In my second placement, I have further realized that depending on the student backgrounds, the district, the age and the culture and resources of the school, teaching methods can and should vary to best fit the needs of the students. After teaching at a larger and slightly more affluent district, that has more access to technology, and also high school level students who have a choice in their curriculum - teaching children that have less resources, are younger and have no choice in the classes they take was a big change. It was a struggle to get the majority of students to participate in art making and enjoy it, especially because they do not need to pass art to advance to the next grade.
Although my cooperating teacher was flexible with the lessons taught in each grade, I felt that having extremely limited access to technology is a disservice to students in this day and age. Traditional art methods are important skills to acquire, however, a combination of those with newer technologies would be way more engaging and beneficial to students who, for the most part, all have small computers in their pockets at all times. I would have enjoyed teaching them more about the ways technology can be used to be creative.
One method of teaching that I felt was definitely most effective with them was a Constructivist approach, where I allowed them to make mistakes and start again or learn from them while creating their projects. This caused most of the projects to go a little longer than normal, however, the results tended to be better than when they felt rushed or felt limited in the ways they could create something. For example, the 8th graders were taught the grid method of drawing, which they generally found tedious and difficult. We added a mixed media method to it as well, and then cut them off when they lost interest in finishing the project. I felt that for the most part, they were more successful when they were allowed to be more free with the methods of solving artistic and visual problems, and we are currently doing a landscape watercolor that I feel is more enjoyable for them. I also would definitely build in time to my curriculum at the end of the quarter for students to revisit their projects or offer them more opportunities to choose their media, so they aren’t necessarily all doing the same thing at the same time. Especially the 8th graders, who have had art for at least 3 years and should be given more decisions in their curriculum anyway.
If I would change anything about the way I teach younger children, I would definitely give them more responsibilities. Often in middle schools, especially those with a lot of behavioral issues, students have learned an attitude of not being able to do anything for themselves. This is compounded by their developmental age of 12-14, which includes insecurities and changes in hormones. Giving them a sense of self-efficacy by setting up classroom that is their space that they respect and take more “ownership” of I think would be beneficial in increasing their respect for the classroom, the art materials and art in general.