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
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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
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%||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).
50 ART EDUCATION / MAY 2006
Drums Set the Mood, 1985
(Sketchbook #66, p. 72).
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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).
MAY 2006 / ART EDUCATION 51
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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.
52 ART EDUCATION / MAY 2006
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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).
MAY 2006 / ART EDUCATION 53
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