The “ISH” factor Get kids of all ages to think for themselves with a scientific approach to Art By: Shannon Kessler

We as art teachers must be the ones to CHANGE what we want our students to see and create in the classroom. We need to get our kids to: Think in Drawing Think in Painting Think in the

What do we want our students to take from our class when they leave their perspective grade and participate in the 21 st Century ?

What do we want our students to get when they leave our class for the year? What do we want our students to get when they leave our school? What do we want our students to get when they graduate?

We want our students to be independent artist. We want to teach our students how to act like an artist instead of coping an artist. Let’s teach our students how to be an artist in the 21 st Century. We do not want our students to:…

Monkey See Monkey Do

Art needs to be STUDENT CENTERED and we need a better way to teach art. SO Getting our students to see and understand what they are drawing on their own without help from the teacher. – Start in Kindergarten… – Each year re-enforce what they learn so that they can become artist and not a copy an artist (teacher).

Think of our classroom as a mini micro lab: Get your students to look at objects as an Eclipses And Ellipses As well as the “ ISH ” factor:

So what is the “ish” factor Think from a students point of view, especially when it comes to an inexperienced art student. How do students explain color? What we want to do now…. Especially when looking at direct observational object and learning to draw what they see or what they think they see.

The Artist Way use the Scientific Method

EDE….. Explore- – Think about it. – What are you looking at? – How can they EXPLORE what they are looking at? Size, shape, color, texture, form, value, space Discover- – How can they Discover what they are looking at? – Students describe the objects using their life experiences. It is blue the cologne my dad would put on. Experiment- – Here is what the art room is for… – In which media? – Students experiment on making the color?

The following images where we can look at color and explore and discover.

THIEBOD Now lets look at artist

What else adds to our EDE Lets start to explore: Light, How does light affect our image? – Shape, color, texture, value, form, space, lines How does the light affect the color? What about shadows?

LIGHT HAS COLOR Have the students consider the light source (explore) – Experiment with the students- – Florescent – Spot light – Day light and spot light

Push the idea of SHAPE – – Have the students look at the shapes and the colors of the shape not the object itself. because color and light create the shape.

Have the students do small studies to focus on a single idea with a limited amount of class time. – 5x7 or 8x10 Here is where the RISK factor comes in – What media will the students use. – In the beginning- give them the media as they get older let them start to choose.

Stations This is where the students can make choices and take ownership into their work and decide what material they will use. This is where the Experiment aspect comes into play. Experiment with making the correct color- this can be a group project as well- for the first time.

Group Work You will get in groups of 2 or 3 and all of you must work on the same painting. You must match the colors exactly and work together. The following examples are students work. – 1 or 2 class period

Once they under stand the “ish” Have them push the limits… What else can they do with the “ish”?

After all the wants people that can problem solve and work together

So Let the “ISH” factor work for you Get kids of all ages to think for themselves with a scientific approach to Art

SO Please Don’t Squish my ISH

References Art Video: created by Tanya Davis song by Andrea Dorfman Andyradorman- You Tube Unaired commercial uploaded by emcdani – You Tube