Student Visual Journals

For years I have wanted to organize student art in a way that would encourage the students to value their work.  I have a feeling that a lot of art gets smashed into bookbags or just tossed in the trash.  In an attempt to present their work better, I purchased visual journals for my fifth graders.  My intent was to also make this a place for keeping notes and organizing their planning.

I chose Sax's Sketch Diaries because I liked the size and the price was reasonable.

The fifth graders started the school year by sketching self portraits.

Blind contour drawings and contour drawings were the next lessons.  They did many still life drawings in the journals.  

These often are gorgeous works, and I always hated the idea that those drawings would just have gotten ruined after they left the art room.




 

In preparation for an upcoming landscape painting, the students took notes on how to depict depth two dimensionally.

They practiced painting techniques in their journals.

The next step in planning was then to describe in writing what their ideas were and then to sketch those ideas for their paintings.

Rubrics with my expectations for grading were glued into the journals, and they will be referred to throughout the painting process.  At the end of the painting lesson, the students will self assess their work by using the rubrics.

When the paintings are complete, I plan on photographing them and having the students glue copies of their's in their journals.

I'll be looking around at other blogs to see what other teachers do with elementary students and journaling.  I'll be excited at the end of the year to see whether or not the children see these as treasures.  I hope they do.