Guiding Students to Independence through the Artistic Thinking Process

10/23/2018

Each unit that goes by I try to get closer to my philosophy of choice based art education through the Teaching for Artistic Behaviours Model while still finding creative solutions to teach class wide skills and hack required exams. The closest I've come to my ideal is through the Independent Projects that I end the year with for every class. This comes after the students have already settled into the routines and expectations of the class and have their creative juices flowing from a year of creating. This year however, I'm shaking things up and offering a BIG Independent Project in quarter 2. I want to offer students more independence and choice right from the start and this is getting closer to where my curriculum needs to be to best serve them.

"So we can make whatever we want?"

This is the main question I get asked when I present the idea of an independent project to them. And the answer is yes - mostly. Just as in other creative classes, like writing for example, I ask that students support their idea, whatever it may be, with thoughtfulness and engagement. A handful of students are excited right off the bat and furiously start scribbling down a plan, a good majority however is overcome with the Blank Canvas fear. That all encompassing whiteness that appears when too much choice is offered. This year to help guide my students in creating a major artwork I introduced the Artistic Thinking Process (#2).

Created by Melissa Purtee, this is the second version of the Artistic Thinking Process that was inspired by the Design Thinking Process. Read more about her development of this on her blog Thoughts On Arting.

30 Min Intro Activity

To first present this to the students I wanted a quick activity where they would demonstrate all of the steps of the process without even knowing it. So I set them to this task:

With your table create an artwork under the theme “happiness.” You may use your ipads for research if you need. You have 30 minutes

While you are working Ms. Blundon may give your table a colored piece of paper. If this happens please stop and write down whatever you are doing at that moment on the paper. For example “We were talking about the best way to connect the two pieces together”

I thought of a few different themes to use but at the last minute I changed to "happiness" and I'm glad I did because it was very approachable to the students but also yielded interesting results. While they were creating I walked around spying trying to overhear or see them in different stages in the Artistic Thinking Process. When I caught them in the act I gave them a slip of paper in which they wrote down exactly what they were doing at that moment.

The papers were actually color coded to match the Artistic Thinking Process stages. When the 30 minutes had finished I introduced the Process by passing out a small copy to everyone (to put in their sketchbooks) and read through it together. After each stage I would ask who had a specific color paper, the table would read out what they had written and we would talk as a class on why it was an example of that particular stage. Here are some examples of what students wrote:

Inspiration (Red)

Development (Orange)

Creation (Yellow)

Sharing (Green)

Reflecting (Blue)

Independent Project

Now that they had a foundation of the process, they were ready to jump into it. We used the rest of the class time that day to focus on finding inspiration (encouraging sharing and reflecting). I asked them to have the following three questions answered when they returned next class:
What do you plan to make?
Why do you want to make this?
How will you make this (with what materials)?

On the second day we focused completely on the Development stage. I used the suggestions on the Artistic Thinking Process diagram and added a few of my own. I put them together with examples/tutorials on this page of my website so they could easily access them independently. I asked them to choose two ways to develop their idea (they could come up with their own ways aside from my suggestions). Students really got it when I posed the question:

"What do you need to do before you start your final piece?"

This year we are using SeeSaw as our Process Journals to record our progress after each class. Here are a few from the development stage:

These two students are working together to create digital fantastical drawings of their classmates. They used the development stage to create and send out a survey and start sketching some ideas.

As we head into the creation stage next I feel that my students are already set up for success by having an vision of the overall artistic process. I plan to add some small reflection and sharing activities along the way and will try to put them in here after I'm done. We have an exhibition coming in December and I am excited to see the diversity of artwork, subject matter, and media expand with each show. Lastly, although the 30 Min Intro Activity was not really about making an artwork I did enjoy seeing what they came up with under the theme "happiness."