I spell out in many of my posts about how I handle "choice" in my program. You can see some of that HERE and HERE. In general, I find that too much choice can be overwhelming for students. Set up a station full of cardboard, and tell them "make a sculpture," and you'll have students staring at cardboard for an hour, or diving in and wasting materials with outcomes that lack evidence of meaningful exploration.
If instead you give them a problem to solve they have a direction to focus on. In the case of the cardboard scenario, here are some possibilities:
Parameters help create focus. As students gain more and more experience, I begin to allow for more and more choices. In the case of my Art 3 students, who have had to pass 2 previous years of high school art, they are given a list of 20 historical periods in art from Byzantine through Op Art. They pick a theme and do some research about the style, define it, find examples from the period, and come up with 3 potential self-guided explorations of their chosen period.
If instead you give them a problem to solve they have a direction to focus on. In the case of the cardboard scenario, here are some possibilities:
- Make a unique chair that can hold your weight
- Make a mask to show off your "spirit animal"
- Build a tower 6 feet tall that has a base no larger than a piece of copy paper
- Build a contraption that can launch a marshmallow 10 feet or more
- Give them a list like the above to choose from...
Parameters help create focus. As students gain more and more experience, I begin to allow for more and more choices. In the case of my Art 3 students, who have had to pass 2 previous years of high school art, they are given a list of 20 historical periods in art from Byzantine through Op Art. They pick a theme and do some research about the style, define it, find examples from the period, and come up with 3 potential self-guided explorations of their chosen period.
In the example above, my student picked the Art Deco period, pairing it with a portrait which is 1 of 3 required subjects they must do before the end of the year. She also chose the media from a list of 10 options to explore by the end of the year. Here she used graphite with touches of metallic paint.
Each of my 20 students was doing something of their own choice from 20 themes I provided, and choice of media from 10 we had listed. These are significant choices to keep track of. To do so I created a documentation page in my workbook to track their progress. They completed the deadlines portion, and I would initial every few days in their workbook to note their level of progress. 10-20% was in sketch mode. 30-60% while on their final exploration, and the last 70-95% on finishing and detail. If I walked around and saw no progress, we could explore why, consider options, and in some cases, simplify or change the idea to something more realistic.
Each of my 20 students was doing something of their own choice from 20 themes I provided, and choice of media from 10 we had listed. These are significant choices to keep track of. To do so I created a documentation page in my workbook to track their progress. They completed the deadlines portion, and I would initial every few days in their workbook to note their level of progress. 10-20% was in sketch mode. 30-60% while on their final exploration, and the last 70-95% on finishing and detail. If I walked around and saw no progress, we could explore why, consider options, and in some cases, simplify or change the idea to something more realistic.
By setting clear goals and expectations students have a better sense of direction and as a teacher I have a better understanding of how my 20 different students are progressing, and documentation to show parents and supervisors how my students are meeting curriculum standards. My students show pride in knowing they have been given a lot of responsibility, and have risen to the challenge. 6 more examples from the same class are above.
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