Working with students aged 10 to 12 at the Saturday Arts Lab (SAL) provided an exciting opportunity to engage with learners at a pivotal developmental stage. At this age, tweens are developing greater cognitive abilities, including abstract thinking and metacognition, while also navigating significant social and emotional changes. They seek autonomy, but still require structure and guidance, making it essential to create a learning environment that balances freedom with support.
The Studio Habits of Mind framework, offers valuable strategies for fostering these developmental needs through art education. For instance, the habit of "Engage and Persist" encourages students to develop focus and perseverance in their work, aligning with their growing ability to concentrate on tasks over extended periods. "Stretch and Explore" invites them to take risks and experiment, which resonates with their natural curiosity and willingness to try new things, while "Reflect" supports their emerging capacity for self-assessment and critical thinking, allowing them to consider their creative choices and outcomes (Hetland et al., 2007).
In practice, I observed that students thrived when given opportunities to express their ideas. For example, I had a group of boys who brought comic book novels into class almost every Saturday, and took every opportunity to somehow connect their artwork with the book they were reading. Projects that incorporated elements of choice and personal relevance, such as creating artwork based on their own experiences or interests, were particularly effective in maintaining engagement and fostering a sense of ownership over their learning.
In these pieces, students explored the concept of spatial depth by organizing their compositions into clearly defined foreground, middle ground, and background. Inspired by the bold, abstract style of Ted Harrison, they used curved lines, layered colors, and repeated shapes to evoke a strong sense of movement and place. In the artwork on the lower left, one student included a drawing of her home, a personal detail that added meaning and connection to the assignment. Encouraging students to incorporate elements from their own lives proved essential in fostering engagement, ownership, and creative confidence throughout the class.
One project that highlighted this beautifully was our exploration of movement and shadow using tinfoil figures. Students were tasked with building a single figure in motion and tracing its shadow using a flashlight to capture dynamic poses. One student, however, asked if she could create more than one figure to show a battle scene from the Trojan War. What started as a simple sculpture assignment turned into a multi-figure narrative. Her final piece captured not only movement and shadow, but also storytelling, historical imagination, and emotional intensity. It was a perfect example of how giving students space to go beyond the basic prompt can lead to powerful, developmentally appropriate engagement, especially when it taps into their interests and sense of agency.
Reference:
Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema, S., & Sheridan, K. M. (2007). Studio thinking: The real benefits of visual arts education. Teachers College Press.