When thinking about next year, it is safe to say that getting it right with the artists is perhaps the most important thing of all, if you are going to use the Invisibles and the student jobs. So this post starts a series of nine articles over the next week on just them:
These one word image drawings are from Anne’s gallery in Maine. She accompanied them with a wonderful celebratory note to me, one deeply appreciated:
…I don’t know if I have ever thanked you properly for the OWIs and Invisibles. As I look at the back wall of my classroom it strikes me that this has revolutionized my teaching like nothing else ever has. So much love, fun, and esprit de corps shining through those ridiculous beautiful pictures. THANK YOU!…
I thought I would take this opportunity to share some ideas about the artists, the most important of the 17 student jobs by far. I am now of the firm opinion, and it’s something to think about for next year, that not putting the artists into play in the classroom at maximum efficiency could strongly affect the year you have. Can you say you did these things this past year w your artists? –
“There are two artists. One is the primary artist who draws the outlines of the pictures with bold markers, and the other is the colorist – helping the primary artist by filling in colors with colored pencils or crayons, sketching, helping to add in the details of the story as they occur, consulting with the storywriter next to them, etc. These two students spend a lot of time together and conflicts can develop, so it helps if they are friends. The primary artist is in charge and has artistic license and can even choose her assistant, pending your approval of course.
“Artists who can quickly produce attractive and accurate drawings keep their jobs until they are fired or quit. The finished product has to be big and accurate and simple and colorful, with bold lines details that can be easily seen from anywhere in the room. Sloppily drawn artwork that is hard to see brings the entire process down, and with it, the language gains.
“It is important that the drawings be simple. Too much detail, sketched in haste, with images that are too small to see from across the room, causes confusion and hampers retells. The drawing must accurately reflect the story. Details can be added in side windows inside each panel, but simplicity must be the key design element in each frame.
“Being the artist isn’t some kind of ‘fun thing to do’ on any given day, to be handed out to the students who get their hand up first. This is misinterpreted in many CI classrooms. We don’t hire people in real life simply because they want to do the job but because they are qualified to do it. So it should in our classrooms.
“The class’s artwork (in the form of one word images), in particular, is far too important to leave to just anyone—it is a point of group pride; it glues the class together and forms the most important component of each class’s identity and fosters interest and competition with other classes.”