Building bridges

Inspiration for partnered lesson plan. An 2008 lesson taught by my dad for his Art/Library class for 7th/8th graders.

We are scheduled to teach our lesson on Tuesday the 22nd. We'd like to do a similar plan to the above in that the students are given one class period to build a bridge out of everyday items and materials found in the classroom, but at the end of class their structures will be taken apart. Some notes from the bridge maker/Mr. Dad:

"At the end I always asked, Why did you work so hard when you knew I was going to take it apart?

What did I do? What was the best part of the exercise.

Their answers reinforced the reason for the project: empowered to work and fail, a willingness to overhaul first-starts with a better idea, transforming non-bridge items into bridges through visualization, a pervasive confidence that "we can do this," doing well for its own sake (personal pride)."

I really couldn't have said it any better. I think it is very important to accept changes and destruction and failure and to learn from it. All the time as an artist and a human I'll be in the middle of something when I realize, hey, I just don't like it or it's not what I want it to be so I'll scrap the whole thing! Whether that means gesso-ing over a painting, taking a half made scarf off the needle and unraveling it, or deleting an essay and giving it a make-over. I'm not afraid of failure, I will re-start with a better idea, I have visualized what I want, and I take personal pride in what I do. I think they're beautiful lesson objectives valuable to life and not just the art room.