Research Questions Pt. 2 and Plan

In past articles, I have talked about fantasy, process vs. product, play/exploration and classroom environment. With these issues, I've found myself wanting my students to be more confident in their creating skills. I’ve found that students who are confident, are more willing to take chances with their work and slow down instead of rushing to finish. I would love to incorporate this mindset in my student but am not sure if these themes would encourage these behaviors.

How have you addressed these issues/questions? 

I am still consistently reflecting and brainstorming about ways I can incorporate centers and free choice in my room. Covid has thrown a wrench into my plans as these ideas include sharing of materials between multiple classes. The idea was to set up stations that students could use to play/explore in small groups while I did a small project with a group so that there could be art that was “pretty” for parents and hallways. I think this incorporates environment, collaboration/community, and exploration and play all within the same concept. 

How could you address these issues and questions? 

With the current restrictions of being unable to share materials, or quarantining materials that can’t be cleaned, I am having some trouble thinking of how to address these issues in a practical way. If the world were under ideal circumstances, I would slowly introduce different groups. I think I would start with my younger students as I think it is easier to establish routines that will be carried from year to year. I already had a “clay station” (oil based clay students could use over and over), and a drawing station with scrap pieces of paper, access to crayons markers, pencils, clipboards, and drawing sticks with drawing prompts written on them.  

I think being more confident in my teaching skills and higher expectations can also lead to the outcome I am hoping for. I personally struggle with letting students slide when I receive push back from them for not wanting to continue developing their work. I’ve found that my students easily get bored when I ask them to continue developing their work. This is something else I internally battle myself with when thinking about play and exploration in the art room. I want to cultivate a desire to create and don’t want students to feel frustrated when they are making. I don’t want them to feel defeated but also know some of my students who rush can do much better. 

How are the courses so far affecting your classroom practice? 

I can’t lie, these courses have sometimes been frustrating for me with deadlines and writings that I felt I was too busy for. However, with the frustration comes so much more thinking and reflection in my own practice. I have internal dialogues about what I am doing and have been brainstorming ways to engage myself and students in dynamic learning. I’ve always enjoyed reflecting, but this course has re-lit the spark for me. I actively have something to think about, question, or evaluate. 

Play, Exploration, Choice, and Creative Thinking

When I first was hired in 2017, I noticed the teacher before me had a surplus of construction paper, markers, and crayons. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these materials, but I was getting the impression that the students were not being exposed to a variety of materials in an exploratory manner. I came from an art education program that was very focused on student developing thought and open ended projects. I was taught to focus on process rather than product. This was pretty easy to do when I was in an environment that was already set up for this pedagogy. My first two years were pretty tough when trying to push students to do things on their own. I was used to working with a population of students who were independent in their creative decision making. They had the confidence to be explorative and take creative risks with materials provided. My learning experience has pushed me for students to be able to have a choice in their learning. I often struggle with trying to find projects that are similar but allow students to have freedom of choice. 

Another theme that I find wanting my students to enjoy in my classroom is exploration and play. I find it hard to separate these two concepts because I think they tend to happen together or can be interchangeable. I think these exercises, paired with open ended projects, can lead to the confidence and excitement that I am looking for in my classroom. I know most of my students are excited to come to my class, but I want them to feel confident enough to be creative thinkers as well. I realize that not every student will be as excited as I am hoping for about the arts, but I think there is some major potential to facilitate the experiences that will result in the hoped for behavior. I have talked about centers in my room with different materials that have instructions on how to properly use materials, but not directions on what to make. I’m hoping once we can share materials again, I can create these stations that allow 4-5 students to explore and play at a time. I think this process produces thinkers, but I also feel sad that they may not have the creations to take home to family, or there won’t be as much material to hang in the hallway. I follow some amazing art educators on instagram (Cassie Stephens, ArtwithMrsE, TwoArtChambers) and find myself struggling to want to be like them, but also wanting to teach for artistic behavior.  

Documentation 

I am rushing almost all of the time and forget to document information, work, and conversation. When I do remember to document, I find photos with notes about the moment or videos are my best ways to record and remember.  Below I have uploaded a video that was just taken within the past day. I was thinking about this blog post and wanted to ask my students what they thought about our project. Prior to this, we talked about hot and warm colors and looked at some of Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins. I told them all we were doing today was painting our paper and then adding some texture with the texture tools.  I thought our process was pretty loose and free, especially compared to other drawing projects. I asked my students if they would consider this playing, or playing with paint and was pretty surprised when they answered “no”. When I asked them why, they didn’t seem to really have an answer, so I switched my question and asked if they would consider their activity an experiment and they said “yes”. Below are a few additional videos I was able to take. I was interested in answers from the first video and wanted to see if answers from other classes of the same grade level were different or similar.

These photos show what we did in the beginning of the year. I have noticed through my time teaching, a lot of my students push extremely hard when drawing. We talked about the value scale. Below the scale, I created a squiggle line and told them to create their own image from the line and then use value to add shading.  I thought the line drawing added a creative and choice based experiment to a practice that can be quite boring and represent only surface level of understanding.  I prefer to video my students and their work as the conversations and comments are easier to remember when you can play it back. Photos are my next favorite to use. When I look at the photos, I can normally remember what grade and who was making the project.  

(Wix wouldn't let me upload photos once I added the previous videos, so I had to upload the images in a video format)

This leads me to my rough draft of research questions: can play cultivate creative and independent thinking in the elementary art classroom? Or How can play, experimentation, and choice alter artistic behavior and attitudes towards the arts in elementary students?  I’m looking forward to actively choosing to do more open ended projects with my students that allow for choices and exploration.  I think through reflection, exercises, and documentation of processes, I may have to alter my questions some more. However, I think I have a solid starting base to move forward with. The one issue that I do have with these questions is I do not know if it is answerable within the time frame we may have. I think this is a great question for a long term case study. I have to do some more brainstorming to think if I need to adjust the question for a shorter term process. 

Annotations

Jeremy E. Sawyer and Thalia Goldstein, “Can Guided Play and Storybook Reading Promote Children’s Drawing Development?,”Empirical Studies of the Arts37, no. 1 (2018): 32–59

https://www.artsedsearch.org/study/can-guided-play-and-storybook-reading-promote-childrens-drawing-development/

Szekely, G. (2015).Play and creativity in art teaching. ProQuest Ebook Centralhttps://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu

Play and Creativity is a book that I chose because it seemed like a beginners guide to explaining play in the classroom. Szekely uses personal observations as a methodology in this book. In the first chapter, Szekely (2015) states "leading and joining students in playing inspires artistic behavior for all involved". Throughout the book Szekely exports subjects like environment, materials, movement, themes, and practice as components that can facilitate play to inspire creative and innovative thinking in the art room. The purpose of the book is to find connections between play and art.

In chapter one, play for children is described as therapy, a means for social development, rehearsal for real life situations, life preparation, and as a means for cognitive and intellectual development. Szekely conducted studies of children's play. Szekely's (2015) describes play based art as a foundation for invention and change that links creativity to innovations and believes play focuses on the creative process. Play art is described as : the original, imaginative work of children" (p.8) When reading this chapter, I was thinking of deeper connections to this article and what I wanted to learn out of it. I know I wanted to find connections between play, exploration, and creativity/confidence for students to make decisions about their work. I found this connection on page 13 when Szekely states "play is the basis for maintaining the artistic confidence children generally have before entering school". He describes that school is typically a place where children learn how to act like adults, and that teaching in a play based art room gives students the opportunity to be trusted and for their suggestions to be listened to (p. 17). Instead of being taught elements and principles that teach children how to make art like adults, Szekely advocates that in an art class, "children need to grow not only in there knowledge of art, but in curiosity, confidence, independence, and there courage ir takes to be a child, a player, and artist for the rest of their lives" (p.30). This quote was powerful and stuck with me. This is something I want to advocate for in my room. Not to be childlike in the sense of being immature, but to be childlike in a way that is full of wonder, excitement, and curiosity. This mindset paves the way to innovative, confident, and creative thinking.

Chapter 3 and 4 describe environment and materials as influential and powerful components to a play based art curriculum. In chapter 3, it is suggested that parallels should be made between the child's studio at home and the art room. How can the educator use the room as a tool to spark curiosity, motivation, fantasy, adventure and play? Szekely advises that there should be just as much emphasis on time and planning of the environment as there is on lesson planning. Szekely takes into considerations the type of lighting, shelves, windows, etc. in creating a play space. I was surprised to see that hiding places (p. 57) were even encouraged. On page 57, Szekely states "the point in creating space is simply to give children the room to work as they need, whether they seek to be undercover or simply find a shelf on which to crate an imaginative setting. There is also an emphasis on the opportunity of uncommon spaces have (such as being on the floor) that evoke possibilities from students. There is also a common theme of ownership of a space from each student. Along with the space comes specific materials in Chapter 4. The reader is encouraged to think beyond traditional materials. "Creative play supplies that are not prepackaged are more exciting, especially when they get to find and choose what they want to use for their creative endeavors" (p. 73). I thought this was an interesting concept. This is something that we see throughout all ages. I think of babies (or even animals) choosing boxes and paper towel rolls to play with over manufactured toys and tools. Chapter 4 is deeper than just a discussion about materials, it is to be used as a way to convey openness to what art is and what it can be (Szekely, 2015). Rethinking materials encourages artistic exploration and play.

Chapter 5-7 talk about ideas such as movement, themes, and creative art teaching. Szekely talks about the importance of movement in play. I think about artist Heather Hanson and the way she uses dance and her body to create large, abstracted pieces of work with charcoal. I think using movement allows us to think in non traditional ways when creating a piece of art. Szekely also talks about themes of play that can be used in art classes. These seem like jumping off points for educators looking for a way to apply the observations Szekely has delivered. Some examples of this are adventure, store, building, and birthdays. The birthdays actually gave me a lesson idea to allow students to create dream birthday cakes out of clay. Finally, in Chapter 7, Szekely describes creative art teaching and practices that can foster the attitude needed for successful play based art education. Art lessons are described as having the possibility to "be challenging questions, innovative experiences, and independent investigations to view art in open ways". For students to be able to do this, their attitude is important. Szekely suggests a great way for educators to facilitate the openness and willingness to play in an art classroom is to greet them at the door whether it be with a handshake or fist bump, and greeting that gives the students ownership over the space, and the encouragement to come with things from home (stories, artwork, toys, etc). When teaching students about materials, Szekely gives the advice "show, don't tell" (p. 152). When an educator feels the urge to lecture, switch to a performance (Szekely, 2015). Show the students the possibilities of a material, rather than telling them exactly what to do.

Overall, I thought this book was very informative. I believe it is geared to a very specific audience: art educators looking to introduce play into their classroom. I don't see an obvious bias, but I think with observational data, the reader is only exposed to one viewpoint. I'm sure if somebody else not understanding the ideology behind a play based art room might see chaos, or the lack of importance for the type of learning that is happening. This book left me with a few questions: How do I set up a room that isn't geared towards this type of learning? With a room of 18-25 students, how do I make all of the materials accessible to the children? I'm sure some would be painting, some would be sculpting, some building, etc. I'm interested to dive deeper and see if I can find solutions to some of these questions.

Bentley, D. F. (2001).Everyday artists : Inquiry and creativity in the early childhood classroom. ProQuest Ebook Centralhttps://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu

Concepts talked about in this book consist of: what art is, art in the everyday, teacher practice, and a map for the journey. In a very summarized version, the author is examining and advocating for the possibilities that are available when we reconceptualize what and how we practice art education. In the foreword of the book, Burton (2001) describes art “as constituting a powerful too of everyday thinking”, not the traditional ideas of drawings and paintings.

Bentley begins the first chapter in a discussion about arriving to and coming to know the artist and artistic processes young children have. Bentley uses stories and observations to describe the knowledge and ideas she has formed from such. Bentley describes the purpose of this book is to “challenge the current construct fo art in early childhood as a discreet topic, separate from daily life - to reconceptualize and to articulate its fluid existence within the lives of children” (p. 2). We are limited to what we can create when we conceptualize art as painting, drawing, music, etc. (Bentley, 2001). Like Szekely, Bentley is encouraging the openness to see art in the everyday. “Art is a way of solving problems, conceptualizing the world, and creating new possibilities” (p. 3). The author explains their terminology of using everyday artistic and everyday inquiries as common practices and skills children enjoy.

Bentley (2001) describes her book as being different with new information in three ways: the role of artistic practice in children lives, the approach of the teacher in locating and scaffolding practices, and the benefits of thinking and learning of young children when this perspective is practiced. It is argued that early childhood art experiences should be explored further than just painting and gluing cotton balls and googley eyes. I am picking up concepts from this chapter that art and art practices are fluid, rather than happening at developmental stages. Bentley (2001) theorizes traditional art as “making beautiful”. Bentley intersects the traditional notion with the everyday artistic moments and how important these moments are in thinking and learning for young children. This abstracted idea reminds me of the happenings of Allan Kaprow.

There is an emphasis on the educator constantly questioning and observing that allow us a deeper insight to the way children think, opportunities that extend creative practices, and connections that allow us to build lessons that are based on children’s interests (Bentley, 2001). Bentley uses vignettes, or small snippets of stories from her own preschool students to use as ways to describe the knowledge being shared. After some examples of stories and conversations, Bentley shares reflection questions about the conversations. As Bentley transitions further into the book, they begin with the statement “…knowing how to inquire can be one of the most challenging aspect of teaching” (p. 13). This statement stood out to me because I connected with wanting students to inquire, but noticing that they don’t really know how. If I learn how to actively practice inquiry, I believe this practice can transfer to my students.

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https://www.artsedsearch.org/study/creating-a-childrens-art-world-negotiating-participation-identity-and-meaning-in-the-elementary-school-art-room/

Malin, H. (2012). Creating a children’s art world: Negotiating participation, identity, and meaning in the elementary school art room. International Journal of Education and the Arts, 13 (6).