A significant part of Fine Arts 11 involves students in responding to arts expressions. The goal is to increase students' ability to express their personal responses to the arts and to broaden their understanding of them. This appendix provides a possible structure for arts criticism. You are encouraged to adapt the process to suit your students'abilities and needs to promote discussion using arts vocabulary. Students are encouraged to use the process (as outlined or adapted) to respond to their own work, the work of their peers, and that of established artists and performers.

Seven Steps for Responding to Arts Expressions

The following seven steps can be used to guide students in responding to visual artworks, dances, music, and dramatic presentations. Note that the outlined process, which breaks up the viewing/listening process into steps, is not to be followed rigidly. An audience member moves back and forth between the steps. Thus the steps cannot be isolated from one another as they appear here, and the approach outlined should be considered only as a general guide.

See the blackline master "Responding to Arts Expressions-Student Sheet" at the end of this section for a sample form on which students may keep track of their responses.

1. Preparation: Establish a climate for viewing or listening in which students feel comfortable expressing their own opinions and feelings, and provide a context for the experience by giving some background or focus for viewing or listening.

2. First impressions: Students share their spontaneous reactions to a work. Since their responses are influenced by past experiences, culture, and so on, all responses must be considered acceptable; there are no wrong responses.

3. Description: Students objectively describe the artwork, taking inventory of what they saw, heard, or experienced. Their responses should be objective, not interpretive.

4. Analysis: Students analyse what contributes to the effect of a work of art. This analysis includes an examination of how the artist has used various materials, instruments, elements, and principles. Encourage students to use the language of the discipline in their analysis.

5. Interpretation: Students form opinions about the artists' intentions and/or the meaning of the work using their collected information. Students' perspectives, associations, and experiences will affect their interpretations. Although your role is to extend students' experience, their perspectives are personal and need to be valued. Students' interpretation should be encouraged through a variety of means of expressions (e.g., through another arts discipline, imagery, metaphor, or analogy).

6. Background information: Students research biographical, historical, or cultural information about the work and the artist(s) involved with its creation.

7. Informed judgment: Using the new information they have collected, students refer to their first impressions and either support their initial opinions of the artwork or develop and support a new opinion.

Adapting the Seven-Step Process for the Discussion of Student Work

Students' responses to their own and to their peers' work are an important part of the creative and evaluative process. Such responses can occur to works-in-progress, as well as to completed projects. Responding to works-in-progress helps students refine their artwork or expressions. However, it is essential to encourage only positive and thoughtful responses to students' expressions. Before they display or perform their work, ensure that an atmosphere of trust is established in which students are willing to take risks.

Responding to their peers' work should be a learning and growing experience for students and should not include personal judgments. Students may feel particularly vulnerable when performing, as it is they who are being watched or heard, unlike a visual artwork which provides some distance between the student and the work. Greater distance can be achieved in works of performance by recording students' works-in-progress and their final presentations on audio or videotape. Audio or videotaping can also facilitate the response process, since recordings can be replayed several times to allow students time for deeper reflection. Recordings of works-in-progress can also be compared to final products to see how a work has evolved.

To maintain objectivity, all comments should be kept to observations about the ideas expressed, the sounds, the instruments, the images, the movements, and the use of elements and principles. For example, the comment "I like Stacey's composition" would be better expressed as "I thought the rhythm in Stacey's composition was lively." As well, comments that judge the individual should be discouraged. Before the discussion begins, be sure to establish some general rules of conduct, including some sample student comments.

Not all the steps outlined above will be used every time students respond to their own or their peers' work. Use steps that appear to be useful and a level of questioning that suits the needs and abilities of your students. To begin, you might use only the description and interpretation steps. As students become more comfortable with the process, additional steps can be added. Be especially careful to establish a trusting atmosphere before any responses are given; remind students to stress the positive in their responses to each piece of work. When judgments are allowed, they should always focus on whether or not the work has achieved the studentŐs intended purpose.

In drama, students' reflections on the work of their peers will most often occur as group reflections on small-group tableaux, prepared improvisations, mime and story-theatre episodes, and prepared monologues that are structured into the dramatic context in which the class has been working. Students should have many opportunities to express what an improvisation means to them within the context of the dramatic situation or collective creation in which they are working. Encourage the co-operative reworking of a piece to ensure that the intention of the group which created it is ultimately realized.

Students will undoubtedly have interpretations of, and opinions on their own and their peers' work. However, it is important that they base their opinions and interpretations on the evidence they see and hear in the work itself. These interpretations and opinions must be assessed on students' ability to express and justify them, and not on students'ability to conform to the norm or to the opinions of the teacher.

Responding to Arts Expressions

Student Sheet

1. First Impressions

What are your first thoughts about the work? List the first words that come to mind.

2. Description

List the words and phrases that describe what you see or hear, as if you were making an inventory list. Do not give your personal opinions at this stage.

3. Analysis

What has (have) the artist(s) done to achieve the effects you described above? How have the various elements and principles been used? Use vocabulary that relates to this art form.

5. Background Information

What have you discovered about the work and the artist(s) involved in its creation or performance? If you have been involved in research for this project, attach research information to this form.

6. Informed Judgment

Look back at your first impressions and support your initial opinions of the work based on your analysis and interpretation. Or, if you have changed your mind since your first impressions, write down and support your new opinion. Consider the context of the artwork (its time period, place of origin, purpose, and cultural meaning) as part of your conclusion.

This section has been adapted from Arts Education: A Curriculum Guide for Grade 8 (Saskatchewan Education, Training and Employment, September 1994.)

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