Elementary Classroom
Walking through the halls of the elementary school that I am at for field, I see art of all different types lining the walls and hallways. The classroom that I am specifically placed in has used art in many different lessons that I have seen. I have seen a few examples of arts integration through specific lessons that my teacher has used. Recently, my teacher has started book clubs with her students. One lesson that they are going through within their book clubs is reading a chapter in their chapter book, and then creating a drawing that they thought related to what they read. Several specific themes have been have been incorporated throughout the art that they make in the classroom. There was a theme of favorite books, the Underground Railroad, and Western Expansion. With all of these themes, students created their own representations of what they imagined would best represent these main ideas. From what I have seen, students have mainly been working with their own imaginations in order to create their art. For the lesson surrounding the Underground Railroad, instead of students simply drawing scenes that they have imagined, they could create their own character and base their art off of that. They could create a picture story around this specific character, taking their art and learning even deeper. This would also help them to have a better understanding of the way the actual people acted and what they went through. Through my host classroom, I have observed these types of art that will hopefully guide me in using art in my own future classroom.
Art Classroom
Art seems to have a huge hold on the students and faculty at the elementary school in which I have field. Art lines the walls of the hallways, and much of this comes from the work that students have done in the art classroom. From what I see just in the hallways, there is great variation among what students have the opportunity to put their creativity into. Inside the classroom, there is a feeling of open-mindedness and encouragement. Students had a specific lesson where the objective was to construct a model of an outdoor classroom that the school would consider building. The model had to be realistic and take many aspects of a classroom into consideration. Students were allowed a wide variety of resources, from construction paper and glue to miscellaneous items found in the room that could be used as model trees or benches. The lesson was presented in a very open manner. The art teacher gave the students basic guidelines (such as including basic classroom needs and using the same model size), but let the students do this in whichever manner they thought best for their model. Once the lesson was presented, students were sent off to work on their model within structured groups. The atmosphere seemed hardworking and fast-paced, due to the shortage of time during specials. However, students seemed to stay on task and were enthused to work on a project that was so important to the school. The art teacher would use attention-getting procedures if the volume in the room was getting too loud, but mostly let the students work without interruption. Overall, the art classroom and project that I observed seemed a great place for students to let out their creativity and individual art perspectives.