Differentiated art instruction

Differentiated art instruction

There are very few articles on differentiated instruction pertaining specifically to my subject area, visual art. I chose this article by Fountain (2014) because it was recommended to me by one of the Art Education professors here at Texas State. This chapter is taken from the book they use to teach differentiated instruction for both elementary and secondary students. The text interested me because I wanted to learn specific examples of visual art differentiation, which the chapter gives in rich detail.

Learners

should be able to learn the same content by doing different tasks or using different materials.

I learned that there are three key ways to implement differentiation in art education: differentiating through content, through process, and through product. If a teacher chooses to differentiate the lesson with content, the students can choose a topic to focus on and teach their peers their area of interest, all within a larger unit plan. This way, students get the power of choice and can feel more confident and intrinsically motivated in what they’re doing. The book gives an example of studying the art and culture of Ancient Egypt. Students can pick whether to focus on leadership, life, culture, or art and architecture. Even though it is an art class, this gives students with less interest in art to focus on something that is more interesting to them, while still exploring information in the unit of study.

An art teacher can differentiate through process but needs to consider student’s readiness and abilities. Learners should be able to learn the same content by doing different tasks or using different materials. The text gives an example of setting up art stations for students to pick the materials they want to use.

All students should be focused on the same learning objective, but some may choose to work at the paper and scissors table; some may work with painting and ripping paper; and some may choose to glue objects onto paper. A teacher can also assign students to each station depending on their physical needs, however after some time, it is good to give students the option to try the other stations. This gives the students both access for success and flexibility to learn more to grow.

Students have differences

and these methods help let students of all abilities explore their interests with the power of choice.

Lastly, an art teacher can differentiate through product. This is where the students get to focus on their own interests but use the same materials. They can demonstrate their skills in a way that is motivating to them. In this case, the teacher should pre-assess students to find out their interests, which can be used to form choices for students to create from. A teacher can also add an open-ended project choice, which may be suitable for more experienced or mature art students – or those that just need their own unique option. If a teacher uses the product approach, some guidelines need to stay the same, such as “apply the concept of texture, use two or more methods of building with clay, demonstrate safety, etc…” Within the example of clay, some choices of product could be to make a literal representation of a word associated with texture (such as grass or fur), make a real or imagined animal using texture, or propose your idea to the teacher for approval.

With too much artistic freedom

may come confusion to some students, while others may be empowered. A teacher has to really know and understand their students to know what limits need to be set.

Differentiating through product helps students have ownership over their art and leads to greater variety in the art classroom. Differentiated art instruction can help learners be more engaged and active because their unique needs can be more easily met.

Art does not have a finite answer; all students should be creating different works of art anyway. Students have differences and these methods help let students of all abilities explore their interests with the power of choice. Also, differentiation in the art classroom recognizes that students have varied levels of prior knowledge. No student will feel behind with this style of instruction. Some other benefits of differentiated art instruction are that it values different abilities and perspectives of students as well as helps you (as a teacher) understand and evaluate your own beliefs about student learning. My concerns that come with this approach in the art classroom are that it is hard to know how many guidelines to set that still give students creative freedom, as well as it is difficult to know what materials will be good choices and which ones to leave out. With too much artistic freedom may come confusion to some students, while others may be empowered. A teacher has to really know and understand their students to know what limits need to be set. Grading also comes into concern, as when too many variables are different a teacher will have to be clear on how to measure learning. A classroom using these approaches could easily get chaotic without clear expectations.•

Reference:
Fountain, H. (2014). Differentiated instruction in art (pp. 8-27). Davis.