Art Critique: 5th Grade Style

     With my limited amount of time with students, I often struggle to find time to slow down enough to have critiques with the students, as opposed to mainly focusing on production.  It is so important though, for students to learn to think about, assess, question, and explore the ideas behind artmaking, so I am trying to squeeze in critique discussions as much as I can! 

     In fifth grade this week, we had simple 5 minute partner critiques.  I was so happy with how they went that I thought I would make a quick post about them.  So here's how we did it:

     They are working on an independent choice artwork.  They played "art teacher" and designed their own projects in terms of subject matter and media.  I had them partner up with the student with students from another table and discuss these things:

1.  Tell your partner about your in-progress work.  Do not tell them your plans for completion.

2.  What is the best thing about your partners work?  Why?

3.  How would you complete their work?  Why?

     I was so happy with how well the students did with this.  They really seemed to take their conversations seriously and were very thoughtful in their consideration as to whether or not to take their partners' suggestions about their artwork.  To keep this critique to only 5 minutes, I timed them to spend 1 minute on the first promt and then 2 minutes each on the next 2 questions. 

     In the photos, you'll see that each student has a large manila paper (their planning/experimenting paper) and a much smaller white paper.  These smaller papers will got in to donated picture frames for an upcoming fund raiser.  More on that later!