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Art
in its Contemporary Setting Final Assessment for thematic unit in ART There were five main goals for this four week unit covering World War 1 and how it relates to current events and violence in the community for this class, Art in its Contemporary Setting, as follows: 1. Students understand the value and actively participate in taking a critical look at the visual culture they are immersed in. 2. Create and consistently honor a safe space within the classroom culture where students can begin to activate their voice. 3. By creating a classroom environment where students felt engaged and safe to explore their voice about the issues at hand, they would then gain confidence outside the classroom to engage themselves in a more proactive way using their voice in spoken word and fine art for social commentary and to make a difference. 4. Re-engage students in curriculum materials and increase literacy across subject matters presented. 5. Students understand the value of working together as a group with the guiding light of the class manifesto to resolve conflicts, discuss possibilities, and create a well thought out well integrated final project together. The second and third goals of honoring the safe space and activating student voice within and outside of the classroom in a proactive way was a great success. Students as a group were overwhelmingly engaged in the creation of the class manifesto. It was as if they were just waiting for this opportunity to speak up about themselves. This activity was a consistent theme that we revisited throughout the four week unit before any discussion that involved sensitive subject matter, which was almost every day. Some of the more disengaged kids were awkward upon their initial participation, sometimes disruptive or inappropriate, but the other students would use the class manifesto to remind them of what they agreed together were the rules and goals of the class, without ostracizing the disruptive students. The students were able to develop their voice within the classroom and then revealed their new found confidence, concerns and observations in their spoken word and rap performances, and in their individual art works presented at the Armistice Fair Student Art Exhibit. The final group project, curating Post Card Art and Propaganda: voices of change speak out on the violence of the past, was assessed as a group grade, and individually for participation and contribution. The group as a whole received and "A" for this project. The way the students decided to hang the show addressed the issues of the format of the post card by hanging each one by a string that floated in space at eye level so that the viewer could see each side of the card as they wandered through the post cards themselves. The issue of the propagandistic power of the seemingly insignificant format of a post card was revealed in the sheer number of cards that were presented, which the students chose to hang close together to emphasize the number of hands post card imagery passed through. The post cards were hung in a way that the viewers could walk among and through them so that they would be immersed in, and having to face the issue of propaganda in our visual culture. There were a couple of students who used the curatorial days to skip class. In those cases I was not successful in maintaining their engagement in—and valuing—the group work. They reicieved lower grades as they did not do as well as they could in participation and contribution. There were however quite a few instances where students were in disagreement about how to hang the show, they thought their group's ideas were better. But this only stimulated a valuable discussion about cooperation and the individual compromises that may have to be made when working as a group. We also discussed the differences and values of both working individually and as a group. The first goal of students understanding the value of—and actively participating in taking a critical look at—the visual culture they are immersed in, was overall a success. The students created art works and spoken word commentary pieces that brought me to tears. I was very pleased with their research in the community, their responses to the themes of "propaganda then and now," "violence in the community" and the guest speaker. Some of the students were not very comfortable with the spoken word pieces and opted not to perform anything, but then created eloquent commentary in their final art piece. Others were very strong in the rap area and struggled with relevant and integrated fine arts pieces. And finally with this unit, students re-engaged in the curriculum materials that were covered in this class as exemplary in the final work produced for the Armistice Fair described above. Literacy was improved as students were able to develop their own voice and research materials they took an interest in already (first post card assignment, Wednesday, week one). As they engaged in researching what they already took an interest in they were warmed up to do research in further course materials that followed the same theme as their original research. The spoken word and rap really engaged and excited some students to write and perform their social commentary. The students that were not as inclined with the spoken word revealed and articulated—in written descriptions of their art works—eloquent commentary on nicely executed artworks.
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Music French Art Social Science Science Culminating |
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