SchoolArts - January 2011

MEETING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS
Right Before Their Eyes

When preparing for state- mandated assessments, I’ve found that lessons built around an art activity can be designed to make meaningful connections with tested objectives. As a Texas public school teacher of high-school students with significant cognitive disabilities, it’s my responsibility to design activities that will be used both to teach and assess the objectives in all four core subjects on the TAKS-Alt test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills— Alternative). Ranella Franklin

Learning in Art and Science

One such combination of art and test objectives that proved very successful was in the area of science. One of the designated assessment tasks in that subject involved identifying safety procedures. I decided to use bleach and colored tissue paper in an art activity that would allow students to participate in a science experiment requiring the discussion of “dos and don’ts” when working with a chemical, while also allowing them to express their individual creativity.

The science department loaned us safety goggles, all students wore smocks, and surfaces were protected with newspaper. I cut large sheets of colored tissue paper to fit on 12 x 18" ( 30 x 45 cm) Manila paper and taped them down at the corners. Prior to beginning the actual hands-on experiment, I presented the materials to students. The discussion became one of high interest as they heard the words “science experiment” and saw the goggles, bleach, cotton swabs, small paintbrushes, and colored tissue paper.

I described the various precautions, including opening our classroom door to allow the strong fumes (a new vocabulary word) to leave, wearing a smock to protect their clothes, covering their eyes with goggles, and using only a cotton swab or small paintbrush to touch the bleach.

Getting to Work

Using great caution, students dipped a cotton swab or small paintbrush into a shallow container of bleach and slowly tapped or stroked across the paper.

Immediately, there were looks of surprise, awe, and wonder as they saw their marks magically appear. The wheels began to turn and students started making intentional marks to form patterns, words, pictures, and shapes.

With pride and enthusiasm, students showed their artwork to others. Little prompting was needed for them to explain how they made their pictures and to tell what important safety precautions were necessary to observe during the process.

From this science experiment
built around an art activity, students
demonstrated understanding, per-
formed an investigation, and gained
knowledge in the state-tested objec-
tive of safety procedures. They also
utilized creativity, the highest level
thinking skill
of the revised
Bloom’s Tax-
onomy. If that
wasn’t enough,
the obvious joy
apparent on stu-
dents’ faces and
in their com-
ments validated
my belief that art is one of the best
ways to make connections to grade-
level content for students with signifi-
cant cognitive disabilities.

From this science experiment
built around an art activity,
students demonstrated
understanding, performed
an investigation, and gained
knowledge in the state-tested
objective of safety procedures.