Talk & Chalk

 
WEEK 8
Another afternoon with years 5&6 meant I was able to finally interview them, together as a group and find out what they really thought about the DREAMS project. It's these two years I most look forward to hearing their responses, as their understanding is noticeably greater by this age, and the jump from year 4 seems huge in comparison.
 
I wasn't disappointed with their views, speaking their mind on whether they loved or hated something, ideas on what the teachers and artists could do better, and discussions over the future art projects. What surprised me the most, however, was how the majority of the pupils were not grasping whether they were learning or not. Many agreed that if they enjoyed something then they were learning, but when they found something difficult, they weren't learning. They believed it wasn't until they pushed past it and found it easier that they then felt they were learning again. It was interesting to see how they thought like this, hopefully this topic will be talked about and they will understand that finding something difficult is the key to learning, not doing something you find easy.
 
It was great to hear the different liked and dislikes over projects, how those who felt they were good at art preferred drawing with pencil, and those who didn't think they were good at art at the beginning were much more eager to try charcoal and sculpting. This perhaps gives an indication that those confident in their drawing skills felt threatened by new materials, as though trying something new would jeopardize their existing reputation for being 'good' at art, whilst those who had were ready to try anything new, perhaps felt they had nothing to loose, hoping that a new material could suddenly turn them into a budding artist.
 
I also spent the remaining amount of my time with years 1&2 who were using pastels on black paper, listening to a mixture of classical music, creating abstract art to reflect their emotion to the song. Brilliantly some pupils 'got it' instantly and were making small little dots to represent beats, pausing when the song pauses and making rash big marks when it was either loud or fast. Other's, epically in Year 1 were more instant on filling up the whole page with different colours and smudging it all together! Both classes though seemed to agree they liked using the pastels, especially on black paper you could 'see the colour better' and 'was fun to smudge'. Some children, it seemed, preferred smudging the exciting new materials on their own faces then the black paper in front of them, good job we got the aprons on them in time or they'd be parents sighing at the state of their uniforms!
 
Fantastic afternoon, laughs and lessons learnt throughout the whole school. Back tomorrow for a morning visit, plus showing the documentary 'so far'.

Becky
 
Media and Production Assistant 
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