January 4, 2012

Think of a lesson plan as a work of art. 

In the art world we are accustomed to originating an idea and then pulling together some elements of art in such a way that our idea blooms in front of your very eyes. We artists select colors or shapes or textures as our tools to help us express an idea with an image or an object. We study artists who have come before us and formally dissect their work. We ask, "What tools did they use to express this concept?" Sometimes we even label artists according to the tools they frequently select, calling, for example, Albers a colorist and saying Oldenberg is "all about" texture and proportion. 

We can compare our lesson plans to a work of art. What are the similarities? A work of art and a lesson plan both start with an original idea, are meant to be an expression of something, are meant to communicate, contain many parts, are selectively put together, are a complete little world packaged up and experienced for a finite amount of time, and contain important ideas that are held forever in the minds and hearts of the lucky ones who experience them.

Friends and colleagues will ask me, "What art are you making now?" or "What have you done in your studio lately?" My recent answer is "Very little." I have produced only one stained glass piece, one painting, and a few drawings in the last two years. Yet I have done more creative thinking and more creating in the last three years than ever before. 

My recent works of art are lessons.

In each lesson that integrates art and social studies, I have a message I want to express to my students. I have to synthesize things from art and things from social studies. I have to think and feel the material, I have to allow that magic to occur, that mystical thing called creating. Then I select the teaching tools to use and with much care construct the lesson so it communicates what it should. A good lesson plan is rather like a piece of multi-media performance art in which the viewers are participants. 

If we art teachers can think of our lesson planning as a creative process and if we can think of our lessons as a work of art, I believe our lessons will be exemplary, we will be joyous, students will learn much, and students will be engaged.

”To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” --Pearl S. Buck