Elementary Classroom
One of the interdisciplinary activities I have observed in my third grade field study classroom was their illustrated book summary assignment. The teacher began this activity by introducing her students to each of the stories they would be reading this year as a class. After only hearing a brief synopsis of each book from their teacher, each student was assigned to one of the texts. For their assigned text the student was to recreate the summary written on the back of the book in their own words, along with an original illustration. First the students were to write the first draft of their summary. Then, with the help of their teacher, each of them went through the processes of editing, revising, and publishing their work. Once the published summary was complete, the students were to create a cover photo to go along with their story. The student could look at the text’s original cover photo, but were not allowed to copy it. The students came up with a different illustration that they believe might also be representative of the text. This assignment was not just a great integration of writing and art, but also allowed students to use creative thinking to produce their own artistic depiction of a text.
Art Classroom
When I accompanied my third graders to their art class they began class by sitting on the carpet as their teacher reminded them about the studio they had started last class. Which happened to be a studio inspired by the same artist who inspired one of our college level art class’s studios, Henri Matisse! The artists were creating their initials with scraps of tissue paper, or as Matisse would call it, “drawing with scissors”.
Once the artists were sent to their tables for studio time, they were asked to only use their quiet voices if they were going to chat. It did not take long for the quiet voices to get louder, and the focus on the artwork to shift to focus on conversations. The art teacher eventually pulled up an app on the Smartboard that displayed the noise level in the room. He explained to the class what level their noise should stay under, and preceded to let them work. Originally, I thought this was a great idea! Then I came to realize that most of the artists had abandoned their work to test the noise app, which also tested their teacher’s patience...
Sadly there seemed to be only a few students focused mainly on their artwork in this class period, but the little class progress that was made looked excellent! The studio work displayed lots of colors and fun ways to recreate the artist’s initials. Hopefully the next class period the artists will make more progress with their phenomenal pieces!
When I accompanied my third graders to their art class they began class by sitting on the carpet as their teacher reminded them about the studio they had started last class. Which happened to be a studio inspired by the same artist who inspired one of our college level art class’s studios, Henri Matisse! The artists were creating their initials with scraps of tissue paper, or as Matisse would call it, “drawing with scissors”.
Once the artists were sent to their tables for studio time, they were asked to only use their quiet voices if they were going to chat. It did not take long for the quiet voices to get louder, and the focus on the artwork to shift to focus on conversations. The art teacher eventually pulled up an app on the Smartboard that displayed the noise level in the room. He explained to the class what level their noise should stay under, and preceded to let them work. Originally, I thought this was a great idea! Then I came to realize that most of the artists had abandoned their work to test the noise app, which also tested their teacher’s patience...
Sadly there seemed to be only a few students focused mainly on their artwork in this class period, but the little class progress that was made looked excellent! The studio work displayed lots of colors and fun ways to recreate the artist’s initials. Hopefully the next class period the artists will make more progress with their phenomenal pieces!