Lana Bjornson

EPS 541-Final Paper

March 23, 2014


Art Criticism Concept Map


My concept map is focused on the question How can I improve my students language
and skills in order to participate in art critiques? This question corresponds to the Illinois State
Standard 25.A.5 Visual Arts: Analyze and evaluate student and professional works for how
aesthetic qualities are used to convey intent, expressive qualities and/or meaning. This is a skill
that helps students participate in critical thinking activities and discussions as well as informing
the work they make on their own. In a time when art is becoming extinct in schools across the
nation, I find this standard to be very important in grounding art as a critical component in
schools because it revolves around the analysis and evaluation of visual literacy and is informed
by knowledge and skills that can improve work in other content areas. The main concepts I have
developed to aid my students in their ability to critique art is background knowledge of art,
etiquette for giving/receiving feedback, and knowledge of the steps for art criticism.
The concepts I have focused on are all very much related to and dependent on one
another. For students to be successful in participating in critiques they need to be familiar with
the process and have background knowledge of art to begin with. There is a wealth of
background knowledge that students can have, from their definition of what art is to how to hold
a pencil, and that greatly impacts their ability to speak about and analyze artwork. Additionally,
having the etiquette to converse about art is also extremely important. Both participating in
discussions and being critiqued puts students in a very vulnerable position so it is essential that
students have the language and knowledge to critique each other in order to ensure meaningful
rather than hurtful dialect After establishing what students know and how to participate, students
need to develop an understanding of the steps of art criticism so they can format their responses
to fully engage in critical thinking and gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of works.
To successfully implement teaching this content it is important to understand what
students already know about art. Students may be emerging masters or they may have never even
looked at a piece of art in person. In order to discuss art you need to have some knowledge of
techniques, art history, exposure to art, and the language of art. Students gain this knowledge
through readings and discussions about artists, art movements, art history, and also very
importantly through art making. Art is a great subject because students can learn about a subject
and then turn around and practice what they are learning about. Vocabulary can be developed
through doing rather than just rote memorization. That being said, not all students enter a
classroom with a shared history with art; this is dependent on their school and home experiences.
If students are not art literate then anticipating that students will be able to participate in a
critique is not possible until they develop the tools to do so. These tools would be reading/art
making that is focused on the language needed to critique the specific piece.
Another important part for critiques is having the etiquette to discuss art. This is partially
related to background knowledge in that it is acquiring art vocabulary that allows you to express
your thoughts in clear meaningful ways. Students have to understand how to give and receive
constructive feedback to each other. Participating in critiques of professional work after
watching the teacher model the process can practice that skill. Also students need to understand
that criticism is not meant to hurt other people but rather as a way to help others improve. Giving
students clear procedural handouts to guide them through the process as well as sentence stems
and modeling really helps students understand that structure. Beyond just giving feedback
critiques are a way to practice critical thinking skills.
The steps of art criticism are a way to move students through lower order thinking and
into higher order/critical thinking. Using background knowledge and etiquette students are
prepared to participate in the steps of art criticism. The steps are describe, analyze, interpret, and
judgment. The steps of art criticism very closely relate to the steps of inductive reasoning. The
first step, describe, is the lowest order thinking, all the students do is describe everything they
can see in the picture without giving it meaning or making assumptions. The second step,
analyze, the students use their knowledge of the elements and principles of art to evaluate how
they are being used in the picture. This step is inching up on blooms taxonomy, but can easily
be pretty low-level thinking if the students are not pushed to develop their evaluation. The third
step, interpret, is where the students begin to synthesis what they gleaned in the first two steps to
come up with a meaning or intent of the artwork. The final step, judgment, is when the students
perform the metacognitive task of evaluating what they think about the piece. They can simple
judge how they feel about the piece; or this step can be pushed further into inductive reasoning
by adding a reading component about the artwork so the students can learn the intended meaning
and judge if they feel it comes through in the work. The steps should be scaffolded for the
students whether in a discussion or writing so the students will engage in each step appropriately.
Once students have the knowledge and the etiquette to fully participate in a critique then
they will be able to engage in higher levels of thinking while participating. With the background
knowledge to understand what they are seeing and the framework to speak about the work the
students can more freely jump into a critique and quickly build from the lower order thinking
skills to the higher order evaluation skills. After having practice using the steps of art criticism
students will be able to apply them more fluidly and go through the motions without having to be
prompted. This can only be done with modeling, formatting, and practice.
Students must have the all the tools under their belt in order to successfully participate in
critiques. When students try to critique work without proper etiquette and knowledge then they
will only be skimming the surface of comprehension. At first critiques will inevitably be more
surface level and lack much depth no matter how much background knowledge they have. As
time progresses and students understand more about art making, have been exposed to more art
and have practiced participating in critiques more often they will be able to access their prior
knowledge to push themselves into higher order thinking. More synthesis of ideas will occur
because they will have practiced the motions and will not be stumped by the lower order
processes that are needed to begin critical thinking. Salmon, Rossman, Kememy, and Winter
says Well-learned skills are frequently executed in an automatic way. Skilled performers act in
the moment without thinking or deliberation. They spontaneously know what to do. Deliberate
skill-building through repetition or frequent practice can result in this kind of automatic action
(2).
Students are bound to have misconceptions at the beginning of a new unit or process.
With critiques student misconceptions will be easily seen during discussions or by reading their
writing about critiques. When using the steps of art criticism it is easy to see where students are
slipping up and that gives the teacher a guide of where they should focus their energy to correct
their thinking. If the issue is in understanding the elements or techniques the artist is using then
the students obviously need to spend more time learning about and using different techniques. If
a student is using language that is disrespectful during a critique then that is a conversation that
needs to be had with that student on etiquette.
Through practice I would like to know more about student knowledge. I have strong
foundation in content knowledge and instructional strategies however student knowledge is ever
changing and I feel it is very important to successfully instruct students. While I feel as though I
have a good idea of how to guide students to where they should be it is very dependent on what
they have been exposed to and how they comprehend the steps of art criticism. I want to set
benchmarks and find ways to monitor my students reaching those goals.
Performance tasks would be the best indicator of my growth because I would be able to
analyze student knowledge and know how to support them further. Performance tasks could be
art making in itself to learn whether students have the procedural knowledge to be able to discuss
it. It could also be written critiques of student/professional works. Additionally participation
during class discussions is a great indicator of their ability to access and apply their knowledge.
Comparing student growth from the beginning, middle, and end of the year would be a great way
to compare how much students have learned.
Art critiques effectively engage students in many types of thinking. This is very
important because the skills students need to have and gain from participating in critiques can
transfer over to skills students need to perform well on standardized tests. Art critiques promote
critical thinking as well as drawing from visual evidence to make claims. Guiding students
through the thinking to successfully critique a work of art can also help their own art making
because they understand how to incorporate meaning into their own work.