Elements, My Way

My feelings about the Elements of Art have changed over the years. As a new teacher I thought they were THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, and had to be addresses in every lesson. However, as I began to grow as a professional and develop my own teaching style I started to become disillusioned with them. Were they as important as I thought? I wondered if the Elements were worthy of so much of my student's time. 

I disliked the formula I had learned for teaching the Elements: 
Artist + Element They Use = Formulaic Artwork

I realized that this approach isolated the elements from each other falsely and asked for little deep thinking.  

​So, I really backed off teaching them for a few years. After some pondering, I realized that there was value for my students in learning about the Elements and Principles - as well as the Postmodern Principles, as long as the instruction met some guide lines.

Which Element is the most important here? Does it matter?

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                      My Guideline for Teaching the Elements of Art

- The Elements are hard to understand when they are isolated. To encourage deep thinking, students should be encouraged to develop their own opinions about what Elements stand out to them when they examine artwork. 

- The Elements are one of many ways to approach art. They should go hand in hand with explaining personal connections and emotional response to artwork. 

- The Elements are a great introduction to modern art and how art has evolved through time.

- To really understand and learn vocabulary, kids have to talk, analyze and make personal connections to the Elements. 

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Thinking about color, but also shape.

Focusing on line but also realizing that color has to be considered.

                                           Teaching the Elements

To teach the Elements to my high school Art 1 students, I set up an experience where they will have to analyze, form opinions, use vocabulary in conversations and apply new learning. I start with assigning group presentations, where students have to define their assigned Element, find examples and make a game the reviews the information covered. As groups present, the class takes notes and develops ideas for their own artwork, which can be inspired by any Element. Next each student makes artwork inspired by an Element of their choice. This unit is deep and comprehensive, but it doesn't take more than a week of two. It's a way to teach the Elements that feels real and valuable.  
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Read more about this unit here