children become increasingly curious and learn to observe the everyday world. Making art stimulates thoughtful inquiry and sharpens careful perception. Children are interested in capturing the details that make each creature, event or place unique and personally special in its own way. They discover that ideas can be interpreted in many ways, and art-making focuses on the skills of imagination, observation and invention in exploring and expressing new ways of thinking and feeling.

Middle School and Eighth Grade Benchmarks: During adolescence, powerful new thoughts and feelings develop that challenge established worldviews. As experiences become increasingly colliding and diverse, art-making becomes a safe arena to experiment with forging new relationships between inner and outer realities. Paintings, drawings, collages, prints, and art appreciation are important vehicles for testing ideas, making judgments, forming values, and exercising curiosity. In particular, the exploration of new and diverse ideas about the representation of three-dimensional space helps young people to express new perspectives on themselves and their world.

High School and 12th Grade Benchmarks: Some young people are pursuing the arts as part of their general education. Combining observation and imagination, and honing expressive skills, these youngsters continue their experience with the material, providing a repertoire to construct personal meaning for. Other young people will major in the arts and explore idea-making, interpretation and expression at a more professional level. For both groups, the development of individual expressiveness, the creation of a portfolio of ideas, and the emergence of critical insight and judgment about one's own and others' work are important and central to ongoing development.

* How to build skills and encourage engagement
- Introduce new or abstract ideas with concrete examples.
- Reinforce concepts through repetition and multiple applications.
- Present instructions simply and clearly
- Communicate with students using multiple modalities: verbally explaining assignments, marking instructions on walls or chalkboards, showing examples such as sample projects or artist reproductions
- Emphasizes achievement to build students' confidence. Ask permission from children before displaying artwork, then involve assistants and community members in the event.

* Use multi-sensory strategies
- Encourage students to examine works of art through multiple senses. Ask students to imagine themselves in a piece of art.
- Use as many forms as possible to help students make learning connections. For example, when viewing and discussing Paul Gauguin's paintings of the South Pacific, provide examples of indigenous fruits and vegetables depicted in the artwork and locate islands marked on a map or globe.
- Offer students a variety of ways to explore new art materials.
- Encourage students to draw inspiration from their environment. For example, when children learn about shapes and colors, they can take notes, sketches or take pictures of the shapes and colors around them while walking around the school.

*Instills confidence and encourages participation
- Have students answer positively even if the answer is incorrect.
- Acknowledge student successes openly and frequently, but be aware that in some cultures blatant personal praise is considered inappropriate and may embarrass or confuse students.
- Create learning activities that include the native language/culture of English learners. Encourage students to take the initiative in their presentations to show what they know and can do.
- Sometimes pairing students who speak the same language to provide comfort and promote engagement. Advances in critical thinking and creativity that may be hampered by a lack of English.

* Development of literacy in the visual arts
- Prepare word cards to use in class or travel.
- Vocabulary reinforcement by creating and using words/pictures/object charts
- Create visually rich and stimulating environments. There are art books and magazines available for students to use.
- Encourage students to speak the words in their native language. Look it up in your native language dictionary and see or say English words with help.
- Vanity for students to take notes with pictures

* Student participation
-Students are self-directed and learn best when considering multiple exploration methods. You will deepen your understanding of key concepts as you work individually or in groups, ask questions, discuss with peers and the whole class, and engage in hands-on and research experiences. After all, they need to be able to see the connections between what they are making or studying and other aspects of their lives. In the studio art room, students find their way as young artists when they have the ability to: (important)

Ability to reflect on one's own work and the work of others
Ability to create your own questions
develop a personal voice
Ability to formulate critical judgments and express well-thought-out opinions