It'sTheir Art

This year will be my 8th year as a choice-based teacher. Some teachers use the term TAB which stands for Teaching for Artistic Behavior. I am a firm believer in giving students more choice and control of their learning. Therefore, the children who work in my classroom are taught as if they are artists. They are learning how to think and act like an artist; from developing ideas to choosing materials and subject matter, to deciding what to show publicly.  I have learned a lot over time and will continue to learn from them as we continue this journey called art making. This last spring we held our yearly school-wide Fine Arts Festival. As an artist, children are encouraged to display artwork. If you've never seen a choice-based student art show, it is fabulous. Hundreds of artworks that are so different from each other you could spend hours looking at each one and learn so much about the artist. One of the things I've learned is that given a choice, kids will always choose their art. What I mean is, during the year, there are certain benchmark works that each child has to do so I can get a feel for where they are comparative to everyone else. These works are based on a lesson plan designed to teach one or two standards-based concepts...but I choose the subject matter. When it comes time to choose their art for the art show, the kids will 90% of the time choose the piece that is theirs completely. If you were to ask an adult, they would almost always choose the other because it may be more pleasing to the eye, or look more finished. Kids will choose the one they had more control over.