Hybrid Art Class Information!
What will art class look like when students are back?
Ms. McEwan is here to answer YOUR questions!
This year art class will be in the classrooms. I and my wonderful student teacher, Ms. Harrington will be rolling into classes with our shiny carts ready to make art!
Supplies and Materials
Art Class in person is going to look different this year. For safety reasons I will not be passing out materials, other than paper. It will help limit exposure and help with contact tracing.
But worry not!
Over the past few months, your students have received art supplies in their learning bags. They have received Crayons, Markers, Modeling Clay, Colored Pencils, Glue Sticks and Construction Paper.
*The materials that have been sent home will be expected to travel with your students to school for art class.*
You might be wondering..What should my students bring to class? What projects are they working on?
It's up your students!
This means that students will be the decision makers about what supplies they want to use and bring. If they have art materials they would like to bring that weren't in the learning bags, they can.
I will be discussing with every class about how it is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to pack and bring their materials for class each week.
Choice Based Art
Over the past year, I have been working on transitioning the art class to a choice based curriculum. Lessons this year have been focused on featuring artists who discuss their art process and what motivates them to make art. What I have found that when students are the leader of their learning, they are more invested and engage in a more meaningful way.
So what is choice?
- Choice Based Art allows students opportunities to take ownership of their art experiences from conception to completion with teacher acting as classroom manager, environmental designer, art expert, facilitator, and student mentor. Students lead the artistic process while I and Ms. Harrington support them.
Here are several other benefits that have been found through having choice in art class:
- When students are working independently the teacher has time to observe students, determining needs that can be met in future demonstrations.
- Students can work at their own speed. Some students work on a painting or weaving for four or five weeks while others may use more than one center in a class period. Students have the opportunity to try something over and over again, leading to mastery.
- The choice teacher can introduce something new every week, even though some art works will take much longer to complete as the students work independently.
- Students see an enormous variety of ideas and techniques at the end of class when amazing discoveries are shared.
- Choice teaching encourages independent thinking, persistence and risk-taking, all qualities valued by practicing artists.
- When students have chosen their work, they can discuss it easily, can describe their working process and false starts and usually evaluate the effectiveness of the finished work.
Want to learn more about Choice? Here is a great video that explains it perfectly!
Ms. Katie McEwan
Preferred Pronouns- She/Her
Email: kmcewan@framingham.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.instagram.com/potterroadart/
Location: 492 Potter Road, Framingham, MA, USA
Phone: 508-626-9110
Facebook: facebook.com/potterroadart