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UCP Partners with the Memphis City Schools for Special Art Program
The United Cerebral Palsy Association of the Mid-South and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art were awarded a grant through the Arthur and Alice Adams Foundation in August, 2008, to pilot a Visual Arts Program. This program made it possible to bring art to the students with special needs at the Shrine School of Memphis. From October 20, 2008 through November 11, 2008, a selected group of 40 students at the Shrine School of Memphis participated in studio art sessions exploring the elements of art. The research and data gathered during the pilot program enabled the completion of an Action Research Project for a Master of Art in Teaching student at the Memphis College of Art. This thesis project explored how adaptive art materials and knowledge about students with disabilities can be implemented into classroom practice. The goal of this Action Research Project was to give pre-service, new, and experienced art teachers strategies to successfully teach in inclusive classroom settings. Surveys were given to teachers involved with the Pilot Visual Arts Program at Shrine, and also to art teachers enrolled in the Studies in Art Education program at Memphis College of Art.
The Shrine School of Memphis is an alternative school designated by the Memphis City School system that specifically serves students with special education needs and orthopedic impairments. There are 130 students enrolled at Shrine and most of the students attending use wheelchairs and have various disabilities that include Cerebral Palsy (CP), hearing and vision impairments, Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorders, specific orthopedic impairments, and a wide range of cognitive ability. The classrooms are broken up into students with high and low functioning skills, where many students need specific medical attention.
With the help of teachers, paraprofessionals and medical technicians, students learn skills needed in day-to-day life, along with communication skills and core subjects. Some teachers incorporate artistic methodologies into daily classroom activities, but most are new to the idea that their students can succeed in the arts due to students’ varying cognitive ability and motor skills. For the Visual Arts Program, lessons were constructed using adaptive art materials to experiment with the artistic abilities of the group of 40 students. The lessons and materials chosen enabled research to be conducted regarding how certain adaptive art materials aid in the production of art with assistance or working independently by students with special needs.
Wheelchair trays, slant boards, tables or desks were used as working surfaces. Throughout the four weeks between, October 20, 2008 through November 11, 2008, the students enrolled in the Pilot Visual Arts Program used several adaptive materials such as: large crayons, loop scissors, Model Magic clay, pencil grips, regular and stamp markers, Do-A-Dot paints, large handled foam paint brushes, heavy jars and paper plates used as paint containers. These materials were purchased from Knowledge Tree stores and School Specialty catalogs. All of these materials enhanced the artistic abilities of students with orthopedic impairments or other special needs. The art lessons that were taught incorporated the color wheel, color mixing, symmetry, and sculpture into a literature lesson using Eric Carle’s book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. With the help of classroom teachers, paraprofessionals and physical therapists, students were able to create interesting works of art. Finished products included coffee filter prints using primary colors mixing into secondary colors; complementary flowers using complementary colors; warm and cool paintings; symmetrical butterflies; and caterpillar, butterfly, or pinch pot sculptures.
The following adaptive materials: Model Magic clay, large crayons, Do-A-Dot paints and pencil grips proved to promote less dependence on paraprofessionals in students with moderate to high functioning gross and fine motor skills. The students with moderately low to low functioning gross and fine motor skills could create interesting works of art, but needed assistance using the hand-over-hand technique. Several paraprofessionals and teachers held drawing or painting utensils in students’ hands and allowed or encouraged students to use their own arm movement to create marks on the paper. The up and down motion used for making dots on the paper was the easiest motion for several of the students with poor fine motor skills, in order to make broad brush strokes the art teacher or paraprofessional needed to move the student’s arm.
Throughout the four weeks of studio sessions, students appeared to be actively engaged in the art activities. Research conducted while teaching at the Shrine School found that the following teaching strategies worked well with students of all cognitive levels. First, giving a student a choice of materials by placing materials in front of, or in the students’ line of sight enabled the student to point to the material he or she would like to use. Using a sequenced approach seemed to help students. Students were asked first: “What color crayon would you like to use?” The teacher would show the student the colors and verbally give the name of the crayon. The teacher then waited for the student to point or grab his or her choice of color. This promoted a sense of independence among students with limited cognitive, or physical ability, and apraxia.
Allowing students with verbal skills to ask for assistance before giving it proved to be a successful strategy. One student with CP, who had symptoms such as apraxia, and athetosis, always asked, “Will you help me?” before beginning a task she felt she could not do on her own. This student would ask for assistance by the teacher using the hand-over-hand method, but before starting, she would say, “Okay, I am ready.” By observing the students in all classes, the researcher could assess which students needed one-on-one assistance by the hand-over-hand technique, and which could use materials on their own. Observing the classroom proved to be an effective classroom management strategy that promoted teacher knowledge and confidence.
During the fifth week, students at Shrine visited the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art for a tour of artwork displaying the elements of art and the color wheel, and viewed works by the visiting artist, Fernando Botero. During this field trip students participated in a studio session using a photocopy of a Botero still life and made a tissue paper collage. This project was somewhat successful due to the fact that more assistants and some parents of the students took over the project from the students, instead of allowing the students to attempt the project on their own. The students also had some of their artwork displayed in the art studio. The group of Pre-K through third grade teachers stated, when interviewed, that they enjoyed the docent led tour of the museum, however the third grade through high-school teachers felt that the tour was geared towards younger students.
The Pilot Visual Arts Program proved to be successful, and during the spring of 2008, United Cerebral Palsy of the Mid-South will fund an Arts Program for all 130 students enrolled at the Shrine School of Memphis. A full copy of the Action Research Project entitled: Gaining Exceptional Knowledge: Teaching Art to Students with Special Needs, can be found in the Memphis College of Art Library, or the Studies in Art Education Department.
Emily Dillner
Memphis College of Art
Master of Art in Teaching 2008
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