SchoolArts - December 2006

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Mary Stokrocki

At the NAEA conference in Minneapolis, Carpenter and Sessions asked, “What are we teaching, especially about ceramics?” Art educators are often criticized for leaving out historical context when teaching studio art. I would like to offer guidelines, based on national and state art standards, and share the results of teaching about Arizonan architectural context in a ceramics and science class at Arizona State University.

At the beginning of an architecture project, I asked gifted middle school students to list the steps to building a house. Laura Chapman, in Approaches to Art in Education (Harcourt, 1978), advocates this assessment

task of listing the stages (of wheel throwing), which I also feel is an important step in creating artwork. None of the students could do this correctly. Some students listed the floor plan first and most forgot about the foundation. No student referred to a roof. Students see houses built around them every day, but they have no idea of the processes and materials needed for their construction.

Learning about Adobe Students discussed the clay work of Native American artist Maria Mar-tinez and saw a video on her work, clay coiling and pit-firing process, and the adobe clay pueblo where she worked. Students were surprised that the clay walls in adobe buildings were so thick (about three to four feet).

They were also surprised to learn about the early adobe clay homes in Phoenix and their ability to provide natural warmth and cooling. During the last week, I introduced a unit on clay architecture with a video about Paolo Soleri, who advocated organic architecture forms and ecology (arcology). Students then designed organic floor plans and built clay cities with the addition of clay props and people.