With its ambient, interesting and dynamic use of materials, alternative views of materials and objects, with its playfulness and affecting different senses contemporary fine art can be very interesting for art-educational work. Due to its complexity, however, it suffers from misunderstanding, retreat, and last but not least also fears both among…

Art teachers often get stuck teaching students about "classical" artists who lived over 500 years ago. As art enthusiasts, teachers may be very interested in their importance, but children might be wondering why they have to learn about yet another dead artist. In this article, the author describes how her eighth-grade art students created their…

James Rosenquist's giant Pop-art panels included realistic renderings of well-known contemporary foods and objects, juxtaposed with famous people in the news--largely from the 1960s, '70s and '80s--and really serve as visual time capsules. In this article, eighth-graders focus on the style of James Rosenquist to create their own Pop-art panel that…

The ecological realities of many communities are desperate but not determined. As teachers inevitably encounter these realities in their communities, they can respond by activating students' imaginations to conceive of better alternatives. Greene (1995) outlined how the imagination has the power to envision alternative realities and better…

For centuries people from around the world have celebrated storytelling and puppetry for their educational and social functions. In the comprehensive curriculum, storytelling combined with puppet performances enriches the classroom experience by providing students with opportunities to engage in open dialogue, creativity, and structured play.…

Writing about the teaching artist practice should mean writing about art making. As both teacher and artist, the authors are required to be cognizant of their own art-making processes, both how it works and why it is important to them, in order to make this process visible to their students. They also need the same skills to write about how and…

This section is full of stories from teaching artists working to clarify what needs to change within their practices and moving toward solutions--whether it's supporting a classroom of learners in new and unexpected ways, reassessing one's approach in the classroom, shepherding an individual child toward success, or professionalizing an entire…

Helping students learn how to interpret and analyze imagery is an important skill. With last year's historical election of the first African American president, it was an opportune time to explore where Americans are going as a nation and what kind of future they envision. Middle-school students are eager to give their opinions, but learning to…

The news is sometimes frightening, but reacting to a disaster in a positive way empowers students to make a difference. On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake occurred in Haiti. An estimated three million people were affected and an estimated 230,000 people died. In response to this tragic event, the author's eighth-grade class viewed and…

This article describes how the author brings staff and students together through an art project that deals with caricatures. The author started with a lesson on caricature, and she made a PowerPoint presentation showcasing the work of Al Hirschfeld. Using photos of the staff, students created portraits and hung them in a main hallway after school.…

Recently, the teachers at the author's school completed a group project with their eighth-graders in which they recreated a mural version of the famous painting by Pablo Picasso, "Guernica." This activity was aimed at: (1) studying the rise of Fascism in Spain and Germany during the Spanish Civil War prior to World War II; (2) learning…

In this article, the author describes a landscape project using Grant Wood's paintings as an example. As part of the project, the students are required to include a barn in their picture. This project is a great opportunity to study an Iowa artist who did landscape painting and to study perspective. This is also an excellent project for teaching…

The author has always loved teaching a lesson on self-portraits to her eighth-grade students. Portraits raise the bar and, when they are successful, convince the students that they really can draw. Each year they explore the basic concepts of portraiture, but use different media, sizes and styles. The author likes to interject art history and…

Creating an appreciation of art history in her junior-high students has always been one of the author's greatest challenges as an art teacher. In this article, the author describes how her eighth-grade students re-created a famous work of art--piece by piece, like a puzzle or a stained-glass window--out of construction paper. (Contains 1 resource.)

Throughout life, people are faced with the challenge of defining all aspects of their being. Definitions of self can emerge by taking time to contemplate the meaning that saturates thoughts and actions. This process is essential for the unfolding of the future so a person does not become someone who wanders aimlessly through life. Self-awareness…