Scaffolding Media Poster

Some teachers like to dive into painting or clay at the beginning of the year as a way to create excitement for their class. If you are a new teacher this would be a horrible mistake. I have been teaching for more than 30 years and I’d rather stick forks in my eyes that do a painting lesson with a group of high school students I do not know, who do not know me, nor my expectations. You may also be building in unrealistic expectations and rewarding fun over the educational processes. When students ask me in the beginning days of my class “what are we gonna do?” I ask them, “What are you gonna show me that you can handle?” Every year begins with a drawing project. I tell my students, if you can handle drawing media, and clean up well, then you are showing me you can handle more complex stuff like painting. If you show me that you can handle painting well, then I feel confident you have the maturity to move onto sculpture with clay or plaster. Each media has its techniques, challenges, and handling expectations. In a TAB setting with more choice, the choices expand as students demonstrate the maturity to handle those materials. A progression generally goes from most easy to clean up with little danger to more difficult to manage explorations that may use tools like razors or hot glue. Messy watercolors do not cause permanent damage to brushes, while unwashed acrylic brushes may need to be tossed. A general progression of media may look something like this: 1. Pencil drawing (survey & assessment sketch) 2. Drawing with colored pencils 3. Pastels/Charcoal 4. Knitting/weaving/fibers 5. Watercolor pencils and water 6. Watercolors 7. Tempera paint 8. Printing 9. Acrylic Paints 10. Cardboard or paper sculpture (Hot glue & razors) 11. Wire/metal sculpture 12. Plaster/Paper Mache 13. Modeling Clay 14. Ceramic Clay 15. Oil Paints