While students at this grade level …show more content…
Edwards (1999) states that students are becoming “sharply critical of their childhood drawing and begin to draw certain favorites subjects over and over again, attempting to perfect the image” (p. 69). Kerlavage (1998) adds that for students at this stage “competition becomes a big part of group interaction as young people test their abilities against each other” (p. 57). At this point the goal of the art teacher is to design a project or unit where all students can gain success while keeping competition from becoming hurtful. One way to accomplish this to use methods and techniques that lead to more realistic drawings like using a …show more content…
Once students reach this point they are reaching the end of Edwards’ (1999) “The crisis period” (p. 69). At this time if students are not interested, they will “abandon art as an expressive activity for another” (Edwards, 1999, p. 69). This makes the art teacher’s role even more important, because in the state of Iowa students must take art classes only through eighth grade. Once they leave the Carroll Community School District middle school art room, students who don’t have a passion for art are not required to take another class in the subject. It is very important to foster understanding, and appreciation of art in the middle