Today's Lesson: In today's meeting, the students of Cooper Home experimented with printmaking processes. Students were able to create prints using carving tools on an easy cut block, or by using markers on plexiglass to create a monoprint. Students were asked to consider their favorite part about springtime when creating their art work. Teachers demonstrated safe carving techniques, inking, printing and monoprint methods to the students. The students explored the possibilities and limitations of creating prints using multiple printmaking techniques. Essential Understandings:
Art can be created in a variety of ways and appears in different forms
Art is a form of expression and symbolism
Artists will understand printmaking techniques and the abilities of the media
Outcomes - Students will be able to:
Use tools in innovative ways to create line, shape, and texture
Understand the capabilities and limitation within the printmaking medium
Create multiple or unique prints using relief or monoprinting techniques
Create art that expresses emotion or symbolism
Skills:
Using tools to create marks in innovative ways
Identify characteristics of different printmaking processes
Creative problem solving
Complete documentation of this lesson can be found by clicking the image below!
Reflection: What went well for this art experience? Why I feel that there are many things that went well in this meeting with our students. Today we worked with easy cut printmaking techniques, and the students really seemed to enjoy this art project. Most of the students didn’t have much previous experience with printmaking, so this was a pretty new concept to most of them. Comparing this to our most recent readings, I would say that the student’s intrinsic motivation was fairly high. They seemed to be really interested in the process of creating and image with the easy cut blocks and monoprinting. The “magic” of transferring ink from plexi-glass or carving onto a piece of paper really engaged the students. Another thing that I felt went really well in this meeting was the different printmaking possibilities we provided for the students to do. The students in this group all work at different paces so when a student was all done carving and printing, having the monoprints as another thing to do was effective. The students were able to witness and experience a couple different forms of printmaking, and this is something for me to really consider for the future. What didn’t work well for this art experience? Why? With printmaking involving a few different steps, I noticed that the inking and printing step seemed a little chaotic. Students were all working at different paces and there were some times where the inking station was a little cramped. We have a fairly large class, so cramming more than six table to try and ink their blocks is something to reconsider for the future. If I were to do a project like this again with student, I would really consider spreading out this step in the process across more tables to help with congestion. As I progress into my teaching career, it will be important for me to think about how to provide the space needed for students to work in small areas. I foresee this being something that I will face many times in my practice, as class sizes are usually around thirty. I will need to think about creative ways to use space, so class time isn’t used up by waiting in lines or shuffling around cramped spaces. This is one of those details in teaching that I’m really glad I experienced so I can build from it in the future. What would you do differently? Why? In today’s meeting I learned how important it will be to organize classroom space effectively. I previously talked about the inking and printing station being really cramped at times, so in the future I will consider different ways to plan stations and organizing the room. I also experienced that since this art project included many steps, it did feel rushed at times. Once I begin my own teaching practice, I will think about how to stage the “printmaking” unit across a few days. For example, day one would focus on carving while day two would focus more on inking and printing. Since we have a pretty limited time with these students it’s fitting how we planned this meeting, but for the future I would like to break this into multiple days. I think that students would be able to develop their ideas more and take their time in the carving stage. Printmaking is a fun thing to do, and I think slowing down and allowing students to take their time would be really beneficial for the future.