Arts Moment
El Monte City School District: Volume 1 - Issue 1
EMCSD Committed to the Arts
Retreat Summer 2016
Community Liaisons
Itinerant Music Program
Happenings Around the District
The Case for Art in My Classroom
Veronica Castillo - Columbia, Grade 4
Students today view art as either a trip to the Circus or a root canal at the dentist’s office. An art lesson can be visually exciting and stimulating or painful and intrusive.
Unfortunately with the school testing climate of the past, many students enter the 4th grade with very little art background and even less confidence to show their creative side. Educators have had to make cuts to what may have been deemed unnecessary in an attempt to ensure the numerical success of their schools. Music, art, and dance were the first subjects to go. In doing away with such subjects, we created students who lack imagination to problem solve, the focus to complete longer tasks, and the language and movement to express themselves.
I see it every year when I introduce a lesson on portrait drawing using basic shapes. Tentatively students pick up their pencil as if something putrid is stuck on the other end. “I can’t draw that!” followed by “Like this, teacher?” echo throughout the classroom as I try to motivate and guide. Some frustrated students have already crumbled their paper and have placed their head on the table in defeat. They feel as if they failed. “Why do we have to do this?” they ask. As an educator, I explain that I see art as a way to see the world and that there is no perfect art, just art that makes us feel. Some children and adults do not “get” the importance art in a child’s life.
I think of my own sons who have paper stuffed into every crevice of their room with half started drawings and paintings of comic book heroes and villains. The details they draw are verbalized when they explain the action and origin stories of their imaginary people. At its core art is expression.
Earlier in the year when I taught a lesson on Gustav Klimt and his Art Nouveau style paintings, the children were fascinated by the combination of “real” faces and patterns. Together we started an ink outline of “Mother and Child” that included the heads and upper torso of the subjects. The students then had to add a pattern to the ink outline using the shapes Klimt used or any other pattern and colors they felt would help their work stand out. The results were very moving and dynamic.
I can cite articles that show how an art education leads to the academic success of a child. Yet, perhaps more importantly, I know that children need art to feel self-actualized. Even the most stubborn, art-challenged student will find a medium in which they feel most comfortable expressing themselves. If a simple directed lesson using pencil and paper confuses one student, that same student may end up excelling in a more pattern oriented yarn weaving lesson creating Ojos de Dios. Other children excel in movement and a dance routine during a school assembly can be the one thing that child looks forward to in a school day.
Ultimately, we need to start teaching students that a pencil can be used for much more than bubbling in an answer.
Durfee Takes on the Arts
Diane Duus - Durfee, Grade 5
Well we are off to a great start in the district art program at Durfee School. With the news of extra art supplies and time to explore creatively, teachers have embraced bringing visual exploration into the classroom.
Sandy Smith, who always has a creative touch, began with the lessons created by the summer cohort. Her Moose collage using water color and cut paper as well as her Monochromatic silhouetted scarecrow turned out fabulous and the students enjoyed the experience.
Erika Valencia’s class in second grade also did a wonderful watercolor based project using a Picasso style portrait-based drawing and implementing the color wheel theory.
In fifth grade Steve Lingers’ class tried their hand at contour line drawing using Abraham Lincoln as their muse.
Mr. Moores’ fifth grade class explored Vincent Van Gogh’s impressionistic style and created a mock “Starry Night” piece with a village cutout.
I think we can all agree that bringing the visual arts back into the classroom is resulting in some fine works of art and allowing our students to explore their untapped talents. I look forward to a year of shared success stories from all of our schools.
Moose Collage
Grade 4
Portrait
Grade 5
Starry Night Village
Middle School Students Celebrate the Season through Music
Suzanne Brown, Music Director - Durfee
Cleminson Art News
Corrine Wilson - Cleminson, Grade 4
Our 4th grade teacher, Mr. Yang, aided his class in the challenging task of creating silhouetted scarecrows after reading Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow. We have a bulletin board in our office featuring a different grade level’s art and Mr. Yang’s class represented the month of November.
My 4th grade class sketched beautiful oil pastel bulb ornaments for some fun holiday art. Currently, these are proudly displayed in our office for the month of December.
Mrs. Campbell’s 5th graders were hard at work creating paper ornaments using a quilling tool to make paper spirals. This European art form dates back to our early Pioneer days.
Trolls
Scarecrow Silhoutte
Snowflake
Office of Instruction
Email: hragan@emcsd.org
Website: instruction.emcsd.org
Location: 3540 Lexington Avenue, El Monte, CA, United States
Phone: 626-453-3781