Student Choice Projects...

     My friends from college are all doing it, my past art ed. professors now teach it, and everyone in the world of art education has heard about it- TAB: Teaching for Artistic Behavior; otherwise known as Choice-based art education. From what I gather, the TAB model treats students as artists and allows them to decide what kind of art they want to make based on their interests and their own ideas. Some TAB teachers set their room up as centers for different materials that students can use freely to create their artwork.

Organization... so much time and effort... 

     In someone else's classroom, TAB sounds awesome! In mine, it sounds like a horrifying nightmare of disorganization and downright disaster. Don't get me wrong- I have been offering students choice in their artwork for as long as I have been teaching- but that was controlled choice, not free reign of our expensive and limited art materials! I have been trying to get on board with this for a few years now, but I just keep thinking about the countless times I need to remind my students that the scissors go in the scissor bin and not with the crayons, that the gluesticks need to be capped or they will dry out, and that I am not a magical cleaning fairy that will make their mess miraculously disappear when they leave the room! 

     To get past my fear, I equated this whole TAB thing to my experience sky-diving. There are a whole lot of things that could go wrong when free-falling out of a plane. But, in order to make it happen, you've just got to jump out and hope that the parachute works when you pull the cord. If you spend the whole flight up thinking about the things that can go wrong, you'll ruin the experience for yourself. 

     So, I did it. I took the dive... and the parachute opened! My students were incredible and rose to the occasion- impressing me continuously throughout the whole experience. 

Here's how I did it:
I started with my graduating 8th graders. I figured, after three years of listening to our school motto, "the mess you make is the mess you clean," they would be most able to take on the task. I introduced the project and got mixed reviews- some students were overjoyed at the opportunity, while others panicked at the lack of direct instruction and guidance. I shared a list of art lesson sites and allowed them to surf the web. I even made a pinterest page of possibilities for them to peruse. (Hey, that's where a lot of adult artists' get their inspiration, right?) Once they had some ideas, they completed a proposal for their project and submitted it to me. I asked them to describe the project & list the materials they would need. I also asked...

• What IDEA does this project show or represent? (Your project must express an idea, emotion, opinion, etc.)
• What about this project interests you? Why did you choose this project?
• How challenging do you think this project will be for you? (Please choose a project that is not so challenging that you cannot be successful, but also not too simple.)
• How does this project connect to something we have done in art before? 

     After they submitted their proposal, they got right to work. I gave them 3 full class periods to work (I may have given more, but the school year was about to end, so we were in a bit of a time crunch). I saw students taking responsibility for their work like I had never seen before. My classes became free of behavioral redirections and volume control and filled with insightful and meaningful conversations about solving artistic problems. My struggling artists became fully engaged and accepting of the challenge before them, and my most talented students were thriving. AND they cleaned up after themselves with a level of integrity that I didn't even know was possible. Here are some of the results: 

In short, I'm sold. Choice-based art education will happen in my classroom next year, and forever. 

How have you made Choice-based art ed. happen successfully in your classroom? Did you have reservations, like me, or did you jump right in? What structures did you put in place to support a Choice-based classroom? I'd love to hear all about it!