Teaching with heART.
Get Your Students to Focus: 5 quick prompts
When students whine, talk incessantly and/or become defiant, we often feel frustrated and blame them for being distracted or refusing to focus. In reality, these are symptoms of dysregulation. When we help students find the present moment, we help them regulate their nervous systems so they can return to the task at hand.
Here are 5 quick and easy prompts that I use with students to help them focus.
Prompt 1: What are you paying attention to?
I tried this recently during a particularly off-track Art class. It was the classic class-gone-wrong: no one was listening, no one was looking where they needed to, no decent work was getting done, and two students had soft chalk pastel on their faces before the lesson was through.
Patience waning as clean-up time approached, I decided to try a favorite mindfulness strategy. I wasn’t hopeful. I had tried everything else. But, like so many times before, this unusual, calmly-stated question worked when nothing else had:
I want you to notice, without talking, what you are paying attention to. Just notice it.
To my great surprise, the energy of the entire room changed. The frenzy was over and I could give instructions on the very first try. I took advantage of the opportunity to remind my students that they practice training their brains to have short attention spans every time they scroll, so while it’s not their “fault” that attention is such a struggle, it’s something we need to work on in a big way.
Once my students were aware of their attention, clean-up went without trouble and we all left a clean room, on time.
If you’ve never asked yourself this question, I suggest you try it right now. Pause and say to yourself, “What am I paying attention to?”
It’s amazing how this little prompt can shift your awareness and bring you into the present moment.
Prompt 2: Please don’t ‘spew’ your stress at your classmates. It’s not nice!
This prompt is especially helpful when you’ve announced a big assignment or asked students to do something very challenging, or before an exam or in-school vaccination.
Students’ brains are just like ours: when something stressful happens to us, what do we usually do? We might begin analyzing at warp-speed, trying to ‘logic’ our way out of our discomfort. We might become indignant: “well that’s not reasonable at all!” Or we might try to distract ourselves by thinking about something completely different. There’s a good chance we engage our loved ones in this process, “dumping” our unfiltered thoughts in their direction.
Many of us even consider this sharing beneficial. As a society, we encourage each other to share our troubles and get support from loved ones. And that’s certainly not all bad. But if the process (and sharing!) begins immediately upon hearing stressful news or encountering difficulty in a classroom task, what you get are 30+ students announcing their displeasure and discomfort in a cacophony of emotional offgassing. If not addressed quickly, it will derail a lesson in no-time.
Enter, the pattern interrupt.
When this scenario erupts in my classroom, I now see it for what it is: my students are stressed, they don’t like feeling stressed, and they don’t know how to make it stop. In most cases, they aren’t even consciously aware that they’re stressed.
The fix is simple: I say to my students, “Please stop spewing your stress at your classmates!”
Once I have their attention, the rest of the conversation looks something like this:
“We’re stressed, yes?” Once they’ve acknowledged that I’m on the right track, I say something like “That’s fair. But here’s the thing: your classmates have their own stress. They don’t need yours too! The noise in the room right now is just all of us trying to get our stress out of our bodies at the same time. But without realizing it, what you’re saying is ‘Ack! I don’t want it! You take it!’ That’s really not very considerate! Instead, please take a legitimate breath, or give your body a stretch while you’re sitting in your chair, and then return to your work. You can do it- I wouldn’t have assigned it if I wasn’t sure.”
Depending on the situation, the reassurance portion of this (you can do it!) might be a little bit different. But your students do need to hear that you believe in them.
Once you’ve used this prompt with a class, you can eliminate much of the explaining. They don’t actually want to inflict stress upon their classmates, and a simple reminder to look inward and address their stress in a more positive way will suffice.
Prompt 3: Just Look.
This one is best for students who have a little bit of experience with mindfulness, or at least are used to a few ‘unusual’ prompts to help them redirect their attention. But when it works, it works.
When your students are struggling to work quietly, or to listen to direct instruction, ask them to find something in the room to look at. Be clear that this should not be another person, and that if they are likely to giggle or lose their focus if they make eye contact with someone else, they should turn away from others or direct their eyes to an object that is away from their peers. Then ask them to “just look” at the object. Encourage them to avoid attaching words to what they see. Instead, they should really “Just. Look.” Prompt your students to notice the color, texture, shape etc. of whatever they are looking at, without labeling them with words. A hush will begin to fall over the group, and you’ll be able to quietly and gently redirect them to return to their work or turn their attention back towards you.
Prompt 4: Listen. Just Listen.
Your students may be more familiar with this one. I remember being asked to do a similar activity in my high school drama class, and I loved it then as much as I do now.
Ask your students to listen to what’s happening outside the classroom. Depending on your building they may have to really listen to hear anything at all, or they may be able to hear entire conversations or lessons. Instruct them to listen, but to avoid thinking about what they hear. The goal is to just listen. Just notice.
As the group begins to quiet, direct your students to move their attention into the classroom. Again, without talking or creating a story in their minds, ask them to just listen. What sounds are present in the classroom?
Finally, ask your students to bring their attention to the sounds of their own bodies. Encourage them to ask themselves whether they can hear their own heartbeat or the sound of their own breathing.
Let yourself - and your students - enjoy the newfound stillness. If you wait too long, they may become wiggly. But give them a few more seconds than you’re comfortable with. Let the stillness soak in before you quietly and gently direct them to the next activity.
Prompt 5: Are you breathing?
Many of us hold our breaths when we’re stressed or very focused. Today, there’s even talk of “screen apnea.” As it turns out, we also hold our breath while we’re scrolling or reading our emails!
Holding your breath restricts all sorts of functions within your body, including the functioning of your vagus nerve, which regulates your stress response. It also prevents oxygen from getting where it needs to go (obviously), which can lead to fatigue and exhaustion. Neither of these things are good for learning. Our students need to actually breathe!
The first time you ask your students whether they’re breathing, they might give you a confused look. Most of us don’t notice when we’re holding our breath or restricting our airflow.
You may need to explain some of this to your students in order for them to take you seriously and check: are they breathing?
Prompt them to notice where in their body their breathing is most obvious. Do they feel it in their nostrils? The back of their throat? Their chest? Does their belly expand as they inhale, as it’s supposed to, and contract when they exhale? Can they feel their breath in their backs?
As with the other prompts, make sure you quietly and gently redirect the to return to the task at hand when you think they’re ready. There’s nothing worse than getting all calm and settled, only to have someone bark the next steps at you.
A qualifier: students have the right to (quietly and without disrupting) choose not to engage.
Your students may not all buy into these prompts right away. Some of your students might never buy in. Ultimately, that’s their prerogative. You can absolutely expect them not to spoil it for their classmates, even if they prefer to sit quietly without engaging in your prompts. And maybe, in time, they’ll soften to the idea.
Remember, many students have never been asked to do anything even remotely like what these prompts ask them to do. Stillness and silence can bring up all sorts of thoughts and feelings, and students with traumatic pasts may find the experience threatening and scary at first. They can find healing in stillness, but it’s up to them to determine when they’re ready for that. Our job as educators is to offer the tools with compassion. Most students will try, and your classroom will be a more focused and empathetic place. But if a few students won’t try, that’s okay.
Like what you see here?
I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out my free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
You can also check out my store for more resources and an additional freebie!
5 Steps to Calm
You know those weeks where you’re sprinting as fast as you can, all week long, only to miss the deadlines you’ve been sprinting to keep up with?
I’ve been having one of those weeks. Actually, I’ve had two of them, back to back.
For whatever reason, the Universe thought it would be a funny trick to put both my babies’ birthdays right at the end of IPP (IEP) season. This year, to make it even funnier, I planned Truth & Reconciliation activities for 300 kids, and agreed to do a presentation for my staff the day after my daughter’s birthday with only three days’ notice.
My natural reaction looks something like this:
But that reaction, though forgivable, doesn’t feel very good. And although there have been WAY too many things, I like all the things! So instead of freaking out, I’ve been very diligent about keeping myself in a positive space and calming my own anxiety. I’ve kept myself almost completely cheerful and only minimally stressed - which, given my week and my natural predisposition to anxiety, feels like a very big win.
Here’s how I’ve kept myself (mostly) calm through it all.
1. Meditate, meditate, meditate:
I’ve learned the importance of my morning meditation the hard way, and now rarely miss it. I spend 20-30 minutes in silence, focusing on my breath or a mantra. During weeks like these ones, my morning meditations are often “beditations,” but I turn on the lights and set interval timers to keep myself alert.
If you’re new to meditation, I’d encourage no more than 2 minutes each morning until you have a routine in place. Even this tiny change will make a noticeable difference. If you’d like a (free) resource, try the Insight Timer app.
2. Daily emotional tune-up:
In Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert tells of a man who advised her to choose her thoughts each day like she chooses her clothing. I do exactly that.
What exactly does this look like? I spend a few minutes each morning (say, ten-ish?) in my journal, deliberately choosing thoughts that feel good. I begin by setting an intention for how I would like to feel, and I write that down. Then I write a list of ten or twenty thoughts that help move me in that direction.
For example, if I want to feel calm and at ease, I might remind myself that things are always working out for me. If I would like to feel joy or bliss, I count my blessings and remind myself they continue to come my way. The thoughts have to feel true- if I’m feeling completely overwhelmed, I might write that I feel that way less often lately.
Everything just seems to go a little bit more smoothly when this routine is in place!
3. On-the-fly resets:
Thanks to my diligent meditation practice, I’m now quite aware of how my body feels at any given moment throughout the day. When I notice anxiety rising - muscle tension, thoughts coming faster and faster, changes in my breathing - I know to slow my breath by pursing my lips and exhaling, as if I’m breathing out through a straw. If you’ve never tried it, this trick is magic. It allows my mind and body to reset, and keeps the anxiety from escalating.
As simple as it sounds, It has taken me years to cultivate the ability to stop and breathe. So if it seems impossible to you, believe me: I get it. I encourage you to keep trying, because eventually it does become a very helpful strategy.
But if that doesn’t feel like it ‘works’ right now, try this instead: plant a reminder in your phone or a sticky note on your water bottle to interrupt yourself for planned check-ins throughout the day. Have something funny or heartwarming at the ready that can lift your spirits in next-to-no-time, and then move on with your day. Even teachers can do this. It takes 5 seconds!
4. My morning tea
If I’m being honest, I stop for tea every single morning. I drop off my kids, and I stop by the nearest location of a well-known Canadian coffee shop. I admit that I do feel the occasional tinge of guilt here, because I would much rather support a truly local business owned by the person making my glorious morning beverage. Currently, that’s a splurge reserved for the occasional Friday, instead of the norm.
But still: beginning my workday with a small luxury genuinely brings me joy, each and every day. I am deeply committed to my own personal happiness, and this little boost matters. It probably only works because I’m heavily meditated and deeply, deeply grateful. But it works. If it works for you too, I say do it!
5. Seeking calming spaces
Even in the most demanding weeks, I prioritize visits to calming spaces. My chosen spaces change based on the season and how I’m feeling, but include my favorite yoga studios, the riverside path through my favorite park, and hot baths with bubbles, music or a good book. What matters here is that these spaces already are calm, all by themselves. By being in them I become calm as well.
The past two weeks have been exceptionally busy, but I still made it to yoga and spent some soul-filling hours in the park with my children.
An important note: these tips are for the day to day stress brought on by the inherently overwhelming nature of teaching in today’s classrooms and living in today’s world. They work! But they aren’t enough for a crisis on their own. If life is too much, seek support in whatever way you can: your doctor or a therapist are a good place to start.
Like what you see here?
I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out my free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
You can also check out my store for more resources and an additional freebie!
Activism in Middle School:
15 Artists You Can Feature in Your Teaching
Here are 15 artists whose work addresses a wide range of causes and issues. Most of these artists are still active today, but I’ve included a couple of historical artists as well.
Wondering how to go about sharing these with your students, or introducing the arts as a way of advocating for change? Check out my previous blog post.
Shane Koyczan
Spoken word poet. To This Day is an animated piece of spoken word poetry which addresses bullying. How to Be a Person is also fantastic (but does include a swear word).
2. Christi Belcourt
Indigenous visual artist: “I see war, but I paint flowers.”
www.Christibelcourt.com
3. Edward Burtynsky
Photographer & climate activist. Burtynsky’s stunning photographs highlight the impact humanity has on the natural world.
https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/
4. Selma Burke
African American sculptor known for her portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which was the model for the relief featured on the American dime.
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/selma-burke-spelman-college-museum-of-fine-art/HwWxQg9pwNugHQ?hl=en
5. Kenet Garcia Rojas
Director and animator. The film, “Siblings” was created as his Art Center College of Design thesis.
6. Dorothy Lange
Photographer who worked during the Great Depression & WWII. Powerful black & white images communicate the desperation of poverty and highlight humanity in challenging times.
https://www.moma.org/artists/3373
7. Barbara Kruger
Conceptual artist whose work deals with cultural issues through everyday life. See “Your Comfort is My Silence” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero.”
https://www.glenstone.org/artist/barbara-kruger/
8. Pawel Kuczynski
Illustrator whose images deal with current issues around the world, including our evolving use of technology, corporate greed and others. This one is a new favorite of mine!
https://www.photographize.co/articles/pawelkuczynski/#google_vignette
https://www.pictorem.com/profile/Pawel.Kuczynski
7. Taylor Swift
We all know Taylor Swift. This song & music video speak out against hate towards the LGBTQ+ community.
8. Nathan Murdoch:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-65777907
Long-time street artist whose murals promote acceptance and anti-racism. I love these pieces!
9. Maxine Noel, C.M.
https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/canadian-honours/order-canada/maxine-noel-cm
Indigenous (Sioux) artist whose recent work brings awareness to the missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada (the works are not graphic).
10. Dr. Seuss
Though you’ll undoubtedly have heard of Dr. Seuss, his books are a great way to show students that the use of art for activism is anything but new. “The Sneetches” is a good one as well; it deals with conformity and is great for addressing the fads that can be so rampant in middle school.
11. Jason Decaires Taylor
Sculptor who creates large-scale pieces of art underwater. They’re incredible and unsettling.
https://www.activistart.org/jason-decaires-taylor/
https://underwatersculpture.com/
The Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
A short film developed as a thesis project at The Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, based on a comic strip by Fabio Coala. The film reminds us not to judge before we have all of the facts.
12. Mikarla Teague
Painter and mixed media artist whose work addresses exploitation, poverty, sexism and homophobia. A few of her images are more appropriate for adult viewers; preview ahead.
https://www.mikarlateague.com/
13. Harem Jamal
Kurdish artist whose work is inspired by many years spent in refugee camps as a child.
15. Amal Abu Al Sabah
You’ll have to Google this one, because I can’t be sure the sources are completely unbiased or reliable. However, Amal Abu Al Sabah is a Palestinian woman who has created paintings on the rubble of bombed buildings in Gaza, advocating for peace amidst the rubble.
Art for Activism in Middle School
Art for Activism in Middle School
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of attending a Michael Franti & Spearhead concert. It was three hours of dancing to upbeat and infectiously happy music, surrounded by my dearest friends and one of the most friendly, inclusive group of strangers I’ve ever encountered.
If you don’t know him, here’s a bit of happy Michael Franti music. As an artist, he acknowledges our challenges and then uplifts us so that we can be better and stronger as we face them. I love it!
My teacher brain never really turns off (sound familiar?) and I’ve been thinking about how this soul-filling evening relates to my work.
Teaching middle school doesn’t feel nearly as grand as a concert tour! But, like Michael Franti, I spend my days encouraging the humans around me - students and staff alike - to “Just work hard and be nice to people.”
I do this work through the arts.
The Arts as Activism, at School:
Many of my students, though they have great access to resources, have had minimal exposure to the arts. Their previous engagement with art that is intended to spark change is often zero. Therefore, my first task is simply to show them that activism is often what drives artists to create in the first place.
There are two main ways in which I introduce the arts as a space for activism.
The first is by asking students to create something that illustrates their own viewpoints. Metaphor is essential in this work: you can find my process for creating with metaphor on my blog, and I’ve shared handouts and teacher guides in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
The second is by sharing many examples of artist-activists who create to address a wide variety of causes, and their pieces and causes. The opportunities for curriculum connections are endless!
Arts & Activism Throughout the Disciplines
In Social Studies, activist art pieces can enrich and enliven studies of government, history and current events, which can otherwise feel dry and disconnected from students’ lives. Poetry and music can be highlighted in Language Arts, and all art forms can be used as prompts for writing and paired with course texts to situate course content in the real world while showing students that they can use the arts to amplify their voices.
In Science and Math, art pieces in a variety of media can be used to address the ecological and economic challenges we face today.
In Art class, students can be introduced to the elements and principles of art through the work of artist activists, and can be challenged to communicate their own viewpoints and advocate for areas of personal passion through the pieces they create.
An Example: The Arts for Activism in a Sixth Grade Democracy Unit
Let’s be honest: when presented with the bare facts, my sixth graders were not highly interested in the pillars of democracy, its historical or contemporary iterations, or citizens’ responsibilities within their communities.
To help them bridge the gap between these big, ‘grown-ups-only’ spaces and their own lives, I guided them through a survey of current political art pieces that addressed current issues in society.
We watched a Taylor Swift award show performance of “You Need to Calm Down,” as well as a theatrical performance by indigenous tenor Jeremy Dutcher (below), and three or four other pieces. As they watched, students recorded their noticings and initial responses. I invited students to identify both the obvious cues and more subtle hints about the artists’ intentions, and then we shared and discussed them.
It’s important to note that in this situation, we were not debating whether or not we agreed with the artist’s position on the issue, but merely identifying what that position was.
There is absolutely a place for that debate in the classroom - students must learn to disagree respectfully - but this time, I wanted my students to see that they could fulfill their responsibility to engage as citizens by using the arts to communicate their point of view, whatever that was.
I think that main goal would likely have been missed if I had allowed my students to get caught up in any one specific issue.
I hope I have you thinking about your own classroom activities. There are so many possibilities!
If you’re looking for the specific art pieces to use in your classes, please stay tuned for my next blog post, which will include a big list of artists and their works.
In the meantime, check out my free downloadable resource, Spark & Reflect, which includes a list of art pieces and their connections to core subjects: many of these pieces were created to spark conversations about key issues our society is facing today.
Like what you see here?
I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out my free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
Teaching Self-Awareness & Empathy in Middle School
Teaching Self-Awareness and Empathy in Middle School
It is always my goal to support students as human beings first, and to set them up for a happy and positive future. I don’t believe academics can do it on their own.
The human brain is hard-wired to experience emotions before it can reason. That’s just the way we’re built. This is helpful for survival in physically threatening situations because you really do need to “BE AFRAID!!!” as your brain is telling you, and react far more quickly than a step-by-step plan can be crafted.
But in today’s everyday situations, this hard-wired bias towards emotion first can cause real trouble - especially when combined with our apparently innate negativity bias. As middle school teachers, we see it happen every day.
Interested in the studies? I’ve included links at the bottom of this post.
So, how do we help students to regulate their emotions and make positive choices when their humanness inherently means that they will feel their emotions before they have an opportunity to think?
We teach them self-awareness and empathy.
I’ve tried many approaches and targeted many skill-sets with my students over the years, and these two sets of skills have made the most significant impact in supporting students’ well-being, behavior and academics.
Before we jump into specific activities for the classroom, let’s make sure we understand the basics so what we’re teaching is actually helpful and healthy for our students.
Self-Awareness
Self-Awareness is knowing yourself thoroughly and honestly. Being aware of our own emotional tendencies and patterns helps us respond more effectively when we react emotionally, and goes a long way towards managing ourselves and our relationships.
When we are self-aware, we are more creative and confident, make better decisions, have healthier relationships, and communicate more effectively. We are more likely to be honest and we get more promotions at work. Self-aware leaders have happier employees and more profitable companies than leaders who lack this skill.
Knowing yourself might sound reasonably easy or likely, but it’s not as common as you might think. Researchers suggest that the majority of adults (62%) cannot identify their emotions as they feel them, and don’t meet criteria to be considered self-aware overall (85-90%).
For these statistics and additional information about self-awareness and emotional intelligence, check out this article from the Harvard Business Review as well as Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves.
Self-Awareness Instruction
Self-Awareness is just one skill set within the larger context of emotional intelligence, which also includes self-management, social awareness and relationship management.
When I first started teaching emotional intelligence skills to my students explicitly, I tried to cover everything. After a couple of years of this, I noticed a pattern: while strategies from the other three skill sets were at least somewhat helpful for students, the improvement in students’ regulation and behavior was far more noticeable when we focused on self-awareness and continued to come back to it repeatedly.
In my context at least, it seems that when students are aware of their negative behaviors, they generally replace them with more positive ones. Naturally, this makes getting along with others much easier. It also makes it easier for students to make smart choices related to their personal and academic goals.
In my experience, there are usually at least one or two students in a class of approximately 30 who appear to need more supports than self-awareness instruction. However, when I’ve paired self-awareness instruction with empathy instruction, the other students in the group have been far more patient and understanding when one or two of their classmates have continued to struggle (of course, when students struggle, follow your regular procedures to ensure they receive further supports).
Classroom Conversations and Activities
Students need direct instruction and opportunities to practice specific strategies to improve their self-awareness. In order for them to take a risk and look at their own tendencies with honesty, they need to see you do the same.
Even if you’re only comfortable sharing examples from your life at work, students will be much more willing to engage in this work if they see the same openness from you.
At a bare minimum, explicit conversations about the following topics can encourage students to begin noticing their own patterns. Reflection time (in private journals or with a clear caveat to only record what they’re comfortable sharing) is very helpful in allowing students to reflect on their own patterns and abilities.
As you might expect, there are many strategies for increasing your self-awareness. These are the ones that have worked best in my classroom:
Stop judging your emotions: when we judge them, we stop observing and responding constructively.
Notice your ripple effect: we affect everyone around us all the time, and we want this effect to be positive.
Demonstrate courage and curiosity: we can’t get better at things by avoiding them! We have to move towards the aspects of ourselves that make us uncomfortable if we want to grow.
Feel your emotions in your body: sometimes our physical responses can tell us how we’re feeling emotionally.
Know what upsets you: we all have things that upset or bother us, and benefit from planning for these situations.
Be mindful of good and bad moods so they don’t control your behavior: even a good mood can change your choices!
Ask friends and loved ones for feedback: when you feel comfortable, a trusted friend, family or community member can give you kind and honest feedback about your own patterns of behavior.
Don’t try to introduce these all at once!
I introduce these strategies one at a time, and provide students with opportunities to reflect in writing and conversation. It only takes a few minutes a few days in a row, and the payoff (happier, more cooperative students and much easier classroom management) is well worth it.
Direct teaching and reflection opportunities are helpful on their own, and you’ll see a difference in your students. To make the effect more permanent, keep coming back to the conversation throughout the year, in the context of your studies.
Every subject in school has its own opportunities for this, because all subjects include human stories in some way or another. When students see examples of human struggle in their studies, try asking them, “Is there a self-awareness strategy that may have helped this person? What choice do you think they might have made if they were aware of their emotions and their ripple effect?”
If you want to be more direct, you can ask your students to think about a time when they successfully used that strategy, or when they had the opportunity to do so. It’s important to encourage students to be forgiving of themselves. Most adults struggle with self-awareness, so it’s absolutely okay if students need more practice!
Empathy
Empathy IS:
Empathy is feeling with people. It builds connection because we don’t feel alone and we do feel supported.
In a classroom setting, empathy allows students to relate to one another more effectively, building community and trust between classmates. It allows students to be patient when others make mistakes, preventing small incidents from escalating. Academically, it increases creativity and helps students find importance in the topics they study.
Empathy IS NOT:
Empathy is not sympathy, which is feeling sorry for a person. Sympathy does not build connection.
Empathy is not enmeshment, which is when we feel the emotions of others so deeply that we lose our own emotions and sense of regulation in the process. Enmeshment cannot be supportive, because once we are lost in someone else’s emotion, we can no longer offer regulated support.
For a great resource on empathy in the classroom, check out Brene Brown’s handout for teachers.
Empathy Instruction
Empathy is actually a form of inference. To demonstrate empathy, we use information from a variety of sources to infer how someone else might feel.
So how do we teach it? The same way we teach any kind of inference!
We ask students to use the evidence they have been provided to make a reasonable conclusion, and then to check that conclusion to make sure it works with all of the evidence.
In Visual Arts, one of the easiest ways to begin this work is through a study of portraiture. Given a face with some level of expression, most students will feel comfortable theorizing about the subject’s emotions. Then they can be guided to consider choices of color, value, texture etc. to confirm or contradict their theories.
In Language Arts and Social Studies, narratives give plenty of opportunities for students to make inferences about people’s emotions, whether those people are real or fictional. In reading, directly teaching students to infer characters’ emotions builds their social-emotional skills AND their reading comprehension at the same time.
In Math or Science, statistics make excellent texts for teaching empathy because they communicate stories. Students can be asked to work with graphs or data sets about any real-world issue: poverty, any marginalized group within society, climate change, medicine, or even athletics. Once they understand the story the data tells, they can be asked to empathize to help them to understand why that data is significant and what it might mean for anyone involved.
As they practice inferring for empathy, students need reminders and guidance to identify evidence that supports their inferences. Their evidence can come from within the text and from similar situations outside of the text.
Try asking your students where they have seen or experienced something similar, and what emotions were present in that second, situation. Then they can see if those emotions might apply in the case study you’ve given them.
Your students should always go back and confirm that their inference is supported by the evidence, and it’s wise to remind them regularly that the only way to know how someone else is feeling for sure is to ask them. These situations are great case studies, but we do need to remember that without being able to ask someone, we can never be sure that our empathy inferences are correct.
More resources:
For more information about the stress response and the brain, check out this article from Harvard Health Publishing. To learn more about negativity bias, this peer-reviewed article by Amrisha Vaish, Tobias Grossman and Amanda Woodward provides strong evidence. For a summary in everyday language, here’s an article from Positive Psycholgy.
Like what you see here?
I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
Top 10 Back to School Activities
My top 10 activities for Back to School with middle schoolers.
Building Community in the Classroom Starts at Back-to-School
1. Low-stakes introductions to the creative process
In case you missed it, my previous post provides a detailed outline of how I introduce kids to the creative process at the beginning of the year.
But even if you don’t use the whole process, I strongly recommend including some kind of “speed dating for feedback” activity early in the year. Provide specific tasks for students to accomplish with their partners, and keep it moving fairly quickly. This lets your students get to know each other just a little, within the neutral ground of academic tasks.
2. Student-led classroom expectations
No one likes to be given a list of rules and told they must obey them “or else.” It’s demeaning, and middle schoolers are as insulted by it as we would be. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have expectations. So how do we establish them in a way that builds community and our own positive relationships with our students?
I start by asking students to describe the best year of school they’ve had so far, or - if they’re new to our “normal” school setting - the best one they can imagine. Then I ask them to think about what made (or could make) that year good, and how we get there. The list of how we get there becomes our list of classroom expectations.
The process
STEP 1: Begin by asking students to think about their favorite year of school so far. Ask them to write down 5-10 things that make that year stand out.
Ask them to meet with someone new to share, and to see if they can find anything in common between their lists. Repeat this at least a couple more times.
STEP 2: Invite sharing as a whole group. What did students find that their lists had in common?
Usually, the common ground here is relationships. Students identify their favorite years as the ones in which they had the most supportive friend groups and felt like they really belonged and were valued in their classes. Relationships with caring teachers may come up too. If they don’t come to this conclusion themselves, you can help them along. I’ve never had a group of kids disagree with the conclusion that friendships (and minimal social drama) are what make a good year.
STEP 3: Ask, “If the best years of school are the ones with the best friends, how do we make sure that’s what actually happens here?”
Small group discussions - Ask groups to create a list of rules for the classroom to help make sure you prioritize friendships. At first, you might ask for ten classroom norms or expectations. Once they have them, tell them they are only allowed THREE. Give them a few minutes to adjust. Often, kids come up with very specific rules that can be covered by the simple expectation of Be Kind, for example.
Sharing. See if you can find three norms or expectations as a class, but don’t get stuck on the number - if they need four and they’re meaningful, they should keep them all.
STEP 4: When you have your list of agreed-upon expectations, post them somewhere visible. Whenever your class needs a tune-up, you can remind them that they made the rules, and for good reason!
3. Discussions about courage & bravery
Throughout the first few weeks (and the whole school year, really), I work to teach and remind students what courage looks like in the classroom and encourage them to practice being brave.
For me this is an impromptu and ongoing conversation, repeated whenever opportunities present themselves. If this is new for you, you may want to plan an initial conversation, perhaps in connection with a student expectations discussion or activity like the one I’ve shared above.
Often, when students think of courage they have huge, heroic or highly risky behaviours in mind. In reality, courage is often demonstrated in small but significant ways throughout one’s life.
It’s helpful to share a few examples of bravery in middle school:
Demonstrating kindness by helping another student or saying hello even if you don’t know them very well
Deflecting gossip - changing the subject or directly saying it’s not very kind before quickly changing the subject
Focusing on your work when your friends are distracted
Trying something brand new or persevering when an assignment seems difficult
Asking the teacher for help when you’re feeling stuck
4. Assigned seating that changes daily
This is one of my favorites. I create name cards (or have students create their own) that I put on the desks to seat students randomly for the first couple of weeks.
I collect the name tags at the end of each class and move students to new seats each day. This allows students to make new connections and get to know many of their classmates, and avoids anyone feeling stranded as they try to decide where they should sit. It’s a good idea to count them before your students leave in case any “disappear.”
Tip: it’s nice to choose one day a week to let students choose their seats within this ever-changing assignment. Students will appreciate the opportunity to build on the new connections they’ve made and/or sit with old friends, and you’ll get a chance to see how wise their choices are.
*I learned this trick years ago when I was earning my BEd, from one of my very favorite professors. I’ve done it ever since. Though her area of expertise is K-5, I can’t say enough good things about Dr. Lori Friesen. If you’ve never checked out her website, you should! Even if you teach older students like I do.
6. Exit slips/letters to the teacher
If you teach English, it makes sense to ask your students to write you a letter as a formative writing assessment. But this information is invaluable for all teachers. If you teach another subject, you might want to ask students to share this information in daily exit slips or even in a Google form. When I do this assignment, I don’t mark it formally. It’s a helpful benchmark for English Language Learners, and gives me a sense of where all of students are at as writers. There’s plenty of time for formal marks once students are properly warmed up!
Possible Prompts: mix and match and add your own!
What do you care about most? How do you spend your time and what do you like to do?
Who do you care about most? Family members, friends, pets, etc.
What’s an accomplishment that you’re proud of? It could be something from the summer or something from the past couple of years.
What are you looking forward to in grade ___?
What are you nervous or worried about in grade ___?
Do you have any questions about the year?
When people talk about you, what do you want them to say?
What actions can you take to make this happen?
What do you think teachers tend to misunderstand about you?
Do you have someone in your life who you can go to when you encounter challenges with friends or schoolwork?
Is there anything you’d like me to know about? Is there anything I can help you with?
7. Whole-class multiple intelligences inventory
It’s helpful for students to know how they learn best so they can advocate for themselves. It’s also helpful for them to know that there are other kinds of learners in their class, so they can be patient when the learning styles targeted within a given lesson are outside of their own comfort zone.
After students have completed the quiz, write the categories on the board and ask students to put a check mark beside their strongest two intelligences and a dash beside their weakest one. This quick visual is very helpful for guiding your own planning (take a photo for later!) and can also lead to some great classroom conversation! Ask students what patterns they see to help them engage with the data.
There are lots of free quizzes online. This one, from Mental Up, is a good place to start.
5. Food!
It’s true: people relax when they eat together.
Whether you bring a tiny treat yourself, or allow the opportunity for students to bring something to share, it will go a long way in helping your students settle in. Stick to school policies and be careful about allergies, but this one is worth the extra effort.
Tip: mid-year, when everyone is tired and grumpy, return to this little trick. I always serve hot chocolate to my classes each winter. I pick a bitterly cold morning when everyone looks a little worse-for-wear, and surprise my students. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I’m “the best teacher ever” for this little act of kindness.
8. Team challenges - with prizes!
I haven’t included specific challenges here because there are so many of them online already. But We Are Teachers has a good list to get you started. Keep a stash of tiny candies on hand for prizes. It helps to have at least two kinds to accommodate kids with allergies.
9. Quiet, independent activities
All of your students will feel some level of overwhelm during the first weeks of school. But your introverted students can find these weeks incredibly demanding. Give them (and yourself!) a little break by planning quiet moments within the frenzy of the first few days.
You can keep this simple with a bit of time to read or work on something independent before returning to community-building activities. Don’t count assessments - even formative ones - as quiet time. The performative nature of any kind of assessment negates the soothing power of quiet.
10. Community walks & time outdoors
Where I live, the weather does its best to spite us for much of the year. But fall is usually beautiful, and being outside in gorgeous weather seems similar to edible treats in terms of helping everyone relax.
If you take kids on a community walk or head outside for social time very early in the year, provide a prompt or discussion task to help break the ice.
Challenge students to talk to at least ten different people
Ask them to find out the best movie their classmates saw over the summer
Do a paper and pencil class scavenger hunt (find someone who…) while you’re all outside
Do some sketching that you can tie into curriculum such as land acknowledgments, poetry or ecosystem studies
Like what you see here?
I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
Activities for Building Community in Middle School
Building Community in Middle School with a Creative Arts Activity
Back to School Community-Building for Middle School
Today I’ll share my #1 must-have activity for the first week of school. This is the activity that, for me, is an absolute, must-have task during the early days of the school year.
Stay tuned for my next post, which will include more back to school activities as well as classroom management tips to help it all go smoothly.
Why start with community?
Regardless of the subject or grade level, I begin each year with one primary goal in mind: building a classroom community where students feel both seen and safe. This is one of those things that’s really easy to say and much more complex to deliver. But without it, students can’t learn.
In order to learn at all, we must feel safe.
Learning creatively is next-level: by definition, being creative means doing something out of the ordinary - and middle schools and junior highs are often the LAST place where anyone wants to look or feel different.
If they are going to take creative risks, students must feel supported by their teachers and their peers.
Building Community with a Low-Stakes Introduction to the Creative Process:
This activity can work for any assignment with a personal component.
In Math, students might create a visual metaphor to share what kind of a Mathematics learner they are. In Science or Social, they can make connections between course content (past or upcoming) and their own lives.
What I’m going to share here is the method I use to introduce the creative process to kids and simultaneously build classroom community.
Our goal in this lesson is to get kids talking to new classmates and taking very small creative risks while being introduced to key components of the creative process. We’re dipping a toe in, so-to-speak! In my classroom, students continue to engage in similar work throughout the year, throughout a variety of topics and in a variety of media.
The product students create can be almost anything, as long as they have the freedom to create unique pieces (this won’t work nearly as well with an “everyone makes the same piece of art” kind of task). If you’re not sure what product students might create to introduce your own course, please send me an email and I’ll be glad to help you out!
Are you thinking, “Okay Great- but what are YOUR students creating?”
As I write this, it’s mid-July, and school doesn’t start until the very end of August. So I have some time to iron out the exact details for this year. But I like to use this process for visual pieces in Art or ELA, with an emphasis on simile/metaphor.
I’ve used the picture book Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox by Danielle Daniel as a spark for this activity in the past, and had students create animal portraits of themselves. One year we created 3D masks based on their metaphors. Another year, I opened the assignment up and let students choose anything they wanted for their metaphors, and we illustrated them in watercolor. But you can use my method for any creative piece.
Here’s exactly what to do:
STEP 1: Provide a simple outline of the task at hand.
What is the product students are making? In the example I’ve given, I’d tell students they needed to create a simile or metaphor to represent themselves, and that we’ll ultimately be creating art pieces to illustrate those metaphors.
STEP 2: Ideation/Brainstorming:
Students often default to their first viable ideas. To push them further, have your students list as many ideas as they can, perhaps even within a timed competition. During ideation, emphasize quantity over quality. Sometimes, a terrible idea leads us to our best idea!
STEP 3: Feedback Round One
Pair students randomly or have them “speed date.” Make sure they learn their partners’ names if they haven’t already. If you like, you can provide prompts to help them get to know each other before they begin giving more formal feedback.
During Feedback Round 1, each student shares their list of ideas, and their partner chooses their top 2 or 3 favorites.
They might also extend ideas or suggest new ideas, but this should feel easy. We can push them after we build their confidence and help them feel at home!
Rotate or switch partners so everyone meets with at least three other students.
STEP 4: Prototyping
Students create drafts of their final product. In my example, they’d be creating sketches of their metaphors.
Limit time so students can’t actually finish their drafts. When NO ONE is finished, and no one has a perfect piece, the stakes are low as students move into another round of feedback. Stopping early also means students aren’t as likely to have become attached to their creations, making them more open to the feedback they’ll receive.
STEP 5: Feedback Round Two
Make sure students work with different peers than they did in Round 1. Again, you might provide get-to-know-you prompts as students meet new people.
Two Stars & a Wish works nicely here - students tell their partners two things they like about their drafts, and provide one very gentle suggestion. You may want to give some examples of feedback that pertain to the project your students are working on to increase the quality of their feedback.
Have a kindness conversation before you begin. I always remind students that sharing our work, even in draft form, can feel vulnerable and scary, and that we need to be extra kind and gentle during these conversations. They’re usually happy to agree to this, as they know they’ll be receiving feedback too!
STEP 6: Final product creation
This step depends almost entirely on the task you’ve set out for students. This is where they make it happen!
STEP 7: Sharing & Connecting:
Don’t tell students about this step until they are ready to do it. If you do, they’ll create things they already know they have in common, and you’ll end up with a whole bunch of very similar pieces.
If the task is visual, I like to have students do a gallery walk to see each other’s pieces.
While they walk, ask each student to find at least three other students with common interests or personality traits.
You can provide a similar prompt that aligns with the product you’ve asked them to create; just keep in mind that finding common ground with classmates is the goal here. Students can use sticky notes to leave messages beside each other’s work. They love returning to their own work to see who’s left them a note!
Heads-up: you can’t have anyone left out here. To make sure everyone’s work is seen and attended to, ask students to find a piece of work and sit until everyone’s ready to move on, and then switch. Require students to find something relatable in each piece. This way, everyone gets the same amount of comments.
If you want to take this step further, you can put the final pieces up and give students pieces of yarn to make the connections physically. Neatly display some of their sticky notes around the edges and you’ve got a beautiful bulletin board for Meet the Teacher Night!
STEP 8: Wrap-Up
I like to close by asking students how many of them discovered something in common that surprised them, or made a connection with someone new. This helps to validate the activity if they did feel uncomfortable - and despite our best efforts, they might. It’s a brand new year!
Like what you see here?
I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
Inside Out 2 for Middle Schoolers
Using Inside Out 2 to teach Social-emotional skill in the classroom.
Social-emotional skills, the Arts, and ELA
Okay, I LOVE this movie!
I loved it when I watched it with my best friend, and I love it for middle schoolers.
This blend of story, the arts and social-emotional skills is absolute perfection in the classroom. Thank you, Disney!
Just before the end of the school year, my teammates and I took 225 seventh graders to the movies. We walked to our local theatre, got our popcorn and enjoyed the show. There were a LOT of us: we filled two theatres!
I didn’t plan this field trip myself, so please consider this a BIG shout-out to the teacher who organized the day. What started as a plan for a “fun” field trip as we closed the school year led to huge learning in our classrooms.
A quick synopsis:
In case you somehow missed it, Inside Out and Inside Out 2 follow a middle school student named Riley. In the first film, Riley moves to San Francisco with her family. We see her navigate the big change through the eyes of her personified emotions: Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness, which live in the “control room” of her brain.
The second film begins with the arrival of puberty: Anxiety, Ennui, Envy and Embarrassment join the ensemble as Riley takes on new challenges.
As someone who’s worked with thousands of middle schoolers, I laughed constantly throughout the first half of the film. The writers did an absolutely beautiful (and hilarious) job of illustrating the challenges and characteristics of kids this age, from their half-way-charged cellphones to their awkward attempts to fit in and move through life in their ever-changing bodies.
If you know anything at all about brain science, you’ll also enjoy metaphors like the absolute destruction of the control room at the onset of puberty.
As the story progresses, Anxiety replaces Joy at center stage and leads Riley through shifting friendships and fears while she’s at hockey camp. During the climax of the film, Riley experiences a panic attack that’s poignantly illustrated and impressively accurate.
Disney got this one right. Anxiety and the panic attack she causes are impressively relatable.
Because I saw the movie ahead of my students, I was able to prep the few students I thought might need a heads-up about the panic attack they were about to see. My colleagues and I also followed the movie with lessons on brain science, mental health and mindfulness. These were among the most powerful lessons I taught all year, and opened beautiful and honest conversations with my students.
My only complaint is that we saw Inside Out 2 so late in the year that we couldn’t revisit it throughout the year!
My team and I have been talking about showing Inside Out 2 to our new students in the fall, or taking them on the same field trip if the movie is still playing. Ideally, I’d like to do this in October, after we’ve begun to build some trust with our students.
I’m excited about the possibility of building a larger ELA unit around the film. There are so many opportunities for learning here!
Follow-Up & Reflection:
I think any good learning opportunity includes an opportunity to debrief and reflect, and seeing Inside Out 2 was no exception. I had three main goals for our first lesson after the film:
Get a sense of students’ current understanding of the film and the many topics it covered.
Give kids the chance to reflect privately.
Create an opportunity for guided and meaningful conversation that might shift kids’ thinking and decrease stigma and fear within our school community.
To achieve these goals, I asked questions and provided prompts verbally, and my students wrote their initial responses on paper. Then, after setting some clear boundaries, we talked through the questions together to clear up any misunderstandings and extend our thinking.
To be clear, I did not formally assess or “mark” my students’ reflections, but I did collect them to gain insight into their level of understanding and provide a space for kids to ask questions or seek supports confidentially. I read the reflections before the end of the school day just in case any of my students needed help right away.
Here are the questions I asked, and some notes about the conversation that followed:
Consider the whole movie. What did you relate to? List at least 3 things that felt familiar or that you’ve experienced yourself.
Popular answers included playing hockey or another sport, the stress of trying out for a team, friendships and friendship trouble, waking up feeling completely miserable, struggling with homework, feeling badly after snapping at parents, and coping with big changes like losing friends or going to a new school. A few students also related to Riley’s experiences with self-doubt and anxiety, had had a panic attack themselves, or had witnessed one. When it came up in conversation, most students agreed that the thought “I’m not good enough” is one they’ve experienced themselves.
How did you feel as you watched Riley’s panic attack? Specifically, I want to know what emotions you felt if you can name them, AND I want to know how your physical body felt. Did you feel your muscles tense? Did you laugh unexpectedly, which can indicate that you were uncomfortable with what you were seeing? There are no wrong answers here; we’re just noticing.
This time we had a huge range of answers. Here are a few examples:
“I felt my ears hurt because the scene was loud.”
“I got goosebumps.”
“I felt my stomach tighten.”
“I felt bad for Riley because I know what that feels like.”
“I felt mad because Riley’s coach and friends took so long to get to her.” *A note: remember, speaking to Riley too soon probably wouldn’t have helped her. Her friends actually checked on her at the best time, just as she began to recover.
Does the presence of anxiety in Riley indicate mental illness?
Many students said a strong and absolute “YES” here, which is incorrect. Everyone feels anxious sometimes, and some stress is actually helpful! This is a great time to talk about eustress, or normal stress, which is often considered beneficial.
That being said, when anxiety or any other big emotion takes over and gets in the way of our usual way of life we may need to consider supports for mental illness. Riley’s panic attack definitely indicates increases in her anxiety and decreases in her ability to cope, and it would be wise of her to talk to a trusted adult and seek supports, especially if it continues. But it is not a guarantee that she has a diagnosable anxiety disorder.
Encourage students to talk with a trusted adult if they’re concerned about their own mental health or the mental health of a peer.Were there any strategies you saw Riley use to help herself feel better during the panic attack or throughout the film? Are there any strategies you know about that might have been helpful for Riley if she had known to use them?
As she recovers, Riley notices the sunlight on her shoes, feels the bench beneath her with her hands, and begins to breathe more normally. She might also benefit from a sensory activity (list 3 things you see, 3 things you hear, 3 things you smell, etc.).
Taking a sip from her water bottle might also help her to regulate once she has begun to recover, as it’s impossible to be in a state of flight/fight while swallowing.
My students were able to identify many of these strategies, but very few knew about the sip of water trickWhat did Riley’s friends do that was helpful? Are there other strategies you know about that might be helpful for us to know if our own friends experience this?
While we’re in full flight/fight mode, like during a panic attack, our prefrontal cortex is offline. We don’t have access to language or logic, or many other key processes. Therefore, trying to talk Riley through her panic attack wouldn’t be helpful.
Just sitting beside someone and letting them know you’re there can be a huge gift during a panic attack. The occasional reminder of “You’re safe,” “I’m here,” or “You’re okay,” is more than enough speaking until the panic begins to subside.
Other strategies like noticing our breath, using our senses to help us be present, making eye contact and taking a sip of water can be helpful as someone begins to recover. Students should also be encouraged to seek the support of a parent, teacher, coach or other trusted adult in situations like this.
My students were noticeably less confident when asked how they might help a peer experiencing a panic attack, and were very engaged in learning how to help their peers.
Wrapping Up:
To conclude the lesson, I provided students with a couple of minutes to make at least 3 changes or additions to their responses. Then I asked one final question and collected their papers.
My closing question: Is there anything you would like to share or ask?
I asked everyone to write something, and suggested that if they didn’t have anything to add, they could write, “Thanks for the lesson and the talk.” That way, students who wanted to write more wouldn’t feel like they were being watched.
**It’s SO important to read students’ reflections as soon as possible. If anyone asks for help or shares that they’re struggling, address it immediately.
When I did this lesson, I had several good questions that I saved for the following day. I also had one student who shared they were having a hard time. I spoke to them myself, referred them to our school counsellor, continued to follow up with them myself each day throughout the final week of school, and contacted parents as well.
Finally, I always share our local number to the Kids Help Phone during mental health conversations and before long breaks from school. Kids should know that they can access help on their own if they need it.
Possible ELA connections for the fall:
As I mentioned, I’d love to expand this work with my new students in the fall. I think my team is on board, and I’m already brainstorming. Here are a few of the ideas that I have in mind:
Review of story elements: character one-pagers, adventure maps for plot, cause and effect charts to connect setting to plot, review of theme and discussion of common themes that are present in the film
Reading strategies: making connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world); drawing inferences about characters’ personalities, feelings and motivation
Discussion of metaphor and opportunity to create their own metaphors
Illustrations of students’ own emotions, in the style of Disney’s animation
Introduction of social-emotional vocabulary and identification of emotions that are related to, but not the same as, the emotions that are personified in the film. This could include the creation of a new character for Riley’s control room: schadenfreude, maybe? Curiosity? Cynicism? This activity would provide beautiful opportunities for differentiation, and could easily be connected to any other text you might share with students.
Interested in joining me as I try this work with students? Email me to let me know which of these activities you’re most interested in, or to make suggestions. Maybe I’ll share it with you when it’s ready!
Like what you see here? I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
Teaching Observation Skills in Middle School
Middle school students are struggling to focus! Observation skills help them direct their attention and are an essential component of creativity and mindfulness.
How (and why) to get your students to truly look at art
Recently, I reviewed the Elements of Art with my seventh graders in preparation for a self-reflection and self-assessment activity. We began with a very short video about Line. As we watched, I was shocked by how much my students struggled to just watch.
Their eyes darted around the room. Despite my kind reminders and prompting, their focus flitted about. They were unable to simply watch the video.
Have we really reached a point where even a 3-minute video won’t hold students’ attention?
This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this. Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that many students struggle to sustain their attention when watching videos of all kinds, in all subjects. Even when we are following video tutorials in guided lessons (in preparation for free choice work, which is always the goal in my class), I am frequently dismayed by how little time students spend actually watching the tutorials.
How can they replicate what they haven’t seen?
The same is true in other subjects I teach. Students struggle to sustain engagement with novels, presentations by their peers, images, and anything else that requires them to take in information without simultaneously doing something.
While I have not measured or documented my students’ ability to sustain their focus during such activities, I feel fairly confident about my general conclusion that it has been in decline throughout most or all of my career.
With these thoughts swirling in my mind, I continued the lesson. But I had seen my students struggle, I needed to find a way to address it. How can we help students focus?
Observation - the act of focusing on something we see - is an essential skill for any artist. The Lincoln Centre Institute lists Noticing Deeply as the first of their ten Capacities for Imaginative Learning. In my previous, arts-based, setting, observation was a skill that was practiced in every subject and every grade level. I have watched countless students sit in front of a wide variety of pieces of art, and can attest to the increases in the quality of their noticings when they observed for longer periods of time per sitting and when they engaged in the act of observation on a regular basis.
I also know that in order to observe, one must be solidly rooted in the present moment. There are entire forms of meditation that involve focusing one’s attention on visual arts pieces such as mandalas.
The entire act of mindfulness meditation consists of observing one’s breath.
Many, many scientific studies have attested to the mental and physical health benefits of mindfulness and other forms of meditation. Therefore, increasing my students’ observational skills should support their well-being as humans and their artistic capabilities. Right?
I kept puzzling. How was I to target this skill most effectively? Over the next couple of days, as I went about teaching and life in general, I came up with at least the beginnings of a plan.
The next lesson, I showed my students one of the short videos again. This time, I had them gather in front of the SmartBoard without anything in their hands to distract them. After watching, I challenged them to return to their seats and record as many observations as they could. “What did you see?” I asked. I offered a very small prize for the student who could list the most observations.
Then we repeated the process.
Not surprisingly, they found this challenging. But I noticed that when distractions were minimized and students knew that their main goal was to continually observe, they appeared to be far more settled and focused on the video. More importantly, they reported unanimously that they noticed many things they had missed during their first viewing.
Experiment complete, I resumed our lesson for the day.
The following class, students were completing a guided watercolor tutorial in preparation for their free choice work in that medium. Usually, I prepare supplies and get them started as quickly as possible. This time, I directed them to observe first.
We repeated the exercise. I put an image of the piece they were about to create on the SmartBoard, and set a timer for 2 minutes. They stared. I encouraged them occasionally. “Don’t give up!” I whispered when I saw a student’s eyes begin to wander. “Only 30 seconds!” I added as they approached the 2-minute mark.
My students told me that observing a single piece of art was “WAY harder” than focusing on a video. I validated their responses and commended their efforts. But guess what: the watercolor paintings they created that day were easily the best work they had done all semester.
Is it possible that their sudden success was a coincidence? Of course. But I don’t think so. The quality of my students’ work suddenly increased, in June, with no other identifiable cause. It felt like a little miracle, and I find myself excited to repeat this activity in future lessons and with future groups of students, to see whether the results can be repeated.
Interested? Here are 5 Observational Activities for Every Subject.
These can be done with any piece of art or object of students’ attention. Graphs, data sets, film clips, pieces of music, photographs, natural environments and even hallway bulletin boards all present opportunities to build students’ observational skills.
Observe and List
Set a timer for 2-3 minutes and instruct your students to just notice. It is helpful if they don’t have anything in their hands, and if they are close to whatever they need to look at. If they are listening, it will be helpful for students to close their eyes.
When the timer goes off, allow another 2-3 minutes for students to list as many observations as they can. Their responses can be single words or phrases.
I set another timer and encourage students to keep going by telling them when they’re at the half-way mark. If you like, encourage students to engage by offering a very tiny reward to the person who is able to list the most items. It’s important that the goal is quantity over quality. Otherwise, you risk discouraging students and shutting down their efforts.
If you do this often with small prizes, you can level the playing field by awarding the prize to the student with the most improvement instead of the most overall items on their list.
Observe. Sketch. Observe. Adjust.
Set a timer for 2-3 minutes and instruct your students to just notice. It is still helpful if they don’t have anything in their hands - not even their pencils - and if they are close to whatever they need to look at.
Hide the art piece or object of students’ observation, if possible.
Set a timer for another 2-3 minutes and encourage them to sketch.
When the timer goes off, allow one more minute of observation. No pencils or drawing allowed! Hide the piece again when viewing time is over.
Allow students one minute to adjust their sketches. Discuss or share as you see fit.
Observe and Discuss
Decide on partners ahead of time. Ideally, partners should not sit/stand side by side, as they will be tempted to share too early.
Set a timer for 2-3 minutes and instruct your students to just notice. It is still helpful if they don’t have anything in their hands and if they are close to whatever they need to look at.
Hide the art piece or object of students’ observations, if possible.
Have students find their partner and share what they saw. If discrepancies exist, this is a great opportunity to talk about our brains’ abilities to fill in predictable details and make assumptions, and to emphasize the importance of observation. After discussing, feel free to put the piece back up so students can check it - or not! Sometimes, living with a bit of unsettling ambiguity is good practice.
Observe & Instruct an Artist
Decide on partners ahead of time. Choose one partner to be the observer and another to be the artist. The artist should not be able to see the piece of art or object of students’ observations.
Set a timer for 2-3 minutes and instruct your students to observe. It is helpful if they don’t have anything in their hands - not even their pencils - and if they are in close proximity to whatever they need to look at.
Hide the art piece or object of students’ observation, if possible.
Set a timer for 3-4 minutes. Instruct the observers to describe what they saw, and the artists to do their best to sketch it. Observers may not help artists draw! Be prepared for laughter and a little bit of sheepish embarrassment here, and help students keep the mood light.
When the timer goes off, allow one more minute of observation. No pencils or drawing allowed! Hide the piece again when viewing time is over.
Allow observers one minute to add to their instructions while artists add to their sketches.
Discuss or share as you see fit. You may repeat this activity with a second art piece to give partners the opportunity to swap roles.
Observe the Art Piece & Observe Your Emotions
This activity is best for students who are already fairly comfortable observing in an objective way. If students are new to this activity, it is helpful to choose an art piece or other object of focus that is intentionally amusing, intense or even off-putting (though still age appropriate and sensitive to students’ histories, both known and unknown). This will make it easier for students to identify the emotions the piece evokes in them.
Set a timer for 2-3 minutes and instruct your students to notice what they see. All of the usual conditions should apply here: nothing in their hands, eyes closed for listening, etc.
Instruct students to observe both the art piece or object of observation AND their own emotional reactions to it.
When the timer goes off, ask students to record their emotions. You may need to normalize students’ discomfort here: remind them that it’s okay if they aren’t absolutely sure of their answers, or don’t have words that seem exactly right. A favorite phrase of mine is, “The only wrong answer is a blank page.”
I wouldn’t recommend requiring anyone to share with the group during an activity like this one, but if students are open to sharing then a brief discussion of how they felt, and theories as to what it was that made them respond that way, may be helpful.
Tip: if students are new to emotional vocabulary (and most probably will be), provide a list of emotions, like this one from The Hoffman Institute for their reference.
Like what you see here? I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
When You Have a Bad Day.
Bad day? All teachers have them. Here’s how you can turn things around with gratitude.
Wonderful teachers have bad days. Here’s how I turn things around with gratitude.
Actually, it wasn’t that I had a bad day. It was a whole week of bad days put together. My week started with a bit of workplace gossip that weighed on my heart, continued with doctor’s visits to address a misdiagnosed ear infection in my understandably miserable six-year-old, and finished with ruined weekend plans.
Stuff. Happens.
My beautiful little house is a disaster zone, my to-do list is miles long, I feel frazzled and drained, and even though I tried my very best, I know I let at least a couple of people down.
So… what next?
Logically, I know this has been the best school year I’ve had in a long time. In the past seven years I’ve had two complicated pregnancies, been a toddler mama during a pandemic, ended my marriage and started a new job. My previously conventional and fairly comfortable life was scrambled like eggs in a frying pan. Through sheer determination and a little bit of grace, I came out of it all standing on my own two feet, with two healthy children and a tribe of wonderful humans by my side.
I’ve learned to set boundaries like never before. I’ve learned to differentiate between what matters deeply and what truly doesn’t. I’ve learned that although it’s possible to find people who will hurt you if you let them, the world is mostly filled with decent human beings who are happy to help if you ask.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that “my life” is just a story, or a series of perceptions, and that I get to decide which experiences are worthy of my attention.
Gratitude for Teachers
As you’ve probably heard, gratitude is very good for us! This is supported by many scientific studies as well as the wisdom of countless sages. (Want examples? Send me an email!)
So at the end of what felt like a whole week of bad teacher days, I’m going to count my teacher blessings.
I invite you to join me in practicing some teacher gratitude of your own as you read along with me. If you’re really in a funk, just pick 5 prompts to lift your spirits. Spend some time thinking about each the things that come to mind, and allow the weight to lift a little as you do.
15 Things I’m Grateful For:
I work as part of an incredible staff of human beings. They care about children and they care about each other. If someone needs help, it’s provided. If someone needs a kind listener, they’ve got one. We have so, so many laughs. If you’re reading this, you know who you are, and I am grateful for you.
*Who, on your staff, makes your job and your life feel better?
We work with incredible children and families. Of course there are challenges, but our students are kind, diligent and highly capable. They come from families who care about their children and about us, their children’s teachers.
*Recall a student or group of students you’re grateful to teach. What is it that makes you enjoy working with them, or gives you a sense of purpose?Over the years, I’ve been privileged to work with outstanding educators and leaders. The bar has been set sky high. Many of these educators and leaders are dear friends today.
*Who are the educators and leaders who have inspired you? Who pushes you to be the best you can be, and who demonstrates compassion when you don’t feel like you’re at your best?
I work in a profession that allows me to learn, laugh and make a difference, every single day. These are little words with big significance. I get to learn, matter deeply, and laugh often. Every day!
*What do you get to do each day that you genuinely like doing?I have many past students who keep in touch, sharing their successes and sending pictures of their young families. An actress I once taught just invited me to see a play, and a parent of a past student just sent me her college graduation photos. It’s truly amazing to think that my impact on these students was significant enough that they want to share their successes over a decade after I taught them.
*Can you think of past students you’ve worked with who you’ve run into around town, or who shared their gratitude for you?I work in a system that allows jeans, every day! And hey- sometimes, the little things matter!
*What does your system or school get right?I have a permanent contract in a jurisdiction that pays public teachers relatively well. I still work many hours and never turn off my teacher- brain, but I have job security while raising my children as a single mama.
*What does your contract provide that benefits your life?I work as part of a collaborative team. I lead a team of ten teachers who are responsible for the learning of 300 seventh graders! The Social Studies unit I’m currently teaching was planned by a trusted colleague while I planned the novel study we’re working on. Our end of the year field trip has been planned by another teacher. Working this way is efficient and, more importantly, it brings us closer as a team. We get to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
*Where in your job do you get to feel like part of a community?I begin every single day with tea from the coffee shop on my way to work. It’s my own little luxury, and it makes every morning better.
*What little luxuries do you allow yourself? Stop and appreciate them!I’ve lost count of how many carts of computers my school has. We don’t have a computer for every child, but I can access computers for my classes nearly every period that we need them. Two new carts of chromebooks have been added just this year.
Several years ago, my school was visited by two Maasai Warriors. They spoke of sharing a single pencil between two students when they were children, because resources were THAT scarce. What a gift it is, to work in an environment where students are provided with such incredible resources!
*What resources do you have access to that make your work easier, or that benefit your students in a big way?Speaking of resources, I work in a brand new building. That means new everything- new audiovisual equipment, a new 3D printer, new Smart Boards in every classroom. A new library collection specifically curated to highlight diverse voices so that every child sees themself in our school. A beautiful foods room with stainless-steel everything, a fully functional construction lab I know very little about, and a gorgeous art room with granite tabletops, two kilns and beautiful but practical storage.
*What elements of your physical school building are you grateful for?My teaching allows me to own a beautiful little home that fills me with gratitude when I walk through the door. It’s a home where my children feel loved and free to be themselves, and where I do, too.
*Consider the material blessings bestowed upon you because you teach. What do you love about your home? Do you ever pause to appreciate the roof over your head, your furnace/air conditioning, or running water? These are luxuries that no one had only a couple of centuries ago!Last year, for the first time, I taught with a past student! This student made beautiful progress during their middle school years, and had reached out years later to share that I had inspired them to become a teacher, and they had just been accepted into an education program. And suddenly there they were, teaching down the hall! I have a few stories like this one, and they fill my heart every time I think of them.
*What student successes do you celebrate each time you think of the children you’ve taught in the past?I have a few, dear-to-my-heart teacher gifts: perhaps my favourite of all the gifts I have ever received was a tiny, hand-sewn pouch of sweetgrass gifted to me by an indigenous student. Her gift seemed to say, “thank you for seeing me and honoring my light.” She was a soft spoken and kindhearted child. I’ve kept the pouch for years, and it reminds me of her every time I look at it.
*What special gifts have you received from students and parents that touch your heart and help you remember your impact?Summers off! As teachers, we know that we NEED our summers to recharge and reset. But still, how many professions allow so many weeks of unscheduled time while the sun is shining?
I can’t wait for SUN, hiking, time with loved ones, a slower pace, fresh local fruit, and special activities with my children.
*What are YOU most looking forward to this summer?
After writing this list, my body relaxed and so did my heart. And you know what? The weekend plans were restored! I encourage you to make a gratitude list of your own and to put it somewhere visible. What is your teacher heart grateful for?
Like what you see here? I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
Five New Ways to Beat Spring Fever in Middle School
Beat spring fever in middle school!
It’s the end of the year! The pull of the summer sun and the much-anticipated, unstructured months ahead can lead us all to a less focused, increasingly dysregulated place.
In our classrooms, we see amped-up behaviours and distressing drops in productivity - all at a time when testing, final projects and looming report cards mean students and staff alike must demonstrate even greater productivity and focus than is usually expected.
Spring fever is real. Spring fever is normal. Spring fever is the result of changing routines, positive expectation and even dread. Remember, for some students, the summer months represent the loss of the most reliable routines and people in their lives.
So. What can we do to help ourselves and our middle schoolers beat spring fever and keep it together until the very end?
Here are my top 5 strategies that help my students (and me!) keep it together:
Direct instruction of social emotional skills: building student self-awareness
Mindful moments: guided mini-meditations
Add occasional novelty and fun!
Talk about it! Real, honest conversations matter in middle school
Put yourself on your own list. Look after YOU.
1. Teach social-emotional skills: Self-awareness is the key!
I’ve taught self-awareness skills for years at this point, sometimes directly and sometimes woven more subtly throughout my work. It’s magic. Most students automatically adjust their behaviors once they become aware of them.
These mini-lessons and discussions do take a few minutes each. But you’ll easily get those minutes back when your classes progress more smoothly!
The Ripple Effect:
I recently did some simple math with my own seventh graders to help them understand the ripple effect, and then shared the concept with all 550 sixth and seventh graders at my school.
I asked my class, “How many people do you think you interact with in the course of your day?” They agreed that almost all students their age interact with at least ten people each day for more than a few seconds.
I asked them to consider how those interactions would go if I, their teacher, had been in a good mood and we had had a good class as compared to how they would go if I were in an awful mood and they left my class feeling terrible. The difference was easy to imagine.
Here’s the math:
I teach approximately 90 students each day
If each of those 90 students interacts with 10 people per day, my minimum impact could be estimated at approximately 900 people-and that only includes members of the community who interacted directly with the same people I did! Each of those people has their own ripple, so my impact can be truly staggering.
No pressure, right?
I asked my students if they, too, have an impact on all of the students in their class. They agreed without hesitation that they do. Based on their attendance in two different class groupings, that means that each of my students has an impact of approximately 600 people every day.
Just like us, students are often more motivated to change their behavior if it’s for the benefit of others. When they realize the sheer size of their impact, they begin to reconsider the way in which they show up.
2. Mindful Moments
“What are you paying attention to?”
The simplest mindfulness exercise I use with middle schoolers is this prompt. It takes less than 60 seconds. Before you begin, students should be mostly listening. As you talk, lower the volume of your own voice, and begin to slow your pace as well. Here’s a rough script:
“I’d like you to notice what you’re paying attention to right now. Is it a sound outside the room, a thought about something that happened last night, or a thought about something that’s coming up? There’s no wrong answer, and you don’t have to share. Just notice.”
Give a few seconds’ pause. Watch their bodies still as they become more present.
“Nice work. Now that you know where your attention has been, I’d like to ask you to bring it back to where it needs to be right now.”
“Text a loved one” visualization:
This brief meditation has never failed me, whether I was guiding ten-year-olds, fourteen-year-olds, or adults. Its impact is quick and beautiful. Try it yourself, or use the steps like a script in your classroom.
Close your eyes and think of someone you really, truly love to be around. This could be anyone- a family member, a friend, even a pet.
Picture a time when they made you smile or laugh. Pick a memory from the past week or so, or one that you remember clearly. Really picture it, in as much detail as you can. Imagine their face, what they were wearing, where you were, what you were doing. Fill in all the details. (Pause while they visualize).
Now, as you picture them in your mind, imagine that you’re sending them a text message, saying thank you. Tell them exactly what they do, or did, that made you so grateful. Tell them how much better they made your day, or your week, or your whole life. Imagine pressing “send,” and knowing that the message is about to reach them. Take a deep breath in as you enjoy that feeling of gratitude, and then, when you’re ready, open your eyes.”
Mindfulness Tip: you’ll see your students relax as they do these exercises, and the energy of the room will change. Allow yourself to be calmed as your students calm, and enjoy a deep breath or two along with them. When they’ve settled, begin or return to the lesson gently to allow the feeling of contentedness to continue for as long as possible.
3. Add Occasional Novelty and Fun!
Despite our exhaustion, this is the time to bring small, happy changes into your work. Do something new and noticeable.
My seventh graders recently participated in book clubs for the diversity and inclusion novel studies we’ve been working on, and you’d better believe I brought table cloths and asked their parents to send in treats to add novelty and excitement, all while I demanded they “up the ante” with their small group discussions so late in the year.
I still marked the discussions and recorded anecdotal evidence for my report cards. But I did it in a way that felt memorable and made them feel seen. I took pictures (with parent permission) and posted them on Instagram.
Other examples include a short walk outside, a change in your classroom furniture or bulletin boards, the inclusion of an art piece such as a short film or relevant piece of visual art, sharing a snack, laughing at “dad jokes,” offering a riddle or puzzle to be solved for a prize, incorporating extra games, making art - there are many, many possibilities. Your small efforts to make things feel enjoyable will go a long way towards keeping your students engaged in the work that still needs to be done.
4. Talk about it! Real, honest conversations matter in middle school.
Validation
Remind students that you “get it.” Invite them to share what they’re excited or frustrated about, briefly, if that seems appropriate. When they pause to really consider it, our students KNOW their behavior isn’t always within expectations.
Whether you open your space for extensive sharing or just provide the occasional reminder, acknowledging that the struggle is real - that students’ exhaustion or their desire to be out in the sun is understandable - validates their feelings and can help them re-engage.
Sharing your own struggles
Last semester, I was overwhelmed by new report card expectations. My students know that my report cards took me thirty hours, start to finish, and that I was exhausted and grumpy by the time they were finished. They also know that I learned from that experience and am far more prepared this semester.
Sharing my student-appropriate struggles reminds my students I’m human and shows them I can empathize with how they’re feeling. When they feel seen, they resist less and cooperate more.
5. Put yourself on your own list. Look after YOU!
As far as I’ve ever seen, there’s no such thing as balance in teaching. No one ever feels like they’ve done “enough,” or “got it right.” No one feels like they can do it all. It’s simply NOT A THING.
At a certain point - preferably far before burnout - you must pause. Take a nap. Meditate. Cut yourself a break and go for drinks between teaching and writing report cards, or crash alongside your toddler at bedtime only to crawl straight into your own bed from there. Stop at your favourite place in nature on your way home. Take a dance break or crank your favorite song on your way to work. It will all get done, or it won’t! Summer will come either way.
I’m not telling you to throw in the towel, and I do walk the walk. I understand how challenging it is to find the time to put yourself first: I spend a minimum of one full hour in meditation, every single day. I speak from experience: you will regain any time you devote to boosting your mood or finding stillness (and probably more!) because you will be SO much more productive throughout your day.
Prioritize yourself for just a moment, even if it means you have to curb the expectations you set for yourself. Choose one of these reminders and put it somewhere obvious so you can see it throughout the day:
I teach because I care. Taking care of me IS caring for kids.
Kids need to see me look after myself, even just a little. (I wouldn’t want my own children or students to ignore their own needs.)
Done is better than perfect. “Done” is probably much better than I think!
It will all get done, or it won’t. Summer bliss is coming either way!
I’ve done it before! I already KNOW I can do this!
Like what you see here? I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.
I don’t know! …But maybe…
Supporting disengaged middle schoolers.
Have you ever prompted your class and run into a chorus of “I don’t know?”
This little bonus post includes a solution! It also includes a free printable poster to help you remind students what they can do when they don’t know.
Just here for the poster? Scroll down!
Let’s say you’ve presented a question or challenge, and students shrug, tell you they don’t know, and then somehow assume they’ll be off the hook. In my experience this response is most likely when I’ve asked students to do something new, or challenging. Because most students are new to discussions of emotions within their academics, the “I don’t know” shrug is especially likely when I first make this request.
“I don’t know” is only half of the problem! The other, hidden, sentiment is often something along the lines of, “and also, I would rather not figure it out.”
This isn’t about blame. If we unpack further, “I would rather not figure it out” can mean so many things:
“I’m afraid.”
“I’m embarrassed.”
“I’m thinking about something else in my life that, quite frankly, feels more important at the moment!”
The disengaged “I don’t know” is an issue of resilience. Many students need help knowing what to do when they don’t know, or how to persevere when their emotions are rising. For whatever reason, they assume that stating their ignorance is sufficient, and you’ll either leave them alone or jump in and save them. Don’t do it!
In order to be creative thinkers and problem-solvers, students need to be comfortable with ambiguity. And in order to build their resilience, they need to see that they can find plausible solutions despite their doubts and big emotions. Kids and adults alike need to see the often-uncomfortable feeling of not knowing as an opportunity and then push beyond it to consider possible solutions.
Next time you ask a question and get a disengaged “I don’t know” in return, prompt your student by continuing their sentence:
“But maybe…”
You may need to:
Reassure them that their guess doesn’t need to be correct.
Remind them that it’s okay to not know, but it’s not okay to do nothing about it.
Be (gently and kindly) persistent in pushing for their best guess. Or any guess.
When they do give you ANY kind of answer, treat it as a legitimate response and help them move forward to build trust.
Sometimes students really are at the edge of what they can handle, and pushing them past the edge won’t help. But far more often, they can do more than they think! A little nudge in the direction of uncertainty can be exactly what they need.
If you’re experiencing this on a very regular basis, you may want to address it with your whole class. I know that when we returned to the classroom in the weeks and months following the Covid lockdown, my students’ resiliency skills were at an all-time low.
I’ve attached a poster here based on the one I used to help them move towards greater independence in their learning. Make as many copies as you like, and refer to it often so your students will catch on!
I used to get so frustrated by the chorus of “I don’t know.” With the help of “but maybe…” I’ve encouraged my students to be resilient and almost completely eliminated it.
If you’re experiencing this too, try out “But maybe…” It will make all the difference!
Interested in specific Art Freebies? Check out Middle School Art for Busy Teachers or my Spark & Reflect activity! They’re free!
New Approaches to Teaching the Elements of Art and Creative Thinking
Elements of Art Reflection & Creative Thinking Activities
Use the Elements of Art in Art Class OR…
as a Creative Way to Teach Metaphor in ELA or Core!
One way you can really amp up your students’ work - in any subject - is to use the Elements of Art alongside metaphor to build your students’ creative thinking skills. If you’re teaching Art as its own subject, you may begin by focusing students’ attention on the use of these Elements in a technical sense. I can tell you how!
If you’re looking to build creative thinking in English Language Arts or other Core subjects, or if you’d like to boost creativity in your Art students, then the Elements of Art become a tool for teaching metaphorical thinking. Metaphorical thinking is an important element of creative thinking: when students create strong metaphors, they begin to see things differently and find solutions they hadn’t previously seen.
Student-created metaphors also provide a beautiful assessment tool for teachers, because they allow us a glimpse of students’ thinking processes. Your assessment should be based on the comparison students have made, unless you’re teaching visual Art. More about this later!
If your students are brand new to the Elements of Art, introduce the Elements a few at a time. In my curriculum, students are introduced to line, value and texture in one year. The remaining elements (colour, form, shape and space) are taught the following year.
How you pace instruction when introducing the Elements of Art depends on your students and your goal for the lesson, but I will caution you that the “all at once” approach is quite overwhelming for students. I’ve tried teaching all seven Elements at once, and my students were lost in trying to manage it all.
I’d start with three at most. In my experience, students feel most comfortable with colour, line, value and texture and can begin to use these elements technically and metaphorically with relative ease.
KQED has a fantastic series of videos introducing all seven Elements of Art, some of which are pictured below. You can find them here.
Teaching the Elements of Art in a Visual Arts Class:
In my Art classes, I wait until half way through the semester before I introduce any elements of Art. That might sound strange, but I want students to be comfortable, engaged and gaining confidence before I give them yet another thing to obsess about as they try to attain “perfect” results in their art pieces.
Middle schoolers need a LOT of support to put themselves out there and take creative risks in their work, and focusing on specific technical skills early in the semester only makes their perfectionism worse. They need to play! They need to experiment! They need low stakes opportunities to practice and see what works.
After they’ve created a few successful pieces, students love discovering that they’re already using the Elements of Art, so this timing actually builds their confidence. AND, once you’ve introduced the Elements, many students will naturally start to use them intentionally in their free choice work. When they don’t, a quick reminder is usually all they need.
Introducing or Reviewing the Elements of Art:
When it’s time for the lesson, I ask them to put three of their favourite pieces on their tables, and hand them one sticky note for each Element we’ll be discussing. We watch one video at a time, and highlight key vocabulary words. For line, these words might include horizontal, vertical, diagonal, straight, curved, free form, thick, thin, etc.
Then students look at the pieces they’ve set out, putting their sticky beside the piece they feel best illustrates that Element. On the sticky note, they explain why they chose that piece. They should speak directly to the words you highlighted as a class in their explanation.
Assessment:
You can begin to assess students’ work while they complete it. Just walk around the room, clip-board (or laptop) in hand, and make as many notes as you can! If you’re expected to provide personalized comments on your report cards, this is also a great activity for gathering anecdotal evidence! When assessing students’ work in this activity, I look for the accurate identification of each Element and students’ use of the vocabulary.
Creative Responses using the Elements of Art as Metaphors
Using the Elements of Art to build creative thinking skills requires a slightly different approach, but I think it’s equally - or perhaps more - effective. Metaphoric thinking is so important as a creative thinking capacity, and it’s essential for students’ success in English Language Arts and Literature Studies. Creative responses based on Elements of Art are a beautiful way to build this skill!
You can use this activity for almost any topic, but I’m going to start with a character study because most of us will have worked with metaphor when studying a fictional character at some point.
Let’s use Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games as an example: Katniss is highly devoted to her loved ones. She cares about the underdog and hates corrupt uses of power. She’s a fighter. As a character she is strong, bold, daring, calculating, decisive, and good-hearted.
Now let’s consider the Elements of Art: Katniss is a bold, strong character, so I would use bold, strong lines in any image I created to represent her. I would use vibrant, intense colours to further accentuate this. My lines might be quite sharp to show her calculating and decisive nature, but I might also use rounded shapes filled with depth of colour (think ombre) to illustrate the depth of care she shows to her loved ones.
I might represent her high level of maturity and responsibility by repeating a series of shapes or colours to show consistency and dependability, or by including dark colours or heavy shapes to show how weighed down she sometimes feels.
Here’s how this kind of thinking might look in a graphic organizer:
Sample planning for creative response
Once students have considered the Elements of Art, you can ask them to create almost anything as their product. If they’re new to this process, I would suggest that they all create the same thing, with plenty of built-in flexibility.
For example, they might create abstract portraits in silhouette, like the ones shown here. You might provide a small paper (4x6 is plenty) and ask them to fill it to create an entirely abstract piece. Or, you might ask them to identify one symbol of their character or topic, and create that symbol using the Elements of Art they’ve brainstormed.
Grade 7 historical character studies
If students have experience with this or a similar process, you could give them more freedom to create a visual piece that represents their topic. At its most open, this assignment could include any art form: poetry, music, dance, drama, film, etc.
It may be tempting to give students complete free choice right away, but you will likely see better quality with a more guided approach at first.
Assessment:
When students have finished creating, collect their graphic organizers AND their creative pieces for assessment. In the character study example, you’d be looking for students’ inferences from texts and their ability to find evidence (quotes) to support their inferences.
It’s essential to remember that while there may be obvious wrong answers, there is not one right answer to this activity. If students can support their thinking, they should receive credit.
You’ll also be looking for their ability to communicate their understanding in an alternate/visual form, and checking to see that they’ve actually created the bold lines they said they’d be using.
Finally, if you display the pieces, you should display at least some of the graphic organizers or planning sheets alongside them so that the thinking process is evident for anyone viewing your display.
In both of the activities I’ve shared here, you’re likely to run into a few disengaged “I don’t know” shrugs from students who feel that your ask is too far outside of their comfort zone. We expand our comfort zones by stepping outside them, so it’s OKAY if they feel a bit uncomfortable! Remind them that the only wrong answer is no answer, or try out the “I don’t know but maybe…” strategy in my next post.
How else can you use the Elements of Art in Core subjects to invite students to demonstrate understanding? The opportunities are endless!
Historical character studies: use the same process as above
Understanding any kind of change: before and after any historical event, character development in a novel, parts of a life cycle in biology
Discussion of themes in pieces of literature or a series of historical events
Exploring historical or current events from different points of view (do the above process once for each point of view)
Explaining the function of components of a system, such as in anatomy in biology or simple machines in early studies of engineering
Comparing various energy sources in or types of thermal energy in physics
If you like this process, you might also like my Spark & Reflection process for integrating the arts into core subjects. Need an easy Art Lesson to provide basics before you assign free-choice work? Check out Middle School Art for Busy Teachers!
Integrating the Arts & SEL into Core
What is Art without heart?
I was going to launch heART in the Classroom as a place for teachers to learn to teach visual arts. I’ve been teaching visual art in some capacity for a long time and it’s integral to the way I teach every subject. I really and truly love it.
But without heart, what is Art?
I watch students - and whole communities - grapple with anxiety, loneliness, depression, and questions of self-worth. Many of my loved ones navigate anxiety and depression, and I’ve had my own journey of anxiety and resilience as well. I can’t help but wonder: what are we teaching in schools, really?
The truth is, I care deeply about humans. My own deep empathy for the suffering of others has driven much of my journey:
I decided to study child & adolescent mental health as part of my Master’s work after a student in my homeroom took an entire bottle of pills during lunch time (they survived, but it was a hard day).
I ran a service learning club with dozens of students that raised over $25 000 for social causes.
I integrated emotional literacy and self-awareness throughout my work to support the well-being of the community in my classroom.
Going forward, I will absolutely share the visual arts strategies I’ve learned over the years. I’ll include content about how to integrate the arts - visual and otherwise - into Languages, Social Studies, Science and even Mathematics. And I’ll share what I’ve learned about helping humans of all ages live with heART.
I try to show up in the world with my full heart on the table. As a teacher, I’m best when I’m learning and sharing my own stories. I don’t get it right every single time, but I think that’s part of the journey. If any of this sounds like you, or strikes something in you, I hope you’ll continue to join me for the adventure. My site will be growing over the upcoming weeks and months and I’d love to have you along for the ride!
Like what you see here? I’ll be posting every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out the free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.