Talk About Art! An exercise in Art Appreciation.

Alexander (Year 2): The Champion! 48 Points!!!

At the end of each of my lessons I devote 5-10 minutes to the 'Art Show'.... where we reflect on what we have achieved that day. Becoming an artist is as much about thinking and reflection as it is about doing. I want my students to be able to appreciate and discuss their own work and that of others.


Because of the number of students in each class, we usually focus on the art pieces that are going to be featured on the internet that week. (Every child has his/her work published at least once per term. Pieces are chosen randomly from the roll before the start of each lesson - this ensures that the kids know that I am not choosing pieces that I 'like best'!)

We start by looking at these 2 or 3 pieces and thinking of at least one thing that we think has been particularly well done. I encourage the students to talk about the techniques we used that day as well as the elements and principles of design. (Because my classes are a fun, after-school activity, these concepts are not formally taught, but it is amazing what they pick up and understand through discussion and modelling of language!) I always stress that we are not commenting on the picture we like best - we are looking for things that we think each artist has done well.
(This is particularly  important as there are frequently pieces by Prep students side-by-side with pieces by children in years 6 or 7! The children have no trouble at all understanding that we are not making comparisons. They go out of their way to find especially nice things to say about the littlies work :))

When I moved from a private website to a blog in August this year, I realized that it presented a wonderful opportunity for my students to share not only their work, but also their thoughts about their art, with a much broader audience! Art Appreciation in Real Life!!!!
So I started a 'Commenting Competition'!

The rules were fairly simple - You could comment on any art work on the blog. Only positive comments allowed. You could make as many comments as you liked.
I awarded points according to the quality of the comments made -
A simple "I like this picture" earned 1 point.
A comment that included one positive aspect of the picture, using relevant art terms and language, earned 2 points.
A comment that included 2 or more aspects, using relevant art language, earned 3 points.

The competition ran for 3 weeks, at the end of which I awarded a prize for the child with the most points from each class, and a prize for the overall winner from all 5 classes.

 I was really impressed with the way so many of the children entered into the spirit of the competition :) and was also pleased to note that the quality of their comments improved markedly over the period of the competition!!

WELL DONE KIDS!!