Yvonne: So, if these umbrellas have something to do with Art… what activities do we
have to do together to get to the end point of a great art work? That’s something we’re
going to think about, and those activities become an umbrella. What do you reckon that
one represents? Think about your lino prints… think about activities…. What sorts of
things did we have to do to get to that lino print? What types of things did we do?
Students: Planning.
Y: Okay, I’m just going to write these down as we go. Planning…. What did that
physically look like? What do think the planning physically looked like in your book?
S: Notes on what you’re going to be doing.
Y: Oh, that’s great… Notes on your… idea, is that alright?
S: Yep.
Y: Ok… notes on your idea… what else did we have to do to get to that final umbrella?
S: We did like research and stuff and drawings…
Y: Yep that’s really good. Does everyone else agree that research was important?
S: Yes.
Y: What else did we have to do to say that was it? We’ve got planning, we’ve got
research… come on guys, when we did those lino prints, you got good at lino printing.
How did you know how to do it?
S: We experimented.
Y: Excellent. And what did that look like in your book? The little lino….
S: Sample.
Y: Yeah, the sample. We did a little one and we tested it out. What did we do in the
middle to really understand what is in an artist’s head?
S: Critical Analysis.
Y: Yes! You guys are so smart. Okay, get ready… you now are going to set up your
own term. You’ve got to decide and you should be able to know now, that each
umbrella has to have something in it. You know, like last term when we had the
assessments? We’ve got to have certain things in our umbrellas. A great artwork has to
have this word here… what is it? Idea, in the planning… it’s got to have research, it’s
got to have a critical analysis and it’s got to have an artist’s statement. So I want you to
build your own project, so each of those umbrellas you’re going to write what the things
are that help you to build your project. This time, I want you to work it out, I don’t want
to tell you… Remember it’s your book and it’s your project, but we’re deciding together
what the important things are that need to go in it to make it decent.
Again, after the meaning of “the umbrellas” was established for students, they could then go
about actively constructing their learning with a degree of agency and in an autonomous manner.
Students were able to make decisions about their art forms, their areas for research and what they