Sunday, March 18, 2012

Learning to Observe

Kindergarten and 1st Grade students are learning to observe through creating contour drawings. I worked in a small group with students observing details on plastic toy animals. Students noted size differences, color placement, and shape. Some students asked to envision where that animal might be outside.

1st Grade connected their animal drawings to Lascaux Cave paintings, which they are learning about in social studies. They understood how the first artists created records of the things they saw and were important to them and their society.









Monday, March 5, 2012

Interviewing Ilene - a student artist from Garvey


Listen to an audio interview with Ilene Selgado, a 6th grade student from Garvey Elementary School (Chrissy Gray Rodriquez's school).

We wanted to interview Ilene about a specific self-portrait. I watched Ms. Gray lead a critique session with her students. In the critique Ms. Gray referenced Ilene's piece and shared with another class how Ilene had really stretched and gone beyond by adding specific details to the portrait. I suggested to Ms. Gray that we interview her to learn more about her decision-making. This is an excerpt.

Some of the members of our Studio Thinking team are going to interview 1-3 students in their classes to learn more about their creative process. I will share a transcription of this interview with Ilene and provide some suggestions for interviewing students in the next blog entry. Stay tuned.