Documenting the Artistic Process

One of the National Arts Standards that I really like refers to documenting the artistic process. My "I Can" statement for the standard is:
VA:Cn:10.1.HS1- I can document the process of developing ideas from early stages to fully ready ideas.

I ask my intro high school students to document the process of their first theme-based assignment. After we've spent most of the 1st semester in bootcamps introducing techniques, media, and vocabulary, the students can apply what they've learned in assignments with much more choice 2nd semester.

When the students document their process from beginning to end they can reflect on all the little decisions they had to make along the way. 

The students can choose how to document their process but a favorite way is with the free app Stop Motion Studio. Most students have smart phones and this is an acceptable use of technology in my classroom. Some students take photos and put in a slides presentation or google doc, others take notes daily on their process. Either way, we emphasize that documentation is as you go rather than reflecting at the end.

Using stop motion yields short videos, usually only a few seconds long. I will post several examples below.

YouTube in the Art Room

I'm sure most art teachers have used YouTube to show the occasional video to students. But have you used it to share your own videos?
Last spring I decided that in the coming school year I wanted to create pathways so my advanced students who don't know what they want to do can click on ceramics, for example, and be presented with project prompts, resources, and tutorials. I figured I would link to websites and youtube videos and create some of my own. Then I started thinking about how else YouTube could be utilized...

One of the assignments I gave my intro classes last year was to document the process of a project from start to finish. There were options as far as how to do it but many chose the Stop Motion option. I showed them an example I had created and they turned in their videos. Why not post their videos on a classroom YouTube? (I have a social media section on a permission form I send home at the beginning of the year).




My Computer Graphics class was given a motion graphics assignment so I posted one of the videos there, too.


Here is one of my first demo videos. I'm hoping to get some more made before school starts and may have a student help film some of my demos throughout the year. I just have to figure out if there's a way to get the videos to the students through our filters.


In the art teachers facebook group, I saw a post about having ceramics students create videos for a process they had learned earlier. There was a really good video on making a textured tumbler and I thought what a great way for students to show what they know! This may become an option for my students as well.

OK Go in the Art Room

I'm a big fan of OK Go... I think I've even shared a video or two here before, but today when I saw they put out a survey* to see how their videos are used or educational purposes and to get ideas for being even more helpful, I remembered that I'd been wanting to do a blog post about it.

*If you use OK Go videos, please take the survey here: https://t.co/DDMTUfToE7

I've used OK Go videos with all grade levels and they are pretty much always a hit. Here are some of my favorites to use and how I use them.

1. Three Primary Colors- I first used this video when teaching elementary but have since shown it to my high school students for both stop motion animation and color theory. This is a great one to sing along to. :)


2, 3, & 4. The One Moment, Upside Down & Inside Out, This Too Shall Pass
I showed these videos to my advanced class last year and posted a question in Google Classroom asking them to think about the videos as art and discuss. There was a cool documentary about Upside Down & Inside Out on Netflix but I'm not sure if it's still there and I can't remember the name! I will try to find it later and fix this.

5. Last Leaf- This video, as well as Three Primary Colors, are two of my favorites for when I introduce stop motion animation in my computer graphics class. I can't even guess how many pieces of toast they had to make!


I know I'm not the only one to have made a list like this! I just saw one that the Art of Education posted a while back and they had a couple videos I hadn't seen before. Which video is your favorite?