Art. Education. Choice.
Today I spent the majority of my afternoon working on transitioning my classroom into a Modified Choice/TAB room. Modified Choice is allowing the student to be more involved in the product selection. A modified choice still gives an assignment, but it's more open-ended as to what the end product can become. Hence, giving the student more choice in what they are creating.
It's modified because giving students full choice, can be overwhelming for some students, so I am giving a theme to the assignment. The theme will also have students incorporate some key skills that they are to practice and demonstrate while they are making a piece of art of their choosing.
TAB is 'Teaching Artistic Behaviors' which focuses on having students experience process rather than production. Artists experience these behaviors out of habit and repeated process. It's sometimes hard to teach it because we are continually experiences and inhabiting. Artist's experience these behaviors by researching, designing, processing, redesigning, practicing, refining, creating, sometimes destroying or altering, and then production. It's a continuous cycle that we continually alter.
Teaching this idea of 'artistic behavior' can be overwhelming to a learning student because they want instant gratification. Instant results that look exactly as they imagined. But life and lessons don't work like that.
We learn through process and failure
As I began writing out my overall year plan and monthly unit lessons, I became overwhelmed. My original teaching style combines a Gradual Release and Progressive Learning model; needless to say that the 'open-mindedness' of a TAB/Modified Choice classroom is pulling me in directions I not comfortable doing. But it's a good thing!
Now, some are wondering why the sudden change? Why are you changing your teaching style?
I have only been teaching for three years and now it's coming into my fourth year of teaching. I've noticed that students instantly put themselves in the mindset of 'I'm not an artist; therefore, I can't draw." Student buy-in often times directly relates to 'what' the assignment is which then translates to student motivation and output. The last thing I have observed is students strive for perfection and want instant results. They are not used to having to fail a couple times before getting it. This may not always be the case, but this is what I have noticed in my classroom.
I'm not an artist, therefore I can't draw
I've especially seen this mentality with my middle school students. When a student feels like they 'can't art' this then causes behavior problems. They give up, give in, and don't care. I wanted to see if there was a way for my students to get excited over the stuff they create that is of their choosing. Hence, my decision of going towards a modified choice/TAB classroom.
In light of all this, I have a lot of work to do before school starts in September. Art teachers have to plan their entire year in advance, we just don't make art assignments up on the fly. Yes, it may appear we do but we have to consider assignment duration and materials. With that said, I have only planned two assignments. This translates to the first two months of the new school year, yikes! But I'm hoping this becomes easier once I get this beginner year done.
I am told that transitioning towards a choice classroom takes a few years to iron out. So looking forward to that *sarcasm*. New to my program will be the use of student blogs. This last July, I took a class through the Art of Education which focused on choice classrooms. I want my students to become accustomed to the idea of 'process.'
In order to encourage this, I want them to start creating blogs. They say that one's writing becomes stronger the more you write and more you read. The quality of writing has definitely decreased due to social media but I want to break that and encourage my students to write! But I still a lot of work to do before my school year starts. Here's hoping I get it mostly done.