English teachers -- WHY art assignments???

[Anonymous]

I had it added to my son’s IEP that he could fulfill any dumb art projects with digital images or other equivalent. He had had a keyboard accommodation for many years. This new term was after the English teacher made the kids do a handwritten, illustrated Greek mythology alphabet project in which she specifically said in writing “no stick figures - you must do real drawing”. This was in eighth grade. I made the executive decision to let him type out and cut and paste the text into a flip book, and then found some kind of collage. Yours truly did any “coloring in”. It took a project that should have been enjoyable to something where there was a lot of screaming and crying because my kid is afraid of “getting in trouble” if he doesn’t do the teacher’s method, which he really didn’t want to do so he procrastinated until two days before it was due. She did mark it down because of the typing, even though she was supposedly aware of the keyboard accommodation.

It’s nice to let kids do something creative, but let them determine how.

[Anonymous]

Okay, the sense I’m getting here is that the teachers replying don’t actually give a sh—t that this is very stress inducing for some kids.

Message received.

[Anonymous]

The cynic in me says this is about making it easier for the teacher to grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:English teachers, why do you assign projects that require illustrations, creating colorful posters, etc.? Isn't English supposed to measure your capacity to read, write, and understand what you have read and write? My child has MAJOR, EXTREME challenges with art. Like used to sit and cry in preschool when coloring was assigned because it was so stressful. He's an excellent reader and writer! He loves literature! But he will likely fail this project because he really cannot create a colorful poster with illustrations. Why do you do this to students? Why can't you assign alternatives, like write a 5 page essay OR create a colorful poster? Why are they graded on their art skills in English?

Basically all my children hate these "art" assignments in their non-art classes. My youngest child spent hours trying to make an illustration for an English class, and the teacher gave them a bad grade because they said it looked like they had drawn it in 5 minutes. This is a 9th grade English class, not an art class! Why can't they actually read a novel, instead of spending time on art projects?

I love you.

Boycott the assignment. Complain to the principal if it affects the grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree. This is the choice board BS assignment that is the last CT for 9th grade. Kids can choose to write or do a video or art project or podcast or whatever. They’re supposed to be graded on their character analysis and thinking about the play, whatever form their final project takes. I hate it, too!

What's wrong with "write or do a video or art project or podcast or whatever"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I agree there should be an alternative assignment option. The art ones used to make my kid miserable. He would agonize over them and endure so much stress, and for what? Even if fun for the majority of kids, why put the others through it when it is not even pedagogically pertinent?

Because regular English assignments make some kids miserable and we force them to work at it and engage in the struggle and do their best and learn and improve even when it’s hard. Those are good experiences for your child to have too. Not everything is easy, and these assignments are valuable precisely because they flip the script on which kids it’s hard for and which kids it’s easy for. Teach your kids there’s value in working hard at something that doesn’t come easily to them and stop complaining that teachers give assignments your kids aren’t naturally good at. Believe it or not, communicating through pictures is also an English class skill - political cartoons, propaganda, marketing, advertising. All different types of relevant English course skills and knowledge.

That’s all fine and good but some people literally cannot become artistic. We can all be taught the basics of grammar and punctuation and structure of writing and improve. But some of us could take 100 art classes and still not be able to draw beyond a stick figure.

You 100% can get better with instruction and practice. You won’t be gifted, but you can improve. Lots of kids go to school and spend all day doing tasks in which they will never be gifted and will never find them easy and will never end up with as good of a product as Larlo over there. It’s ok for your kid to also experience that feeling once in a while.

Also, no non-art teacher is going to dock your kid points because an image on a poster was traced rather than drawn free-hand. It may not be possible for your kid to get to “impressive” but they can get to “serviceable”. The problem OP is describing is a kid who is used to easily producing “impressive” work and can’t handle the fact that on this project they may work really hard and only get to “serviceable.”

Right, it's not like art is all about talent whereas other fields are not... I hated sports growing up, I still had to do PE. I was a bad runner and became somewhat better over time. I was bad at music and became somewhat better over time. I do actually have some artistic talent and have also improved over time by practicing more. Everything has a nature and a nurture component, not sure why it would be different for art.

We have art class to teach art. English class doesn't teach art; it just demands art.

[Anonymous]

Evergreen complaint.

Here's last year's: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1251505.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree there should be an alternative assignment option. The art ones used to make my kid miserable. He would agonize over them and endure so much stress, and for what? Even if fun for the majority of kids, why put the others through it when it is not even pedagogically pertinent?

Because regular English assignments make some kids miserable and we force them to work at it and engage in the struggle and do their best and learn and improve even when it’s hard. Those are good experiences for your child to have too. Not everything is easy, and these assignments are valuable precisely because they flip the script on which kids it’s hard for and which kids it’s easy for. Teach your kids there’s value in working hard at something that doesn’t come easily to them and stop complaining that teachers give assignments your kids aren’t naturally good at. Believe it or not, communicating through pictures is also an English class skill - political cartoons, propaganda, marketing, advertising. All different types of relevant English course skills and knowledge.

That’s all fine and good but some people literally cannot become artistic. We can all be taught the basics of grammar and punctuation and structure of writing and improve. But some of us could take 100 art classes and still not be able to draw beyond a stick figure.

You 100% can get better with instruction and practice. You won’t be gifted, but you can improve. Lots of kids go to school and spend all day doing tasks in which they will never be gifted and will never find them easy and will never end up with as good of a product as Larlo over there. It’s ok for your kid to also experience that feeling once in a while.

Also, no non-art teacher is going to dock your kid points because an image on a poster was traced rather than drawn free-hand. It may not be possible for your kid to get to “impressive” but they can get to “serviceable”. The problem OP is describing is a kid who is used to easily producing “impressive” work and can’t handle the fact that on this project they may work really hard and only get to “serviceable.”

Right, it's not like art is all about talent whereas other fields are not... I hated sports growing up, I still had to do PE. I was a bad runner and became somewhat better over time. I was bad at music and became somewhat better over time. I do actually have some artistic talent and have also improved over time by practicing more. Everything has a nature and a nurture component, not sure why it would be different for art.

We have art class to teach art. English class doesn't teach art; it just demands art.

It's wild that English teachers can grade on art, but social studies teachers often are not allowed to grade on spelling and grammar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an English teacher, I often add visual components to assignments but students have an option to draw or find images from the internet that support their understanding. A lot of times it will be asking for a Google slide presentation where each paragraph is on it's own slide that has some sort of creative visual appeal to it. It's basically the same 5 paragraph essay but now it allows students to express themselves.

Why can’t students express themselves in an essay? Isn’t expressing themselves IN (written) ENGLISH one of the main goals of an English class? If they can’t express themselves in a 5 paragraph essay, it seems they need more practice writing 5 paragraph essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son with dysgraphia and spatial awareness issues cannot draw beyond stick figures. He took a digital art elective in high school during the pandemic, because he didn't really know what to take, and the teacher gave him As because he saw DS was doing his best and that he mildly improved throughout the class compared to first attempts

However, I still, theoretically, support interdisciplinary projects, OP. It's good for creativity and self-expression.

BUT ALSO, I greatly deplore the lack of rigor of the current MCPS English curriculum. Our kids should be learning to write long-form essays and studying much more complex literature starting in 9th grade. English teachers have too many kids to properly guide them through essay writing with the feedback they need, so first we need more English teachers and smaller classes.

The HS English curriculum is an embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cynic in me says this is about making it easier for the teacher to grade.

No, it is a legitimate assignment if constructed to add meaning. It hopefully is fun too - don't underestimate the role of fun in education. If a student needs an accommodation to enable a different kind of assignment, this should eb done. case closed.

[Anonymous]

It’s so that the dumb kids who can’t read and write can still get As.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s so that the dumb kids who can’t read and write can still get As.

This too.

[Anonymous]

I agree that being able to visualize your understanding of literature could be good, and that also not siloing along the lines of PP pointing out equations aren't just for math but also for physics (and I might add other sciences).

But my ASD son has endured not only poorly described "art" assignments in his 9th grade English class but also an assignment requiring him to write and perform a song. I can see needing to illlustrate concept as a real life skill but..really? Not sure how to draw the line here. We have simultaneously been too lax and too ridiculously serious about schooling for so long in this country.

[Anonymous]

I'm the English teacher that likes letting the kids do slideshows where they can choose to add images and color if they prove. I am also the English teacher that has not given a grade higher than like a 95 on a single assignment all year.

100 students in my class. Only like 17 As and none higher than a 94%. This is how it's going to continue to be until other teachers also realize they should stop grade inflation.