Analyzing Media: Critical Thinking in Art Class, Mrs. Wukovitz
How do we know that what we are looking at in the media is real? Students are faced with hundreds of images on a daily basis. My goal as an art educator is to teach students how to analyze what they look at to determine the validity for themselves. These critical thinking skills are essential to being successful in the twenty first century.
Eighth grade students at Corning-Painted Post Middle School are taught how to manipulate images in Adobe Photoshop. The basic skills of graphic design are our focus with a strong emphasis on how reality can be altered. The students create two skill based projects: painting over an existing image and using the selection tools to create a digital collage. The end project is to create an altered reality that portrays a message or communicates a story. The artwork my students have on display are the beginning steps of this unit.
