The Real Research

My real research is about Ian, smart, gifted, fast working, likely quick start, attention needy, leader, born with opportunities, who finishes 2 weeks in advance of everyone else. He epitomizes my gifted, advanced student who can go two ways in his behavior and pull the class along with him. I also have a difficult time getting into the head of the bright 8th grader and knowing what will best motivate this artist. Ian is vocal and happy to be the focus of a paper. I trust he is also able to be reflective and share his feelings and thinkings about the way he works. This paper will give me an insight into how the student approaches art and based on my findings I will better prepare and plan meaningful and appropriate interim lessons.

The research question is: What don't I know about how this student I approaches art?

Collecting data: have interviewed him initially and discovered he loves art and draws/doodles at home, and now am observing how he works with his painting project. On Monday I will request he records his reflections (via tape) about why he is making the choices he is making in painting, and how he feels about his process, or perhaps ease him into the process with a reflections check list approach. There will be a month's worth of data collection and analysis.

The process: I have already documented his progress in terms of the interim assignment: blind, 1/2 blind, and contour line drawing, and now I will compare that to how he approaches his regular classroom assignment: painting the Major Impact on my Life. The readings related to the paper will be Viktor Lowenfeld, Michael Day, Betty Edwards, Pamela Taylor and multiple drawing process books.

Time Frame: The paper is due May 5th ready for editing and handed in complete on May 17th. Journal entries are continuous, initial interview is done, then one when Ian picks up the interim project again, and the final one when he is complete. I have copies of his work sample.