Student Teaching Ideas
Suggestions/thoughts from any current teachers/artists are welcome! A lot of these are vague, some more so than others. In elementary, I’ll start teaching just one grade, then each week pick up another, and I’m not sure which ones I’ll have the longest, or what the mentor teacher has been doing with them. So some of these might change! Here are my ideas so far.
Any/all ideas/thoughts are welcome! :)
Pre k- Something with lines and shapes and nature. Maybe how dots form lines which form shapes? Contour line drawings? Creating different types of lines?
K- Something with Eric Carle and gadget printing, then cutting the papers to create a scene. (Eric Carle randomly paints all of his papers first to create textures and colors, then cuts what he has to create scenes. Gadget printing would be using things like carpet squares, string, or other objects.)
1- Something with color mixing, primary/secondary colors, maybe a monochromatic painting/drawing?
2- Pinch pots- talking about objects as being utilitarian vs. decorative, looking at Greek or Chinese vessels.
3- Three dimensional drawings showing foreground/middleground/background. Maybe adding a sculpture in there. Maybe cut paper landscapes? The idea here is that the foreground would physically be in front of the middle ground which would be in front of the background— using foam core or something similar to make each layer stand out. Maybe having a sculpture as one layer.
4- Observational drawing starting with blind contours then regular contours in black and white, then adding in real and/or imagined color. Maybe just color drawings. Using reflected color (white objects on colored paper picking up the colors of the paper) and imagined color (take a colored piece of saran wrap and hold it over a light shining on white objects for about a minute, then remove the saran wrap and your eyes adjust and you see the compliment of the colored saran wrap— use this idea to get students to add colors to white objects that aren’t necessarily there).
5- Pop art relief printmaking. Maybe a printmaking unit with collographs too? Or some monotypes.
Some of these might switch grade levels, like pre-k and k, or 4 and 5, or 1st and k. Obviously the grades I have longer will have more detailed units. One grade I may actually only do one lesson with them. I will teach them the entire time, but I will only be doing my own lessons/units gradually. The other times I will teach my mentor teacher’s units. I have some other ideas too, some more clay and sculpture ideas, other drawing ideas, maybe a unit/lesson on movement or pattern or texture.
Then for middle school: (These really could be done for 6th, 7th, or 8th grade)
6- Mixed media portraits. Starting with a drawing, then sectioning off the portrait and using water colors, oil pastels, conte crayon, colored pencil, regular pencil, etc. Maybe with an imagined background?
7- Creating some sort of sculpture, maybe out of cardboard or clay, but then drawing that sculpture.
8- Creating books— actually folding the paper and making a cover and stitching the book together, as well as creating a story, illustrating and planning the imagery.
These units will be more detailed because you see middle school students every other day, so over the 6 weeks I will be with them I can really do a full unit, maybe even 2 per grade. Or just an extended unit and give the students more independent work time. In elementary, you only see the students once a week, so whichever grade I have for one week, I will only devise a lesson plan, not an entire unit.
I want to start writing some of these lessons/units out! I don’t even have my mentor teachers/school placements yet! As of Monday, I begin student teaching in 3 weeks!
