Karma Creative
Karma Creative
Art Teacher | Studio Event Rep
This is a small gallery of class notes, lesson plans, and trial works from Karma Creative Studio art teacher Nicole Little under the mentorship of Karen . These pieces represent a small sample of the lessons in ceramic, mixed media, print making classes for students ages 9 – 12, and portfolio development for teens and adults.
Lesson Planning - The Karma Way
Thank you Maggie and Karen for always allowing me time to develop lessons in studio, “the “Karma Way”. It is not enough to merely think through an art lesson plan. To truly understand what the lesson will teach and the challenges that students will face, each lesson has four stages:
- Note taking: Every lesson begins with notes from a text or reference.
- Idea Proofing: Art teachers must try out their ideas, producing a rough but finished piece.
- Formal lesson building. Every lesson must exist as a formal document that another teacher could pick up and use without prep. Steps must be clear. Accommodations must be written down, even if no student needs an accommodation.
- Another set of eyes! Whenever possible, lessons should be reviewed by a mentor, a peer, or a volunteer student. In this way, we share our practice with our teams and develop each other as teachers and as artists.
1. Note Taking
2. Idea Proofing
These are three images developed from a Shape/Composition lesson plan. This lesson calls for students to use mixed media techniques and tracing to develop a unique representation of an object.
In the case where a lesson plan already exists, it is still important to create proofs. While the John Barker lesson plan was originally intended to teach students about “abstract distractionism” and portraiture, this lesson can also be used as an introduction to painting because mistakes are so “low stakes”. Going through the process of creating simple proofs pushed this lesson forward in the schedule
3. Lesson Plans
These two images above are samples from a ceramic lesson using the Karma Creative Matrix. Below is a small advertisement for that course.
Sharing Proofs and Demonstration
As teachers, we should be knowledgeable enough to demonstrate techniques. However, showing students finished work is not always appropriate. We must remember that students often lack confidence in their abilities. Showing our own finished work will encourage students to copy us in ways we do not always intend.
Demonstrations for blind contour drawings, shading, and other techniques should be performed “live” for the class. By being willing to make mistakes, we encourage our students to be brave.
Culture Days Mixed Media Projects
These two images are mixed media works created by the general public (all ages) using studio scraps, paint, marker and mod podge. Is there anything mod podge cannot do?
