Seeing Beyond the Surface - Enduring Idea

Post your personal reflective response to Chapter 5 in relation to your teaching and artistic practice. How do you plan to "engage students" in your own classrooms? How will you set up the conditions so that students can take responsibility for their own learning and their own engagement? What kinds of learning experiences will you create?

My artistic practice & Enduring Idea:

Seeing beyond the surface

I want students to feel connected and involved in art. I want students to truly see and understand the meaning in art pieces.

This practice can spread into different areas of a student’s life. When students truly see others and get to know their peers they develop deeper friendships and relationships. When students study the world around them they can gain insight into new cultures that may be different from theirs. This idea of seeing beyond the surface can lead students to become art appreciators as well as informed global citizens.

Chapter 5: Teaching for Deep understanding.

“We teach students, not subjects.”

This chapter taught me how to develop a conceptual framework for understanding art. Students can investigate various cultures, origins and traditions in art. As teachers we want students to relate and connect with what we’re teaching, otherwise their level of commitment will diminish. Even the most amazing curriculum will be of no help if the students have no reason to care about what they’re learning. As a teacher I need to calculate how meaningful the learning experience will be from my student’s perspective. Their engagement with learning extends their understanding.

Promoting student reflection: As teachers it can be extremely helpful to guide students in discovering how they learn best. Students should be aware of their own learning style and what can help them learn the best. There are so many different types of learning. Howard Gardner created a triad of learning styles: Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The student and their potential should be at the center of learning and teaching. Teachers should share information in as many ways as possible in order to helps students find their strengths and weaknesses.

As a teacher I will instill a love of learning in my students and help them find meaningful connections with art.

How do you plan to "engage students" in your own classrooms

In my classroom I want all students, introverts and extroverts, to participate in discussion and activities. Part of their grade will be based on active and engaged learning. I want students to help teach and lead discussions in the classroom. They need to be responsible for their own learning, I cannot force any learning upon them. I want them to know that their learning is their own obligation. This accountability is an excellent attribute for students to learn and develop for themselves.

How will you set up the conditions so that students can take responsibility for their own learning and their own engagement?

I believe in teaching my classroom according to the democratic approach. The Democratic approach combines firm rules with respectful adherence. It incorporates a healthy level of autonomy. This approach teaches students responsibility and self reliance. My class rules will be clearly stated with punishments clearly understood. Students are held accountable for their actions in the

This approach is an excellent way to teach a classroom. It gives students the free agency they deserve, but also clearly defines the consequences of their actions.

What kinds of learning experiences will you create?

I want to create meaningful, engaging and fun learning experiences. I want students to learn all that they can and have a good experience at the same time.

I hope to utilize nature in my student’s learning. I hope to take my students on nature walks and have them observe the world around them and connect it to art. Participating in a fun environmental art lesson can be a great and memorable learning experience for my students.

I can create a museum in our classroom by hanging student’s art pieces around the room. Students can then do a gallery walk and observe their peer’s works. Using the art criticism technique with the five senses I will have students analyze different art pieces to better understand them. After critically analyzing an art piece students will feel as if they know the art piece better and more intimately. They will feel more engaged with their chosen piece. In a museum setting they also gain confidence in describing the history, aesthetics and meaning of their piece.

Assignment: Using material from Chapter 4, create a lesson that provides a detailed description of how you plan to make art history, criticism, and aesthetics interesting and thought provoking:

I have an excellent activity to make art criticism, aesthetics and art history fun for students. Students will each have their own copy of the printout below when exploring a museum as a classroom:

SMELL	Fresh grass Flowers	..	..
SEE	Canoes and boats Animals running Bright blue sky	..	..
TASTE	snacks by the waterfront	..	....
EAR	Monkey chattering Dogs barking Canoers yelling Kids chatting	..	..

Students will choose at least three different art pieces that they will study and describe in writing. The students will be presented with some descriptive words before heading into the museum. These words will help them later when writing their summaries.

For example let’s assume a student chose the painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Seurat. For the SMELL section students will describe what they think they would smell in the setting. In this painting perhaps you would smell the fresh air of the park or the smoke coming from the man with the pipe. For the TASTE section a student could describe eating some snacks by the waterfront. For the HEAR section a student could describe the sound of the wind rushing through the park, the calls of friends on the canoes, or the monkey chattering to the puppy.

This art criticism activity helps students immerse themselves into a work of art. Students will study and discover the aesthetics of their chosen piece. By placing themselves in a painting they are forced to think critically about what one would hear, taste, smell and see. They will also write a summary of the art piece’s history. Students will seek out the small details and notice more about the piece.

After describing certain pieces students will select their favorite piece and present it to the class. This immersive activity helps students form appreciation and a unique personal relationship with art.

Matisse self portrait lesson with Refugee students

I had the opportunity to help the Design department teach three art lessons to refugee children in Salt Lake City.

We opened the first day with a short introduction to Matisse and his paper cut out work. We helped the students create a self portrait in the style of Matisse. They were a bit apprehensive at first because the abstract style of a portrait seemed a bit daunting. But once we showed them how to rip out some hair, a face and some eyes they jumped right in! The tables were quickly covered in scraps of papers, scissors and glue sticks.

Their art piece was a three part piece. The first page held their Matisse self portrait, the second page was their favorite place in the world and the last page was what they wanted their future to look like.



The students I worked with definitely fought against cutting and ripping paper. They were much more used to using pencil or pen to draw what they imagined. But once I showed them how to make a simple soccer ball or blue cloud, they realized the potential that ripping paper had.