The Dot

The Dot Reading and Activity

Description: "The Dot" is a story about a little girl who does not feel she is good at art. Because of her insecurity, she is annoyed when her teacher insists that she make an art piece, so she only makes one small dot. The next day, the girl was surprised to see that her dot was framed by the teacher and hung up. The girl then challenged herself to make a better dot, which the teacher hung up. She kept making dots, and the teacher kept hanging them until she had a whole collection of beautiful and artistic dots. For the art project, students had the opportunity to use markers, oil pastels, crayons, and watercolor paint on coffee filters in order to make their own beautiful version of a dot. The students must be able to use all of these mediums in order to be successful, so that is something a teacher should take into account when planning this lesson. I love this story, because it shows that people who feel they have no skill in art can still learn to make something beautiful. This semester, I was able to make some art pieces that I was proud of, and it made me excited to use them in my classroom, even though I was apprehensive to start with because of my insecurity in my art ability. I feel a little less insecure now that I know I can work with different mediums successfully.

Extension: To extend this lesson, I would assign my students a sketch book in which to create their own artwork. They would have to choose one type of thing to draw over and over again in different ways. As we went through different art techniques and mediums, I would as them to incorporate some of them into their pieces. These include shading, painting, and using oil pastels. Through this project, my students would become confident enough with their standard design, that they could become increasingly more adventurous with new sketches. Hopefully, this would help students like me to feel like they can succeed at artistic endeavors, as well as encouraging them to keep working to improve their skill set.