Glenwood City High Day Six

My fifth day at Glenwood City High School was dominated by the second part of my one-point perspective lesson for the eighth graders, though I was at the school several periods prior. The first period the painting class was still working on there main project at various stages. In particular, I helped one student who struggled to find the courage to finish his painting. One problem with long term projects is they can become precious to students and then they don't want to keep working on them, for fear they deface their prior work. This was the case with this particular student, who had worked hard on a finessed background and was nervous to incorporate some elk into the foreground. Both Mrs. Jones and myself encouraged and helped him and He began to build up the figures.
In advanced studio class I primarily aided one student who was working in Adobe Illustrator. This was because I had encouraged him to expand his skill set and utilize that program and Mrs. Jones had limited knowledge in using it. He was using the pen tool to create an outline of a city skyline and had a window pattern that He was transforming into the buildings. The project was coming along well and the period was quickly over.
In the final period the eighth graders were finishing their one-point perspective hallway drawings. Naturally they were all at different places in the project, some were completely done, others had considerable studio production left. I decided to start the period with an critique where the students talk about their projects and what they learned. The students that had already completed their projects were some of the more advanced students and they were confident when they presented their projects. I went around to all the different students and helped them with some of the issues that were present in their drawings. Some of the students went back into the hallways, others had enough visual information to complete the rest of their drawings in the classroom. Overall, I was very pleased with the results of the students, who's drawings were very advanced for eighth graders. This coupled with the fact that all of the students seemed to understand the basic concepts of the assignment led me to believe the project was a success. Below are four examples of the students drawings.

Glenwood City High Day Five

The time had come for me to present an assignment. I was going to do it all by myself, as my co-operating Mrs. Mary Jones was attending Seminar's that week. Mrs. Jones then realized the eight-graders, who I would be teaching, would not have final period art on Wednesday. I re-arranged to Friday prepared my Lesson. I would be teaching observational drawing in one-point perspective to the eighth graders and the introductory class. It was a challenging assignment for that grade level, but I was confident that I could introduce the concept of linear perspective (something that took mankind over a thousand years to understand) in the short time I was given.
I created a visually interesting PowerPoint that introduced the basic terminology several times, in several different ways, for the variety of learning styles of the eight-graders. I also took a photograph of one of the hallways directly outside the art studio. I broke down the necessary steps in order as clearly as I could. I emphasized the importance of convergence and how these points meet at the horizon line, which is also the students eye-level.

I also showed how they can find the stroke width of various architectural elements and define those lines by two points, the vanishing point and horizontal marks they draw up at a consistent size. I was trying to make meaningful connections between one-point perspective's scientific approach to visual understanding and geometries mathematical understanding of the visual world. However, this is difficult when the student's do not understand simple geometric terms such as parallel and perpendicular. Fortunately a dutiful student asked what perpendicular was in the designated question time and I was able to break the geometric vocabulary more. Finally, I showed my example from Jarvis Hall and the Student's were off to draw.

Many of the students did not know how to begin, as they had not drawn from observation before. I had to explain and demonstrate how to begin to many of the students. I did my best to get to every student and by the end of the period all the students had a good start on their drawings.

Glenwood City High Day Four

After two weeks of missing Glenwood High, one due to Spring Break and one due to extreme weather I was more than ready to return to the School's Art Studio. It was the end of another quarter and Mrs. Jone's was quite busy. There was a pile of ungraded projects and several Student's needing attention. Fortunately, I was there to help.
The first period was painting class and the Students were working on a larger acrylic project on art boards. Mrs. Mary Jones showed a few demonstrative videos of painting acrylic backgrounds, including skies. The videos must have been effective, because most of the Students dived confidently into their paintings and the backgrounds were looking good. One student effectively made a black to white gradient that looked sharp and smooth. Another effectively brought watery textures into the lake in His composition. In addition to painting, there is also a section of the Advanced Studio Art class that meets during this period. Being the last quarter of the school year, Mrs. Jones had to introduce a new section of the studio class. She took the advanced Student's in the Hall and introduced several options to the Students. They could continue their current concentration in media or work with different materials. Then they could choose one of three themes; a set of three, the world around us, or inviting and uninviting environments. Finally, there was a volunteer component to the Advanced Studio class. The Students could choose from several avenues of volunteer work or come to Mrs. Jones with their own ideas. It was quite a bit of information for Her to get through and She discussed that is was often hard to teach two classes in the same place and time. However, both the painting class and studio class advanced through the period.
In the next period there was the other section of the Advanced Studio Class and the received the same information as the other section. From there they began to form their own ideas. A few of the Student's already had concepts for the final section of the class. These Student's discussed their ideas with Mrs. Jones and myself.
In the final class, the new section of eight graders were working on a key chain art metals assignment. The Students would cut out shapes in metal and turn them into key-chains. Getting Students to cut with jewelers blades may seem too challenging and some Students were struggling. I did my best to encourage these Students while Mrs. Jones introduced an extra credit assignment for Students who had already completed the assignment. This extra credit assignment was in Photoshop and consisted of arranging found photos of the Students interests into their silhouette. The Students worked well and the period was quickly over.
When I asked Mrs. Jones about how She assess Student artwork, She had plenty of examples. She had many different rubrics, varying from project to project. Many of Her rubric sheets were meant for the Students themselves as self evaluations. She said that for many of Her sheets She doesn't add up the points but instead chooses to give the grades She feels the Students deserve. She also said that one of the best functions of rubrics was to set a series of objectives for the Students, to let them know what She was expecting.
After class I discussed the assignment I will present next week. That assignment will be a one-point perspective drawing of the hallways to the eight graders next week. Mrs. Jones will actually be gone next week, so I will be doing this on my own. A challenge, certainly, but one that I eagerly look forward to.