Isolation of skills

Some time ago, I made a post about the effectiveness of deliberate practice in an article I came across. It made a lot of sense then, so I have decided to put it to practice this term.

When we introduce our new upper secondary classes to Art, we made it very clear to our pupils our expectations of them, and the eventual examination's expectations of them. Unlike the lower secondary Art classes where there is more emphasis in creative expression, there is a higher degree of need for our upper secondary pupils to be equipped with a more specific set of skills. Of these, the foundation of drawing is critical. It is through drawing that most will convey their thoughts and processes.

To build up good drawing skills, we have always leverage on doing still life drawings, sessions where pupils get to keenly observe a specimen at close proximity and to draw them as realistically as possible, complete with shading. Instead of doing the still life lessons as usual, I have decided to isolate the skills for such a drawing to smaller parts. They are mainly constructing the reference lines, drawing the specimen and shading. Instead of doing everything sequentially in one sitting, we just did the reference lines and the drawing, repeatedly.

In between the 2 sittings for drawing, feedback of what are the strengths and weaknesses are given individually to each pupil when they present their work to the class. The outcome is better than I thought. Below is a sample of a pupil's work, showcasing her strong progress over a mere span of 3 hours. Exhibit A was done without much understanding of the use of reference lines and the general proportion of the specimen while Exhibit B shows a much stronger drawing in the 2 aspects.

Improvement in still life drawing made by a pupil over 3 hours

It is noteworthy that we increase the level of difficulty just slightly beyond their reach when repetitions are carried out so that pupils will feel a sense challenge. So here we go again, Skill Isolation, Repeated Practice and Feedback. Really important stuff when it comes to building skills.