Mark making with light.

This week students made marks with something completely different: light.

Three groups were divided into stations where they rotated to anticipate in each activity. First students drew on a large scale projection. The projection's composition was altered by the students that put assorted objects on the screen.

Demonstrating light drawings

Another station had students picking out their artwork for the show. They chose the their best works out of the projects they did for the semester.

The station that I was at involved making marks with glow sticks. The kids were so excited about this. We set up a partition with black fabric so it would block out bright light.

Once the students became situated with their glow sticks I gave them some direction. I had them try a variety of things like stand against the wall and draw shapes, make big movements, small movements, stand in a circle and put int he glowsticks in the middle for collaboration, connect the glowsticks, move them really fast, really slow, and try to think of their own ways to use the glowsticks.

Madisyn drawing with her glowstick

Since my documentation was integral to the actual making of art I tried a lot of different ways to photograph the students. This was actually one of the very few times I actually got to actively take part in artmaking with the students I was teaching. Most of the time it is based on direction, example, and guiding. I really enjoyed that! It allowed me to step back and have a lot of fun with the kids.

This lesson gave me a chance to create as well, I utilized what I knew about photography to use shudder speed in a way that I could play up color and capture light in different ways

Since I was also a participant in the artmaking I experimented with all the groups. I tried to photograph facing towards the light; this picked up an amazing amount of color even in the children's clothing. I faced away from the light on the black wall which was difficult because SLRs have a tendency to refuse to take photos if there isn't enough light on the subject. I also stood above the kids on a chair. This captured the texture of the floor which served as a background that worked unusually well.

One of the best results from my documentation was when I had the students hold their glow sticks still and I moved the camera around. This time I was the one making the marks and the kids were facilitating me. It was interesting to think about that relationship.

Students explored what kinds of motions made particular shapes. In this photo students made rounded marks with light.

The students thought of some great ways to utilize the glow sticks. They put the through belt loops, spun them on string, wove it through their clothing, and best of all collaborated with other students. I didn't have much intention of having the kids work together at first because I thought it would be a little crazy. However they chose to put the glowsticks together, formed lines, links, and saw what happened when colors were combined.

Since this lesson was in rotation I didn't get a chance to see the other parts of the lesson however there seemed to be a lot of excitement when the materials were presented in demonstrations. However I did get to refine my teaching because I was able to teach three rotations of the same thing. This lesson was a nice wrap up to Saturday School since students were able to have a large amount of input into what work was going into the show.


On Your Mark Class Photo
Fall 2009