Lesson: Sketchbooks

Boy oh boy, what an adventure! I don't feel very adventurous anymore.

As I blogged last week, Other Art Teacher and I taught a lesson on sketching today.  I really need to be a reflective teacher, so here I go.

First step:  I explained the difference between sketches and finished art.  I had many good examples that the kids seemed to like (I showed them da Vinci and a couple of my personal sketchbooks).  I explained that sketching is like brainstorming with pictures or making a rough draft/practicing for a finished work of art.  The kids seemed to mostly get it.  I think I need to lecture a little less, however, and come up with some way to better engage the kids at this part.

Next came the travelling portion of our class.  After my first class, I decided to line the kids up by calling them by sketchbook.  They grabbed it and a pencil and lined up.  We walked outside.  Now here's where I had a lot of change during the course of the day.  I started out by having them turn to the first page and draw a line down the middle.  There was some confusion about turning the sketchbooks sideways.  In hindsight, I should probably say, "Draw a line across the middle of your page." Far less confusion and worry about turning their sketchbooks the right direction.

The second issue I had was the actual working portion.  The idea here is to have the kids draw in each box for about 5 minutes.  We were out on the playground, so I had kids swinging and drawing, sitting out by the fence, and climbing up to the tower's top to draw (which is fine, until they need to get down again).  I had to yell a lot more to be heard, and it took me a small eternity to travel between clusters of students.  I think that in the future I need to keep them all fairly close in designated "drawing spots".  They can draw whatever they see, but they have to stay in that spot.  We can then move to another spot for the next sketch.

I also had a few issues with drawing on pages they weren't supposed to (though thankfully not too many).  One little girl drew on almost every page, front and back.  I told her she doesn't get any more paper, so I guess that's an issue I'll have to tackle later.  I need to let them know in no uncertain terms that they only draw in one box at a time and do not go to the next page.  It would probably help to give them something to do when they've finished, like to close their book and talk with their neighbor.  *g*

Also, I had a few covers tear off, and I doubt they'll be the last.  Durability is a bit of an issue.  I also had a few of the sticks break, so carrying a few extras with me might be good.  I had to fix one sketchbook with a pencil and then go back and replace the pencil later.  Strangely, my first graders had no problems with this.

The last of my plans for this lesson was to come in and discuss their sketches and how they will use them to create a composition next week. (Which one will you use?  What would you change?  How would you figure out the colors? Et cetera.)  But my timing has been off, and I ran out of time to really do that.  Part of the problem is that I wasn't setting the timer at the beginning of class and I went over.  Although, there were also a few behavior issues, particularly with second grade who would not stop talking and had to line up in the hallway again.  As much as I love all my little darlings in that class, they are still probably shaping up to being this year's Challengers.

At any rate, I have a few kinks to work out, but all in all it's gone just fine.