1.1 The original subject matter was chosen with the aim of students to practice their drawing and observation skills. Although students were interested and excited to locate their houses online and show them to their peers, it was only when the character creation stage was introduced that the work was really enriched. The combination of both the technical approach to drawing (man-made structure) from observation and an imagined (human) character was appropriate for this age group.

 

2. Modes of Investigating. 

2.1 One student with specific learning needs wished to work in colour and tell a real, ‘happy’ story related to his house, while the other students worked in grayscale and told an imagined ‘spooky’ story. It would have been interesting and beneficial for the students to have created their own composition to illustrate their chosen story, with the location drawn from either observation or imagination, in colour or black & white. Students could have asked and recorded family members recalling stories of a building of significance to them, or for students to recall or fabricate their own story with no given theme such as ‘spookiness’ to lead to more interesting, original work.

 

3. Critical and contextual studies.

3.1 Students were presented with line drawings of buildings and landscapes by Van Gogh during lesson 1 which was a very successful learning exercise, these images were displayed and referred to throughout the building-drawing stage of the scheme. From this point I collected a bank of various resources to support the character creation and drawing such as YouTube clips, my own work, drawings, prints and illustrations from Goya, Paula Rego and Tim Burton but did not deliver these to the group in as effective a manner. For example, a clip from the movie IT was shown to the group and the following lesson when students had to present their character they had ‘created’, there were 6 clowns resembling Pennywise.

 

4. Pacing and timing.

4.1. All students managed to finish a drawing of their house, create a character through drawing and submit a digital copy (email or voice recording) of their story. The scheme/timeline altered as it progressed due to various factors, one of which being that the scheme was cut short by 1 week and a high level of absence due to sport/extra-curricular activities. Many students were not present to create a screencast of their final piece and therefor have a typed copy of their story to accompany their animated image, most students were not present to review and discuss their work on the last day which was a shame. The assessment rubrics had to be altered throughout the scheme to reflect these changes.

 

1.1 This scheme/subject matter was altered in-action based on observations of the students and in response to their interests. Initially advised to begin this scheme as planned, drawing their houses, as this group had just come from their Tech Graph taster and it was recommended to work with their strengths. I soon realised that they were more so tired of drawing architectural subject matter using a technical approach and moved straight on to character development. If doing this scheme again I would begin with the character and then move on to its habitat/location as it evolved, and the students develop it more, giving it more authentic thought and use of imagination.

 

2.Modes of Investigating

2.1 In terms of drawing, students were apprehensive to draw with pen and not use smudging to create dimension and tone. The purpose of this for me was for the students to understand mark making that cannot be ‘rubbed out’ for then they moved on to drypoint. If I were to do this again I would allow students to draw in a medium of choice to develop a strong character and then introduce pen/drypoint once developed. The preoccupation with the medium hindered the creation of their characters. Due to class size, time-constraints, high absence rate, etc. not all students got the opportunity to create more than one print or to rework their plate after review. This led me to asking students to develop their drawings more or to use their collages to superimpose on to a background of choice rather than relying on a drypoint print.

 

3. Critical and contextual studies

3.1 Students had access to a bank of visual references on drawing animals, characters, cartoons, caricatures, etc. which was mainly the only form of CCS introduced in this scheme. Although I had planned on showing them animal drawings/prints/illustrations from the likes of Durer, Jenny Baker, Alex Conahin to show a wide variety of mark making approaches this was either not delivered at all or if so, ineffectively. Moving forward, I would introduce line drawing/illustration initially and request students to source and research an artist themselves at an early stage and use this to help students establish a style and approach to making thereafter. 

4. Pacing and timing.

4.1 Not all students submitted a final piece or the criteria to create a final piece for our book (via handing up their sketchbook/emailing me a copy of their story/emailing their chosen image for super imposing). The pacing and timing of each stage of the scheme worked well ‘overall’ but did not allow for the high level of absences due to sport. Many (mainly female) students missed minimum one class a week and although were told to find out requirements/homework for next lesson, often did not address this until the beginning of the following lesson. This led to many students having incomplete work disabling them to progress to the next stage, etc. The scheme was somewhat altered throughout to reflect this, choosing to focus on the quality of the character itself (collage/drawing/print) and its story, rather than creating the perfect print. In future I would begin straight away with collage to scaffold the task of creating a character, then focus on drawing this well and spend more time on the skill of printmaking so students who were absent would have a chance to use the press more than once/review the work/rework the plate, etc.

1.1 The overarching subject matter for this scheme was chosen as it was specific to the area – a bog body that was discovered close to the school in the 1800’s. Information on this discovery was delivered to the students via a trip to the local heritage centre to heighten interest and enthusiasm. It was thereafter that the project and student engagement, interest and understanding began to lull. Students were expected to research different aspects or ideas which stemmed from this subject matter to fuel their design development and creativity, however the students did not understand what it meant to ‘research’ and were mainly preoccupied with the information delivered to them during the heritage centre visit. If I were to re-start this scheme, I would begin by showing students imagery of the corpse with little to no information about it and assign a task, such as a front page headline/Newspaper article, reporting about the circumstances surrounding the suspicious/malicious death. From here I would assign some more practical tasks such as character creation (from their own story) and then combine the students own ideas with the factual information as a starting point for creativity.

2. Modes of Investigating 

2.1 As above, I believe that if students were presented with the research aspect of the project in a more suitable, appropriate manner for their age group this would have aided them to develop more original stronger ideas and concepts. I had envisioned the sub-groups to research their subject together online, outside of class time, using the Facebook group as a means of communication and sharing. Ultimately the majority of students were not on Facebook and did not understand what it mean to ‘research online’, it was only when I noticed the interest in speculation and interpreting stories that I introduced and focused on ‘reporting’ about death, war, murder, etc. in a creative way. If this was carried out in tandem with the weaving element of the project students may have discovered more varied interests and approaches to developing their design.

3. Critical and contextual studies

3.1 The main point of CCS for this scheme was students experience in working with a textile artist and referring to her work and approaches to making throughout. I created a Pinterest board of different textile pieces to show the students the many different ways of approaching a tapestry weaving. This was added to, altered, tailored to specific students approaches and ideas throughout and students referenced it in terms of different weaving techniques used that were not covered during the workshop mainly. This rich bank of resources included many YouTube tutorials which aided students in overcoming challenges, however the students did not contribute to the board, only reference it. I would ensure to ask students to research a textile artist in future, as their artist research task brought back a lot of Van Goghs, Michaelangelos and Da Vincis who were unrelated to the scheme. 

4. Pacing and timing 

4.1 All students bar one (absent last few weeks due to illness) had a finished piece on display the night of our exhibition, this was only achieved however by the students working in their free time and/or coming into the art room when they had study or free periods. I had not planned for just how time consuming this craft is and had only initially allocated 3 weeks for ‘making’. I believe we spent too long on the research stage as it ultimately did not amount to much in terms of influencing their design process. I would, as mentioned, approach the gathering of background information differently in future and begin making ad creating much sooner. This would allow for a more thoughtful and informed design development and thus more time to work on the textile piece itself with less haste towards the deadline.

1.1 The students were encouraged and guided to choose a theme which related to their interests and shown many possible avenues of how a theme can be manipulated and personalised to work with their strengths. Although this took some time for the students to comprehend, once each of them found the direction they wished to pursue their interest maintained. The prerequisite of working from a Primary Source was the most hampering factor in terms of subject matter, although students articulated their interests, they did not or could not source objects which represented this, this led to unmeaningful, disinterested, half-hearted treatment of the object and therefore lower quality work than they were capable of. Working from an object of interest, which holds sentimentality or compels strong emotion in the student is vital for said interaction to occur I believe, and I think this is the biggest downfall of this scheme and perhaps the new framework all together.  

 

2.Modes of Investigating 

2.1 I do think that I needed to be more ambitious and varied with the processes of exploring and investigating to help students develop stronger ideas and concepts. Although I referenced, encouraged and asked students to approach their investigations of their objects in more obscure, quirky, peculiar ways such as deconstructing their objects, melting, burning, tarnishing, etc. and introduced them to new grounds, materials and media, the students reverted to drawing with pencil, colouring pencil and pastels as it was what they are familiar/comfortable with. I believe here, again, if the students had sourced their own primary sources and found them truly interesting they may be more eager to explore them in a variety of ways. The approach to completing the Workbook was very systematic and linear to begin with, however for Component B when we began conceptualising the finished piece first, the students seemed more engaged and understanding of the interim, developmental work.

 

3. Critical and contextual studies
3.1 The biggest downfall of mine as a teacher, and the group of students/scheme that this is most apparent in. As it was a small group of students I was in a lucky position to have a lot of 1:1 time to talk/brainstorm/give feedback to students. This allowed me to understand and relate to their interests and somewhat their lives outside the art room. Using this to my advantage I hand picked CCS references, ranging across a wide variety of media, for each student. These were saved in Pinterest boards and the students were invited to collaborate on these boards. Although there was a surge in appreciation for these and interest in what they contained, I found that the students mainly just wanted to ‘copy’ artwork within these as they ‘looked so cool’, rather than develop a concept or style influenced by these. The students did not contribute to the boards when asked, did not research any artists when asked, submitting images of work they liked off the internet instead because ‘it looked cool’. Due to major time constraints and lack of contact with the class throughout Component B, the focus was on making work and I allowed mysekf to neglect an emphasis on CCS.

4. Pacing and timing.

4.1 Allowing 5 weeks for each component of the Coursework was a decision reached by my co-op teacher and I, as this is how she will carry it out hereafter. This worked well in Component A, however after Midterm, particularly as we approached Christmas, namely the School Concert, student presence in class dwindled significantly. I did not have any contact time with 2 students (out of 7) for the last 3 weeks of the scheme, these students did not submit their Workbooks for review although followed up by both Mrs. Walsh (principle) and Mrs. Glynn (co-op). I had not allowed for such a high level of student absence due to extra-curricular activities and because of this, have little physical work. In terms of pacing, I believe when doing this project again it is detrimental to set deadlines and timelines for each section, and not to approach it so linearly. I would give the students the option of which Component they wished to complete first and emphasize the deadline for the completion of the finished piece, rather than developmental work, more so, guiding the developmental work in a natural way as concepts and styles are developed.