A Child's Drawing Analysis
As a pre-service teacher and a general classroom teacher, it is of utmost importance to get to know your students and especially the ways in which they learn, as well as their background. By integrating art into the classroom, it can help to teach each student in the best way possible and allow the child to be met at his or her level. By analyzing student art, teachers and individuals are able to see deeper into student development. Artistic development is seen in a holistic view by today’s theorist, “recognizing the interaction of social, physical, emotional, moral, language, and esthetic development, in addition to cognitive development (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006, p. 6)”. After analyzing a piece of children’s art, I was able to place the student in the “Gang Age” stage of “drawing realism.” Generally, these children are nine to twelve years of age. This stage is known for greater awareness of details, a disappearance of a base line, and omission of body parts to show emphasis (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). By understanding details and characteristics of this stage, teachers and specialists are able to better teach this student and others alike.
Although this piece of children’s art could be interpreted as having influences from both the Schematic and Gang stage, this drawing hints more toward the Gang Age Stage for several reasons. For one, many children focus on using only base shapes in order to draw their figures, but this particular child starts to use more curved lines to create more life-like arms. There is a greater awareness of details when looking at the eyes and hair of this creature. The eyes are symbolic of an actual human or animal, as well as the hairline has greater detail than previous artistic stages. Although the hair is colored in, there is no understanding of shading or shadow, which is consistent with the Gang Age stage of drawing realism. In previous stages, many children use a “base line” to start their drawings and focus their figures to one area of the paper, in the Gang Age stage, children start to use a plane and the base lines starts to disappear; this is what this child has begun to do, there is no base line, although the figure is within the middle of the page (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). After the child had drawn the arms on the figure, he placed the arms where the hands would not show in order to show dominance and a standing of “hand on the hips.” This shows space representation within the Gang Age depicting the beginning of interrelationships between objects as well as omission of body parts to show emphasis (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). As many earlier stages, figures can be “wiggly” and less rigid, but as this picture stands, it is more stiff, a human figure representation of the Gang Age, a dawning of realism.
Although many of the characteristics of the Gang Age fit this children’s drawing, there was a slight move towards the Schematic Stage because of two characteristics. In this particular drawing, the child did not have much overlapping of shapes besides the overlaid mask on the face of the character, but this can still be counted as overlap, which is not a characteristic of the Schematic stage. This drawing also showed the legs with volume, but not the arms, which was hard to choose because the Schematic stage is known for the arm and leg volume, but this can be pushed aside because of the unique arms moving towards the Gang Age stage. Although there were a few characteristics within the Schematic stage, there were abundant in characteristics parallel to the Gang Age stage. This is apparent immediately because of the disappearance of the base line, as well as the omission of the hands by the hips. The Gang Age Stage is apparent in this drawing because of the realism portrayed in the character on the page.
In order to best help move this student towards progress in art, teachers and specialists need to encourage their art making skills and realize the differences between this student and others. Each student is different, which is what makes art such a great outlet for deciding where students are headed and how to best assess them. Due to these differences, sometimes these can affect how a child feels about art and how hard they want to work in general, this is something all teachers need to look out for and understand (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006). Teachers also need to take great care in this student’s development and make sure not to be focused on the product, but the process this student takes in order to create an art piece. The key is not to push the student or prod them with tips and tricks because this becomes controversial when deciding if it is the teachers place to step in and help students better move through these stages (Wilson & Wilson, 1982). For this student and for all students, it is about exposure and encouragement. All students need to be exposed to different types of art in order to best succeed and move themselves through the stages in their own pace. As well as encourage all students to express themselves and use art as not only an outlet, but also an educational resource.
These days, arts programs are being pushed out by curriculums heavy in mathematics and science, while research still supports art integration to be just as important as literacy or mathematical numeracy (Erickson & Young, 1996). Students are behind in art skills in comparison to other countries and the many stages of art. Lowenfeldian stages suggest “children’s abilities to create drawings and to understand art develop in a parallel fashion to changes in their cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth,” just the same as reading a math skills develop (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). Not every student develops in the same way in any discipline, including art. Students are different according to their background, which affects art development just the same. By understanding what stage or area of art a student is in, teachers and specialists can better know the student and in return know how to best accommodate the student. In order to best educate students, teachers need to know where to start and need to know what will best help the student to progress (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006). The child who drew the drawing of the character with the mask and jagged edged pants, was clearly in the Gang Age stage, making it easier to teach him and know what kind of learning best suits him. This child was able to pay better attention to detail, as well as omit body parts in order to have a greater impact and draw more attention, but he did not have understanding of shading. These clues can lead educators and others to see his strengths and weaknesses as an artist, as well as reference these details into the general education classroom. Although these ideas are based upon research, some may say this can lead to ignorance or even too much focus on the artistic side of the child, rather than the rigorous subject including mathematic and the sciences. But, without being introduced or becoming familiar to these ideas, students can end up slipping through the cracks and learning strategies can be misinterpreted. In order to know each student in the best way, art can lead to teachers knowing more age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate tasks and lessons in which each student would best be suited for in the classroom and elsewhere (Luerhman & Unrath, 2006). By being aware of better ways to educate and better ways of reaching students through art, teachers can focus on each students attributes to better know them as a whole-student.
Works Cited
Brittain, W.L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and Mental Growth. New York, NY.
MacMillan Co. pgs. 474-479.
Erikson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What Every Educator Should (but maybe doesn’t) know.
School Arts, 40-42.
Luehrman, M. & Unrath, K. (2006). Making theories of children’s artistic development
meaningful for pre-service teachers. Art Education, 6-12.
Wilson, M. & Wilson, B. (1982). Learning to Draw: Nuturing the Natural. Engle Cliffs, NY, 39-
47.
As a pre-service teacher and a general classroom teacher, it is of utmost importance to get to know your students and especially the ways in which they learn, as well as their background. By integrating art into the classroom, it can help to teach each student in the best way possible and allow the child to be met at his or her level. By analyzing student art, teachers and individuals are able to see deeper into student development. Artistic development is seen in a holistic view by today’s theorist, “recognizing the interaction of social, physical, emotional, moral, language, and esthetic development, in addition to cognitive development (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006, p. 6)”. After analyzing a piece of children’s art, I was able to place the student in the “Gang Age” stage of “drawing realism.” Generally, these children are nine to twelve years of age. This stage is known for greater awareness of details, a disappearance of a base line, and omission of body parts to show emphasis (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). By understanding details and characteristics of this stage, teachers and specialists are able to better teach this student and others alike.
Although this piece of children’s art could be interpreted as having influences from both the Schematic and Gang stage, this drawing hints more toward the Gang Age Stage for several reasons. For one, many children focus on using only base shapes in order to draw their figures, but this particular child starts to use more curved lines to create more life-like arms. There is a greater awareness of details when looking at the eyes and hair of this creature. The eyes are symbolic of an actual human or animal, as well as the hairline has greater detail than previous artistic stages. Although the hair is colored in, there is no understanding of shading or shadow, which is consistent with the Gang Age stage of drawing realism. In previous stages, many children use a “base line” to start their drawings and focus their figures to one area of the paper, in the Gang Age stage, children start to use a plane and the base lines starts to disappear; this is what this child has begun to do, there is no base line, although the figure is within the middle of the page (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). After the child had drawn the arms on the figure, he placed the arms where the hands would not show in order to show dominance and a standing of “hand on the hips.” This shows space representation within the Gang Age depicting the beginning of interrelationships between objects as well as omission of body parts to show emphasis (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). As many earlier stages, figures can be “wiggly” and less rigid, but as this picture stands, it is more stiff, a human figure representation of the Gang Age, a dawning of realism.
Although many of the characteristics of the Gang Age fit this children’s drawing, there was a slight move towards the Schematic Stage because of two characteristics. In this particular drawing, the child did not have much overlapping of shapes besides the overlaid mask on the face of the character, but this can still be counted as overlap, which is not a characteristic of the Schematic stage. This drawing also showed the legs with volume, but not the arms, which was hard to choose because the Schematic stage is known for the arm and leg volume, but this can be pushed aside because of the unique arms moving towards the Gang Age stage. Although there were a few characteristics within the Schematic stage, there were abundant in characteristics parallel to the Gang Age stage. This is apparent immediately because of the disappearance of the base line, as well as the omission of the hands by the hips. The Gang Age Stage is apparent in this drawing because of the realism portrayed in the character on the page.
In order to best help move this student towards progress in art, teachers and specialists need to encourage their art making skills and realize the differences between this student and others. Each student is different, which is what makes art such a great outlet for deciding where students are headed and how to best assess them. Due to these differences, sometimes these can affect how a child feels about art and how hard they want to work in general, this is something all teachers need to look out for and understand (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006). Teachers also need to take great care in this student’s development and make sure not to be focused on the product, but the process this student takes in order to create an art piece. The key is not to push the student or prod them with tips and tricks because this becomes controversial when deciding if it is the teachers place to step in and help students better move through these stages (Wilson & Wilson, 1982). For this student and for all students, it is about exposure and encouragement. All students need to be exposed to different types of art in order to best succeed and move themselves through the stages in their own pace. As well as encourage all students to express themselves and use art as not only an outlet, but also an educational resource.
These days, arts programs are being pushed out by curriculums heavy in mathematics and science, while research still supports art integration to be just as important as literacy or mathematical numeracy (Erickson & Young, 1996). Students are behind in art skills in comparison to other countries and the many stages of art. Lowenfeldian stages suggest “children’s abilities to create drawings and to understand art develop in a parallel fashion to changes in their cognitive, emotional, social, and physical growth,” just the same as reading a math skills develop (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970). Not every student develops in the same way in any discipline, including art. Students are different according to their background, which affects art development just the same. By understanding what stage or area of art a student is in, teachers and specialists can better know the student and in return know how to best accommodate the student. In order to best educate students, teachers need to know where to start and need to know what will best help the student to progress (Luehrman & Unrath, 2006). The child who drew the drawing of the character with the mask and jagged edged pants, was clearly in the Gang Age stage, making it easier to teach him and know what kind of learning best suits him. This child was able to pay better attention to detail, as well as omit body parts in order to have a greater impact and draw more attention, but he did not have understanding of shading. These clues can lead educators and others to see his strengths and weaknesses as an artist, as well as reference these details into the general education classroom. Although these ideas are based upon research, some may say this can lead to ignorance or even too much focus on the artistic side of the child, rather than the rigorous subject including mathematic and the sciences. But, without being introduced or becoming familiar to these ideas, students can end up slipping through the cracks and learning strategies can be misinterpreted. In order to know each student in the best way, art can lead to teachers knowing more age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate tasks and lessons in which each student would best be suited for in the classroom and elsewhere (Luerhman & Unrath, 2006). By being aware of better ways to educate and better ways of reaching students through art, teachers can focus on each students attributes to better know them as a whole-student.
Works Cited
Brittain, W.L. & Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and Mental Growth. New York, NY.
MacMillan Co. pgs. 474-479.
Erikson, M. & Young, B. (1996). What Every Educator Should (but maybe doesn’t) know.
School Arts, 40-42.
Luehrman, M. & Unrath, K. (2006). Making theories of children’s artistic development
meaningful for pre-service teachers. Art Education, 6-12.
Wilson, M. & Wilson, B. (1982). Learning to Draw: Nuturing the Natural. Engle Cliffs, NY, 39-
47.