Teaching Art Criticism and Aesthetics in the Classroom

Mrs. M teaches students about art criticism by holding mini critiques for the grades by doing a walk around the table and talking about each others work. Students will begin by giving a positive comment, and then give a comment on what they could do differently, and then offer another positive comment. As the students critique each other's work, Mrs. M expects them to be specific in their answers; they cannot just say "I like this" or "I don't like this", they need to give reasons why something is or is not successful and what they can do to make it more successful. She touches slightly on aesthetics in 5th grade, but they do not seem to understand the concept very much. 


I like Mrs. M's method of critiquing art with the table walk-around, and being able to talk about everyone's work. I think it's nice that she incorporates the sandwich critique method, which is something I have heard about previously, and want to use in my own classroom critiques. I think that teaching aesthetics is difficult for younger students, especially since they are not at the point where they may be able to discuss what makes the artwork beautiful in detail, but teaching it to older students in a condensed fashion that they would understand might work. I may try to teach older elementary school students (grades 4 and 5) a little bit about aesthetics in art criticism, and if I see a consistent trend of students not understanding it, I may leave it alone until middle school.