Lesson Reflection

Last Friday, a group presented a lesson involving clay and a small amount of photography. The general idea of the lesson was that we make 2 impressions in the clay from a natural object which we selected in class, and then man-make two which either resembled or had a similar impression. After, we then would take those clay objects and throw them down on a piece of paper like an artist did (I forget that artist's name). Then the idea of photographing the class collage was brought up.

While I thought the layout of the lesson was refreshing from the "power point-then lesson" type of lesson, I wasn't exactly sure about the lesson entirely. I think the age group for this class might be a bit younger than high school ages. I know for me, in high school I wanted to actually use clay to create things with legitimate uses. I always looked forward to that time of year when we could make bowls, cups, vases, etc. Basically, what I'm saying is if I was a high school student and a teacher expected me to throw clay in that way, I'd be like "ummm...no?" And wouldn't be interested in what I felt was "wasting" a material.  I'm  not saying all students are this way, but I know I was. I can see younger ages enjoying this project or even the occasional high school student who finds themselves throwing clay up at the ceiling during clay classes. But overall, I felt like it wasn't a high school age appropriate lesson.

Other than those issues, I thought integrating photography into the lesson was interesting. Many people wouldn't combine clay and photography and I thought that was refreshing. However, I felt because it was simply grey clay on white paper that the end result of the student's photographs would be that they all looked the same, even if their compositions weren't entirely the same. If various colors had been used, the students would then have to select colors instead of blobs of clay on the paper which all kinda look the same.

I did like how the entire class seemed to enjoy the lesson, which is important for students. It's nice to see that one project can get a whole group excited, and I thought that was very well done.