What Responsibilities Come with the Freedom to Create?

Robin Peringer

NCECA 2015

• We constantly hear students say “But I am not an artist”.

• Also known as “I can’t do this” … or “I am not good at drawing”.

Our Enduring Understanding

• what we know to be true, revolves around the concept of letting go.

wabi-sabinurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities:

nothing lasts,

nothing is finished,

and nothing is perfect

Letting Go• Letting go of the idea that you have to be an

artist in order to take an art class. (Isn’t it wonderful that all students working in clay for the first time are six years old again and all thumbs?)

• Letting go of the idea of items being “precious” and instead focusing on process versus product.

• Letting go of the idea of possession and control while learning to recycle clay.

• Letting go of the notion that an art teacher needs to be there to tell you what to do.

• The greatest gift we can give our students is to have them not need us.

• And in that lies the letting go by the art teacher

Establishing a Sense of Community

• For the individual learner: The Growth Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck

• Between the students: Community Building Activities to establish classroom management and expectations

• Beyond the classroom:

To make real world

connections

Castle Building Classroom Community Activity

One Million Bones

Growth Mindset• Dweck suggests taking the mindset test

http://bit.ly/MindsetTest to get a handle on the specific areas where you can change your thinking about growth and achievement. “[U]nderstand that you have a choice,” she concludes. “Even when you feel anxious or discouraged, you can choose to act in a growth-mindset way…

You recognize that the growth of your skills is inyour hands, and you choose to make that happen.”

• “Teachers’ Mindsets: ‘Every Student Has Something to Teach Me’” by Carol Dweck in Educational Horizons, December 2014/January 2015 (Vol. 93, p. 10-14), www.edhorizons.org

AccountabilityLetting Go Through Assessment

It is all Formative

• Formative Assessment is a doctors check-up• Summative Assessment is an autopsy• It is all formative

for the students,

and for us as educators,

keeping in mind the

Growth Mindset

Formative Assessment Strategies• Terminology Ball• Pit of Despair• Paint Samples /Tile samples Exit Slips• White Boards and Essential Questions• One and Two minutes “Vessels”• The Ten-Minute Teapot• Musical Chairs Clay Building• Poetry writing as assessment• Ping pong art critique• 3-2-1

Competency Assessment and the New National

Standards and Frameworks in the Arts, and their

connection to Teacher Evaluation Systems

The New National Frameworks

A student engaged in creative practices:

• Imagines a mental image or concept.

• Investigates and studies through exploration or examination.

• Constructs a product by combining or arranging a series of elements.

• Reflects and thinks deeply about his or her work.

From the College Board…

The findings in A Review of Connections between the Common Core Standards and the National Core Arts Standards Framework indicated that

the creative practices of investigation and reflection are connected to all ten of the Anchor Standards for Reading,

and all four skills—imagination, investigation, construction, and reflection—were strongly represented in the Anchor Standards for Writing.

Additionally, all four creative practices were found to be aligned with each of the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

The Rubric for student work in clay

Distinguished = Advanced or ahead in development or progress.

Competent = Having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully.

Revise = Reconsider and alter (something) in the light of further evidence.

Coil Method ExampleThe Project will not be considered “complete” until the

following items can be checked off • Coil pot is approximately 10” tall. • Coil pot has a combination of smooth surface and textures • Thicker extruded coils have been altered to be aesthetically

pleasing • Student chose a Greek, American Indian, Jomon/Japanese

form, or other traditional form as a starting point• Attachments are working well, no cracks or pieces falling

apart.• Advice/constructive criticism was taken from the in-progress

critique sessions and applied to improve the coil• Student created and worked from a template• Student created a maquette in clay to study the form and

make decisions about change• Student completes the writing piece, stated below

• Concepts/Skills/Directions COIL METHOD

• Create a coil pot by formulating a visual thesis or idea of what the capabilities are of building and decorating with coil, research traditional forms and incorporate contemporary ideas into the design.

Originality- Challenging one’s self to think “outside the box”-Student can explain visual choices and their meanings.-student takes risks and embraces the Growth Mindset

Participation & Effort- Use of class time evident (not wasting time)-student stays after school if more time is needed- Clean-up is done properly and independently-Constructive criticism is reviewed and applied to piece

Craftsmanship· Work is well-crafted.-All attachments and seams are scored and reinforced.· Surface and edges are smooth.-Walls consistent in thickness-Techniques such as decorating with coil or adding textures are done with care, effort, and control.

4 3 2 1 Comments

Distinguished Competent REVISE REVISE

Always have a writing component

** Write about your process of creating your coil piece:

• What would this be used for?• Who would want to use it?• Why did you make the decorative choices that

are on the pinch pot?• If you had this to do over, what would you do

differently or would you perhaps make a different form?

A Poetry Writing exercise from the MFA BostonThis four-line poem structure was taken from the book

Image to Word: Art and Creative Writing

The Thinker (sculpture by Rodin) Inward focusHe arches his back and furrows his browStrong like the bronze that forms his bodyUnbroken concentration

Here is what you do: Choose a work of art and study it. Then create these four lines:Line 1: Your own creative and descriptive name for the work of artLine 2: An action phrase based on what you seeLine 3: A simile (using the word “like”) or metaphor that describes a character or setting of the work of artLine 4: Another short name for the work of art

Our district has gone with Kim Marshall for a Teacher

Development and Observation System

Published Online: July 19, 2013

COMMENTARY

How to Make Teacher Evaluations Accurate, Fair, and Consistent, By Kim Marshall

Classroom visits

• Let’s face it: Teacher evaluation based on infrequent, announced classroom visits is inaccurate, ineffective, and dishonest

GOAL: The need to be more frequent, in order to have your administrator begin to understand the daily realities of an arts/ceramics classroom

Observation skills

•For starters, it’s essential that all principals commit to giving honest feedback ensuring that every principal really does have a good eye for instruction

GOAL: Do a self evaluation so the YOU can guide your administrator to understanding what to look for in your particular teaching situation

Feedback skills

• Principals’ classroom visits will accomplish very little if they don’t talk to teachers afterward

GOAL: It is all about the dialogue, so keep it happening

The rubric

• deciding how and when to use the district’s rubric

• keeping student learning at the center of supervisory conversations

• GOAL: educate your administrator on YOUR National Frameworks and the evidence of student learning through how YOU measure competencies/use rubrics

Teacher Evaluation• Teachers all over the country are moving to

competency based and evidence gathering systems of observation and evaluation

• GOAL: As an art teacher, do not accept the attribution of a percentage of your final evaluation being based on standardized tests in areas where or if you have no direct impact. What are you already doing that could qualify as a measurable Student Learning Objective? Or PD Goals?

Stay involvedRemember the Growth Mindset

and that you would not evaluate a fish based on how well he can climb a tree. That would be stupid.

Robin Peringer

peringerr@nashua.edu

Nashua High School South

Nashua, NH