Make It a Conversation: Giving Students Feedback On Their Art
When your student finishes an art project, it’s important to give them feedback. After all, students DO want to improve their work (even if they’re afraid of criticism!).
So how can you give feedback that helps students improve their skills without making them fearful of your criticism? How can you teach them to be good critics of their own work?
One of the best ways to frame your feedback is to make feedback a conversation.
A conversation can have several advantages:
You DON’T talk about something the student isn’t interested in or isn’t ready to learn,
If you have a large group, it takes less time than giving written comments, and
Since the student helps guide the critique, your job becomes easier!
Although such conversations can be awkward at first, here are three ways to make conversations about art more productive - and easier.
#1: It’s Elementary, My Dear Artist!
Suppose you begin by asking, “What is one specific thing you would like feedback about?” Since this pushes students to reflect on what might be a weakness in their work, at first you can expect the student to respond by asking something like, “How can I make it better?” Now that’s not “one SPECIFIC thing” for you to give feedback about!
But you might respond directly to the question and ask if there is anything SPECIFIC they would like to make better about one of the elements of art. Here’s a list of the elements:
line,
color,
texture,
value,
space,
contrast,
scale,
emphasis / dominance,
balance, and
harmony.
If you don’t know much about these elements, a good place to start is by looking at this website.
#2 It Sometimes Takes a TEAM
Conversations about art can get one-sided, with you, the teacher/parent asking all the questions and the student having to give all the answers. If this seems to be the case, it might be better if BOTH of you, the teacher/parent and the student, do the same art project. When both of you are finished (and you don’t have to do the project at the same time!) you can compare your two projects.
Tell what you like better about the student’s project than your own; then let students tell you what they like better about your project. After that, each of you can tell about what you like better about your own project.
Such a conversation easily leads into discussions about the elements: “I like your lines on this part better because . . .”, and “I like my use of texture on that part because . . . .”
#3 There’s a Whole Gallery of Help Out There!
If you enjoy comparing one piece of art with another, the ArtAchieve website has a resource to help you:
The Student Gallery
that you find at the end of many of the art lessons. Use the questions in #1 or #2 above to have a good conversation about the art project and its use of the elements of art.
Why Talk About the Elements?
By this time you may be wondering why it’s so important to be talking about the elements of art. The answer is rather easy.
The elements of art are the conceptual tools we use to create art. Sharpening our students’ ability to talk about the elements also sharpens their ability to use the elements to create art.
Every conversation about the elements builds the mental toolkit that artists use to create their next piece of art.
When your student finishes an art project, it’s important to give them feedback. After all, students DO want to improve their work (even if they’re afraid of criticism!).
So how can you give feedback that helps students improve their skills without making them fearful of your criticism? How can you teach them to be good critics of their own work?
One of the best ways to frame your feedback is to make feedback a conversation.
A conversation can have several advantages:
You DON’T talk about something the student isn’t interested in or isn’t ready to learn,
If you have a large group, it takes less time than giving written comments, and
Since the student helps guide the critique, your job becomes easier!
Although such conversations can be awkward at first, here are three ways to make conversations about art more productive - and easier.
#1: It’s Elementary, My Dear Artist!
Suppose you begin by asking, “What is one specific thing you would like feedback about?” Since this pushes students to reflect on what might be a weakness in their work, at first you can expect the student to respond by asking something like, “How can I make it better?” Now that’s not “one SPECIFIC thing” for you to give feedback about!
But you might respond directly to the question and ask if there is anything SPECIFIC they would like to make better about one of the elements of art. Here’s a list of the elements:
line,
color,
texture,
value,
space,
contrast,
scale,
emphasis / dominance,
balance, and
harmony.
If you don’t know much about these elements, a good place to start is by looking at this website.
#2 It Sometimes Takes a TEAM
Conversations about art can get one-sided, with you, the teacher/parent asking all the questions and the student having to give all the answers. If this seems to be the case, it might be better if BOTH of you, the teacher/parent and the student, do the same art project. When both of you are finished (and you don’t have to do the project at the same time!) you can compare your two projects.
Tell what you like better about the student’s project than your own; then let students tell you what they like better about your project. After that, each of you can tell about what you like better about your own project.
Such a conversation easily leads into discussions about the elements: “I like your lines on this part better because . . .”, and “I like my use of texture on that part because . . . .”
#3 There’s a Whole Gallery of Help Out There!
If you enjoy comparing one piece of art with another, the ArtAchieve website has a resource to help you:
The Student Gallery
that you find at the end of many of the art lessons. Use the questions in #1 or #2 above to have a good conversation about the art project and its use of the elements of art.
Why Talk About the Elements?
By this time you may be wondering why it’s so important to be talking about the elements of art. The answer is rather easy.
The elements of art are the conceptual tools we use to create art. Sharpening our students’ ability to talk about the elements also sharpens their ability to use the elements to create art.
Every conversation about the elements builds the mental toolkit that artists use to create their next piece of art.
When your student finishes an art project, it’s important to give them feedback. After all, students DO want to improve their work (even if they’re afraid of criticism!).
So how can you give feedback that helps students improve their skills without making them fearful of your criticism? How can you teach them to be good critics of their own work?
One of the best ways to frame your feedback is to make feedback a conversation.
A conversation can have several advantages:
You DON’T talk about something the student isn’t interested in or isn’t ready to learn,
If you have a large group, it takes less time than giving written comments, and
Since the student helps guide the critique, your job becomes easier!
Although such conversations can be awkward at first, here are three ways to make conversations about art more productive - and easier.
#1: It’s Elementary, My Dear Artist!
Suppose you begin by asking, “What is one specific thing you would like feedback about?” Since this pushes students to reflect on what might be a weakness in their work, at first you can expect the student to respond by asking something like, “How can I make it better?” Now that’s not “one SPECIFIC thing” for you to give feedback about!
But you might respond directly to the question and ask if there is anything SPECIFIC they would like to make better about one of the elements of art. Here’s a list of the elements:
line,
color,
texture,
value,
space,
contrast,
scale,
emphasis / dominance,
balance, and
harmony.
If you don’t know much about these elements, a good place to start is by looking at this website.
#2 It Sometimes Takes a TEAM
Conversations about art can get one-sided, with you, the teacher/parent asking all the questions and the student having to give all the answers. If this seems to be the case, it might be better if BOTH of you, the teacher/parent and the student, do the same art project. When both of you are finished (and you don’t have to do the project at the same time!) you can compare your two projects.
Tell what you like better about the student’s project than your own; then let students tell you what they like better about your project. After that, each of you can tell about what you like better about your own project.
Such a conversation easily leads into discussions about the elements: “I like your lines on this part better because . . .”, and “I like my use of texture on that part because . . . .”
#3 There’s a Whole Gallery of Help Out There!
If you enjoy comparing one piece of art with another, the ArtAchieve website has a resource to help you:
The Student Gallery
that you find at the end of many of the art lessons. Use the questions in #1 or #2 above to have a good conversation about the art project and its use of the elements of art.
Why Talk About the Elements?
By this time you may be wondering why it’s so important to be talking about the elements of art. The answer is rather easy.
The elements of art are the conceptual tools we use to create art. Sharpening our students’ ability to talk about the elements also sharpens their ability to use the elements to create art.
Every conversation about the elements builds the mental toolkit that artists use to create their next piece of art.
