How to Teach Chalk Pastel

Is it possible to do a full class project while still maintaining a philosophy of student voice and choice?  

Absolutely! I find that with certain mediums (ceramics and chalk pastel are the first that spring to mind), students need explicit instruction to build foundational skills and they also need to see those skills used in a project (as opposed to practicing on a worksheet).

How can we as art teachers provide a structured way to ensure that everyone builds foundational skills?  I call these "mini projects".  They are typically smaller in size and there is always an element of choice (in this case- the choices were subject and color scheme.

Step 1: Choose your image.  Students chose a simple image and sketched in their sketchbooks.

Step 2: Students drew the image on a piece of black construction paper using normal pencil.

Step 3: Practice tracing lines with glue.  I gave out half sheets of black paper and had the kids draw a circle, triangle and square on it.  Then they practiced tracing with glue, it's trickier than it looks to get a nice consistent line.

Step 4: Trace the image they drew with glue, let dry overnight.

Step 5: I watched a wonderful Cassie Stephens video while the kids were gone to refresh my skills!

Step 6: We practiced using chalk pastel in two different ways--- one focused on color mixing and the other focused on techniques.  For color blending, I had them put the pastels on a color wheel just like in the Cassie Stephens video and talking about complementary and analogous colors. Here is the worksheet we used. The other way was the kids following along with a YouTube video. 

Step 7: When the kids came back to art the next week and the glue was dry, it was time to color!  I reviewed analogous colors and encouraged them to color one section at a time, avoiding the glue lines as much as possible.

The results are pretty spectacular, and I feel like the kids have enough skills to give chalk pastel a whirl when they have Open Studio time!