get involved with your child's art by asking questions

The students are now coming home proud of what they have created in art. It is important to the student to show their loved ones what they created in art and are eager to explain what their work is all about. As a parent or guardian this is a great opportunity to connect with your student no matter what age and ask them about their art work. Sometimes it is very obvious what the art work is about but sometimes it is a little harder to figure out what the student had envisioned and what they created. When the students come up to me and show me proudly what they have created I like to ask them  what their work is about and how they created it. If you can't tell what the student has created it isn't a good thing to ask, "what is it?". The student can react with hurt feelings because in their mind it is very obvious what their art work is about. They spent a lot of time trying to make it to the best of their abilities and when their feelings get hurt because it isn't obvious to others, they are not going to want to do it again. Their reaction can cause them to not like to do art in the future or they will tell me that they can't do it. I find this very common in the junior high age group. The peer pressure is high and they don't want to try to attempt an assignment because they don't want their friends laughing about their abilities. It is a rule in my classroom to speak with respect about a piece of art. It is encouraged to talk about your art work with others and to get constructive criticism from their peers and me which we do especially in a critique. It encourages the student to make their art work better and pushes them to go beyond what is expected of them.

Then there are times when the student sometimes is just trying something new. They are just trying to figure out how things work.... like mixing paint colors on a piece of paper, cutting different images out and gluing them down and/ or making a ball out of clay. We call that stage in art the scribble stage. This stage is where the students are learning to do something they haven't experienced before and it looks a lot like scribbles. Everyone goes through this stage in the beginning. So when your student comes home here are some great questions you can ask the student: 

1. Can you tell me what your art work is about?
2. What colors did you use? Why did you choose these colors?
3. What were you thinking about when you created the piece of art work?
4. What do you like about your piece? What don't you like about your piece?
5. If you had to do it again what would you do different?
6. How did you make it? What materials did you use? 
7. Finally, can you show me how to do it?

This year in art, the students in grades 4th and up have to write an artist statement that asks these questions. The students are encouraged to talk about their art work and explain the processes and techniques they used to create the piece. I have always required them to do it in the junior high but now I am encouraging the students to do it also in 4th and 5th. For the junior high student they are required to write this online and put it into their art portfolio (they have on the school's server space). With the online art portfolio I want them to have the possibility to see how much they have grown in art throughout the years they took art here at EPG.