Meeting Individual Needs: TAB for All

At UCLA, the teacher preparation program centered around constructivist theory. Students would take ownership of their learning. While I understood what that meant, I wasn’t sure how it would look in an actual classroom. I wanted real tools, not theoretical tools. After nineteen years of teaching K–2 in a general education setting, I became a middle-school art teacher, and I had little guidance on how to teach art to this group of students.

Four years after attending the Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) summer institute, and six years after finding a fulfilling art program, I am happily fostering a student-led art room studio based on the principles of TAB: The child is the artist, The classroom is the child’s studio, and What do artists do?

The Student-Directed Studio
Sixty of my students receive special education services. With a few exceptions, I don’t have a lot of support. My classes meet daily and are mixed (grades 6–8) and range from thirty to thirty-seven students.

TAB is successful for students who receive special education services because they get to choose, and the student-directed open studio allows these students to be successful alongside their neurotypical peers.

The term affective filter is often used in second language acquisition circles to describe an imaginary wall that students put up that prevents input and blocks cognition. Stephen Krashen proposed that there are three affective variables that a teacher can address to make their classroom more welcoming: motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety.

Motivation
In a choice-based art model, students choose what they want to make. In my art room, students can use the sewing machine, paint, draw, build, and more. Making your own choices validates your ideas and imagination. Imagine you came to art class wanting to sew some gloves, and the teacher said that you have to make a copy of The Starry Night instead.

Self-Confidence
My school is roughly 70% Latino and 28% Asian, and 30% of my students receive special education services. I make a conscious effort to highlight living artists who reflect the demographics of my students, including artists with disabilities.

Anxiety
In a student-led art room, the anxiety is reduced because students aren’t under pressure to make art that looks like the teacher model. The art room has flexible seating. The teachers at our site are asked to greet students at the door, converse with them on an individual basis, and provide differentiated instruction to reach all students.

A student-led, choice-based TAB art room is the perfect place to reach these goals and create an environment where students feel motivated, confident, and free of anxiety.

Individual Stories
Robert loves to draw dinosaurs. One day, he created a symbol inspired by his drawings to transfer to a pillow. Robert sewed the pillow on our sewing machine and used a cardboard stencil to transfer the symbol.

Emmanuel has been bringing in his sketchbook and creating observational drawings of cartoon characters. One week, I wanted students to only use cardboard. Emmanuel was upset, but after receiving a life-size piece of cardboard, he drew a three-quarter size Among Us character.

I presented a tape-transfer demonstration. Jason, who is very independent, asked for some tape. We found the packing tape together, then he walked away. Fifteen minutes later, he came back with the most amazing composition. He transferred the magazine image, grabbed some fluorescent card stock, used the confetti I handed out earlier, and put it all together. It hangs in my work closet.

Raymundo was a student who broke down and gave up in sixth grade when the class was conducted exclusively online. He is often reluctant to participate, but he really wanted to draw something for his mom. He was so proud of his work.