Current+Practices

=Current Practices in Sharing Visual Images=

I teach elementary art in three different buildings each week. In one building, I have a small selection of art prints. At the other two buildings, I have no visual resources at all. Since I started working in these three buildings, I have tried several methods for sharing visual images, with varying degrees of success.

I have used the art prints available to me at one school. This requires me bringing them with me from school to school each day if I want to teach all classes of one grade, say second grade, at each school the same lesson. No problem. I have a big portfolio I carry along with my other supplies. I have maybe 30 prints all together. Most are smaller prints of artworks from Modern Art styles, from De Stijl to Pop Art. I have a few larger posters of paintings by painters such as Monet, Degas, and Kahlo, but only one example of their work. I could use some of my budget each year and slowly build a visual library. That would be expensive and slow. Using art prints is effective beacuse of their size and quality but limiting due to budgets and physical nature of the prints (having the same thing at all three buildings).

I have also used online resources to make my own posters. For instance, when I wanted to share Op Art with my students, I printed out several of Bridget Riley's and Victor Vasarely's artworks and pasted them together on a poster along with some information about the style of Op Art. This worked because the artworks I wanted to share were black and white, as is my printer. I made three of the same posters so I could display them with the students' artworks at each school. This worked very well to inform viewers about the students' works, and reinforced the students' learning even when I wasn't there. The disadvantage is that I am limited to black and white, by the physical nature of the poster, and by time. If I want to revise the lesson for next year, including other artworks or more information, I need to redo the poster, starting back at square one. Making posters is effective for dispalying with student work, but limiting due to available time and resources.

I have shared images from books, like art history texts, with my students as well. If there were an image I wanted to share with them but had no poster available, I would find it in one of my art history survey texts, or in a book from the library, and share it with the class that way. I found this to be not so effective. The images are too small for the entire class to see at once, which leads to distracted students when they are not the viewers. Also, since I had it only in a book, I could not use it for display in the classroom or with the students' works. It had to go with me from school to school. Using books is not very effective due to the size and quality of the images.

I have concluded several things from my current practices (and experiments). One is that it is important for me to have the same resources available in each school. Usually, that means I have to bring it with me. Another is that small visual images are ineffective. The whole class needs to be able to view the image at the same time for it to be a useful educational tool. Also, the images need to be of high quality, clear and easy to see. It helps the students to have some printed information about the artwork along with verbal information. They understand and retain it better. It also helps the students and the school community to have information about the students' works when on display, to interpret them.