TAB Teacher Roles: Art Games

My association with Clark Fralick goes back to 1996 when I first met this new hot shot art teacher out of Purdue University who was hired into our district! Clark and I began to teach a gifted and talented class on Wednesdays early in the morning where we would develop one of the first electronic portfolio programs in our state. Later, Clark was putting together summer art camps and invited me to teach in one of them in 2005. That experience evolved into our Blocks Paper Scissors Summer Art Camp program.

One of the learning strategies that came out of our camp experience was the concept of the "art game." Art games can be developed or directed by the teacher or the students. Art games can be implemented individually or collaboratively. Art games are wonderful interventions for students who for one reason or another are not creating art.

One of the art games that Clark developed that exploded my mind, was marble painting. Marble painting is a one of a kind experience that is multifaceted and can easily be developed with some simple tools. Of course one needs marbles, paper, bottle caps filled with paint and a cardboard box!

The cardboard box is tilted from side to side, back and forth, creating gravitational forces to move the paint-covered marbles across the surface of the paper.

Plop the marbles into the caps of paint, drop them onto the surface of the paper, now tilt the marble painting box from side to side. Let's see where this activity will lead us? What will happen if I move the box this way or another way? Is this a game? Or is it something else? Marble paintings work with little kids, and they work with big kids! What other mark making games can be devised by the teacher or the students?

After I began working at New Palestine High School in 2014, I began experimenting with the facilitation of collaborative games. One group of boys who were energetic varsity baseball players, were very responsive to a game we developed called "U-Draw, I-Draw." This game can be played with simple materials, including pencils, rulers, paints, stamps, stencils and any other mark making material one can get their hands on.

The game is simple. I take a turn at drawing a mark or an image on a large piece of paper. I could have a time constraint in order to move the game along. Once I make my mark, I pass it on to the next player. Everybody takes a turn. Now the marks can be connected to other marks. Once we have drawn enough marks, we can begin to paint the spaces. What will the image look like once the spaces have all been painted? The painting process can be achieved with students working simultaneously. Once the work is done, what kind of conversation can we have about this experience? What could we write about this experience? The artist statements will be very interesting!

"I draw, U draw," can be played with very simple rules including rules the players create on their own. In this example, the players were very interested in painting in the spaces they had created so they took turns to paint a space so the other players could critique their painting method. This led to a very tightly painted abstract work with lots of hard geometric edges. During the event, we talked about "duende" and it's meaning to the Surrealists.

The role of the TAB art teacher is to facilitate art learning that is meaningful to the student. This often means consensual learning. What Clark and I discovered is that when children have ownership of their activity, whether it be a game or an experimental format, consent and the sharing of power about how one directs their activity is incredibly important. What other art games could be developed for children who are reluctant to participate in traditional studio centered art making? Is there power in a collaborative art making experience that affects certain children as opposed to singular activities?

The teacher collaborates with a student in a game of "I-Do, U-Do. The teacher introduces the student to stenciling and the concept of layering mark making materials."