Professional Art Ed Sequence (Elementary/Middle School)
Normal Community Saturday Classes Weeks 1-3 Description and Rationale -
IPTS Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge - The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teachers creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.
IPTS Standard 8- Collaborative Relationships - The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members.
The art education program annually holds community classes on Saturdays for five weeks. Students from kindergarten to 8th grade are welcome. For the first three weeks, I co-developed and co-taught a 4th-grade art lesson based on environmentalism. Before beginning the project, the students learn about "reduce, reuse, and recycle" and four artists who use reusable materials to create art with a message. This teacher's instruction and class discussion give the students some inspiration for the project and allow the teacher to see prior knowledge of the students. Before creating the main subject of the unit, students take time to make ocean scenery out of clay individually. This activity allows the students to create an environment for their future sculptures. It shows the teacher the student's fine motor skills and ability to create 3-D forms. Students then individually create sculptures of ocean/sea creatures made of reusable materials, such as plastic, cans, and bottles. All items can destroy the world's bodies of water and water life. This sculpture serves the purpose of teaching students about the environmental issue of garbage in our bodies of water. It also teaches how they can contribute to the community (recycling) and create art that sends a message about an important world issue. Once the sculptures are completed, students collaboratively create an installation containing their clay and sea/ocean creature sculptures. With this, students discover how collaboration can contribute to a final piece and how an installation can effectively send a message to a particular audience.
Unit Plan and Artist Handouts (Weeks 1-3) -
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Classroom Setup Day 1
Description and Rationale -
IPTS Standard 4 - Learning Environment - The competent teacher structures a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates cultural and linguistic responsiveness, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal setting. This includes a virtual environment and any learning aids used within a Google Drive.
7D: understands how to organize the instructional environment to maximize students’ learning.
For day 1 of the unit, students listen to a presentation on two artists and discuss their artwork. They create sea/ocean scenery out of clay, such as seashells and seaweed. The information presented to them is on a large projector close enough to the students so that any student with vision impairment can see the screen. The students also do not have anything on their tables during teacher instruction considering some students may become distracted if there are materials in front of them. Instead, the teachers keep them on a cart when not in use (pictured). During work time, students have several ceramic materials, such as paint brushes, cups of water, and kid-safe cutting tools. They also have a mat to keep the table clean and a pre-rolled ball of clay, so they don't have to remove it from a clump of clay themselves. The slideshow to the right also shows a photo of the artwork example created for this day.
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Classroom Setup Day 2
Description and Rationale -
On day 2 of the unit, students learn about Angela Haseltine Pozzi, who creates sculptures of sea/ocean creatures from materials she found on an Oregon beach. This information is presented on the large projector, and the seats remain the same distance so all the students can see the screen. Students then begin planning their sculptures and working on them. All materials for the project are kept at a different table away from the student's tables. This unit involves many materials, so having it off to the side will stop the students from playing with anything during instruction and discussion. It can also help the students keep their workspace clean since they can only grab a couple of materials from the material table before returning to their seats. There is also a designated hot glue station for the students. This system makes it easier for the teacher to supervise students using the kid-safe hot glue guns and ensure no one gets hurt. As students work, there is also a timer on the projector that shows students how much work time they have left. This addition constantly reminds them to keep working and can help them determine when to start cleaning up. The slideshow also shows examples the teachers created for the sea/ocean sculptures.
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Classroom Setup Day 3
Description and Rationale -
The seating setup from day 2 is the same for day 3, with the material table and hot glue gun station being separated from the students. There is still a timer during work time, and the students remain seated when working on their sculptures. They get out of their seat only when getting materials or working at the hot glue gun station. For this day, students make a collaborative installation of their sculptures when finished. The installation is kept at the back of the room during work, so students stay focused. The installation shown in the slideshow had the teacher's clay scenery and creature sculptures already attached when the students came into the room so they could get excited about adding their pieces.
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Normal Community Saturday Classes Weeks 4-5 Description and Rationale -
IPTS Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge - The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teachers creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.
IPTS Standard 8- Collaborative Relationships - The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members.
This unit was co-developed, co-taught to seventh graders, and focused on empowerment. On the first day, students learn about two artists who create superheroes based on themselves or their community. After having a conversation about the artists' intentions, the students create their superheroes based on an aspect of themselves. They turn themselves into superheroes by drawing the subject and creating a background from a drawing material or cut paper. This unit intends to not only teach the students mixed-media and design skills but also to teach them about empowerment and confidence within themselves. This also helps the teacher see if the students understand representation since they are taking what they learn to create a representative piece of themselves. Due to absences, my co-teachers and I could not teach on the second day of the unit. Still, it continues the theme of creating oneself into a superhero. On the second day, students learn about costume design from the movie "Encanto" and then create 3-D depictions of some items from their drawings. They can choose between making a mask or a prop. This is for the teacher to see the student's ability to think conceptually and turn a 2-D depiction into a 3-D piece. It also teaches the students how design and color choices can affect a subject's persona while promoting confidence. This idea of empowerment is perfect for middle school students since this is a time when they are determining who they are and questioning things about themselves.
Unit Plan and Artist Handouts (Weeks 4-5) -
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Classroom Setup Days 4 and 5
Description and Rationale -
IPTS Standard 4 - Learning Environment - The competent teacher structures a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates cultural and linguistic responsiveness, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal setting. This includes a virtual environment and any learning aids used within a Google Drive.
7D: understands how to organize the instructional environment to maximize students’ learning.
As mentioned above, due to absences, we taught the same lesson on both days, so the setup for days four and five was the same. The setup for this lesson consisted of a large projector across from the tables, close enough that anyone could see the screen. The tables are sectioned off where there are three tables for seats and a designated material table. This design keeps the materials away from the students during instruction which can help them stay focused. It also helps with cleanup because everything has a designated spot on the materials table. The materials table also had a couple of picture books relating to the lesson that could be visual references for the students. Near the projector are the vocabulary posters for the unit so that students can see them from their seats during the presentation. In the slideshow to the right there are also pictures of the art examples the teachers created for the students to view.
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Professionalism, Advocacy & Leadership: PAL 1
IPTS Standard 9 - Professionalism, Leadership, and Advocacy - The competent teacher is an ethical and reflective practitioner who exhibits professionalism; provides leadership in the learning community; and advocates for students, parents or guardians, and the profession.
DescriptionThis semester I attended a lecture by Meena Khalili titled "Rules for Creative Rebellion." This lecture was for the Graphic Design Majors of Illinois State University. Still, I decided to attend, considering I am currently in a Graphic Design class. Khalili was a visiting artist at Illinois State University, and she shared several rules she follows when creating artwork. For example, she shared how as an artist, you need to set time aside just for your creative process and to make this a routine. This lecture happened over zoom, but the admin recorded it for students in class when the speech occurred. It was a very inspirational lecture on the creative process that could benefit any student or artist regardless of a person's specific art discipline.
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RationaleEven though I am not a Graphic Design major, this lecture was still beneficial. I recommend any artist to listen to Meena Khalili speak if given a chance. After watching “Rules for Creative Rebellion,” I feel inspired to do something different with my artwork and to spend more time on it. I felt most persuaded by her first point: “take back your time.” It is her first rule for creative rebellion. This phrase hit home with me as a listener because I can forget to make time for my creative aspirations. I forgot how happy the creative process makes me; I need to spend more time on it and make a ritual. Overall, I enjoyed listening to what Meena Khalili shared with us, and I appreciate all the knowledge she passed on. It shows how you can always learn more about the creative process from someone else, even if you feel as though you have it figured out.
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