Hello!
Today I would like to conclude my reflection on AP 3D by offering some 'tips' when lesson planning and preparing for the class.
1). SUMMER WORK
Summer work is EXTREMELY important to the success of this class. At the end of each year I hold a meeting after school to go over summer work for students who have signed up for AP 3D in the upcoming school year. During this meeting I hand out a well-organized folder with all the documents and directs they will need to complete summer work. The summer work should be meaningful, helpful, and it should be able to be completed with accessible materials. For summer work this year I directed students to do the following: A) Buy a sketchbook you LOVE, B) Start collecting 'junk' in preparation for the assemblage project, C) Create a cast of your hand using Plasterwrap/Vaseline and turn it into a sculpture, and D) Brainstorm, research, and explore possible concentration themes; arrive to class with a minimum of 12 ideas/sketches and a web to use for our first class critique. Summer work allows students to stay creative over the summer and take advantage of those 2 months off. It expedites the first week of class and it is super helpful to have 1 breadth artwork already finished. The added bonus is the extended time that students get to work. I could never do the Plasterwrap Hand sculpture in class because my classes are only 40 minutes. However, at home, students can wrap their hand, put on a movie while it dries, and then get a parent to help them cut it off with medical scissors. For materials I send students home with an big envelope of Plasterwrap and I also have a few kits with Vaseline, extra Plasterwap, and medical scissors available in the guidance office for students to sign out at their leisure. Summer work also gives students an added sense of pride and excitement about the class. All summer work is due the first day of school. In August I post on my Teacher Webpage "Open Studio Days" that I will be available at the school for students to come in for help or materials if they need it.
2). STUDIO HOURS
At my school, students enrolled in AP Drawing and Painting, AP 2D Design, and AP 3D Design are required to complete a minimum of 10 studio hours per quarter. In all honesty, most students end up completing more than 10 because A) they need more time to work and B) they love what they are working on. Studio hours can be completed during study hall or after school. This year I kept my art room opened until 6:00 PM from March - May on Wednesdays to help students complete work. Students really appreciated the long time frame to work uninterrupted. This also helps them get a feel for what a college art class would be like.
3). ARTWORK EVERYWHERE! STORAGE SOLUTIONS!
One of the difficulties encountered in this class is the massive amount of artwork, plus all the tools and materials that students use to create the artwork, that seem to be everywhere in the room. This is especially true since my students this year were in my room constantly, which was great, except that meant materials and artworks were out constantly. Plus, sculptures are a lot more difficult to store than drawings. To help with organization I would recommend that you designate an area for finished artworks and an area for unfinished/in-progress artworks. This coming year I am going to ask students to provide a plastic bin to help organize their in-progress artworks. Copy paper boxes work well for completed artwork because they are sturdy and stack well. If you have a cabinet that you can use for students to organize and store sketchbooks, binders, and tools it is extremely helpful.
4). COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS
This year I e-mailed parents frequently. First I sent them an e-mail commending their son or daughter's summer work efforts. At Parent Night I created a PPT with each student's photo and concentration idea and used it to help explain the concentration section of the portfolio. I e-mailed parents frequently to update them on student and class progress. I also included them in a few "tricks" I had up my sleeve to surprise the AP students. I received so much appreciation and support. Parents really liked being included and were more than happy to help out. Plus, it helped parents generate discussion with their teenage children at home about what they were doing in art class. I continued to do this in my other classes and also got a lot of positive feedback!
5) BREADTH BOOT CAMP
This class is a lot of work. A LOT of work! By March, I noticed my students needed some extra motivation, especially since March is a long month for them - no days off, no major school functions, and it's not quite spring so the weather is usually less than pleasant. To jump start their artwork efforts and to re-motivate them I held "Breadth Boot Camp." For the month of March we completed 1 artwork a week for the breadth section. Artworks that students completed were highly experimental and process-based. This alleviated the stress of planning four artworks throughout the month. I welcomed the students on the first day with Army Bandanas/Headbands with the theme song of "Rocky" and "Eye of the Tiger" playing in the background. I was dancing around getting "pumped up" and even had black charcoal under my eyes. Believe it or not, my students enjoyed the theatrics of it all. Each week I did something different with the students that was "boot camp" themed. The second week I made dog tags with their names on them and handed them out at the beginning of class. The third week was my favorite week because I involved parents. I contacted parents and asked them to write a "letter from home" with encouraging words and messages to their daughters or sons. Parents e-mailed me their letters (many wrote more than 1 and involved other members of the family), I printed them out on fancy papers and put them in envelopes, and attached them to a small "care package" that had granola bars, gum, water, and other small goodies in it. Students were so surprised to receive their care packages and letters from home and a few even teared up at the beautiful letters that were written to them from their families. One of my parents told me that this was the "coolest" thing he has ever been asked to do by a teacher. At the end of the fourth week students received a Certificate of Completion for Breadth Boot Camp Graduation.
6). AP REVIEW DAY
In our school, students enrolled in AP classes get 1 day to participate in AP Review. This day is spent with their AP Teachers preparing for the AP test. Since AP art students do not take a test our review day was simply a studio day. Students spent the entire day in my room working on projects. Having an extended amount of time was extremely beneficial. It is also helpful for students to have a "testing period" scheduled for AP Art classes. This testing period is not spent testing, but rather uploading and submitting photographs to the AP Board in preparation for submission. The submission process is not difficult, but rather time consuming. so having a block of time to be used exclusively for submission would be helpful.
7). PHOTOGRAPHY
The AP 3D Portfolio is submitted via digital images of artworks that are then uploaded to the CollegeBoard's submission website. I would highly recommend that you set up a photography area that is easily and always accessible so that artworks can be photographed as they are completed. What worked well for me was a counter space with a window. I covered the window in tracing paper and covered a piece of foam core board with heavy duty aluminum foil. When it was time to photography we turned the overhead lights down, turned a spotlight on, and photographed the artworks from multiple vantage points. Getting high quality photographs is extremely important because it enhances the overall quality of the artwork and makes the student and his or her artwork more professional. After photographing, students choose their best images and then upload them to PhotoShop to change the size and enhance contrast and tone. We used a digital SLR camera and it was so helpful because we could
control the shutter speeds and aperture sizes based on the artwork's needs. DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE END TO PHOTOGRAPH! This process is very time
consuming and after the photography occurs there is still work to do to
re-size the photos, sort through them, and to
upload them. Additionally, if something gets broken before the end of
the year, a photograph will prevent the student from having to start
over.
8). PUTTING ARTWORK IN ORDER
When students submit the portfolio they are expected to put their artwork in order based on overall quality, risk-taking, and growth. The AP Board wants to see students grow in their use of materials and mediums, concept/ideas, as well as growth in project execution. If artworks look the same or very similar one after the other it does not show good growth. Also the artworks should be put in order from least successful to most successful. As you can see, this is a lot to juggle. To help with this I created graphic organizers for each section of the portfolio and directed students to print out contact sheets of their artworks. Students cut out the small photos and put them in order based on the AP Board criteria. Afterwards, students looked over a peer's graphic organizer, completed a critique, and put the photos in order based on how they viewed and read the artwork. Having a fresh set of eyes gave great insight into how someone else would view the artwork.
9). FIELD TRIP
I know this may be difficult, believe me! Our art department was fortunate enough to receive a donation which helped in covering some of the cost associated with the field trip. What I learned is that most of my AP students had never been to an art museum. It was hard for me to believe! Senior students who were expected to produce high quality, professional artwork had never been to an art museum or gallery to see examples! Although field trips are high specific based on location and cost, I want to share with you our field trip for all of our AP Students. We traveled to Philadelphia for the day and stopped by 3 different art venues. We began the day at Magic Gardens to see the mosaic work of Isaiah Zagar. We then traveled to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art to see American artworks, particularly those of 2D nature that were both historical and contemporary. Afterwards we concluded the day by visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Annual Craft show. The variety of venues and works presented is what I think made this trip successful. I directed my AP students to bring their sketchbooks and encouraged them to take notes and jot down ideas when something struck them. They were also given an envelope to collect business cards and post cards from vendors at the craft show. Students also completed a Token Response sheet at the Craft Show with tokens such as "This artwork is my favorite," and "This artwork is too expensive," among other tokens. For each token they had to explain "why." I enjoyed reading their responses when they turned it in at the end of the day. On the way home students were asked to write a 1 paragraph reflection on their experience. All came home motivated, inspired, and ready to create!
10). CRITIQUES
Throughout the year we had many critiques. Critiques allow students to gain experience in explaining and presenting their artwork, providing both positive and constructive feedback, and gaining insight and ideas. The most successful critiques were the ones that were in-progress critiques because it allowed students to make changes more easily than at the completion of a project. At first critiques can be difficult to participate in because students are nervous about presenting their artwork for fear of negative criticism. Throughout the year I stressed that all critiques must be positive or constructive and that we were here to support each other and improve our skills and artworks.With these boundaries in place students were able to participate in critiques with comfort and confidence. I tried to vary the critiques by also providing different manipulatives to work with, such as Praise, Prompt, Polish sheets, KWL sheets, Token Responses, and Two Stars and a Wish critique sheets.
As you can see from this entry and the previous blog entries, the AP 3D portfolio is a massive undertaking. As a teacher, I felt that each class I was teaching 9 different classes because I had 9 students working on 9 different concentrations. Despite this obstacle, there were many successes throughout the year. I saw students grow in their art abilities, I saw students take risks to create highly original and professional artworks, and the coolest part is that I saw students become more confident in themselves and have pride in their artwork. As a teacher, this warms my heart and absolutely thrills me because it shows me that the students were invested, cared about their artwork, and felt good about themselves. Isn't that what education is about?
If you have any questions about AP 3D, please feel free to e-mail me. Thank you for reading!