Read and React: Play, Play, Play!

Play has always been an essential part of learning. It sounds like something you shouldn’t say too loud in a public school! But it’s true, children learn from birth by playing with the world around them. When we learn to play with a purpose, with a particular goal in mind, and become completely engaged in that act then we are getting the most out of what we are doing. This is true for students in today’s schools. Don’t call it play if that bothers you but when our students are using what they learn by synthesizing it, manipulating it, experimenting with it, and using it to find solutions there is a great deal of learning going on and engaged “play” or “experimentation and practice” is seating the learning. When we learn by doing and by trial and error we are using more of our senses and more of our minds are engaged.

In Art class this type of learning is achieved by letting the students try different approaches to materials used and learning from trial and error. Studio classes can provide instruction on technique but if all the students do is copy technique then they are not creating an individual piece. Exploring techniques and letting them use them to make pieces they create will engage the students in learning and aesthetic qualities and styles. The environment created in Art class should always be one of learning from every experience whether the outcome is what the student wanted at first but viewed as a learning experience. Our students will stretch their abilities with an Art medium when we let the students find their own solutions and we as teachers become guides available for questions when needed, or a coach that helps out when things don’t work as expected.

Another aspect of play is just plain having fun, enjoying what we’re doing. There are businesses today that incorporate some kind of play into their work days. I watched one on T.V. where they all took their dog to work with them. That seemed like a different way to try to make the employees day more enjoyable but they were on the right tract. Being engaged and enjoying what they do in the future are things we wish for all our young people so why not demonstrate how that can happen in school. When students are allowed to play with Art they will learn that they were able to do things they may not have tried. When we say play with purpose the “purpose” may make it sound contradictory but what it means is don’t just give them materials without some purpose to make of them. Students can play with shaping clay for a whole class period and not keep anything but they will become familiar with the material and how it handles and they will come up with ideas for what they would like to do. (Hetland) Then the next class period they can finish a sculpture to keep. Gaining skills working with medium takes time and unfortunately we don’t get as much time with students as we’d like. Art lessons need to incorporate playing with materials and playing with ideas along with all the other learning objectives we can give them.

Resources:

Hetland, L. (2007). “Studio Thinking: The real benefits of visual arts education.” New York, NY: Teachers Press