[From a review of a museum workshop] “The curriculum and presentations
are student friendly. Activities are interactive rather that utilizing
the lecture method. The artist educators treat the students with respect;
they accommodate differences unique to today’s adolescents.”
[In response to the question: What would she change next time?] “I
would place Intuitive Response (Step 3) as the very first lesson. This piece
of writing could then be clearly compared to their final critical reviews.
These final reviews would clearly be more informed as opposed to the natural
responses of their initial pieces.”
“In Step 5, I would take more time to clarify that the critical review
should be written in the present tense and the first person. The students
were very confused and they started out with their dialogue in report form
with quotes and too much paraphrasing from the research. Some of the reviews
still contain left over evidence of this confusion.”
Student Reviews
[From written evaluations in response to the question: “What is the
most important thing you learned today? Give a reason why this is important.”]
“I
learned how to throw paint on the wall in a good way.”
“I learned
how to paint with feeling. Its important because I need to know that to be
an artist.”
“I learned the things you do and your feelings, have
a big part in what your art work looks like.”
“I learned how
to use regular motions or gestures to paint.”
“Filming
yourself can be art.”
Barbara Schurman, Visual Arts
Abigail Franzen-Sheehan, Artist
Educator, Andy Warhol Museum
Summary:
Barbara Schurman and Abigail Franzen-Sheehan worked together to teach
the Critical Response Unit to the advanced art class at South Vo-tech
High School. Schurman wanted to follow the Unit steps closely. This
collaboration included multiple planning sessions and two trips to
the museum. Students learned about Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning
through physical movement activities and gestural painting. They created
a large gestural abstraction painting on a wall of paper using brushes
tied to yard sticks. To help emphasize the point-counterpoint model,
students were filmed during this painting process and compared their
movements and work to the film of Jackson Pollack painting. Students
used Critical Response skills to select a current pop icon for their
photographic silkscreens. After finishing the comprehension steps and
production work, students intuitively and critically responded to the
paintings, creating written criticisms after classroom discussion and
reading.
Adaptations:
Schurman adapted the lesson plan as
an entire unit of study for her advanced art class. She covered each
step over one to two weeks of classroom meetings, alternating reading
and writing activities with hands-on art making, including photo-collage
and photographic silkscreen printing. She adapted steps for the reading
and communication levels of her students using some of the concepts
from the elementary lesson plan to aid in their understanding. For
example: the photo-collages they created focused on internal feelings
(Abstract Expressionism) and external appearances (Pop Art).
