Fieldwork experience

Fieldwork Location: Heritage Middle School, New Windsor, NY
Grade Level: 6th-8th Grades
Self-assigned task: Integrate new material exploration into existing skill set in mentor teacher's classroom. More specifically, take the structured line drawings to the next level, allowing a departure from straight lines and symmetry and opening doors to new possibilities.

The students were amped to work with paint. They had been working with clean materials such as pencils, erasers and rulers for so long that our simple exercise seemed like a prison break. While our mentor teacher had some wonderful traits, such as his comfortable relationship with his students and his ability to act as an intermediary between the students and on-site security officers, his shortcomings lied heavily in his lesson plans, and the inherent lack of structure. It seemed as though his many years of experience had desensitized him to the educational needs of his students. We noticed immediately that the creative but inhibited students were an untapped resource. The mentor teacher and his former student teacher had created a beautiful mural in the back of the classroom, but no student had a hand in it. Yes, it is his classroom, but what does viewing his flawless execution of an idea show his students? His years of experience dwarf the abilities of his students, shutting them down before they even started. We observed the 6th graders as being mostly oblivious to the perfected craft of the mural painting. They enjoyed using it as a sort of I SPY resource. However, the 7th and 8th grades would flank the teacher's desk, asking for his assistance at almost every turn. While he never actually drew on the students' papers, he may as well have, as much of the work reflected the How To Draw books in the classroom. Where is the student's voice?

In creating a new line drawing, this time in marker on watercolor paper, our students were encouraged to think beyond the line. It was more about experimenting with cause and effect; if I do this, what will I get? Simply applying water to the marker drawn line caused the mark to wick and bleed in pools and webs across the paper, allowing students to make mental note of the change and further strategize to come up with potential patterns/results. Some students went back in and highlighted newly formed paint shapes, transforming his or her entire composition based on elements of chance and play.

We introduced the exercise as just that. Papers were cut small so detail oriented students wouldn't feel burdened by the empty space and fast working students could act as factories. Some students worked in very representation formats, some included texts, and others worked in abstracted versions of his or her line drawings. This made for a dynamic composition once we were able to set up the display in the school's main lobby area, just outside of the principal's office.