I have a class of 9 boys in their 4th year of secondary school that seem to hear white noise when I talk.
I gave them all a starting point of Journey and Narratives, something I thought they could get their teeth into and start exploring. Alas this was not to be,
"So Miss, Is it like...a story then?"
"Yes, it can be a story that you have heard before, a story you could write...it could be a trip you've taken recently...anything."
"So...Is it a story then?"
"Yes."
"So...can it be a story someone has written?"
"Possibly"
"Miss...I don't understand"
I gave them all a homework to do a tonal drawing of an object which was vital to the journey they had picked. An alarming number of students had chosen 'The Journey to Death'. Pencil drawings of skulls seemed to come in by the thousands.
After this, the students were asked to play around with materials that they perhaps had not used before. This is when I noticed issues with my students' way of thinking. It was not enough for them to draw the object, after all, that was boring. What they really wanted to do was to imagine scenes around their objects and draw those instead. When asked about the sunset desert that had now appeared around an animal skull, the student said that he wanted to imagine where the animal had come from.
No problem.
"Can you show me a picture of this sunset?"
"No. I know what they look like though."
Clearly not.
It was this finalised way of thinking that was getting me frustrated. The boys wanted to know exactly what and how they were doing their work and were constantly working on a final piece.
I showed them a book from a previous year's student to show them how they explored materials without relying heavily on secondary sources and although they seemed to be listening, so far no evidence of them following this example has been made without my input.
Enough was enough, I decided to create my own mini journey project, complete with photographs taken and artist links. My journey was relating to my summer holiday and the road trip I took. I showed them artists that worked on maps and different techniques that I would use if I were to carry on with the project.
Immediately the students were engaged and giving me ideas on how they would develop this idea- finally! They understood what was going on! Joy! I set them off on their task of exploring different materials once more, happy in the knowledge that they would know what they were doing.
"So...Where are the maps, Miss?"
"Maps?"
"Yeah the maps we're drawing on"
"But that was for my example project...How do maps relate to your project of a Nature Journey?"
"Oh. So I'm not drawing my pine cone on a map then?"
No. No no no no no.
They hadn't got it at all.
Back to square one.
