Studio Habits of Mind

Just because we're not in the art room doesn't mean we're going to drop everything we've learned!

I have always wanted to focus more heavily on the Studio Habits of Mind, but have struggled to find a way to bring it to my students' level. These concepts are pretty advanced and are sometimes difficult for my kiddos (especially the younger ones) to understand.

And I think I've done it! I have created a wonderful metaphor to help my students grasp the idea that art is not just about putting material to paper. There are so many other intricacies that go along with creating something we can be proud of!

(If you are not already familiar with the Studio Habits of Mind, check out these awesome resources!)

http://www.everyarteverychild.org/assessment/studiohabits.html

http://www.studiothinking.org/the-framework.html

http://www.artcorelearning.org/studio-habits-of-mind

So to give a quick overview, the Studio Habits are a series of steps that most successful artists follow throughout their artistic process. These are not a strict set of rules, but more loose guidelines to help move you along the right path. The Studio Habits are...

-Develop Craft

-Engage & Persist

-Envision

-Express

-Observe

-Reflect

-Stretch & Explore

("Understand Art Community" is typically included, but I tend to leave that one out for my purposes)

These are all great things for students to be focusing on, but can be a little overwhelming at first! So I have thought of a fun metaphor to help students understand these steps more easily!

So imagine for a moment.....

It's your birthday, you wake up and find a great big present at the end of your bed! You open it and find a BRAND NEW BICYCLE. It is not even put together, still in the box, and you are SO EXCITED to ride it! But you've never ridden a bicycle before!

Can you just get on and start riding? Of course not! There are steps you have to go through before you can hit the open road!

Below are the slides from the slideshow that I created to illustrate this story for each Studio Habit!

**All of the images in the slides are actually GIFs that would be moving in the actual presentation! These are just still screenshots of each slide!**