TIP #76: 3 Keys to Successful Art Lessons
Successful art lessons come in many forms, but if you look closely you’ll see a pattern. The most successful art lessons will include 3 key principles.
Including these principles in your art lessons is the key to fostering creativity and skill development in your students. Keep reading to discover how you can craft successful art lessons every time – and leave a lasting impact on your students’ artistic journey.
1. PREPARATION
Being prepared is at the heart of all successful art lessons.
PREPARE FOR YOUR GOALS
Try to begin your planning with clear end goals in mind. What is your purpose for doing a particular lesson or project? What standards are you trying to meet? What do you hope your students will learn or achieve?
PREPARE FOR PROBLEM SOLVING
As often as possible, make every effort to try a project first yourself before you teach it to your students. This enables you to solve any potential problems ahead of time, and also gives you a finished sample of the project to share with your students. As you work through a project, think about how you’ll explain each step in your demo.
PREPARE FOR CREATIVE OPTIONS & CHOICES
One mark of a good art lesson is that no two finished projects will look alike. (If they do, you’ve just done a craft project!) In your planning, make sure to allow plenty of room for individual expression and creativity. Plan in advance what options and choices you’ll give your students throughout the project.
PREPARE FOR FINDING VISUAL REFERENCES
Another part of being prepared is having good visual references for your projects. These can be images found on the internet, actual objects, posters, pictures in books, or whatever you can come up with.
Relying on students to remember what something looks like without a reference to look at will likely result in a cartoon-style or stereotyped image. Instead, teach your students to use their observation skills to “see like an artist”.
You’ll notice a clear difference in the quality of students’ artwork when you encourage them to draw what they “see”, not what they “think” something looks like. And they will need to look at something to do that!
PREPARE FOR BEING UNPREPARED
Even though being prepared is so important, sometimes life just gets in the way. In times like these, you will need to “wing it” a little. It’s a good idea to have a few meaningful, low-prep art activities on hand so you can still provide a worthwhile art experience on the fly.
2. CONNECTION
Connection is the “hook” that engages your students and draws them in.
Connection happens when you make your art lessons relatable to your students’ lives in some way. When kids feel a connection to a project it increases their engagement and interest. You can actually see when this happens… it’s like a light switch has turned on!
CONNECT WITH YOUR STUDENTS
You can build connection to your lessons by learning about your students and their outside interests. The best way I found to quickly get to know my upper elementary and middle school students was with Fingerprint Self-Portraits. You’d be amazed at what you can learn about your students through this lesson! The insights you gain will also provide inspiration for meaningful future projects with those same students.
CONNECT WITH THE BROADER CURRICULUM
Another way to build connection is by integrating your art lessons with the broader curriculum. Talk to the other teachers at your school to find out what your students are studying at different times of the year. Then find ways to create projects related to those things. Part of the beauty of teaching art is that it’s so easy to create or adapt lessons to support the greater curriculum.
CONNECT WITH STORIES
You can also hook, or connect with, your students through story. This works especially well with art history. Find some interesting books about famous artists that are written to your students’ level and share those. Read the books together if time allows, or read them yourself and just re-tell the stories as you teach. When kids realize the artists they’re learning about are (or were) real people with real lives and real problems, they become instantly captivated!
As you connect with and get to know your students, you’ll also discover the appropriate level of difficulty that each one requires. Then you can make small changes to differentiate your projects as needed to make sure every student is able to feel challenged yet successful.
3. COMMUNICATION
How you communicate in your teaching can make or break a lesson.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR RULES
Your communication needs to be straightforward and clear. A great place to start is with your classroom rules and expectations. Rules are easier to remember (and obey!) if you simplify them into just a couple of categories, for example:
RESPECT (yourself, your artwork, your teacher, your materials, your classmates)
and… EFFORT (be on time, try your best)
It’s amazing how many unwanted behaviors can be corrected with a simple reminder about “respect” and “effort”!
You can also tie a few simple rules to a common theme, like how you use your words. Here’s an example of this, using 3 easy-to-remember rules…
RULE #1: “Say only things that are kind and encouraging about another person’s artwork.” (I always tell kids, “This includes famous artists, too. Yes, even Picasso!”)
RULE #2 “Say only things that are kind and encouraging about YOUR OWN artwork.” (Negative self-talk is not healthy for you or those around you… it can actually discourage students sitting near you who may be admiring the artwork you’ve just created!)
RULE #3 “Say ‘I’ll try’ instead of ‘I can’t’.”
Your rules should reflect the specific needs and situation of your own classroom. Always try to communicate your rules in a positive way whenever possible.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR DEMOS
Another place where clear communication is essential is in your demos. Your demonstrations need to teach the technique for the medium being used. Even if it’s not a new medium for your students, a quick review of key points is always helpful.
Verbalizing your thought process as you demonstrate might be one of the most useful communication tools for any teacher. It gives your students valuable insights into how you approach a project and work with materials. It also helps keep their attention focused on you instead of the distractions around them, and interrupts any daydreaming!
When communicating instructions, try to check for understanding and wait for compliance before moving on. For example, if you ask students to write their names on their papers before they start, scan the room and make sure everyone has done that before you give them the next step.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR PRAISE
Finally, communicate encouragement to your students through meaningful praise and feedback. Try to focus your praise on things that students’ choices can influence, like effort, progress, or learning from a mistake.
Ultimately, successful art lessons hinge on these 3 key principles: preparation, connection, and communication. Being prepared, creating connections, and communicating effectively will help you create art lessons that inspire creativity and enable skill development in all your students.
an inspiring quote
“It’s easy to be great. It’s hard to be consistent.” ~ Steve Martin
Have you ever experienced the thrill of teaching an art lesson where afterward you knew you had nailed it? Your students were engaged, learning objectives were met, and the finished projects were all unique and delightful?
When a project or lesson goes this smoothly, it’s a feeling like no other. You find yourself wishing that every lesson could go this well. But like Steve Martin famously said, “It’s easy to be great. It’s hard to be consistent.”
Chances are, some lessons won’t go as well as you hope. When this happens it might be due to missing one of more of the “keys to success” above.
Reviewing these keys to success after a lesson gone wrong may help you identify your problem areas. Or you can help your lessons be consistently great by making these principles part of your process from the start.