Art Journal Portfolio

I am happy to have taken EDMA 101 in my graduating year because finally I was able to integrate what I have learned from EDART courses in the past semesters. Also, the music class was also successful with the help of my groupmates.

In this course, it was my first time to see an actual module of the Grade 7 students. I was amused by the content and the layout of the material, which inspired me to do another one of my requirements in pre practicum. I also learned more about what DBAE is and its application in making a lesson plan.

Until now, it is still a challenge for me to differentiate the visual narrative theory from the perceptual delineation theory, but I know the key point is story telling. I also remember my report about Anna Kindler's Map of Artistic Development in a previous EDART class, but I don't know where to place it here.

All I know is that I like the concept of constructivism and Contextualization in art education. I can use it in in dealing with almost any situation such as trying to understand where people are coming from. It also helps me to understand kids and help them to express themselves freely around me. I think it is one talent that teachers must have in order to promote a positive environment.

Lastly, I appreciate the use of visual journal. I have never done that before. I think that my classmates also liked it. Whenever I will see my artworks in the future, I will remember this class. It is quite important for me because this is my last semester before practicum.

I think all of us struggled in this class, especially those who suffered physical illness due to Covid-19, but I also think that what is important is that we finished strong. That is one thing to be thankful about.

Learning Competencies

The curriculum starts by informing the learner that art is created by people and is seen everywhere. It later on allows the learner to make his or her own artwork central to the self. The learning competency later on evolves to the people and the environment around the individual. Shape and texture are later on introduced as part of the different artistic elements carried on throughout the curriculum. Artistic techniques such as stencil are introduced, along with other materials found in day to day life. Learning competencies are anchored upon the different styles of Filipino artists. Different artistry of local craftsmen are also considered. Philippine transportation such as jeepney and tricycle are also to be designed by the students. Philippine landscapes are appreciated along with the rich variety of cultural communities in the country. In doing these, more art elements and principles are introduced. Later on, the competencies expected of the students involve the use of computers and software used in layouting, making posters and advertisements. In Grade 8, the learning competencies involve the analysis of the elements and principles of art and crafts by the cultures of Southeast Asia while in Grade 9, the Western art. Grade 10 is more focused on Media based art and design in the Philippines that involve integration of theatrical plays, musical sounds, songs, dialogues and dance. From all of these, I can say that the learning competencies in the Art Curriculum Guide are comprehensive and that the build up of complexity is relevant to the age and understanding of the learner. It also requires the critical and creative thinking of students in expressing themselves through art production. I also appreciate the use of technology in teaching art as well as the introduction to other disciplines where art can be integrated and vice versa.

Learning Content

The content of the K-12 Art curriculum guide covers art production, art history, aesthetics and art criticism. Art production is mostly covered through the outputs and projects submitted by the students. However, the production of their works does not stand on its own. It is grounded on the lessons and discussions they have in class. From the learning competencies, we can see a streamline of historical progression where the contents of the lessons starts from the learner, the family, the school, the community, Philippines society, Southeast Asian art, Western art and the Media based art and design of the 21st century. This means that as the curriculum advances, the covered art history also expands, from the local to western. Works of Filipino artists were set as examples and later on the art period and movements from the west are also placed in the content. Examples of this are ancient art, classical art, medieval art, neoclassic and romantic. The contents are always accompanied by the elements and principles of art and design. These are considered as standards in criticising if the artistic products of the learners are aesthetically pleasing or not.

Strategies and Activities

I think that the strategies and activities inside the classroom are upon the choice of the teacher. The ones presented in the curriculum just serve as a guide for the lesson plan of the instructor. In my view as a teacher, the current art curriculum guide is content heavy, as compared to the curriculum guides of other subjects that I have seen, at least in MAPEH. So if this curriculum guide will be followed, I think that the activities covered are mostly for art history. This is also based upon the Grade 7 module which was given in class. I think that everything that was written there is important and needs to be covered, based on the guide. However, I am sure that this is not how most of the public schools execute the lessons in the art subject. Most of the time, it is art production that they prioritize because of its being tangible. Teachers are able to grade easily without considering the learning of students in other areas of art such as art history, aesthetics and art criticism. I think this is also because of the reality that the teachers themselves are not trained to teach art. But just considering the learning competencies in the curriculum guide, it involves critical and creative thinking as ideally, students must be asked to identify, describe, reflect, evaluate, apply and create.

Assessment and / or Evaluation

There are provisions for assessment and evaluation that are mostly written also in the learning competencies. I think that the writers of the curriculum guide tried their best to incorporate the Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE). However, as it is written in the Key Stage Standards, K-3 is where learners must demonstrate fundamental understanding of fundamental processes through performing, creating, and responding aimed toward appreciation of music and art and acquisition of basic knowledge and skills. 4-6 on the other hand is the same but without the word fundamental. 7-10 involves salient features of music and art of the Philippines and the world through appreciation, analysis and performance, and sel-development, in celebration of Filipino cultural identity and diversity and the expansion of one’s word vision. From here, we can see the attempt to make the curriculum spiral. However, I can only see this applied in what I consider the backbone of the content which are the art elements and principles of design. The spiral progression of content does not necessarily apply because as have been mentioned, the topics shift Philippine art, Southeast asian art to western art.

Conclusion

“Across DBAE” 2021

“Nuances at 7th Grade” 2021

I am happy to have received a copy of the Grade 7 Module in the Art subject. It is my first time to see and read an actual one. My initial exposure to the topics involved were mostly in my Art studies subjects in college. As a student not covered by the K-12 program, I am actually amazed by the scope and content of the Module provided because I did not experience being taught about them in such detail. The Module was easy to read and visually pleasing. 

In my previous classes, we only looked at the K-12 Curriculum Guide for Art, but now I was able to connect the lessons from the Module with the ones written in the curriculum guide. I am also happy because I needed these in order to make a lesson plan. By looking at the references, I am able to have a better understanding of what an art teacher must be like. 

Personally, I would like to commend the author for prioritizing the arts and crafts of Philippine Regions rather than the traditional ones such as painting. By doing this the students can have a broader perspective of how art is connected to the everyday life of certain communities and therefore the society as well.

“K10”  2021 

I compare the curriculum guide to a staircase. The railings are the elements of art and principles of design that goes throughout the program.

They serve as the major content areas. Both principles of design and elements of art are present in lessons because both go hand in hand with each other. While teaching art in the Philippine, colonial, Asian and western art contexts, the degree of complexity is increased as the age and maturity of the learner also increases. 

The context of categorization lies mostly on the ability of learners to incorporate critical and creative thinking skills to a previously accomplished competency in an incremental but enhanced manner.

“Magdamag (Overnight)” 2021

The visual diagram above is an illustration of a tree with three major parts namely, the roots, the trunk with branches, and the leaves. These parts represent the three theories illustrated above respectively. I think that Lowenfeld’s Stages of Art Development can not be neglected even though more holistic and practical views and theories have emerged from it. This is because every learner starts to be a child before he or she becomes an artist. Every child undergoes different types of development as they grow up. Throughout time their cognitive, perceptual, psychomotor, and psychosocial skills develop. Therefore this linear progression of art skills is like the backbone that cannot be set apart, thus is represented by the roots.

I appreciate how later theorists of art education were able to collaborate and therefore come up with more encompassing views of how a learner develops artistic skills. This allows the learning process to become more central to the learner’s agency and individuality while considering a constructive approach. Using June McFee’s Perceptual Delineation Theory in explaining the artistic development recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of a learner in processing a certain type of information presented to him/ her. In this way, learners are more understood when some are good at one thing and better at another or vice versa. I think this is also a humanitarian way of evaluating a learner’s progress and output. This theory is represented by the trunk with branches in the illustration above as the perception of the learner delineates as the information presented is processed subject to his or her cultural and holistic background.

The leaves on the other hand represent the Visual Signs Narrative Theory of Brent Wilson and Marjorie Wilson. In my view, this is the most advanced of the three theories presented because it involves accounts of connected events; a story of what has been perceived by the learner’s senses of hearing, seeing, feeling, touching, smelling, etc. just like through the leaves we can see the whole tree’s reaction to wind and sunlight and different seasons. As we know, the more senses are involved, the higher-order thinking skills are being used. However, this does not mean that higher-order of artistic skills are also involved. I just think that taking into account that a learner can use his or her artwork as a visual representation of connected ideas even at an early age is like making a visual synthesis of what he/ she wants to record and communicate.