Context
I teach Art to 6th, 7th, 8th grade students. The focus of these classes is mainly on making 2D and 3D art. However, I currently require my students to complete a written reflection at the end of each unit. My students do not like doing these reflections and often say things like, “Why do we have to write in art?” or “Do we have to do this?” One reason they have to do them is I have to include writing as part of lessons as mandated by my district. I see it as an important element of my teaching as students will need to write for their academic classes and I want to support this in any way I can.
My semester curriculum is condensed into ten week quarters. While I do design my units touch upon multiple skills and concepts, it is not possible to teach my entire curriculum in such a short amount of time. For this reason, I struggle to do art critiques with my students. An art critique is when an artist’s work is discussed by others with the goal being to give the artist feedback (positive and negative) on their artwork. My students do not get an opportunity to share their work with their classmates and receive feedback in the form of an art critique. This means that my students are not getting the extra practice they need using their art vocabulary when discussing artwork.
I do not have any technology for student use in my classroom. There are two computer labs in my school but often times they are checked out by the academic classes. There have been times when my class and I have been asked to leave the lab so an academic class could use it even if I had signed it out. I try to integrate student technology into my class by allowing my student to bring mobile devices to class to use when looking for inspirations for projects or to do online assessment. They love it. The use of technology in the art room (a classroom where some might not expect it to be used) seems to excite and motivate my students.
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My semester curriculum is condensed into ten week quarters. While I do design my units touch upon multiple skills and concepts, it is not possible to teach my entire curriculum in such a short amount of time. For this reason, I struggle to do art critiques with my students. An art critique is when an artist’s work is discussed by others with the goal being to give the artist feedback (positive and negative) on their artwork. My students do not get an opportunity to share their work with their classmates and receive feedback in the form of an art critique. This means that my students are not getting the extra practice they need using their art vocabulary when discussing artwork.
I do not have any technology for student use in my classroom. There are two computer labs in my school but often times they are checked out by the academic classes. There have been times when my class and I have been asked to leave the lab so an academic class could use it even if I had signed it out. I try to integrate student technology into my class by allowing my student to bring mobile devices to class to use when looking for inspirations for projects or to do online assessment. They love it. The use of technology in the art room (a classroom where some might not expect it to be used) seems to excite and motivate my students.
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