Middle school children can create art journals with meaning.
The rest of this project took 3 weeks. I had to add a week because the students needed more than two days for wet media/ ground building days and more than 2 days to finish each independent spread. The work that they were creating was so rich in thought that I hated to pull them away from the processes they were creating just for the sake of time. So we took an extra week. Oh well.
Wet Media Days
Wet media days were the only days that I put out the acrylic paint. We have a wonderful sub who donates her yogurt cups to the art room. I premix a bunch of colors, but don't mind the occasional special request. All of the cups of paint are kept on a cart. The kids did so well the first two days, I pulled out the tape, brayers, and printing plates. I gave a demo for making stencils with scrap paper and tape.
Independent Studio Time
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Between wet pages, we waved the books to dry or used hair dryers. When the pages are tacky, wax paper allows them you to move on without having to worry.
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With a journal full of grounds, it was time for each student to choose the 4 spreads they would complete with their own ideas. I paced my students with 2 journal spreads to complete each week. The journal spreads page was glued into the front cover of their journals along with the journaling terminology. When choosing themes, I tried to choose a mix of simple and complex, deep and not so deep so that every student could find his or her own way. The room remained set up with collage materials, color pencils, ink quills, oil pastels, stencils, stamps, markers, water color, glue, and scissors. I do admit that I only gave exacto knives to one class not both. Middle school teachers, I'm sure you understand.
Watching them think through the process was very interesting.
Watching them think through the process was very interesting.
Basic art making skills coupled with the need to express meaning became the focus during this time. The first spread taught the students how the design a spread, but making meaning was their problem to solve. A divergence happened at this point as the students began using their own voices. Those that took the time to think about what they wanted to say had the most success.