“Oh, no, I can’t even draw a straight line.”
这是许多人在谈到艺术话题时的反应. 问题是，艺术不是画直线. And if you need one, you can always find a ruler.
如果你对自己的艺术知识或技能感到不舒服，那么教授艺术可能会让你感到害怕. But it doesn’t have to be. 也许你画不出一个人的肖像，但许多艺术家从不专注于如此精确的任务. 看看任何艺术书籍或参观任何艺术博物馆-页面或展览室将充满了意想不到的艺术品, imprecise, sometimes even uncontrolled.
艺术是bet5365首页表达，以及不同的人如何使用这种能力. One artist sees the world in watercolor; another in pencil; another still in sculpture; another still in metalwork. 艺术可以是几乎任何媒介的混合物，包括发现的物体、织物和拼贴画. Quilts are art. Graphic novels are art. 建筑物侧面的壁画，有时甚至是涂鸦，都是艺术. The definition is wide.
But how do you teach art to children, 如果他们的作品看起来不像他们认为“应该”的样子，谁会经常感到失望?“如果你自己不是艺术家，你怎么教他们有关艺术家的知识呢??
The same way you teach history, or English, or math. First, you learn it for yourself; then you guide them, step-by-step, toward understanding.
The famed Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko – yes, he of the large, 块形色场神奇地吸引你-认为孩子是天生的艺术家. He is very familiar with the task of teaching them; he was an art teacher for more than 20 years at the Brooklyn Jewish Center, with students from kindergarten to fifth grade.
“These children have ideas, often fine ones, and they express them vividly and beautifully, so that they make us feel what they feel,” he wrote in The Scribble Book, 几十页的笔记，他希望有一天能变成一本书. “Hence their efforts are intrinsically works of art.”
罗斯科说，孩子们学会艺术就像学会一首歌或一个故事一样容易. 最大的挑战是将思想限制在课堂之外. 他会在学生来之前布置好他们的工作区——准备好美术用品——然后让他们在到达后开始工作. No assignments, at least not at first; he believed that children often try to hew so closely to a “desired” result that they won’t express themselves as freely. Without those expectations, they thrive.
“Unconscious of any difficulties, 他们开辟道路，克服可能变成成年灰人的障碍, and presto!” Rothko wrote. 很快，他们的想法以一种明显的智慧形式显现出来.通过这种方式，他可以看到一个学生自己的表达风格在发展，不管那是什么. 对罗斯科来说，这种表达比严格的技巧更重要.
Fine, you say. I get it. But you still haven’t helped me know how to teach it.
“教授体育的老师不一定非得是专业运动员，教授数学的老师不一定非得是专业数学家,” writes Nancy Jang, 具有20年以上教学经验的教师, for Scholastic. “As teachers we are asked to give guidance, lay a foundation for future work, 给他们所需的工具和经验，让他们走上教育之路，到达他们想去的地方.”
From a classroom perspective, 这可能意味着根据学生的年龄向他们介绍艺术词汇, such as line, shape, hue, shading, tint, and value. It might mean introducing them to the color wheel, and then giving them the three primary colors of red, blue, and yellow paint, and showing them how to mix other colors from there.
Some tips from Jang:
- Be an example; 不要消极地谈论你在课堂上的功课. 如果你的学生听到你说“这不是很好”, it will alter what they think about their own work.
- Read The Dot 彼得·雷诺兹写的，这是一个bet5365首页艺术课上一个不会画画的年轻学生的故事. 老师告诉她:“做个记号，看看它会带你去哪里。,纸上的这个点确实带她踏上了一段美妙的旅程.
- Be brave. 有勇气去尝试你的舒适区之外的事情吗.
- Don’t look for “the best” work in class. Banish words that label art as good or bad. 寻找其他形容词来描述你的学生的工作:创造性, expressive, original, colorful, intricate, powerful, whimsical, and so on.
罗斯科同意这些建议，并补充了一些他自己的建议:
- Do 为你的学生画出歌曲、舞蹈、讲故事和艺术之间的联系.
- Don’t worry about academic art training. That can come later if they’re so inclined.
- Do show pride in your students’ work. 例如，在大厅里举办展览，就像在博物馆里一样，用名片.
- Don’t 从达芬奇、雷诺阿等大师开始. Instead, start with modern artists, which tend to be freer and more expressive, and will show a child that all art is not “perfect.”
特里·乔伊斯对孩子们学习艺术以及帮助老师学习如何教授艺术充满热情. She teaches art in K-8 schools, 并在bet5365首页的在线课堂上教教师如何使用它 Professional Development course，《bet5365首页》(EDUO 9940). The course covers the following:
- An Introduction to Art这本书探讨了人们为什么创作艺术，以及是什么造就了艺术家;
- The Element of Line, 它研究各种形式的线条，探索艺术家瓦西里·康定斯基, Elisa Kleven, and Piet Mondrian;
- The Element of Color, 通过儿童书籍探索原色, secondary colors, tertiary colors, complementary colors, warm and cool colors, and the color wheel;
- The Artists它探索了文森特·梵高、乔治亚·奥基夫、亨利·马蒂斯和巴勃罗·毕加索的风格;
- Instructions for Art Activities, 其中包括完成13项美术作业的指导, which you can then teach to your students.
在整个课程中，乔伊斯通过书籍和在线搜索艺术家来说明她的观点. At the end of the course, students take with them a teaching outline, a glossary, and the instructions for the art activities. The course is worth three semester credits/units in continuing education, and is self-paced and online. To learn more about it or to register, click here.
Photo credit: iStock photos
