Saturday, October 3, 2015

Elements of Art

I think this was probably the longest I've gone without writing a blog post since I started teaching! As a PreK-12th grade art teacher/StuCo sponsor/Art Club sponsor/Jr Class/Prom Sponsor/Grad student/Wife and mom, it's been a little busy. I have been posting pictures more regularly on the Instagram account I made just for my school's art dept. so feel free to follow along there if you're interested in more regular glimpses- @JHArtClass.

The Elements of Art are not my favorite thing to teach. It's good to be able to use the vocabulary, but I don't like to spend a bunch of time on them in isolation. I wanted to do a quick review project at the beginning of the year for 8th grade and my graphics classes to get it out of the way.

8th grade students had to represent each of the Elements on a piece of paper using whichever supplies they wanted.

High school graphics students could use one piece of paper, make Artist Trading Cards, put together a photo collage, or come up with a different idea. Projects were graded on how well each theme was communicated, craftsmanship, and unity.
 Students were allowed to use their phones for photography.
This student used a collage app on her phone to put the photos together in one document.
This student printed off her photos as ATCs.
It was kind of a test to see how they did with a starting point and some choices but the project took a little longer than I wanted it to. Next year I may just do it in one day with a group photo challenge.

2 comments:

  1. This is great. You have me trying to think of ways to do something like this at my elementary school. Might be a good beginning of the year 5th grade assignment. I often feel limited by the curriculum that my district has me teach, which is based solely on the elements and principals. My approach around it has been to use them as a bell ringer (5 minute assignment at the beginning of class), and then follow a more thematic approach with the rest of our class time. However, a project like this might set up a good guideline that they have made themselves at the beginning of the year, to reference when needed. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. I am loving the versatility in this project, and the way pictures seems to give us all something to look back and reflect on. I'm an art education major, and the elements and principles have been my "mock" focus for my assignments this year. I love to see the different ways in which students approach the same assignment, even with technology! Thanks for sharing!

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