Grade 6 Semester 1 Art projects, Middle School Art

One of the lowlights of teaching at my current school is the lack of contact time I have with my Grade 6 classes. I meet with them on average of 70 minutes/week for a semester (18 WEEKS) equaling about 1.5 classes considering I'm on a 12 day rotation schedule... In Egypt my contact time with Grade 6 was either 180 minutes/week for a semester or 90 minutes a week for a year. But then again the Grade 6 in Egypt was around 15 students because that was size of the entire Grade 6...our current Grade 6 had around 90 students. It's all about the numbers.

Below are examples of 4 of the 6 projects we did in a semester.
1. Oil Pastel mood self portraits (color mixing/theory/texture/lines)
2. Printmaking - insect linocuts 
3. Color Pencil fruit drawing (geometric shapes/color mixing/theory)
4. Drawing eyes and mouths (rendering/value/shading)
5. Ceramics (coil/slab/glazing) NOT PICTURED
6. Digital Photography (rules of thiirds/lines/texture) NOT PICTURED

Selected student outcomes (meets standards examples and exemplary examples) :

Grade 8 Shoe Drawings Middle Schol Art

First project of the school year. 

Project:
Shoe drawings.
Student will draw three different shoes.
Each shoe will use one of the three different drawing medium (6B pencil for rendering, Color Pencils for color mixing and rendering and Black pen for texture).
Each shoe will be drawn from a different points of view.

Step1:
Warm-up drawing exercise (rendering, texture, and color theory)
a. B&W value scale and shape rending. (6B Pencil)
b. Color swatches, blending, and rendering objects. (Color Pencils)
c. Creating texture swatches. (micro Pen)

Step 2:
Shoe drawings.
1. You will be given a 9"x 18" paper. Use a ruler to divide into three sections. Each section will be 6" x 9"
2. You will place one shoe at a time in front of you and draw it first with a pencil. You will use a variety of shoes; one will be yours and the other two will be from your peers in class.
3. One shoe will be done using a pencil. You will be expected to render the object by creating several different values of gray.
4.One shoe will be done using a pen. The emphasis will be on lines and texture.
5. One shoe will be done using color pencils. The emphasis will be on rending, mixing colors and using complementary colors.

Supplies:
Shoe, paper, drawing pencil, color pencils, ink pen, eraser, and ruler.

Selected student outcomes (meets standards examples and exemplary examples) :

High School Drawing assignments: Faces

In the process of developing drawing skills in addition to learning how to see and compose, We reviewed and learned basic picture taking skills (rules of thirds, cropping, angles, etc.). I sent my students outside to take photographs of each other for the project. 

The drawing skills they were going to review/learn were color pencil techniques (along with color theory), rendering with a 6B pencil, and brush and ink. 

The results are below. 

1. Make a color wheel and demonstrate shading with color

2. Make value scale with pencil and render shapes.

Student work in progress.

Making different values with brush, ink, and water.

Final Projects

Quick teacher example.

Middle School drawing project

Grade 8.

We stared this year on drawing skills. We reviewed rendering by producing a Value Scale and Shapes. Next we moved on to drawing eyes (their own) using a 6B pencil, tissue, blenders, and erasers. At the end the projects were taken to the library to be displayed. 

Pencil Self-Portrait Middle School

I pitted one grade 6 class against a grade 7/8 class. I wanted to see if I taught both classes the project the same way if there would be any notable differences in the drawings. I was curious if the 1-2 gap would be evident in the fine motor skills. I have to admit, the results of both classes were outstanding.

Here are my findings based on my experiment. When I started teaching Art at the middle school level 19 years ago, this was a typical project for a grade 6 class at my school district. It was part of the curriculum and the students in the district had mandated art at the elementary level.

When I taught middle school again 7 years later at one of the "best" districts San Diego, I carried over the curriculum to grade six, and noted the skills, vocabulary, how to manage space were lacking and disproportionate. For most students, grade 6 was their first real art class. The learning gap was wide and varied. I learned that first year, there were no art specialist at the elementary level. Sadly, when I left, the principal made the shortsighted decision to discontinue art. I was disappointed.  

I'm happy to be back in an environment where art is valued at all age levels, the elementary art specialist do a stellar job preparing our students for middle school art, and my teammate and I prepare our students for high school and beyond.