Berkeley Parents Network: Artwork Assignments for Math & English

Berkeley Parents Network

Artwork Assignments for Math & English

Berkeley Parents Network > Reviews > K-12 Schools > Berkeley Public Schools > Berkeley High School > Artwork Assignments for Math & English

Nov 1999

"...I am horrified. I understand the desire to have neat work, but drawing is grade-school stuff. That part of my daughter's grade depends on little pictures or cutesy decorations is shocking."

Please do not be shocked. There are several theories that abound regarding the importance of students' connecting to their work by making it their own...One of the ways in which to do this is to have students place on their work creative expressions such as drawings, etc. Another is to have them write and rewrite what they have learned in a journal, still another is to have them teach what they have learned to another student or a group of students...Hope this is helpful. --Theresa Saunders

I am sorry to write that I am further outraged and horrified at this theoretical justification of *requiring* cute decorations to get a good grade in high school English homework! My bright daughter suffered patiently through one whole year of such nonsense at BHS where her English homework consisted of making picture-posters about the current English topic! Why in the world can't they just teach English?! Fortunately this year she has an excellent English teacher.

I would like to reply to Ms. Saunders' reply to my complaint about putting drawings on work. She wrote, "... There are several theories that abound regarding the importance of students' connecting to their work by making it their own...One of the ways in which to do this is to have students place on their work creative expressions such as drawings, etc." My daughter, and many others, already feel that their work is their own. High-school-aged students should be learning how to make their written work their own through verbal expression, not through drawings. If drawings are to be included, they should be optional. A grade should not depend on them. Frankly, it is "educational theories" like these that provide the fodder for the sneers of conservatives such as Deborah Saunders.

Drawing should be done for art classes only! Asking kids to draw for English is absurd. Strength in Numbers: I think if we go in individually and complain we will get nowhere. But if a group of us complain about the miserable math or the lack of writing in English, we may get someplace. This list could allow us to connect with each other and find our strength. Anybody interested?

I wish educators would make up their minds about whats's good and what's not. It's about as changing as fashion. My daughter was in a program (in Berkeley public schools) where she had to write an essay a day. At first she loved this. As she wrote she filled the margins with little caricatures that added meaning and depth to her writing (they were incredibly good!). She truly needed to do this. Her teacher became very aggravated and tried to repress this form of self expression eventually penalizing her by lowering her grade. My daughter eventually gave up her little cartoons and all the joy of writing the essays went right along with the cartoons. She hated writing them after that. She stopped drawing too. Now it turns out it's good???? Why does this make me feel bitter?

It was interesting to me to read about the poor instruction in math at Berkeley High in the same newsletter than talked about art work in English projects. Last year my son's Honors Geometry class had to do an art project that constituted a major portion of their grade. They had to CONSTRUCT a three dimensional object that was proportional to some everyday household object. This assignment took more than 10 hours and the only math in it was multiplying by 8 (which was the scaling factor).

When I called the teacher to find out what pedagogical value this assignment had, he never called me back. So if the issue of Art in English homework gets addressed, I'd generalize it to other academic subjects....

My son is reading Merchant of Venice in his freshman English class at BHS. That's great - he likes Shakespeare, starting with his positive experiences at Malcolm X, and he seems to be enjoying this play. But his homework the other night was to draw a cartoon illustrating Act 3. Not write about it - and believe me he could use the practice writing - but draw it. He can't draw a lick and he doesn't enjoy drawing either. So he told me what to draw and I drew it for him. It was a pretty nice drawing and I hope we get an A.

If I were a cynical person I might say that the reason there are so many drawing assignments in English is because drawings are a lot easier to grade than essays. I do not buy the argument that drawing is a reasonable assignment for high school English classes since it allows children (teens?) to express themselves better than writing. I started adulthood as an art major - I love art and I wish there were more art classes at BHS. But come on - these kids need to learn how to write. Would you hire a young person where you work who can make beautiful expressive drawings but can't write a report so people can understand it? I wouldn't.

sign me anonymous ( I don't want his 'A' lowered in case the teacher finds out I drew the homework!)

My son did this project at King, where it was part of the 7th grade pre-algebra curriculum. It isn't an art project, it is an exercise in scale in 3 dimensions, which seems legit. It wasn't _the_ major part of the grade, but was a focus for the 2 or three weeks the class was working on the relevant concepts. BTW, we still have the cat he constructed out of graph paper -- it's kind of cute.

I have been unhappy with the English program at BHS since my daughter was a freshman (now a junior) and while there are good teachers, English has become less important in this age of quick reads and computer literacy as opposed to English literacy. A blanket statement that art has no place in an English class targets the method, but not the problem. I believe art definitely has a place in an English class since many of the world's art movements from Impressionism to Modernism to Post-Modernism have inspired writers (examples: a famous poet, Mina Lay, involved with a modernist sculptor in which he created works from her poems; Gertrude Stein, famous for her art collection as well as writing). Through art as expression, teachers may be trying to reach students who find it difficult to use words alone to express their thoughts, perhaps because the student hasn't had the basic preparation for high school English in his or her elementary or junior high school. Don't bag the method, go to the problem and find a solution. Are there any English teachers at berkeley High School who require only writing for homework? I think it is pointless to ask them to draw for an English class. My daughter didn't get into AP English. She is capable, but others did better on the test than she did. I think she would have done better on the test if she had done more writing and less drawing over the years. And now another year of drawing? I am looking into Stanford's distance learning program for youth which includes AP and honors. Does anyone know anything about this program? Anyone tried it? (June 1999)

Personal note to the woman who did her kid's drawings: I've done something similar to make up for my kid's art deficiencies. I think it's pathetic to get a B- in English because you're not an artist. Both my kids have been told they didn't put in enough effort when they produced stick figure type drawings that they labored over while, for example, the girl who is now a professional illustrator whipped out a masterpiece and got an A even though she slept in class.

Feb 2000

My complaint involves the number of art projects that my dauther was assigned for finals. These included projects in honors geometry (!), English, Latin, and history. For history, the art project was the final exam. I find this a distressing trend for a number of reasons. Of course I would rather my daughter were performing academic work. It seems to me that goes without saying. But the second big problem is that it takes her forever to complete these assignments. For the history, she worked from the time she received the assignment until 11:00 the night before the assignment was due. If she had put in this same amount of time studying the material, I would be delighted. In geometry, she was actually graded down, not because of the matematical content, but because of her presentation. Perhaps the powers that be reason that if the kids can't read and don't know how to study, they will at least be artists. In my daughtrer's case, this approach is not working. Is anyone else unhappy with the amount of art work given? Is there any chance we could approach the school board about this matter?

Jenifer

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