English teachers -- WHY art assignments???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

When I was in HS, my English teacher often gave options — pick 2 of the following 5 options. One of them might be artistic, like doing costume design for a play we had read. One might be writing a poem or song inspired by the novel. The other options were generally essay based.
The real world actually does typically have options. You can choose your job in part based on your preferences and once in your job there are often options about how to express yourself. I typically give associates working with me an option of writing up their research in a memorandum or meeting with me to talk through what they’ve found, or both. I assume that, as a teacher, you also have some options about how to present your material?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What are you talking about? Let’s say my kid is blind but is able to read braille. If the English class required them to match colors would you tell me my kid should fail or be home schooled? This is why accommodations exist, but when teacher do something that is outside the normal teaching pattern for that subject it often is not covered in an accommodation plan.

Trust me, my kid isn’t competing with your kid to be a professional calligrapher.

[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.

Maybe someone should teach them. We could have a whole class for it. Nah, easier just to have them make a slideshow.

[Anonymous]

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.

I don't know any English teacher who is grading based on artistic ability. Neatness and effort, sure. And I'm sure that you and your non artistic kid could handle that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

She should have marked it down. No following instructions and having your parent do your work should result in deductions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

As a parent of a kid with serious OT issues, you are making a mistake by never requiring your child to do handwriting for assignments. Handwriting works in tandem with neural development. Typing just doesn't have the same results. And I am also saying this as a high school teacher who suffers through reading really bad handwriting.

[Anonymous]

Art like Reading is a skill that can be improved upon and both helpful and useful outside its domain. It’s another form of communication and expression. Why should it be relegated only to its domain just because it’s not some kid’s strong suit. Nobody complains about reading or writing in history, or using math in Science, or being required to use English in Art.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stickman drawing works perfectly fine for ELA homework. Most kids like this and the point is not about making perfect drawings but about presenting your understanding of the concept.

I'd say let your children communicate with their teacher about whether they can write extra paragraphs to earn the points. For a 9th grader, they should be able to communicate with the teacher instead of just complaining to their parents.

A teacher is not going to listen to a 14 year old complaining. The parent would have to have an IEP or disability hardship excuse.

[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.

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).

You’re one of the only parents who feels that way. When teachers try to grade honestly, the complaints from parents come flooding in. Ms. S. gave my kid a C and it has crushed my kid’s self esteem, etc. And we aren’t allowed to give zeros any more for all task assignments assuming the student turned something in even if it was all gibberish. And giving even one zero on an all task assignment means we are supposed to email parents about it. MCPS does not want to get rid of grade inflation and they come up with ways to make it a huge hassle for teachers to grade honestly

[Anonymous]

I love how most parents are completely clueless about how to teach and what constitutes good teaching but consider themselves experts. Their measure of a good teacher is whether their kid is happy and has a good grade. Obviously that is one component but there is so much more to it. No wonder so many teachers just give basic easy assignments. Because administrators and parents don’t complain when everyone has an A or a B. Who cares if the kid is being pushed to actually learn anything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Maybe if you got an IEP when you were in school you wouldn't have emerged completely ignorant like you are showing yourself to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stickman drawing works perfectly fine for ELA homework. Most kids like this and the point is not about making perfect drawings but about presenting your understanding of the concept.

I'd say let your children communicate with their teacher about whether they can write extra paragraphs to earn the points. For a 9th grader, they should be able to communicate with the teacher instead of just complaining to their parents.

A teacher is not going to listen to a 14 year old complaining. The parent would have to have an IEP or disability hardship excuse.

I’m a teacher. You’re correct. I’m not going to listen to complaining.

But if the student would like to come to me with a reasoned, polite request for a modified assignment, I’m happy to consider it.

[Anonymous]

Why complains and not come up with a solution. My left handed kid is not good at cutting and doesn’t draw well at all even though he can print legibly.

When he has to do an art project in and English, science or history class he prints out a picture or illustration then taps it to a window where there is direct sunlight from the back. He holds up a blank piece of paper to outline the illustration.

Then I have bought him quality alcohol based markers. I bought him Copic brand when they go in sale. He watched some YouTube videos his to use them. They really do make any type of drawing you color in look 10 times better than cheap markers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

She should have marked it down. No following instructions and having your parent do your work should result in deductions.

Which part of existing keyboard accommodation did you have trouble understanding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why complains and not come up with a solution. My left handed kid is not good at cutting and doesn’t draw well at all even though he can print legibly.

When he has to do an art project in and English, science or history class he prints out a picture or illustration then taps it to a window where there is direct sunlight from the back. He holds up a blank piece of paper to outline the illustration.

Then I have bought him quality alcohol based markers. I bought him Copic brand when they go in sale. He watched some YouTube videos his to use them. They really do make any type of drawing you color in look 10 times better than cheap markers.

Impressive. Kudos to you and your kid. Most kids and parents prefer to just complain