Comparing and Contrasting Art Lessons for Authentic Arts Learning and Integration in Grades 2-6

Introduction The purpose of this easy is to compare and contrast two art lessons in relation to authentic arts learning and integration. The lessons will be sourced from the internet and both will be examples of using objects in the natural environment to create a painting. The lessons were designed for students in grades two to six. Discussion

Authentic arts is as noted by Dinham,(2011) arts that incorporates learning involving integration necessitates, making connections across the curriculum between subject areas or disciplines and providing opportunities for students to witness and engage the relationships, transfer their knowledge and apply their learning through these connections. To make this happen there needs to be a move to prepare classroom teachers to become aware of art, and ways of delivering a successful lesson. Smilan and Marzilli miraglia (2009) notes, that “teachers need clarification about what art integration is and what it entails.

We believe that true authentic art- integrated learning places visual arts content at the centre of teaching and learning (p. 39)”. Meaning every teacher must continue to up skill their own knowledge of art and understands the elements to delivering an authentic art lesson requires(Dinham,2011). Art is more than painting, drawing and play dough; it is not merely a time filler at school, so teacher can have a break, or a bit of fun. Dinham, (2011) suggest that teachers need to understand what art gives their students, and how art provides a connectedness to society and their own identity and meaning.

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Art provides students the opportunities to problem solve, express their needs and emotion, be creative, try new experience and more importantly teachers need to appreciate authentic arts programmes as a significant importance in the curriculum. Lessons Lesson one demonstrates a well prepared art lesson and in lesson two, many elements of creating an effective authentic arts lesson are missing. Both lesson one and two require students to use natural items found in the environment to create a painting.

Both lessons would be suited for students in grades two to six, and comprises elements of authentic arts. Below is a table that show what elements of authentic arts are essential when delivering an arts class. Required characteristics| Example| 1. Has connections across the curriculum| Lessons makes links to other curriculum such as maths, history etc. | 2. Uses understanding of multiple intelligences and different learning styles| Such as Howard Gardner concepts of multiple intelligence. | 3. Is themed and examines the theme in different areas| Such as dinosaurs, outdoor garden, countries. 4. Uses different modes of learning incorporated into different areas| Such as reading, singing, creating, comparing, contrasting, discussing. | 5. Lessons relate to real life tasks, that draw on a range of knowledge and skills across the curriculum| Lesson would encourage students to use prior knowledge of the task at hand. | 6. Learning’s provide opportunity for students to see relationships, transfer and apply learning and make connections across the curriculum| The lesson has been enriched with elements of real life experience and understanding. | 7.

Activities are Instrumental and/or intrinsic| Instrumental, lessons that extend beyond the immediate lesson. Intrinsic lessons relates to the learning gained through the lesson Dinham,(2011). | Table is adapted from PowerPoint presentation Integration. Curtin University, (2012). Using this table as a guide the below lessons well be corresponded with the number from the above table showing which part of the lesson address each charatritcs. Lesson one: Retrieved from http://contemporaryartscenter. org/images/lessonplans/mughal-miniatures_natural-beauty. pdf

Mughal Miniature Paintings: Natural Beauty Grades: 2nd-7th Visual Arts Developed By: Kristen M. Woods Lesson Description: Mughal miniature painting originated during the 16th century in the Mughal Empire which pned what are now India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. This art form is marked by careful attention of small detail, lush jewel tones, epic subject matter, and miniature scale. All of the Miniature artists that are participating in the Contemporary Arts Center’s exhibition Realms of Intimacy have studied at the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, Pakistan.

The NCA is renowned for its program dedicated to the centuriesold tradition of Mughal miniature painting which flourished from 1526 to 1857. The extremely selective school takes only a dozen of its accepted students to pursue the intensive major of miniature painting. This major at the NCA mimics a traditional eight year apprenticeship in two years of schooling. The meticulous technique begins with the posture of the students. The students are required to be seated on the floor for hours a day, hold their papers close to their eyes and brace their painting arms against their body.

Their posture is essential to mastering the tiny brushstrokes needed to create pieces with such fine details. They spend their first year and a half copying historical works and learning to make their own tools. Only in the final half year are they allowed to explore their own creative devices. There is an extreme mental discipline that goes along with every aspect of being a miniature painter. The style is based on old traditions. One brush is still composed of a single squirrel hair. Mussel shells are used as mixing bowls for their organic paints.

These natural paints are made from raw materials like vegetables, fruits, oil, soil, lime, indigo and lapis lazuli and on occasion eggs, gold powder, and silver foil. Through this program students must master ultra-fine figure drawing and brushwork, tea staining of page borders and burnishing of paper surfaces; all essential to practices that were used centuries ago. For this project, students will explore natural materials that can be used to dye paper and make paints then use their homemade materials to make their own versions of Mughal miniature paintings Objectives: ? Use problem solving to figure out natural materials they can use and combine to make paints and also dye paper ?? Learn about the process that Mughal miniature painters go through when creating a piece ?? Create their own composition based on Mughal miniature paintings Materials and Resources: Watercolor paper Tea, coffee, and cranberry juice Lard, Butter, Solid and liquid vegetable oil Spices, mustard, dirt, grass, fruits and vegetables, and other natural materials that can stain Paint brushes Small containers with lids (paint storage)

Aprons/paint shirts Links and Books on natural paint mixing and Mughal Miniatures; ?? http://www. hyoomik. com/images/egg. html ?? http://www. sairawasim. com/ ?? http://www. ambreenbutt. com/web/home. php ?? http://www. ambreenbutt. com/web/works. php ?? Whiles, Virginia. (2010). Art and Polemic in Pakistan: Cultural Politics and Tradition in Contemporary Miniature Painting. ?? Edwards, Lynn. (2003). The Natural Paint Book. Critical Questions: ?? How are cultural practices and traditions passed down and continued over time? Why are they important? ??

Is process important in relation to product? What if miniaturist painters used synthetic materials? Would it change the look of the work? The Emotion? Activities: Preliminary Discussion: Discuss process with students; how artists begin a piece as opposed to showing them the finished product first. Then look through some images of contemporary Mughal Miniaturist paintings by Ambreen Butt and Saira Wasim whom still use tea staining and hand mixed pigments from natural materials. Discuss briefly the imagery and subject used in the works and the meanings behind them.

With older students you may be able to get them to discuss some of the political satire seen in Saira Wasim’s work Art Activity: ?? Start the project by dying paper. Using tea, coffee, or even fruit juice; have students dip a piece of watercolor paper into a large container full of the liquid of their choosing. Leave the paper in the liquid for at least 15 minutes and check on how well the liquid is dying the paper (don’t leave the paper in for too long because it will start disintegrating). Once the paper has a nice color all around, take it out and leave it to dry for about 24 hours. ??

Next, have students mix their paints. Find some things either outside or maybe in the refrigerator that can stain. Things like grass, dirt, berries, flowers, mustard, and spices would work well. Have students use lard, solid or liquid vegetable oil, or butter to grind and mix their natural materials together making a thick paint. Have each student make at least three different color paints. They may share paints when it’s time to use them. ?? Have students use a paint brush with their homemade paints to create their own miniature painting on their dyed paper. This project is more about process and nderstanding materials so the composition can be very simple especially with younger students. You might suggest they do a composition showcasing the natural materials they use to make their materials like flowers, fruit, etc. Assessment: ?? Students have dyed a piece of paper using tea, coffee, or fruit juice ?? Students have mixed their own paints using fat and natural materials ?? Students have used their paints and dyed paper to create their own miniature paintings Lesson two: Retrieved from http://www. kinderart. com/painting/plantdye. shtml PLANT DYE PAINTS

Grade: 2-6   •   Age: 6-12 •  Written by: Kim Swanger [Kim is a K-3 art teacher at Lakeview and Central Elementary Schools in Council Bluffs, Iowa. ] | Objectives: Students will learn that plants are a source of natural dyes and paints. This is a good lesson to show how pioneers or early civilizations may have used plant dyes to color cloth. What You Need: * crock pots * beets * spinach or kale * black walnuts in the shell * dry onion skins * paint brushes * paper What You Do: 1. Discuss with the students that before we had synthetic dyes, people had to make their own paints and dyes using plants and other resources available.

Show the students the nuts and vegetables you have and ask how the pioneers may have used these materials. 2. The night before the painting lesson, place beets, spinach or kale, walnuts, and onion skins in separate crock pots with enough water to barely cover them. Cook all night. The following morning, the water in each of these pots should have turned into natural dyes. The beet water will be magenta, the onion water will be amber, the spinach or kale water will be a light green and the black walnut water will be brown. 3.

Pour a small amount of paint into bowls and ask students to smell them. Discuss which vegetable made which paint. 4. Provide brushes and paper (plain or coloring pages) and permit students to paint using the natural dyes. 5. After the painting experience, ask students what other natural materials might make dyes the pioneers could have used. Experiment with student suggestions. Note: If black walnuts are not available, VERY STRONG coffee or tea makes an adequate brown dye. Berries can also be used to make colorful dyes. Currently, red dye is commonly made from a parasite that lives on cacti.

Both lessons are similar in terms of requiring students to use natural objects to create a painting; However a teacher using lesson one, their students would gain a deeper understanding of authentic art, and acquire skills that they can use across curriculum, as it demonstrates modes of learning and teaching strategies which enables each students to expression and understand what is required. It also uses scaffold learning, which enable students to see examples of what they could achieve, but also gives the history and reasoning behind why they are required to do this activity.

This enables students to take an educational value from the lesson, rather than doing it just for merely fun (Dinham,2011). Although lesson two also has real world connection and can be intergraded into other curriculums it is its lack of depth to which it can do this that makes it the inferior of the two lessons. Lesson two can link to history whereas lesson one can relate to multiple curriculums, making this a more intergraded lesson to benefit student learning’s (Dinham, 2011).

Lesson one has provided more elements of real life experience for students that they can compare contrast between a variety of objects they have used from the environment, from vegetables to plants and so forth. Whereas lesson two only focuses on one element. Both lesson one and two are instrumental meaning that they extend beyond the immediate arts experience (Dinham,2011) but again it would be lesson one that take this experience further as it looks at the impact the lesson has upon students learning as a whole.

Overall, lesson two does not tick the boxes for authentic arts integrated learning in the way that lesson one does. Lesson one provides a real and authentic learning experience that incorpatres connections to other areas of the curriculum, using modes of learning and teaching strategies which encourage and support every learner in the classroom regardless of skill or ability, all essential fact in delivering an authentic arts experience.

References Curtin University, (2012). Course Notes. PP2 Integration. Retrieved fromhttps://lms. curtin. edu. au/webapps/portal/frameset. jsp? tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_47595_1%26url%3D Dinham, J. (2011). Delivering authentic arts education. South Melbourne, Victoria: Cengage Learning.

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