One of the most striking things that was revealed to me during this week’s workshops was the ability we have to make small things into much larger ideas and concepts.
As teachers, we regularly hear the phrase “I can’t.” In art lessons, there is widespread belief among children that you either can or cannot draw. Older children are particularly self-conscious about their artwork (McAuliffe, 2007). In this week’s visual art input, we explored this issue through the children’s book ‘The Dot’ (Reynolds, 2003). In the story, a young girl 
named Vashti finishes an art lesson in school with a blank sheet of paper. When questioned by her teacher she says simply, “I just can’t draw.” She is then prompted by her teacher to make at least one mark on the page. Vashti obliges and stabs one dot onto the paper. She returns to class the next morning to see her dot framed on the wall. This inspires Vashti to experiment with her creation and soon she has drawn and painted dots in various sizes and colours and has entered her paintings into the school art show.
In school, I never thought of myself as ‘good at art’, thus, I personally related to Vashti’s story as I often felt ‘stuck’ in art lessons. Consequently, I plan to use this story in my future classroom as it proves anyone can draw and illustrates how wonderful works of art can grow from small, basic mark making while demonstrating the importance for practitioners to value children’s artwork and boost confidence.
Our follow-up task linked in well with the story. We had to use black ink and different parts of our hands to make marks on a page and then, add details to them to create something. Soon we had created an elephant, a factory, two arms hugging and Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series (see below). We were then prompted to look at the marks made by our classmates to see if we could see an opportunity to create something where it had been overlooked by others. Many positive comments and praise were shared amongst the cohort. Allowing children to work collaboratively and critique the work of their classmates will encourage them to appreciate the work of others (QCA, 2004). Simultaneously, the positive comments that are often offered to each other in the process will build their confidence.
In conjunction with the UWS Graduate Attributes, this input allowed me to develop my imaginative and creative skills (UWS, 2018). This task would be extremely effective in the primary classroom; children at all stages would benefit from the imaginative and creative processes that it encourages. I imagine children’s responses to the task to be similar to the original reactions of our year group. Like us, they may initially question the possibility of completing the task and doubt their own abilities. However, with a little encouragement they will be astounded by what they can create. Studies have confirmed that everyone is capable of creativity (NACCCE, 1999). In the long term, it is hoped that tasks like these will show children that art can be created by everyone. This will boost their confidence in their own abilities and can improve individuals’ overall self-esteem.
Often, one mode of art can be used to inspire another. In this week’s drama input, all of our tasks were centred around the painting ‘Windows in the West’ by Avril Paton.
In groups, we were tasked with acting out different family scenarios that could occur in the type of Glasgow tenement building pictured. We used various acting conventions like improvisation, freeze frame, flashbacks and flashforwards. We found there were many scenarios and concepts that can be imagined simply through one picture. The scenes we imagined ranged from happy shared family moments like reading bedtime stories to intense family arguments. On the other hand, some groups chose to use their scenes to explore issues faced historically like poverty and squalor whilst others tackled modern issues like drug abuse, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy and domestic abuse. The arts have significant educational value (Fleming, 2012) and are an excellent way to sensitively explore some of the problems faced by young people. The main skill developed through this drama input was confidence. The overall confidence level of the cohort has grown immensely over the two drama inputs. Generally, the whole class seems happier and more at ease joining in with activities and sharing their ideas and creations.
I have never considered myself to be particularly artistic, however these inputs have illustrated to me that art can be created by anyone and inspired by anything provided you have the confidence to begin creating. This is an important sentiment to echo in the classroom. Teachers must make moves to develop children’s confidence in expressive arts and should encourage their pupils to start small and make just one mark to see where it leads.
Reference List
Fleming, M. (2012) The Arts in Education: An introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London: Routledge.
McAuliffe, D. (2007) ‘Foundation and Primary Settings.’ In: Cox, S. (ed), Watts, R. (ed), Grahame, J., Herne, S. and McAuliffe, D. Teaching Art and Design 3-11. London: Continuum, pp.11-30.
National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE). (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. London: Department for Education and Employment.
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it. London: QCA Publications.
Reynolds, P. H. (2003) The Dot. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.
University of the West of Scotland (UWS). (2018) UWS Graduate Attributes. [Online] Available: https://www.uws.ac.uk/current-students/your-graduate-attributes/ [Accessed: 20 September 2019]
