What does Discipline Based Art Education mean? Has the notion changed over the years? Read on and I will try to tease out some ideas and issues about the way we learn art.
At the moment I teach Grade One (5 years) until Grade Seven. (12 years) I have the luxury of taking the kids from their first experiences of Primary School and nurturing their talent until they leave. I take a wholistic developmental approach to artistic and emotional education.
To me 'Discipline Based' means coming from a place of security, clarity and knowing. Inquiry based learning and the new approaches to Life Long Learning mean that we as Art Teachers have the desire to encourage the children to be self-sufficient/self-directed learners. Theories of Emotional Intelligence tells us to aim for calm, relaxed children who feel confident and secure. It is hoped that with guidance the students feel able to take risks and to learn fromseeming failures.
I encourage the kids to learn how to find their own information, ideas and instruction both online and off. I do this from the moment they come to me in First Grade. I also teach the children after school in smaller groups. In the library they have acess to a networked computer each. They start by learning how to navigate web search. They use Google and Google Image search.
Younger children get excited about learning to draw from the visual instructions provided by Neopets.com
This is sufficient for them to be able to be self-starters in the class room.
I provide them with
paper,
pencil,
eraser,
and sharpener
paint
coloured pencils
brushes
rags
containers for water
oil pastels
They begin drawing to their hearts content. I am freed up to go around and teach them drawing personally - one by one.
This is great. They are happy and the stress is off me. The kids are taught from the very beginning about looking for shapes in all of the objects and subject matter that they want to draw. So they know to
Look for the basic shapes
draw from the biggest shape first
place the shapes next to each other in proportion
firm up the lines when they think they have the placement correct
use colour pencils to fill in and capture the rendering of the subject
They are taught from the very beginning that
the bigger the image is, the easier it will be to draw, because they can have more space within which to shade, achieve texture, and use pencils expressivly
they come to an understanding that "what goes back in space getts darker"
and "what goes back in space gets smaller"
Once they have coloured the animal or subject matter they are encouraged to rescue the outlines with felt-tipped pens, or paint. (The back ground is often quite abstract, it can be painted or collaged. They could instead use oil pastels. Any medium that is quick and easy is best as younger kids can't sustain interest for too long at a time. If they put the work into the subject matter intitially, a quick easy and higly visually pleasing background compliments the picture just fine!
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