30 years of planning: an artist-teacher's visual lesson plan books

National Art Education Association

30 Years of Planning: An Artist-Teacher's Visual Lesson Plan BooksAuthor(s): George SzekelySource: Art Education, Vol. 59, No. 3 (May, 2006), pp. 48-53Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696147 .

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An ArtffitTeacher's Visual Lesson Plan Books

BY GEORGE SZEKELY

for 30 years I have used a sketchbook as a powerful tool for

teaching the visual arts?a tool for visual thinking and

lesson planning.After graduation from art school, using sketchbooks as a teaching tool seemed like a natural thing to do.

I conceived and sketched my lessons visually and kept them in

sketchbooks, which I still have and cherish. I browse through these sketchbooks to reconnect with these earlier ideas.

John Michael (1983) refers to the power of visual understanding when he suggests, "The visual symbols developed by artists

help to grasp unique information that

cannot be transmitted through other

modes of communication.Visual artworks

permit us to go beyond verbal language since many of our senses and abilities are

involved in producing and experiencing a

work of art. Individuals possess both

verbal and visual abilities and should be

given the opportunity to develop both

creatively" (p.4).An artist's work is

defined through many sketchbooks.

Sketching, or visual planning, promotes a playful search for ideas. In my sketch

books I have always felt free to think, do, and try anything. In personal, rough, yet beautiful drawings and diagrams, I was

able to capture and reflect on creative

spaces, unusual setups, adventures, or

actions for the art room. Planning visually

has helped me keep in mind that planning an art lesson is a design for a work of art.

An art lesson is not a lecture, so why

plan for it as a speech? What will be seen and experienced in an art lesson is

as important as what will be said. Since

children's art inspiration comes from

multiple sources, plans cannot focus

exclusively on what the teacher will say. Some written plans tend to focus on a 3

minute introductory speech.Visual plans are not cue cards or scripts for a lecture.

They are detailed and sequenced designs for an entire period.Writing and outlining limit possibilities by abstracting an art

lesson, while sketches bring teachers

closer to the reality of seeing and experi

encing it.Through sketches, I can enter a

room and design spaces and events that

speak and support what I have to say. Visual designs contribute to our sensing the drama in an art lesson.

In his classic paper,"The Function of

Images," Professor Francis Bartlett (1920)

stated,'T consider that most certainly the

image is relevant to the process of

thinking. I would go infact further and say that in proportion as the form of thinking is to be given genuine material to work

with, so more and more images must be

utilized in our thinking process" (p. 320). Visual planning is significant because it

describes the diverse ways in which

people think.Art-trained people visualize

their plans and ideas in sketchbooks .To

imagine an art lesson as a written script can be difficult for art students.Writing lesson plans can take away the magic of

envisioning a lesson, bringing it to life as a

work of art. In a visual plan the creative

mind is free to roam and compose with all

the visual possibilities in an art room.

While other teachers are taught to write

lesson plans, art students in my classes are

trained to think and plan visually in the

studio and to plan art lessons as visual

communications.A student's education in

art often emphasizes drawing as an alter

native form of seeing, thinking, and

planning.Art education encourages teachers to consider students' different

learning styles, and I support the use of

different planning styles.

Above: Pull Toys on Parade, 1992

(Sketchbook #79, p. 11).

48 ART EDUCATION / MAY 2006



Art teachers can sketch ideas for what

is to be seen, explored, and experienced

by students.Among our many challenges is to speak about what is visual and to

inspire students about lines, forms, colors, and spaces through creative displays,

performances, play, or imaginary

journeys. In maintaining our unique content, art teachers can utilize their

special abilities to sketch and diagram

ideas, making art visible.

As an art teacher, I lead a double life?

filling in squares in a plan book for the

principal, while sketching and designing lessons in separate sketchbooks. Like

some artists, I started by keeping sketch

books that steered the progress of my art, led me from one work to the next, and

held my hopes and future ideas.Artists

plan visually, and art teachers are

sophisticated planners who value their

planning style.

Artists can describe their thoughts and

ideas in great detail if provided a sheet of

paper.Artists efficiently offer vivid

descriptions and uncover great ideas in

the process of drawing. Visual plans help artists discover new lesson ideas, since

they are already used to searching their

environment and taking notes visually.An art lesson can also come to life on paper.

Try sketching instead of writing up your next art lesson, and what may be difficult

to talk or write about might materialize in

great detail on paper.

Sketching visual plans of an art lesson

can help to sharpen the lesson's visual

nature.Visual plans can transport the

viewer into a room to see the entrance,

changes in furnishings, lighting, and new

elements. Sequence of movements, intro

ductory plays, surprises, and celebrations

can also be sketched in visual plans. Visual plans underscore our uniqueness as artists in a school and help us preserve this uniqueness.

In the use of art media, visual plans

speak the language of art, are fun to

create, and resemble art projects.Visual

plans support creative and individual

planning styles, suit the artist's creative

spirit, and capture the flow of artistic

thinking.A visual planner is a private book and not a public document. It is a

place to commit ideas in the raw, to

search, to refine, and to build plans of

action.

Before an art exhibit, a keynote presen

tation, or a daily art lesson, I need to see

the room or at least a picture or floor plan of the space. For me the art room is a

canvas, so my visual plans encourage

seeing it as a space that reveals what the

lesson will look and feel like when

installed.Visually planned lessons provide

blueprints for room changes and installa

tion?what needs to be moved or

imported and how the room will be set

up. Michael's (1983) perspective frames

the range of visual plans;"The arts

penetrate to the core of every human

activity where there is a concern for how

things look, for harmonious order and

organization" (p.3). Plans for what is to be

seen and experienced are best developed

visually and promote constant thinking about an art lesson as a visual

presentation.

Visual plans underscore

our uniqueness as artists

in a school and help us

preserve this uniqueness.

I have found that the sources for

lesson ideas and plan books should

be shared in class. Teaching art is

defining our idea sources so that art

students learn independence and confi

dence in finding their ideas and strength

ening their abilities to create their own

art plans.To understand where art lesson

ideas come from is an important aspect of

Student lesson plans, 2001.

teaching art for all grades.Visual lesson

plans are like picture books that are easily

opened up to an audience of fellow

artists. Students who see our plan books

learn about the origins of our ideas, places we have in common, and our environ

mental and interior sources.When

teachers share their visual plans, they

demystify art and teach their students that

art is planned from sources accessible to

everyone.

I remind future art teachers that there

are many ways of planning, and one is not

necessarily better than another.As McFee

and Degge (1977) argue, "Educators have

stressed learning through thinking,

writing, and speaking with words almost

to the exclusion of learning to see and

draw.Yet in both systems we identify,

separate, relate, analyze, organize, and

express ideas and feelings.We use our

intellect and emotions in both" (p. 17).

Typically, education students prepare showcase lesson plans to demonstrate

their knowledge of the subject and how

to apply it in theory to a teaching situation. Students often complain about

sweeping lesson plan formulas that

require such skillful interpretation. For

most teachers, practical on the job lesson

planning must be self-taught, but the

visual plan is hands-on, fun, and can be

easily adapted to individual planning

styles and the requirements of daily

teaching.

The conceptual basics of a visual

lesson plan include the following:

1. Visual planning emphasizes an art

trained person's abilities to envision an

art lesson, to see it in space and picture it in details.

2. Visual plans help teachers to see the art

room as a canvas and the art lesson as

something to be installed and visually

presented to the student.

3. A visual plan emphasizes what is to be

seen and how an art lesson can be made

visible as an experience that inspires student artists.

4. Through visual planning, art teachers

are more likely to consider the visual

aspects of their message and how that

message can be exemplified through

objects, performances, and the details of

a room.1

MAY 2006 / ART EDUCATION 49



%||mple Sketchbook Pages

jjldie Pistolesi (2001) writes about the

-^^^finportance of masterfully delivering art

teaching thoughts:"Visual ideas must be

delivered in powerful, masterful ways and

may have everything or nothing whatever

to do with traditional forms" (p. 17).The

pages here are from my own plan books

and from my students' sketchbooks.They

represent visual lesson plans, descriptions of events, arrangements, performances,

displays, and the animation of objects in

an art room.These plans include trans

forming spaces and surfaces, creating

plays with furnishings, and experimenting with art room sound and lights.Visual

plans help to challenge the visual content

of an art room and mix it with borrowed

objects in a "show and tell" about art and

beautiful things. Illustrations show

creative performances by the teacher

along with student plays used to introduce

each lesson. Plays involve students in the

active reception of a lesson and the invita

tion to respond visually. Written excerpts from the back of visual plan book pages elaborate on the illustrations and clarify

displays, object arrangements, events, and

planned surprises.

Inflatable Beach Scene Clouds inside a pillow, a see-through

radio, and a yellow plastic backpack are

among the display items on the boardwalk

gift shop shelf. Sketched as piggy-backed school desks, the souvenir shelves display inflatable items.A boardwalk souvenir sign is bathed in colors from a rotating Christmas tree light. Benches hint at the

boardwalk, including an inflated Furby ,

penguin, and elephant.The nearby ocean

is contained in a series of inflatable play

pools. My story of growing up around

Brighton Beach is recreated by a series of

inflatable forms set into the art room.

My visual plans carry notes on the back,

general and specific thoughts about the

lesson. On the reverse of the first

illustrated page are these calligraphic comments:

The art lesson should be a break from

school routines and have a magical

quality, able to transport kids to

imaginary places. It should not just be

a presentation but a source of inspira tion for everyone entering a special room.The setup of the lesson should

allow students to feel like children.

Our art time in our school is called

specials, and there should always be

something special about it. Recalling formative personal stories, welcoming new collections, and preserving the

excitement in the "show and tell" of

beautiful objects is a mission of the

art class.

Drums Set the Mood A full-size 1940s parade drum balances a

vintage parade major's hat and whistle

from about the same period.At the center

of the room, facing the door, the well-worn

drum leads a line up of antique Fisher

Price play drums from the 1940s and '50s, along with a large selection of litho

graphed party noisemakers from the turn

of the century housed in a Shirley Temple doll trunk .The sketchbook also illustrates

a red Radio Flyer wagon filled with tribal percussion instruments from Kenya,

Mexico, and India. In the picture, instruments are spaced for easy access

to students who will enter the room.

The following statements are under

lined on the back of the page: The art lesson needs to wake up kids

from their school slumber, altering

moods, moves, and frames of mind.

The sounds and sights of drums,

participating in a parade, or just

getting up and moving playfully, creates the initial bang. Every art

lesson should be as much fun as the

best birthday party kids dream about.

Also... kids are very interested in art

history, but they care about the visual

history of different objects more than

adults.The history of toy drums, pull

toys and other children's objects can

be built into each lesson.

Inflatable Beach Scene, 1973 (Sketchbook #44, p. 16).


Drums Set the Mood, 1985

(Sketchbook #66, p. 72).



Pull Toys on Parade (see p. 48 this issue) A 100-year-old top hat?the kind you

, flip to open?rests inside a black leather

hatbox. Encircling three Hula-Hoops are lines of old and dusty pull toys (a side note in the sketch). In the picture, colorful feather dusters of all pedigrees and colors are placed in spokes inside

the hoops.The toys will need to be

dusted but the dusters, with such

character, will double in other

performing roles on the next page.

The page turned reveals more secret

notes in red:

Waking up, dusting, old and creaky

toys and hearing a great story about

their attic hiding place starts the

lesson.It all takes place on the floor...

desks are for school work and floors

for playing and art! We need to play and dream with kids; it will not be done by anyone else in school.There

are typical school moves for reading and writing, made to a school scale,

approximately book and notebook

sized, typical school materials and

presentation styles which do not

have children in mind. Children

dream of giants and are fascinated by

"Polly Pocket" scales.They are

excited by bedtime stories, not

school lectures .They pioneer the use

of art materials such as Band-Aids ,

pencil shavings, and gum wrappers. Art teaching is preserving authentic

children's art based on dedicated

observations of children's play.

La Bamba Dances Opening the center space of the art

room clears a dance floor.The canvases, or paper ponchos on which dancers will

draw, are placed in piles on the floor. In

the visual plan, a fancy tape recorder on

which a child has painted is the jukebox for the dance. Streamers line the walls

and ceiling, and a wooden fruit crate

stage is decoratively dressed in the back

of the room.A toy guitar and play micro

phones placed on the crate's stage await

lip sync performers.

The notations for this visual plan read:

Kids who love surprises should

never know what to expect when

they open the door to an art room.

An art lesson should be a joyful

pause in the school day.To begin an

art lesson plan, I dream of great celebrations. Instead of the typical... "This is what we are going to do

today" I dream of taking kids to a

circus, a parade, a hunt for treasures, a great concert, or a dance. It requires

considering what will be seen, heard,

The value of an art lesson

is not just expanding on

the teacher's experience,

(the teacher's plans), but having meaningful

experiences on one's own.

Play is the closest state to

being an independent artist searching for ideas.

what to wear, what to show, and

what will be fun. Let's consider

designs for inspiration and not just for providing information. Play and

shop before making art so that

children have opportunities to

discover their own ideas.The value

of an art lesson is not just expanding on the teacher's experience, (the teacher's plans), but having

meaningful experiences on one's

own. Play is the closest state to being an independent artist searching for

ideas.

La Bamba Dances, 1995 (Sketchbook #97, p. 33).




Itinerary for a Magic Carpet Ride, 2000 (Sketchbook #101, p. 11). Student lesson plans, 2001.

Itinerary for a Magic Carpet Ride Carpets from Asia and Africa, as well as

Native American pieces, are lined up over

school floor tiles.The small carpets follow

tape markings that simulate an airport

runway The carpets are drawn "clear for

take-off" with floor fans behind for a

proper lift .Teddy bears sit as co-pilots on

each magic carpet .Turbans (towels),

steering wheels (the lids from pots and

pans), toy cell phones, and binoculars are

drawn into the plan as carpet accessories.

Chunks of cotton are labeled as puffy clouds at a distance. Below the clouds, Matchbox cars speed past Monopoly houses and over adding machine tape

highways to distant views.

The following quotes are from the back

of this drawing:

A fun way to learn about the history of carpet art (just as I learned to love

oriental carpets from earning my allowance by combing the fringes of

our carpets in Hungary).An art

teacher who flies with kids becomes a

trusted artist-colleague. Never lose a

sense of fun and childhood dreaming which best connects us to students.

Start lessons with opportunities to fly, treasure hunt, shop, and explore.As

landscape, still life, or aerial artists, kids have to be involved by making their own still-lifes, landscapes, or

overhead flights .Art always comes

from the artist's interests and experi ences and not a planned art lesson.

Suggestions for Visual Lesson Planning

My lesson plans are always sketched out

over many pages, but not always in a spiral notebook or traditional sketchbook. I am

always looking for unusual papers, such as

a book of target paper or music notation

pads. I always enjoyed making visual plan books. Most artists value and learn from

old sketchbooks, yet few place equal

importance on preserving lesson plan books which can be just another example of their art.

While the artist's mind is the primary

drawing tablet, sketching thoughts validates inner visions and helps to store

and expound on them. Having records of

momentary and fleeting ideas makes

them useful in later editing and assem

bling. In the car, on the night table, in my

pocket?there is comfort in having an

idea book nearby. Such books invite

notations and confirm the seriousness of

the task.Art planning is a full-time job and

lesson ideas quickly come and go; they need to be quickly plucked and ready for sketching. Using pictures to design art

lessons encourages playful thoughts and

sketchbooks are a good place to turn

when one feels a lack of ideas.Active

sketching, turning pages back and forth, and looking at old and new entries can

build daring lesson ideas.

Entrance Path Diagrams. Turn a

corner, walk down a hallway, open the art

room door, and what will be seen? The

entrance and first impressions that shape the art lesson can be sketched.The

drawings of inner visions make visible

many special features of an art lesson's

design.

Preliminary Plays Sketched. To begin a lesson as an exciting event, diagrams

help to decide on the props, placements, and accessories needed to create the

mood. Pictures help the viewer to see the

introduction not as a speech but as a live

event.

A Full View of the Art Room. Only a

picture can show the full view of the art

room dressed with all the subtle changes

envisioned, both before and during a

lesson.A sketch or picture is a blueprint of

everything that needs to be done, noticed, and performed in the art room.

Activities Visually Sequenced. Visual

diagrams clarify what will be seen first,

next, and the changes in actions and

scenery. Illogical or awkward transitions

in an art lesson are immediately seen and

easily unscrambled in pictures.

Use of Art Room Canvases. The art

room has several giant demonstration

areas or canvases on which an art lesson

can be inscribed.The planner can sketch

innovative designs for the setup of walls,

floors, ceilings, windows, doors, chalk, and

cork board surfaces?all of which

comprise the visual field of a room.




Student lesson

plans, 2001.

Sketching Show-and-Tell Displays. Art appreciation or "importing the

museum" by sharing vintage objects and

the latest finds in toys, prizes, school

supplies, and children's clothes can be

detailed in drawings .The lesson planner can sketch unique, small events that

distinguish each lesson and, by sketching, can visually plan the nature of unwrap

ping ceremonies and the surprise

placement of displays.

Shopping Sites Defined. Old travel

cases with sporty decals, well-traveled

instrument cases, hat boxes, interesting

backpacks, and family pocketbooks can all

be designed as official shopping sites.

Sketching shopping locations helps students to develop their own material

lists.The art teacher can design a lively material search made specifically for each

art lesson.

Drawing Classroom Fashion. The

teacher's unusual apron pockets, Post-It

notes, or paper hat collection can comple ment the message of a lesson. Fashion

designs can suggest the meaning, theme, and the quality of celebration required for

each art lesson.The lessons can also

contain sketches of trunks through which

students can browse and the set-ups for

trying things on before a mirror.

Noting Lighting and Sound Ideas. Each art room has several light controls,

switches, and windows, which can be

defined for each lesson. Lighting diagrams can call for the use of flashlights and other

festive or mood lighting. Even if not heard on paper, there are sound tracks to an art

lesson?noises and musical notations can

be diagrammed.

Lesson Endings Sketched. Moving from the art room into the world, the end

of a lesson needs to be a memorable

component of visual plans. More attention

is focused on lesson endings when they are planned as visual events, parades,

performances, and shows involving the art

created.

I have mentored all preservice under

graduate students who pass through the

teacher-training program at our university with their own visual plans. Because we

are permitted to add our own questions to

the colleges student evaluations form, each semester I query my students about

planning art lessons visually. Student

comments have included statements like,

"I feel better prepared walking into

the art room with a visual plan. I can

easily see what needs to be arranged and how things should be set up

when I come into the room."

"Visual plans make a lesson real to me, I can see it, I can picture what I need

to do."

"My plans are filled with notes and

lists ... visual plans are flexible, so I

can sketch the room and the flow of a

lesson and write notes to myself."

"When I prepare a lesson with a

marker on a drawing pad, I feel that

I will be making an art work, that

planning an art lesson is a work of art

that requires my creative thoughts ...

it reminds me who I am and what

I do best."

Summary The art room is our canvas, and all

furnishings and objects are our art

supplies.All art room surfaces and spaces can be used to communicate an art lesson.

Artists in all media plan visually, and art

lessons should be planned and preserved as are other works of art.

As a young art teacher, I felt it was

important for my students to learn about

my artist self, so I planned to set up an

easel in class to work along with the

children. Unfortunately, my plan did not

work.Through the years, however, I

became more convinced that it is the

many small creative acts that we perform in the art room, perhaps more than

individual art lessons, that create lasting

impressions on our students. I remember

Ms. Bissiri who put up her framed

paintings in her room. Mr. Williams had us

"warm up" on the chalkboard and took

attendance by signed drawings. Students

who were once in my classes still remind

me of my many exotic hall passes they

proudly carried to the rest room. Sharing

my drawings in plan books, as do archi

tects, fashion designers, choreographers,

painters, composers, and other artists, is

one of the small ways I define my artist

self which I hope will create important lessons for students.

George Szekely is Professor and Area Head of Art Education in the College of Fine Arts, University of Kentucky, Lexington.

E-mail:gszekOWpop. uky. edu

CES

Bartlett, F. C. ( 1920).The function of images. British Journal of Psychology, XI, 320-337.

McFee,J.,& Degge,E.(1977),^4r/, culture, and environment. CA: Wadsworth.

Michael, J. (1983) Art and adolescence. New YorkTeachers College Press.

Pistolesi, E. (2001). Good art education is good art. Art Education, 54(5).

Szekely, G. (1988). Encouraging creativity in art lessons. New YorkTeachers College Press.

Szekely, G. (2005). The art of teaching art. (3rd edition). MA: Pearson Education.

ENDNOTE Visual planning by students is discussed in detail in my books Encouraging Creativity in Art Lessons (1988, pp. 103-106) and The Art of Teaching Art (2005, pp.37-96).




30 years of planning: an artist-teacher's visual lesson plan books

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