Including Difference: A Communitarian Approach to Art Education in the Least Restrictive Environment
Although there were many ideas discussed in this reading, To best express what I believed the thesis could be, I wanted to include this quote: "Art education has not fully aligned wth the educational efficiency aspirations of standardized assessment. Perhaps in part because of this, the art classroom remains a fertile landscape for diverse and meaningful assessment of student learning, allowing for varied forms of data collection." What I also got out of the reading was figuring out what counted as meaningful assessment in an inclusive art classroom with differently-abled and typically-abled students as well as how to connect student assessment to student learning. I believe this thesis is important for art educators so that we can build our own inclusive environment in our classroom that avoids inequality in assessment. There isn't much about this thesis that troubles me. This connects to my life and work because when I have my own classroom, I want it to be an inclusive environment, a community even. This has been extremely beneficial for me to read since I know in my career, I will be teaching classes where some students learn a little differently that others. I see that it's my job to help those students feel included in a positive and meaningful safe space to explore and learn. I found this reading important since I have had experience being a student in an art classroom like that with my high school art teacher being a person who always wanted everyone to be involved no matter the differences between students. I saw that as a student but I haven't learned much about building that kind of environment as a future educator so reading this has definitely helped. My question for the class is after reading this and thinking upon your own experiences as a student, do you think there could have been anything else the teacher could've done to make the class feel more inclusive for all students?
0 Comments
Reading: Section 1 - Assessment in Art Education: Building Knowledge, 2018
I believe the thesis of the introduction and section 1 was how to successfully assess students in art education grades K-12 and that it is best to gather qualitative information rather than judge skills and concepts by quantification. This thesis is important for future art educators and art students. I couldn't find much about this thesis that I disagreed with. This thesis connects to my life and work because it helps me along in the subject of grading my art students in the future. Grading in an art class is very different from any other class. There's no perfectly correct answer like there would be in a math class. Art is subjective and as a teacher, I have to know how I can assess my students' work fairly and successfully. From this reading, I really liked that the author/authors emphasized that assessment of art students should be gathered qualitatively instead of quantitively. I also loved the idea of using sketchbooks as a tool for them to explore their own art outside of the classroom, and when the author talked about students self-assessing their own work made in the classroom based on their effort. I thought this was great to kind of engage students and making them a part of the assessment process. Nicole Packard (2018) Art for Social Justice Change: Exploring Social Justice Art in the Sixth Grade Classroom
This thesis was stating that the art education curriculum should shed light on the importance of connecting art projects to issues that the students feel are important. This thesis, like the last reading's thesis is important for future and current art educators. There isn't anything that really troubles me about the author's thesis. The reading definitely connects to my life as an art educator who wants to bring attention to social issues in the classroom and produce lessons and class discussions on which issues are important to them and what they'd like to do to make positive change. I particularly liked the part in this reading where one of her students named Anna wanted to portray the issue of homelessness in her piece. I like that the author included her mistake of assuming that her student needed to portray a homeless person in a certain, stereotypical way when the student had her own vision of how she saw homelessness. I liked this because it's really important to listen to your students and how they want to portray something and their reasoning behind it. The only question that I have is...What are other ways in which we can create art projects to initiate real change? even if just in their community similar to the paws donations. Nicole Tucker (2018) Art Activism Matters: Implementing Social Justice Art Pedagogy
The thesis of this reading was stating an experience of investigating the effects of social issues students' motivation and engagement in the art classroom. This thesis is important for future art educators. This thesis is important because it emphasizes the importance of young people noticing problems in the world and being comfortable enough to express their feelings and thoughts towards those issues. I didn't really have any troubles regarding this thesis or the reading in general. The main proposition of this reading strongly impacts and connects to my own life and work as I become an art educator. In my own work, I would love to make my own classroom to feel like a safe space for students to be themselves, express their feelings, and this reading gave me that same idea but for them to feel safe expressing how they feel towards current social issues. She talked about an author she referenced who expressed "...the importance of students bringing their unique voices to the table, creating safe spaces for students to process and reflect on social issues." (p. 4). I enjoyed the reading also because in my own work as an artist, I struggle to make work that relates to social issues. I would love to make work that connects to people a little more, showing my reactions to real world problems and I think that if I did something like this in my art classes as a student, it would improve my awareness of current issues and ways that I could do my part in spreading that awareness through artwork. Reading: The thesis of this reading is how a big idea dealing with human issues can strongly influence artists and art students and get them to think a little deeper into the choices they make in their work. I believe this message is important not only for students and artists but for art educators. I especially enjoyed reading when the undergraduate student/ future art educator tried to base a lesson from Andy Goldsworthy''s work and his big idea. He misunderstood what Goldsworthy's big idea was but this was a mistake that I think a lot of other art educators would make in trying to base a lesson around what you believe the artist's big idea or theme is. It's important to completely understand what the artist is going for so when you teach a lesson focused on the artist's main idea, you can do everything possible to give the students the experience of making something inspired by their idea. Big Idea: Vanessa German, Decoy: What Side of The Bed Does Your Soul Wake Up On, 2018, Mixed media assemblage
Bid Ideas: Emotion, Power, Dark vs. Light, Found Objects, Childhood Probing Questions: What makes the figures power figures? What story is the artist trying to tell? What do you think of the idea of using found objects to make art? http://www.carlhammergallery.com/artists/vanessa-german https://youtu.be/8U6KkT6MioQ |
LACIE SOLTArchives
May 2019
Categories |