3.08.2009

Fingerpaint in Middle School? Or, How to Get Beyond "I Hate Art!"

By middle school, it's sad to say, a lot of students hate art. They also hate math, but that's another story. Or, maybe it isn't. I hated math. It was hard for me. I didn't get it. It made me feel lonely. Alienated. I loved art. I got it. I wasn't necessarily great at it, but it was a language I understood. It made me feel part of something.
Middle school kids just want to belong. (Don't we all, really?) They want to be in a place where they speak the language. Math does it for some kids. Art does it for others. But any teacher can create a place where kids feel like they belong and the first step is to remove FEAR.
At the beginning of each term a kid or two announces, "I hate art." They speak for a silent group who enter the art room with the kind of dread I felt walking into math class. Art, they've learned, is all about those who can draw and those who can't.
But how did they come to this misunderstanding? Visit a preschool during art time and you will find the children happily up to their elbows in glue or paint or messy mounds of clay, confidently pursuing their vision. But as they progress through school students learn not only what they can do, but what they can not do, easily or as well as they'd like, and fear soon replaces self-assurance.
So I spend the first week of the term helping students unlearn fear. I help them learn to go back to the confidence of preschool. I assign my students a color theory activity that involves tempera paint and four pairs of hands. The only rule: no face painting.
Working together removes the pressure to perform 'artistically' and painting without brushes? Well, finger painting is just plain fun at any age. Occasionally, I'll have a student who really can't stand to have messy hands. Rubber gloves usually solves that problem.
Soon students learn what they can do, and learn, in an environment of trust, to tackle what they think they can not do. When those same students who entered my class proclaiming, "I hate art." leave saying, "I'll be back" then I know I've done a good job sharing the language I love and creating a place where students feel like they belong.

4 comments:

  1. Could you explain how this finger painting project works? Is the lesson plan on your website?
    And...
    Is it really possible for middle schoolers not to paint on there face when it's all over their hands? :)

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    Replies
    1. Our Student Responsibility Program operates school wide. When a student is having behavioral difficulties we give them the option to adjust behavior or go to SRC where they write a plan for how to work well in the classroom. The SRC monitor discusses this with the student. When the student comes back to class the next day the classroom teacher also talks with him or her. It is a very successful program for most students.

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  2. Hi,
    It really is possible for middle school students to finger paint without a mess. I just assign each group member to a task such as "getter" "director" "reporter" and so on. I go over my expectations and back it up with clear consequences - so it's pretty clear to the students that using art materials inappropriately will result in unpleasant consequences ranging from lunch time clean up duty to SRC (student responsibility center) visits. Home calls work great, too.

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    Replies
    1. Could you explain SRC and how it works? I am always looking for new ways to help my struggling middle school students with behavior problems. Thanks!

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Kari

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