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“Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.” Sir Ken Robinson  I was a general classroom teacher for 15 years before specialising. Yet I can honestly say I never taught any of my students to read in all that time. There simply aren’t enough hours in a teaching year for merely teaching skills to mastery. Students need miles upon miles of mileage to truly master reading. And by that I don’t mean decoding text. I mean reading for meaning. Instead what I aimed to do was inspire. Inspire a love for words, phrases, unpacking an author’s point of view and predicting a reader’s inference. By unlocking the code of reading for meaning, students’ thirst for adventure, for knowledge, for losing themselves in imaginary worlds, drives them to pursue reading independently. To seek out genres that they personally find engaging and fulfilling. The growth in my students reading levels across the learning year, was staggering.  Six years ago, I specialised in teaching visual art and digital media across kindergarten to Year 6 (ages 4-11). Again, I applied the same methods. As a specialist you may see every student in the school but for very little time. Personally, I may see a student for 18 periods a year. Hardly enough time to scratch the surface of all the possible skills that live within these subject. So I modelled my approach on the way that I used to teach reading. My aim is to awaken a love for creating. I see my role as establishing the context and providing the support for students, that inspires them along the path of personal exploration/s and to build their confidence for self expression and communication through a visual medium. Once they experience that intrinsic satisfaction unique to a creative experience, they are hooked. For me the true test of whether this method works is not the work produced in class, often skill based explorations due to minimal time and curriculum goals. It’s the independent self directed work that students take on beyond the art room - the creativity they apply to classroom work or home based pursuits. It’s the parent who tells me about how their child won’t let them go past a stationery or art supply store without buying something or asking for solutions to store the growing piles of artwork at home. It’s the child that is conceiving, prototyping, creating and making solutions to everyday problems. It’s the child that sees such problems as opportunities to be innovative.  Visual Art is not a stand alone subject, only to be taught in specialist art lessons. It is a transdisciplinary way of thinking that can positively influence all aspects of our students’ lives. Visual Art is not about making pretty pictures to hang in the school corridors. Far more important and useful is the thinking that come before the product. A final product has one use but the soft skills developed during the creative process are what makes Visual Art an essential area of learning for students. Art with Mea IG: timea_oneteachersjourney, artwithmea Reading COMPREHENSION - Read to Self-Read to Buddy with Bloom's Taxonomy
$7.00
Suitable for primary / elementary and middle school. Consists of 6 cards to use in your reading programme, as bookmarks or joined into fans. They are levelled for increasing complexity and based on Bloomʼs Taxonomy of Learning Domains. This model is based on the principle of a 3 level hierarchy: 1 - Learning that is transferring knowledge 2 - Learning that is developing attitudes 3 - Learning that is generating a skill Level 1 - Knowledge & Comprehension fall into the Cognitive Domain (knowing and perceiving). Level 2 - Application & Analysis fall into the Affective Domain (feelings and emotions / attitude). Level 3 - Synthesis & Evaluation fall into the Psychomotor Domain (movement, skills & action). USA and USA spellings have been included on student resources. Fantastic used during reading to self and reading to a buddy times, as well as with guided reading groups. 20 pages. Art Lesson PORTRAITS - This is Me (paint and markers)
$9.00
Techniques are teacher guided and includes extensive student choice opportunities. Suitable for upper primary / elementary and middle school. A clearly laid out full-colour PDF presentation. This is a great art lesson for either the start or end of the year, exploring the uniqueness of self and motivational quotes. Combine with a unit on New beginnings at he start of a new year, or if you wish as a wrap-up of personal development at the end of the year. The photos show the teacher model and a variety of work by students. Art skills developed include - drawing, liquid water colour/dye painting, patterning, colour combining. Work is based on the artist model Eden Gosier - artist biography included. Links to useful resources to supplement this unit. Step-by-step instructions and brimming with colour photographs of authentic student work and teacher models. The examples in this unit were created by 10-11 year olds and is easily levelled up or down. Landscape layout suitable for viewing through large screens or can be used for independent viewing by senior students. Presentation consists of 54 slides (pages). Use in conjunction with this poetry lesson:
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 Recently I read a post on a Facebook group that stopped my scrolling thumb in its tracks. And the responses that followed from other teachers concerned me even more. The post slammed the timeless imagery in children’s artworks, calling these elements trite and cliche. Then asked for support from the Facebook community to agree - and many did, further adding their own particular frustrations to the list. So what was this teacher referring to and what was the glaring 'hole' in her point of view? When you think of children’s art, what are the images that spring immediately to mind? I’ll bet these include rainbows, hearts, corner suns, ’tadpole’ people, perhaps a unicorn. Teachers expressed frustration at seeing these childhood elements in their student’s work, year in and year out. Delving a little deeper, one could see that the writer of the post was experiencing frustration, trying to board the ‘differentiation movement’ bus, exploring teaching methodologies based in *TAB principals and recently offering more choice based centres to her students. She was disappointed when the independent work produced did not approximate the standards that she was used to achieving with teacher directed projects. The ‘hole’ here is a clear understanding of **adult vs child aesthetics. There is a vast chasm between what adults would judge as aesthetically pleasing, and that which children do. Eyes of teachers and parents have also been fooled for decades by the adult designed, reproduction art factory that has been passing as art education for several decades now. Art is about communication. Your ideas, thoughts, feelings, what you value and how you wish to impact others. Everything that an artist does, references something about them. Hearts, corner suns, rainbows, unicorns, a line of blue painted across the top of the page for sky and those strange looking eyes with two light spots are all part of developmental phases that young artists go through. The reason teachers see these elements on repeat is because - hello - we teach the same age groups year in and year out. We need to allow young artists to go through these developmental phases , just as we did at that age, and support them to move on, as and when they are ready to do so. The next time a student paints the blue sky stripe, step outside with them and ask them what they see when they look at the sky colour, where does it start and stop, does it touch the buildings or grass, then compare it to their own work and make adjustments that they (not you) noticed / learned.  When they draw a corner sun, respond positively - they noticed there is a sun in the sky and they are trying to communicate that their picture is about daytime. Perhaps run a workshop on the many ways artists show suns in their work, or the positions within your picture where the sun can be located, based on the time of the day. Take students outside with view finders so they can see that the sun is usually too high in the sky to be included in the frame of their picture. Allow children to learn through discovery. While we as teachers may see these elements on repeat, year in and year out, for each young artist these representations and explorations in self-expression, are new. Don’t rush children through their childhood to meet adult aesthetic expectations sooner than they need to. Instead, appreciate that they are expressing joy and understanding of the world around them through these elements, and look for opportunities to inspire individual growth. Kia Kaha (stay strong) With love Mea IG: timea_oneteachersjourney, artwithmea References: Artwork created by 5 & 6 year olds in my art room *TAB website https://teachingforartisticbehavior.org/index.html **child v. adult aesthetics in visual art In visual arts education, educators can sometimes place more importance on art media and technique, with teachers consequently limiting and hindering a child’s creativity processes with adult-imposed goals or agendas (Plows, 2014; Vecchi, 2010; McWilliams, Brailsford Vaughns, O’Hara, Novotny & Kyle, 2014). Parent, educator or school-based achievement learning agendas in the arts must be discouraged. Jenson, K. (2018). Early childhood: Learning through visual art. He Kupu, 5 (3), 75-82. Available at https://www.hekupu.ac.nz/article/early-childhood-learning-through-visual-art Art Lesson LITERATURE - Aesop's Fable of The Tortoise and The Hare (mixed media)
$8.00
Techniques are teacher guided and includes extensive student choice opportunities. Suitable for primary / elementary school. The Tortoise and the Hare are a fantastic fable to start the year. A great way to teach children about slowing down and taking care with learning. This mixed-media art lesson was created with the help of students aged 4-5. Includes many student choice opportunities. Introduces students to 3D, papier-mâché techniques, guided drawing, oil pastels and painting. The Focus: This teacher guided lesson can be incorporated into a reading unit on fables, an inquiry unit on stories that inform and entertain us or even a beginning of the year unit about learner attributes that unpack the concepts of ‘more haste - less speed’, perseverance, focus vs rushing and being easily distracted. Students express creativity through the choices that they make along the way. Teacher guidance and demonstrations are provided to develop skills in young students. A range of materials and techniques are explored. Please view images and videos before purchasing. For more Art resources - Click Here TEACHERS SUPPORTING TEACHERS ❤️Connect with Help MeLearn by following this store on Instagram and Facebook. Be the first to learn about new products added to the store Please preview the photos before you buy. If you have any questions, please contact me BEFORE you purchase. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ If you found value in this resource, please leave a strong rating for future customers. Every care is taken with editing and publishing, and at times, errors can still sneak through. Rather than leaving a negative rating, first contact me directly and be specific in your feedback so that I can make those improvement, giving you and others the best quality resource. Art Lesson Link - exploring suns Click the button below to be taken to our lesson plan SUMMER SPARKLE. One of the developments that it promotes is to celebrate those corner suns and modify them through the lens of an artist. These examples were created by 6 year olds in my art room. Kia Kaha (stay strong) With love Mea Art lesson SEASONS - Summer Sparkle (paint)
$8.00
Techniques are teacher guided and includes extensive student choice opportunities. Suitable for primary / elementary and middle school. A clearly laid out full-colour PDF presentation. This is a great art unit to combine with a Science inquiry into the changing Seasons, weather, the ocean and summer holidays. This art lesson covers junior fine-motor skills like smooth and accurate painting. The elements of line and colour are also explored. Suggested success / assessment criteria are included for drawing and painting skills as well as conceptual understanding of colour .Picture books have been given as reference among a list of resource links and a clear and comprehensive photo journal of each step of the process has been provided, along with student and teacher exemplars of work in progress and also the completed works. Links to video painting demonstrations by the author have been given for teachers and can be shown to students as well. Enjoy the step-by-step instructions in this lesson, brimming with colour photographs of authentic student work. Landscape layout suitable for viewing through data projector for junior/middle primary or can be used for independent viewing by senior primary students. Presentation consists of 61 slides (pages). Examples in this unit were made by aged 6 students but easily scales up for older years. A more challenging option for older students has also been included. Customer Feedback: I have been so impressed with your season art units that I have purchased them all. Not being a particularly arty person I am always will to give things a try especially as the younger children learn so much being creative. I look forward to putting this unit to use. If your year group is learning about weather or seasons, consider the following art units so that each class could work on an art response to a different season (orsee our bundled resources): Art Lesson SEASONS - Beach Days in Summer (oil pastels and paint)
$8.00
Techniques are teacher guided and includes extensive student choice opportunities. Suitable for primary / elementary and middle school. This bright summer themed art resource was realised with children aged between 8-9 as a fund-raiser for calendar art pieces. Inspired by a class beach trip and student artwork viewed on-line. Work is created with oil pastels, references cool and warm colour families and colour tones. An alternative or extension option using paint is also included. All instructions are clearly photographed and written step-by-step to help you teach this lesson to your students too. |
Thoughts on TeachingStuck for ideas? Grab a cup of tea, put your feet up and settle in to read my teaching blog focused on all matters in teaching and Visual Art. Archives
January 2021
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