Making Learning Visible: Art

I was walking down our art hallway today and saw our art teacher, Lorrie Emin, putting up these great pieces of student work.

What struck me about these pieces of grade 7 student artwork (beyond the amazing quality) was how the focus was on the student learning - not just on the final product. Each piece demonstrated incredible growth and skill development - made public to the rest of the school.

Forging Connections between Science and Art

On October 5th and 6th, 2011, the Calgary Science School hosted the Forging Connections Conference.

This conference was a collaboration between teachers, art and science experts and parents with the goal of integrating art and science more authentically into the students’ learning.

This exciting two day event consisted of six, 105 minute sessions. Each was structured around a “show/tell/do” format where an artist (visual, drama/dance and music) showed a finished product; a scientist will explained the magic (science) behind it and then the students were able to make meaning of the knowledge through hands-on creation and exploration.

Create, Explore, Discover.

Forging Connections Kickoff

Tonight is an exciting kick off event for us!

On October 5th and 6th, 2011, the Calgary Science School is hosting the Forging Connections Conference.

This conference is a collaboration between teachers, art and science experts and parents with the goal of integrating art and science more authentically into the students’ learning. It will also provide professional development for the teachers.

Drawing Fractions: Fine Arts Integration

Written by Candice Shaw, Grade 5 Math/Science Specialist

One of our new initiatives this year is a Fine Arts Integration Program with our grades 4, 5 and 6students. The purpose of this initiative is to deepen the collaboration between our Fine Arts program and the core subject areas.

Click here to read more about our upcoming art/science integration conference.

As part of this new initiative, a Fraction Art project was created in collaboration between a visual arts specialist and a math/science specialist. In math, Grade 5 students had completed most of the fraction unit when this project was introduced.

The project is based on the artwork of Piet Mondrian, who often used a grid of horizontal and vertical lines, filled in with primary colors.

In order to create their own "Mondrian" type pieces of art, students followed a general set of instructions, which were written in fractional terms for the whole area of one piece of paper. All students followed the same set of directions and then compared their creations with peers. An exemplar of the project was shown to students prior to beginning their own artwork.

This activity reinforced fraction concepts taught in class, as well as some concepts that were not directly taught at a Grade 5 level. Concepts covered:

• Representing, identifying, naming and creating fractions using a region model.
• Visually creating equivalent fractions: Students were challenged to find interesting ways to represent the fractions. For example, some students used long skinny rectangles, instead of one folded square to represent one twelfth.
• Division with fractions: Papers were folded into 12 equal sections, which then had to be changed into smaller equal pieces for more complex directions. For example, to break the paper into twenty-fourths, students decided they could split each section (twelfth) into 2 equal sections, creating twenty-fourths.

The initial folding of the paper into twelfths was chosen because it allowed a variety of fractions to be represented within the folds of the paper (e.g. thirds, fourths, sixths, etc.). The directions can also be easily adapted to allow for different types of folds.

As an extension to the project, students were asked to create their own artwork, which they then had to write fractional directions for (similar to the original project).

Here's some of the sample pieces of student work:

Creating Clay Dragons

As the end of the year draws near, our students are completing many diverse and engaging projects. One of these is a grade 7 art project where students created clay dragons, using a number of foundational skills they had acquired.

In this video, art teacher Lorrie Emin explains the details of the project:

Learning to Draw the Human Shape

Our grade 6 students have just wrapped up the tracing project that they've been working on through the last semester. As written about before, this is a project designed to have students learn to draw what they see, not what they think they see!

After doing the tracing through the glass, students transfer their drawings to water color paper, and then design and complete the full painting with background.

The Benefits of an Arts Education

How Do We Know When Students Are Benefitting from the Arts?

A Personal Response Supporting Advancing Arts Programs

Dr. Shelley Robinson

After writing the literature review Promising Practices and Core Learnings in Art Education (Alberta Education, 2008) and then reviewing the K-12 Arts Education Curriculum Framework (Alberta Education, June 2009 Draft), I pose the following question: What is our essential goal as educators when offering the arts in public education? And, how do modular programs compare with advancing programs (that require some pre-requisite skills) in achieving this goal?

Grade 6 Water color Portrait Project

"I Used to Think I Couldn't Draw"
by Lorrie Emin, CSS Art Teacher

Our grade six art students are currently working on a watercolor portrait project involving a number of steps and components- from developing life drawing skills, transferring the work onto watercolor paper, creating a background, learning about color mixing and painting techniques, to actually painting the portrait.

When I decided to try this activity with them, I had very high hopes, but was a little nervous about whether or not my expectations were too high for them. In the past, I have done this project with older kids in grade seven and eight and at a later point in the year once many skills were established.

I must say that so far the grade six kids have surprised and impressed me with their level of engagement, effort and willingness to get outside their comfort zone and just draw!

For the drawing portion of the project students were asked to select a partner to draw. The students are responsible for providing each other with a great portrait to develop into a painting. This has made them accountable to each other both as the drawer and still-life model.

After a demonstration and some instruction, students were

sent off into the hallways with clear mylar, wet-erase markers and their partners to find a window. The first step of the project was to trace the lines of their model onto the clear mylar. This is a great drawing activity for kids on so many levels. It is motivating and exciting for them to be out of the class and drawing in a very public location with teachers, peers and admin stopping by to check out their work.

The clear mylar and glass provided a new and unique drawing experience...challenging, motivating and fun, while the wet erase markers made it easy to erase any mistakes and make corrections. Because the mylar was not the final product, but rather a step in the process, kids were very open to making changes to their work.

In doing this activity, the students were challenged to make the switch from left brain to right brain processes. The projet pushed kids to move beyond what they "knew" a face looked like and to focus on the lines and shapes of what they were looking at. They were forced to move beyond drawing what they believed they understood about the subject and into developing stronger eye/ hand connections, bypassing the analytical left brain and tapping into their more creative right brain.

This switch was evident in the focus the kids had and in the products they produced. Infact I was a bit surprised by how many times students came back to class well after the period had ended, stating that they had lost track of time (and didn't seem to notice the hundreds of students moving past them during class change). If not focused, they were certainly engaged!

Another cool aspect of this project was that it is such a great transition for kids this age to move from "tracing" into "drawing" from life. It straddles the line as kids are asked to simply look through the glass and trace the person on the other side. "Just follow all the major lines", is what I asked of them. They delivered.

This project has become a wonderful way for students to develop observation and drawing skills and to build confidence without the pressure of looking into a mirror or sitting across from the subject and wondering where to begin.

One of my boys made this comment at the end of a recent class. "I always thought I sucked at drawing." "And now?", I asked. "I rock it!", he replied. Wow. That's a pretty great endorsement. The pride that the kids have in their work is impressive and the drawings are wonderful.

Right now the students are just finishing the transfer of their drawings from the mylar to the water colour paper. I'm looking forward to moving into the painting process next.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE: After publishing this blog post, Lorrie was approached by two art teachers from another school in the province. The two teachers were excited about the project and wanted to talk to Lorrie about how to use her ideas in their classrooms. We set up a Skype chat, and Lorrie was able to answer questions about this project, and help two other teachers get started. Thanks so much to Jen Deyenberg for setting up the opportunity.

If other teachers are interested in the project, and would like to chat with Lorrie, please comment below.

Grade 8 Graphic Design: Effective Logos

This year at the Calgary Science School, there's a new structure to the Fine Arts Program, bringing in the element of choice at the grade 7 and 8 level. One of the new courses being offered is an introduction to Graphic Design.

The first assignment students are working on is a logo design project. To set up this project, students were introduced to 5 principles for effective logos. Using this great post by Jacob Cass, students were able to examine clear examples for each of the 5 principles, as well as many examples of poorly designed logos.

Next, we used the great database of logos at Brands of the World, and students were asked to select and sketch 5 logos that clearly used the 5 principles of effective logos.

After that, students were given their first design assignment. One of the other new grade 8 Fine Arts courses being offered is a Calgary Science School News Channel. This new CSS News team needs a logo, so this became the first assignment for our graphic design students.

Here's some of the students sketches as they work toward their final design.

After finalizing our sketches, students will begin the process of digitally building their logos using Adobe Illustrator.

We're thinking about posting some of our final designs on line, to help us choose the logo that gets used by the CSS News Team.

What do you think - will you come back and vote on the winner?