Elementary Critique

One of the key elements to growing as an artist is getting feedback, and working on artwork to improve it. With high schoolers, it can be hard to get them to finish a work because they just want to keep going and going with it. For elementary school though, it can be hard to keep them working on something. Often after one class, students have reached their limit with an artwork. A great way to combat this is to give feedback to a students and encourage them to add and work longer on a piece. But, unless they are super human, teachers don't have time to individually critique each students art work during class. The solution: Peer Feedback.

How I do it:

Step 1: I try to introduce the idea to a class at least a week before we host the actual critique. In this class I mention that we are going to talk about critique in the next class. I give them a brief overview of what that class will look like, and then I tell them to look through their work, or make a new work that they are willing to get feedback on. This is really important because sometimes students are working on things that they don't want to share with the rest of the class. Giving them this heads up allows them time to choose an old work of art, or make a new work of art that they can show.

Step 2: The day of the critique, I start by putting 2-3 post-it notes on each desk. and make sure that there are enough pencils (sharpened) at each space. I also put out a piece of my own artwork.

Step 3: When students arrive, I greet them at the door, and remind them about the special class. I tell them that their first order of business coming in is to pull out the work of art they will be getting feedback on. I instruct them that once they have pulled out their artwork, they should face me with their hands crossed to show me that they are ready for further instruction.

Step 4: Once they are set, I pull up some slides: We talk about the Kind/Helpful/Specific system for giving feedback. I explain what these things mean, and give an example of a piece of feedback that is Kind, Helpful, and Specific.

Step 5: I put an example of a piece of feedback up on the board (I have this slide with animations so that there is only once piece of feedback popping up at a time.) I read the comment out loud: "I like the way you used color and shapes. Good Job!" I ask the class to give me a thumbs up if this is kind. I assess the thumbs, and see if there is confusion. If there are some students that don't think this is kind, I can explain or ask them what their reasoning is. But odds are, they will understand. Then I ask, "Is this helpful?" They give me thumbs up or thumbs down. "Is it specific?" Thumbs up and down. We discuss it a little if there are differences, and I can give a little instruction about things if there is confusion. Then we go through the rest of the comments on the slide one at a time, going through the same process. By the end, they are feedback experts. But I give one more test:

Step 6: In this part, I put up an image of a work of art that I did, and I ask two or three students to give me a piece of feedback that is Kind and Helpful and Specific. This solidifies what they have learned, and then the are ready to proceed with the process.

Step 7: This is the plan I show them: I have tables rotate clockwise to a different space. (Because of COVID, we had to do this in a very specific way to maintain distancing. However, I would just recommend having students rotate one seat over to start.) Then I give them 1-2 minutes to write a piece of feedback for the artwork they are looking at. When they are finished writing I ask them to look up and me to show me that they don't need more time. Then the rotate again and repeat this. (With the amount of time I had in a class, I only had them write two pieces of feedback, but you can edit this if you have more or less time with students.)

Step 8: Students are asked once they finish writing their feedback to return to their seats to read the feedback that they received. I like to give them a few minutes to consider the ideas, and then I ask for volunteers, "Would anyone like to share a comment they got that they found helpful? Is there any idea that you might try in your artwork?" Some students will be really excited about the feedback they got, and they will be inspired to continue working on their art. Others may not appreciate the feedback as much. I like to remind students that they are not required to change their artwork if they don't want to accept the feedback, but if they ever feel stuck on a piece of art, this is a good way to get a boost and some ideas.

Step 9: Finally, I always like to get feedback myself, and I ask students to give me a thumbs up if they enjoyed the exercise, and a thumbs down if they didn't. Most students gave a thumbs up that they appreciated the feedback, but most of them wished that they had had more time during class to make art as well. To me, that is a win! I tell them that now that they have these skills, they can get feedback when they would like it in class, and they don't need to lose class time wondering what should come next. Here are some examples of the artworks with their feedback:

Thank you for reading. I wish you the best of luck with your critiques from now on. If you find a good system that works better than this, please feel free to share!