A Project to Build Classroom Community
My second semester classes started mid-January and in the beginning of a new course, I always look for ways to build relationships. I want everyone to feel welcome, connected, and build the mutual respect and trust that is foundational for constructive criticism. This post is about a new project I created to start to build relationships that will support learning all semester.
My Art 3 Honors class is a small group this year and on the first day they sat around the room in sparsely populated tables. There were some friend groups but many in the class didn’t know anyone else. That was about to change.
I had a new start-of-course project planned, something I call the Peer Interview Mini-Project. Each student was tasked with interviewing three classmates, then taking an element about each of them, gleaned from the interviews, and including an item in a cohesive artwork. Media was their choice - I asked that it be something they had experience using because of the short time frame.
Next, we conducted the interviews speed dating style. The class of sixteen sat in two rows of chairs, each facing a partner. When time started, they had two minutes to interview the person in front of them and take notes of possibilities for inclusion in their artwork. After the two minutes, the partners switched roles, with the person who was answering questions for the first two minutes becoming the interviewer. When time ended, everyone on one side of the row moved up a chair, with the person in front walking to the end of the row, giving everyone a new partner. We did this three times.
The work from this project was delightful. Students had to come up with interview questions, which included things like:
What is your favorite art supply?
If you could be a bird, which bird would you be?
If you could commit a crime and get away with it, what crime would it be?
I gave the class three 90-minute class periods to work on this project, then ended the experience with a critique and had student post their artwork and reflections on their digital portfolios. By the end of this activity, students who came to the class not knowing anyone had started to make friends and moved to sit with them, so instead of four sparsely populated tables I now have one open table and three that are much more filled in. Success!!
One student’s art and response to the digital portfolio prompt:
For my project, I interviewed Bryce, Reese, and Celeste. I asked for their favorite animals, colors, and I asked if they could commit one crime, what crime would they do. I included Bryce's purple manatee with a pile of tax evasion money beside him, Celeste's green turtle, and Reese's pink seal with murderous intent (specifically towards Bryce).
I chose to try out color pencils because I want to experiment with different ways to paint and color this semester.
I just tried having fun and making something goofy, which I think came across in how unserious the drawing is.
My project instructions, grading rubric and digital portfolio assignment are here.
Speaking of building community - THANK YOU!!! I reached 1,000 subscribers this week! I’m very grateful for each of you and still surprised that so many people are interested in my thoughts on arting.
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