Exploration 1: Sketchbook Introduction, Part 2
During this class, we will be teaching students the importance of using a sketchbook to develop ideas and think through their own creative process. This is important because keeping track of their ideas can help students grow as artists, it can help them understand where they started and where they are now. This is something that is important to start at a young age because that can help them grow throughout their artistic development. We will also introduce the Wonder Lab teachers by sharing our artwork.
Essential Understanding:
Artists and designers use sketchbooks as part of their creative process to think through and develop their ideas.
Learning Target:
After the introduction, students will be able to generate ideas for their sketchbook cover, by talking in groups about their ideas and then beginning to work. After discussion, students will be able to understand why artists and designers use sketchbooks in their creative process, as measured through their contributions to the discussion
Key Concepts:
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Students will explore how to generate ideas by talking about them to others and by writing them down.
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Students will use observation skills to start to connect the artist to the art they make.
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After students think through their ideas, they will be able to choose and work with a medium or a variety of mediums to create their cover.
Skills:
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Ideation
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Collaboration
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Reflection​
Documentation for this lesson can be found here:
The lesson plan can be found here:
Blog reflection entries can be found here
Final Lesson Reflection
What worked well for this art experience? Why?
Being able to provide a sketchbook to each student thanks to a grant awarded to the CSU Art Education department was a lovely experience. I have been to many different schools and not all students have access to sketchbooks and usually they must buy their own or go without one. We gave the students an opportunity to personalize their sketchbook covers and all of the students were excited and engaged to so do. In my classroom observations, I have noticed that students appreciate when an art item is “special.” For example, getting to use professional-grade colored pencils for a final project. In this case all the students received a special art item. Introducing Wonderlab through a sketchbook prompt was a good way to start the semester in that Wonderlab is all about generating ideas and a sketchbook is a useful place to do so. Another thing that went well was that we introduced ourselves through a game where we each brought a piece of art and the students had to guess who made what by using their observation skills. We were shocked when most of the students guessed correctly.
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What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why?
With the first group, we tried gessoing the sketchbook covers so students could have the opportunity to paint the cover if they wanted to. The problem with this was that pencil smears on the covers and some students did not like the texture. For the next group of classes, we glued thick paper on the covers and this seemed to work better. Our time management was an issue with the first few classes because time goes by so quickly, we had to rush clean up, much to the chagrin of the classroom teachers.
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What would you do differently? Why?
The next time I have an opportunity to introduce sketchbooks to my class I would like to have students take personalizing the sketchbooks further and bind their own. This way they can choose what kind of paper they wish and have a chance to personalize the cover through cloth as well as drawing and painting. We showed them the covers of our sketchbooks but did not pass them around to show them what was in. I would like to keep a teaching journal that I have handmade and this is what I will use to show my future classes what a sketchbook can be used for. I would also have like to shown examples of sketchbooks by contemporary artists and that there is more than one way to utilize a sketchbook.