So, in these last six weeks of school, middle schoolers are engaging in TAB, a choice based way of working out the artistic process (idea-plan-make-reflect-refine-share).
The way it works is this: Every week, student's are introduced to a different medium with which they have to engage/experiment with for 15-20 minutes. At the end of the allotted time, they then can choose to continue or go work with a prior introduced medium. They can work on one big project that lasts the whole time, or lots of little projects. They can play/experiment, or they can go deep, or a little of both. This gives them the opportunity to learn new media, but then really engage in what interests them.
This way of working is super fun and engaging, but can also be a little overwhelming for students... so, we set up some scaffolding and expectations. There is a list of expectations during studio time, and at the end of class, students update a TAB google doc with photos of their works in progress and 2-3 sentences of what they are working on. We also have a brainstorming document/format that they can follow to set up/plan their project:
So, what does that mean for projects-- their choices include:
1. Traditional 2-d media. Exploration include contour drawing of shoes and charcoal drawings of tools
2. Photography--we went outside with ipads and explored basic photography concepts such as rule of thirds, stop action, birds/worms eye point of view
3. Sculpture--found objects and recycled art
4. New Media--post production of photography with apps like snapseed and aviary. Other ipad apps such as procreate and sketches. We also have a 3-d doodler pen and a go pro... we also discussed how the maker movement that included 3-d printing, arduino, and laser printers fit into new media.
And, if this wasn't enough! I had the seventh graders wrap up their TAB time by creating an artwork that was looked at through the LENS of CONTEMPORARY ART and a THEME that built off of what they were studying on team. This was brainstormed by the students.
Holden: Connections (building off of culture, cultures and the civil rights movement in Social Studies)
Winton: The Environment
Alpha: Economics
Here is some vignettes from the past few weeks, students working and finished projects.:
