English teachers -- WHY art assignments???

[Anonymous]

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.”

No they were explicitly told they could not trace and I’m telling you that my kids have been graded down on the quality of their artistic work. I’m an amateur artist and I love art but my kids are different and they cannot do it. It’s bad enough they have to struggle through art classes where people mock their product and the teacher gives them sad face….i just don’t understand why the English teachers have to grind them down as well.

It builds character

[Anonymous]

This is a ridiculous conversation. There is no reason at all for forcing a child to illustrate their understanding of a reading. Fine, give the kids options but for kids to be graded on "art" for an English class is ridiculous. My kids were fine with these assignments but I certainly would not have been (no artistic talent). Give the kids a choice-write or illustrate. If you are really going to force the issue then let kids type and cut out pictures.

For those that say complain to the principal, they aren't going to intercede.

[Anonymous]

Is this Waldorf??

I agree that English class assignments should not be graded on artistic skill. Some of us just are not skilled at visual arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a ridiculous conversation. There is no reason at all for forcing a child to illustrate their understanding of a reading. Fine, give the kids options but for kids to be graded on "art" for an English class is ridiculous. My kids were fine with these assignments but I certainly would not have been (no artistic talent). Give the kids a choice-write or illustrate. If you are really going to force the issue then let kids type and cut out pictures.

For those that say complain to the principal, they aren't going to intercede.

You would look ridiculous complaining if only one or two assignments out of many include an art component. Interdisciplinary projects are encouraged these days

[Anonymous]

My kid is very not good at art. Honestly if they had an art project for a non-art class I would help them with it. There is no logic to why a literature class would have a rubric that based grading on quality of drawing skills so I would not consider that cheating.

[Anonymous]

You can't be surprised that a school system that can barely teach most kids to read would rather grade them on their drawings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can't be surprised that a school system that can barely teach most kids to read would rather grade them on their drawings.

Reading well cannot just be a school responsibility. Parents need to stop handing cell phones and laptops to elementary school kids and need to make sure they are reading books at home.

[Anonymous]

All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Nope. When I was in school every essay was given 2 grades, one for content and the other for mechanics. My teacher was a stickler and there were times I had do many errors that the deductions dropped the mechanics grade to zero. I certainly didn’t like it, but I learned. You can’t improve if you don’t understand what needs improvement. The purpose of school is not to get good grades, but to learn. Grades are merely a rough indicator of how much learning has occurred. If my kids can’t write, I want their teachers to reflect that in their grades, and then teach them how to improve (which will likewise be reflected in higher grades).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Or my kid who can’t draw well has a disability that impacts their finger dexterity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is very not good at art. Honestly if they had an art project for a non-art class I would help them with it. There is no logic to why a literature class would have a rubric that based grading on quality of drawing skills so I would not consider that cheating.

Parents help do homework all the time. Of course none of this is cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Or my kid who can’t draw well has a disability that impacts their finger dexterity.

Teachers know what accommodations are needed in their classrooms - people can adapt, and you can help your child understand this. Students can do a collage tearing art paper and gluing it on a poster board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Or my kid who can’t draw well has a disability that impacts their finger dexterity.

So because one kid has a learning disability that affects his reading, we are going to no longer do any reading because god forbid we ignore their disability.

Want your kid to get a 100% "perfect" and individualized education? Home School them.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, I'm going to just start putting this stuff up for a vote among the whole class, let kids make their arguments in a well structured debate of ideas, and the majority will decide how the assignment is going to be handled. If 75% of the class wants some sort of art component to the assignment then the other 25% will just have to learn to be more persuasive. That's how the real world is going to work. Might as well teach them now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you parents who say your kid can't draw well, I hate to break it to you, but they can't write very well either. If your kids got the grades they actually deserved on writing assignments, you'd complain about that as well.

Or my kid who can’t draw well has a disability that impacts their finger dexterity.

One of mine does too. It’s not in his 504 because it’s not generally an issue and it’s such a pain to go back and request it be edited to this dumb assignment. He has a no handwriting accommodation but he’s supposed to be able to draw???

My other kid just hates it and is terrible at it. She’s beyond frustrated that they’ve only read one book all semester and would be happy to write an essay instead. Or read another book and write an essay.