CAEA Conference

I am apologizing in advance.  This post is long but I promise, it is worth going through the whole thing.

Far too often, we art specialists are forced to attend professional development that has little to nothing to do with our subject area.  How often have you sat through math training for state testing?  For reading tutoring?  For a workshop on graphic organizers to use in book circles?  It's frustrating, isn't it?  To go through hours of training on nothing or next to nothing you can actually use in your classroom.

That's why belonging to your state Art Educators Association is so important.  We need to connect with other professionals in our own content area.  We need  to share stories, ideas, commiserate about budgets, behavioral issues (students, co-workers, or our own!), and generally remember that ART IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN.  We didn't become art teachers to write unit plans that allign with CCSS.  We became art teachers because we LOVE art, and just also happen to be good with kids and getting kids to love art too.

I went to the CAEA (Connecticut Art Educators Association) conference this year and had a blast!
Oh, and did I mention the Swag?  Everyone got free tote bags, along with a stylus for your tablet that was also a regular pen. 

My three workshops were one on Close Reading using Portrait Prints as text, a Line Lesson that could be used as an evaluation tool, and a simply Zen experience called Circle Painting.  Detailed below is all the information I gathered for your own use.

Workshop 1: Figuratively Speaking - Increasing Students’ Literacy Skills through Portraiture

This workshop was run by the Wadsworth Museum.  If you're near enough to Connecticut to make a day trip - put The Wadsworth on your "to visit" list. I give the presenter a lot of credit.  There was a ton of prep involved in this.  Each attendee received an envelope with a small postcard of a portrait print, two pieces of tracing paper and five index cards - each in a different color.  She told us on the outset that each person had a different print - this was to avoid anyone copying or cheating off each other. 

Activity: Conversation with a work of art – Set-Up:

·         Postcard image for every student

·         Blue, green, red, white, yellow index cards in an envelope with the postcard

·         Tracing paper sized for the postcard, two sheets

·         Each image is different per row of students (They don’t know they have the same image as someone else in the class.  When they are passed out each student in a single row will think they all have different images – this will prevent copying and also lend itself to a group activity at the end)

First Activity: For one minute, just study the image to see what it is telling.  Take 30 seconds on the blue card and write your first impressions of the image.  

Second Activity: Take out tracing paper and trace the elements or principals that personally strike you the most interesting or important.  Questions to ask yourself – What lines do you see?  Is there contrast? What shapes? What strikes you about the Portrait?  

Third Activity: On the yellow card – empathy with the figure.  Describe them.  Who are they?  What are they like?  What walk of life are they from?  Sensory Awareness – Atmospheric sensory: What might be the scent in the air? What sounds might you hear? What textures could you touch or see?  How does the mood feel?

Forth Activity: On the green card – Put yourself in the position of the artist.  Make a journal entry for the artist from their point of view.  What did they consider when choosing their subject?  What do you think they were feeling?  Back it up with evidence you observe in the painting.

Fifth Activity: On the Pink Card – Write an original piece of poetry based on the art work.  

Last Activity: White Card – Reflection: How will you look at art from now on?  Has this changed the way you feel about art or writing?  

After the last activity - the personal reflection, the presenter dropped a surprise on us.  People did in fact, have the same portraits but she had spaced them out when passing out the envelops to make sure that no one had the same one next to them on either side.  For the final part of the workshop she asked us to find the other people who did have the same portrait (it worked out to groups of five or so for each one) and had us discuss what we had learned.  We all had to share something from one of the cards.  

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this activity.  It seemed like so much easier than the close reading from printed text that I have been required and with the wide range of activities to do with each card there is bound to be something that a student can be successful with. This was by far, one of the best workshops I have ever been to.  

Workshop 2: Line of the Day

This presenter started by asking: Why the Line of the Day?  

Then she answered her own question with:

•  If only I could get them to draw me a picture the way they could tell me a story about how their weekend went.
• Turn sketches into full drawings
•  Practice thinking outside the box!

Goal: Students will be able to draw a picture with background and details by using the teacher’s chosen line as a starting point.

Objectives:                                            

1. Students can create a picture from a variety of lines and shapes.
2. Students will learn a new way of drawing a variety of images.
3.  Students will add details to complete a whole image.

Useful for:

·         Greater Awareness of Spatial Intelligence

·         Visualization of objects from different angles.

·         Building of fine motor skills

·         Building of confidence

Trying to get the students to realize that:

                Lines make up shapes

                Shapes make up objects

                Objects make up images

                Images make up pictures

                Pictures have specific details that TELL A STORY

Her Procedure:  Lines are on the board, students copy them down when they enter the room into their own sketchbooks.  They are encouraged to rotate the picture and look at it from different point of views.  They are encouraged to think of some of their favorite things: sports, foods, patterns, animals, tell a story.  They are reminded to add details and background.

She used this activity as transition time for when a class was coming in but she was not yet set up for them or there were stragglers from the last group she was trying to get out the door.  The line grouping would be on the board and students knew to get their personal sketchbooks and copy them down and begin turning it into a full drawing.  One of the things I liked about this was that it wasn't a single line but a grouping.  There might be a vertically drawn zigzag with a circle to one side and a wavy line above that.  It pushed them to think more about what the grouping could be turned into.  

I also quickly realized that this could be a good activity for evaluation.  This could easily be a before and after where they are given the same set of lines at the end of the marking period or year and then the new drawings could be compared to the old ones.  Before and Afters are always fun because the students can see for themselves how much they are improving.

Workshop 3: Circle Painting

I loved this workshop. Seriously, I loved it.  It practically guarantees success to a student no matter what their age level, skill level, or grade level.  It was very Zen and relaxing for me to participate in after a long hectic day.  I've tried this out so far with first, second and fourth grades.  I have this insane idea that I'm going to circle paint with each and every grade and then hang them all floor to ceiling down the hallway. 

So what is circle painting?  Simply put, you are painting only circles on the paper - circles, rings or dots.  Also, you are rotating around the room, from paper to paper in a circle.  Sounds strange, right?
Well, it works.  Trust me.

Each student puts their own name on the back of their paper (you can do this any size, but when I tried it I used 18 x 24 white).  Each student gets a different color.  At the workshop we were allowed to choose what we wanted but for the kids I did a "you get what you get and you don't get upset" just to avoid the "Awww! I wanted red.  Why did he get it?" To make sure I had enough colors I first passed out color from the bottle.  When I ran out, I then went back down the line and passed out color plus white and had the kids mix a tint.  If I still needed more I went back down the line and passed out color plus black and had the kids mix a shade.

There are some basic rules before you start:

1. No other shapes besides circles, dots, and rings.  (some of the other art teachers in the workshop had trouble with this direction so there were a lot of radial line designs slipped in too.)
2.  You may not paint on top of someone else's work.  You may fill in a ring to make a circle, or paint next to - but not on top of.  You can only enhance someone else's work not cover it up.
3. You may not use the circles or dots or rings to draw pictures (no smiley faces!) or words (no one wants someone else's name or "waz up" in the middle of their picture).

So you have each child, with a brush in one hand and an individual color in a cup/palette/whatever you have in the other hand, stand behind their chair.  All chairs should be pushed in.   Each student can start by putting one dot, circle or ring on their own paper.  Then everyone rotates one spot over, clockwise (one of my fourth grades had trouble with clockwise - apparently, some of them thought this meant disregard the directions, cross the room and go to a friend's spot - some of your classes may need herding dogs to help keep them moving in the right directions).  Then you add another circle, dot, or ring to that picture.  Then you rotate to the next spot, and each time you move you add onto the existing picture. You keep rotating until you wind up where you began.  This often means one minute or less before switches.   You wind up with a painting that has been painted for you by your classmates!

Here are some of the finished ones:

From the workshop (and the Professional Development our district had after where myself and another teacher who attended got to teach this to our colleges):

From my classroom: