Teaching the Soft Skills through the Arts- A Supplementary Art Cu

Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 4-2018 Teaching the Soft Skills through the Arts: A Supplementary Art Curriculum Brittany Boverhof Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Art Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, and the Educational Methods Commons Recommended Citation Boverhof, Brittany, "Teaching the Soft Skills through the Arts: A Supplementary Art Curriculum" (2018) Master's Theses 3428 https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3428 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU For more information, please contact wmu-scholarworks@wmich.edu TEACHING THE SOFT SKILLS THROUGH THE ARTS: A SUPPLEMENTARY ART CURRICULUM by Brittany Boverhof A thesis submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Frostic School of Art Western Michigan University April 2018 Thesis Committee: William Charland, Ph.D Chair Christina Chin, Ph.D Adriane Little, M.F.A © 2018 Brittany Boverhof TEACHING THE SOFT SKILLS THROUGH THE ARTS: A SUPPLEMENTARY ART CURRICULUM Brittany Boverhof, M.A Western Michigan University, 2018 Soft skills are the ability to work with, for, and among other people, yet we can no longer expect students to develop these skills organically This research builds on the knowledge that if we want the students we are educating to be successful in employing their own soft skills, then they must be taught This paper defines soft skills, shows their importance, and introduces practices that are proven to build soft skill ability I have constructed twelve lesson plans that teach the soft skills through experientialism, working in groups, art, critique, classroom management, and problem solving This supplementary curriculum provides lessons and assessment rubrics that teach the soft skills through application and practice, targeted for a middle school art classroom TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES iv LIST OF FIGURES v RESEARCH PROBLEM LITERATURE REVIEW Defining Soft Skills .3 Importance of Soft Skills .5 Teaching the Soft Skills through Experientialism .7 Teaching the Soft Skills through Learning Communities/Inquiry Groups Teaching the Soft Skills through Classroom Management Teaching the Soft Skills through Art 11 Assessing Soft Skills in the Art Room .13 Conclusion 15 A SUPPLEMENTARY CURRICULUM FOCUSED ON TEACHING THE SOFT SKILLS THROUGH ART 17 Lesson Plan Break Down 17 Assessment Instructions .18 ASSESSMENT RUBRIC 21 Soft Skills Foundation Standards .21 Individual Soft Skills Rubrics 21 SAMPLE LESSON PLANS FOR TEACHING THE SOFT SKILLS 29 Lesson 1: The Machine 30 Lesson 2: Tallest Tower .34 Lesson 3: Surrealism Blind Drawing 38 Lesson 4: Creating a Culture 42 Lesson 5: Defining Words 46 Lesson 6: Color Match Game 50 ii Table of Contents Continued Lesson 7: Following Directions 54 Lesson 8: Before and After 56 Lesson 9: Blind Contour 59 Lesson 10: Sculpt, Draw, Paint, Cut Trivia .62 Lesson 11: Reverse Pic-tionary 66 Lesson 12: Lego Car Rally 69 ADDITIONAL LESSON DOCUMENTS 73 Random Grouping Document 74 Creating a Culture “Tickets” 76 How Well Do You Follow Directions? Handout .77 Reverse Pic-tionary Words 78 REFERENCES .79 iii LIST OF TABLES Tulgan’s categories of soft skills Professionalism Rubric 23 a Professionalism Rubric: Self-Evaluation .23 b Professionalism Rubric: Personal Responsibility 23 c Professionalism Rubric: Positive Attitude 24 d Professionalism Rubric: Good Work Habits 24 e Professionalism Rubric: People Skills 25 Critical Thinking Rubric 25 a Critical Thinking Rubric: Proactive Learning .25 b Critical Thinking Rubric: Problem Solving 26 c Critical Thinking Rubric: Decision Making 26 Followership Rubric 27 a Followership Rubric: Respect for Context 27 b Followership Rubric: Citizenship 27 c Followership Rubric: Service 28 d Followership Rubric: Teamwork 28 iv LIST OF FIGURES Propositions about experiential learning Derived from Croes and Visser (2016) Career and Employability Standards 14 v RESEARCH PROBLEM What are soft skills? Generally speaking, soft skills are the skills a person needs to communicate with others and work cooperatively with other people Hard skills, on the other hand, are simply the technical skills and abilities to accomplish a task With the new age of technology and the instant gratification of getting the information or answer we want with a click or a text message, the soft skills that are a necessity in human interaction, communication, problem solving, and teamwork get lost, and specifically, “for generation z, social interactions have moved away from the parks and streets to mobile devices” (Smith, 2016, para 10) The generation of millennials (born between the 1980s and the early 1990s) that are stepping into managerial roles, and the young people of generation z (born between the mid 1990s and mid 2010s) who are entering the work-force, are both lacking in the area of soft skills (Smith, 2016, para 4), and from my own observation of working with students, kindergarten through high school, this trend is continuing “Soft skills have risen to prominence in recent years in the national discussion about workforce readiness, with many employers saying those skills are more important than job skills that can be taught on the job” (Smith, 2016, para 5) Soft skills are more important skills to have than the technical skills that can be taught on the job, because they translate across all areas of work and life My mother was a commercial designer in the 1980s, a job which no longer exists due to computers and technology Seeing the decline of that industry, what technical skills are being taught right now in colleges and universities that will be useless in the next 10-15 years with technological advances? Soft skills are highly valuable to each individual, regardless of job position or employment Isaacs writes in the article “Hard Jobs Take Soft Skills” (2016), Historically, hard skills largely ruled, although there are plenty of instances when a person with brilliant hard skills are fired for lack of soft skills…Today, there is a cartwheel of change concerning job skills Not only are soft skills now increasingly valued, their importance rivals or exceeds those of hard skills in many surveys and reports of business executives This constellation of skills even has a name upgrade - now often called ‘employability skills’ or ‘essential skills’ (p 26) It would be nice to say that there is one puzzle piece or potion that magically helps improve a student’s soft skills However, we are complex human beings with complex brains that need to be engaged, entertained, provoked, challenged, and grown Teaching students isn't about the easy solution, the one-size-fits-all It is about training the next generation of humans to be more grounded, well-rounded adults and members of society, each unique and original, and for that reason there are a number of theories and practices that I believe will best teach the soft skills, and cultivate life-long learning and adaptable individuals In this paper, I define soft skills, compare sources and theories about their importance, explore why they are missing, offer the best-practices to teach the soft skills, show how art education provides a vehicle for developing soft skills in students, and provide twelve lesson plans and assessment rubrics to implement intentionally teaching these skills in an art classroom Soft skills • Personal Responsibility • Positive Attitude • Good Work Habits • Proactive Learning • Problem Solving • Decision Making • Service • Teamwork The pitch You will be competing in groups to all complete a drawing task Each person will have the opportunity to draw and give instructions You will be divided in to three groups, and will create a line with your group facing the white board The first person in line will get a dry erase maker, and the second person in line will get a word slip from the basket The person with the card will instruct the person with the marker how to draw the word that is on the slip of paper The person drawing may only guess what the word may be, the may not ask questions or try to see what is on the slip of paper When the person drawing the word guesses what the word is, they must erase the board, and go to the back of the line The person with the word slip discards it, and picks up the marker The next person in line will then pick a new word slip and give drawing instructions The drawing instructions you are allowed to give are shapes, lines, and locations For example, if the word slip says “Football” you can instruct the person drawing to draw a circle, then draw a triangle on the left side and the right side Then put a line across the top, with three small perpendicular lines on top of that line Play honestly If you choose to cheat, there will be consequences for your group Procedures • Give The Pitch 67 • Demonstrate how to give the person drawing one shape and location instruction at a time • Using the Random Groups Document, break the class up into three groups If the groups not have the same number of people, someone may have to draw twice to make each group equal • Have these groups each make their own line, facing the white board • Invite the first person in line step up to the white board, and pick up a dry erase marker • Invited the second person in line to pick a word paper slip from the basket • On your count, the groups may begin instructing and drawing • Actively watch as students instruct and draw, and if you notice cheating, such as hinting at the word answer or trying to look at other word slips in the basket, give the group a consequence • Whichever group finishes their line first, wins the game You may reward the winners if you choose • Dismiss students back to their seats, and pick up the word slip baskets Consequence suggestions • Have the student giving drawing instructions stop, get a new word slip and start over • Stop both the person drawing and instructing and have them go to the back of their team line They must the whole process again, at the end Discussion • What was challenging about this activity? • Did you find it more challenging to draw or instruct? • Were your drawing skills and/or the instructor’s simplifying skills equally important? Why? • Did simplifying the image down to lines and shapes make it easier to communicate? • Does simplifying a problem down to its key components assist in solving the problem? Write-out Explain how it is helpful to break down a problem into its simplest form, to best communicate solutions Give an example of a social problem, such as a disagreement between friends, and how breaking it down can help create resolution between people 68 Assessment Refer to Soft Skill Rubrics Lesson 12: Lego Car Rally Materials • Legos of varying sizes and colors • Lego wheel sets - enough for each group to have two sets of wheels • Sketch paper • Timer • Random Grouping Document • Soft Skills Rubric Goals/objectives • Actively engage in building the group car/vehicle • Follow directions of traveling to building locations • Run Lead at one of the building locations • Actively engage when student is not Lead at a building location • Communicate with group throughout the activity • Share the creation that was constructed when that student was Lead, with the teacher • Participate in the class discussion • Complete and turn in a Write-out Vocabulary • Engineer: To design and build something • Build: To create or construct something new using one or many types of materials • Sculpt: To create something through building, shaping, molding, carving, or casting • Check-Out: To settle a bill, to leave, to vacate Soft skills • Self-Evaluation 69 • Personal Responsibility • Positive Attitude • Problem Solving • Decision Making • Respect for Context • Service • Teamwork The pitch Your group has a number of building tasks to accomplish Your first task is to create a Lego car using the sets of wheels and Legos provided to your group However, you may only put on one Lego at a time per person Number 1s will start by choosing a base piece to connect the wheels Then, number 2s can choose one Lego to put on the car, then number 3s, and so on If you have time, you can go back through the numbers, beginning with number 1, and keep adding Lego blocks You will have one minute to create your car, when I start the timer you may begin (After the timer goes off) Now that you have a Lego car, you must travel throughout the classroom to the 4-5 building locations However, the Lego car may only drive on the sketch paper provided to you, never to touch another surface When the car is on the sketch paper, the paper may not be moving, it has to stay still The cars wheels must always be touching the sketch paper, even when at a building location If the cars wheels leave the sketch paper, there will be consequences for your group As a group, decide how you will roll your car around the classroom, using the sketch paper You may cut or tear the paper at any time Each of the four building locations presents a problem to be solved by building with Legos Each group member will have the chance to be the Lead Engineer Lego Builder at one of the locations The Lead is the only person who is able to build at the specific location You must be kind and patient with each other The first team to accomplish all four building location problems, and roll their car on the sketch paper back to their original seats, will win the game Procedures • Set up 4-5 Lego locations around the classroom, each with a pile of Legos • Break the class into groups of 4-5 students 70 • Pass out two sets of Lego wheels, a handful of random Legos, and a piece of sketch paper to each group • Go around the room and give each student in the group a number 1-4/5 • Give The Pitch • Set the timer for one minute, and walk around while groups are building their cars • Finish giving The Pitch, and instruct groups to roll their car to their first Lego location • Walk around the room to observe how groups are working together, and how they are communicating with each other • Watch closely to make sure each groups car stays on a piece of sketch paper at all times If it leaves the sketch surface, give that group a consequence • Once the groups are finished with the Lego building locations, and back at their original group table, have each student stand by the Lego creation that they were Lead on • Walk around the room and make sure that the Lego creations follow the guidelines of the Building Location • Have the students leave the Legos and creations at each location and then find their seats Note that if you send them back to their seats with Legos, they will be distracted during the discussion Building location problem examples Create a bridge using Legos, that spans a gap somewhere in the classroom Your bridge must use a minimum of ten Legos You may not create a gap, choose an existing gap A lower cabinet needs a vertical support beam, so that it won’t come crashing down Create a beam that can assist in holding the weight of the cabinet, that will stand on its own Use a minimum of ten Legos Build a fake piece of fruit out of 8-15 Legos Build a cube shaped house for a quarter There must be a doorway that the quarter can fit through Build a vehicle, other than an automobile or car It does not have to have a motor to be considered a vehicle, you may be creative with your vehicle choice Use a minimum of fifteen Legos Build one piece of playground equipment using a minimum of fifteen Legos 71 Discussion • What did you find challenging about this activity? • What is challenging about having quite a few directions and instructions to follow? • What would've happened if you didn't communicate with your group? • What did it feel like when you were Lead at a building location? • What did it feel like when you weren’t Lead at a building location? • How could you have helped your team when you weren’t Lead? And did you choose to that or did you choose to check-out? • When is it permissible to mentally check-out, and no longer pay attention or participate? Write-out Respond to this question in 3-5 sentences: You are the Owner and Boss at a small store, your employees have tasks to accomplish daily in order to keep your store running and making profits When and how often, if ever, is it appropriate for your employees to mentally check-out? Assessment Refer to Soft Skill Rubrics 72 ADDITIONAL LESSON DOCUMENTS These documents are additional pieces needed for specific lesson plans If one or more of these documents are needed for a lesson plan, they will be listed under the Materials section on the individual lesson 73 Random Grouping Document Breaking the class up into random groups is important in building trust with your students Often, students are broken up into groups intentionally, separating different talents and abilities, and ultimately are being judged on past experiences as to how hard they will work on a given assignment Regardless of how you group students make it clear that it is random, not think too hard on who is in each group The students must know you are giving them all the same expectation and a clean slate, not comparing who they are to what has happened in regards to work ethic in the past Each student has a new opportunity to prove that they can put forth effort and share worth, instead of falling into poor work habits with the personalities of other students Most of the lesson plans call for the class to be divided into groups Use this document as a reference to randomly assign groups within your classroom Work to create new groups for every activity, introducing all of the students to each other through these lessons, and giving them a realm to work collaboratively together to learn each others strengths Here are a few ways of randomly grouping students Middle name initial Start with “A” and have students raise their hand and potentially share their middle name if they choose Under the “A” write each students name who has a middle name beginning with “A” Continue this for the whole alphabet When finished, group the number of students you want together alphabetically, or by choosing letters and grouping them together For example, if you are making groups of four, and the letters “C” and “J” both have two students, clump those two letters together to make a group If a student does not have a middle name, they may choose their first or last initial instead Birthdate 74 Group students by birth month or day number Make a list on the board either by month or day number and then circle the number of students close to each other into the number of group members you are hoping to accomplish Playing cards Take a deck of playing cards and separate out what you want for groups and the number of students you have For example, if I wanted to split the class of 20 in half randomly, I would count out 10 red cards and 10 black cards, then shuffle, and hand each student a card as I greet them at the door Another example would be if I wanted groups of 5, I would separate out hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs Alphabetically rearranged Be aware that a great deal of the time, students are paired or grouped alphabetically, and work with those students relatively often However, you can rearrange the alphabet by taking the roster of students in the class, and pairing or grouping them by numbers such as and 10, and 11, and 12, and so on Colored paper squares Cut the colors of the rainbow (purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red) into small squares and allow each student to pick a square as they enter the classroom From these squares you can group the class in a variety of ways, such as warm and cool colors to split the class in half, complementary colors to separate the class into pairs, or putting all of one or two colors together Collect these squares after the groups are made so that they can be used for grouping again in the future Color of clothing This type of grouping is much more difficult because of the gray areas of clothing colors If you glance around the room and see groupings of white, gray, black, blues, reds, etc then it could be good day for color grouping Choose a color such as blue, and group students by who is wearing a primarily blue shirt, sweatshirt, dress, or top Do the same for the number of colors 75 you need as the number of groups necessary If you need to group a bunch of extra bright or light colors, label them as such Creating a Culture “Tickets” Ticket category Turn on water, and put soap onto paintbrush bristles Massage soap on paintbrush bristles, then rinse Rinse brush again, then place the paintbrush handle down in brush cup Rinse water bowl in the sink, dry, and stack it near the sink Place artwork up on the white board or set it out in a viewable location Ticket category Place artwork in a well-lit location Find and sit in a location where you can view the artworks well Critically think through what you are drawn to in a particular art piece Share your thoughts about the specific piece, using the elements and principles of art to back your idea Graciously receive feedback on your own work, then collect it and continue work on it Ticket category Take a picture directly over top of the artwork using a camera Connect the camera to a school computer Upload the picture to your online digital portfolio 76 Type the title of the art piece, and an artist statement to finalize your submission Turn in art piece to be graded How Well Do You Follow Directions? Name: Directions: Before starting this assignment, read all of the questions carefully Write your first and last name on the line at the top of the page Underline the word “Directions” at the top of the paper Underline which one of these colors you prefer: RED BLUE YELLOW Fold over the bottom right corner of this paper What is your favorite restaurant? _ Select a letter of the alphabet and write it in an interesting font: Skip over questions and Scribble out this question and rewrite it in cursive below Do three jumping jacks 10 Flip this paper over and draw a picture of a sail boat 11 Find the word “scribble” on this paper, and draw a sunshine around it 12 Fold over the top right corner of this paper 13 Circle which one of these fruits you prefer: BANANA APPLE ORANGE 14 Write down what you like to eat at the restaurant you answered above 15 Circle all of the even numbered questions 16 Stand up and clap your hands twice 17 Do ONLY problem number 1, then sit quietly in your seat If asked what you are doing, 77 respond with, “I don't really want to this.” Reverse Pic-tionary Words Cow Baseball Whale Flower Ice Cream Cone Sun/Sunshine Octopus Pizza Spider Guitar Jellyfish Drum Michigan Carrot Light Bulb Snail Cookie Light House Rolling Pin Bow Tie Spoon Tea Cup Boat Lamp Cloud Pillow Hat Christmas Tree Kite Sailboat Skateboard Candle Spaceship Slide Rainbow Basketball Hoop Ghost Book 78 Bird Spider Web Eyes Money Cheese Truck REFERENCES Beggin, S., & Vaughn, K (2017) Reporting the success of the whole student: Assessing career and employability skills Techniques, 92(6), 18-23 Cook, M (2015, February 9) NWA Job market calling for soft skills Arkansas Business 32(6) Retrieved from https://search-proquestcom.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/docview/1664431076?accountid=15099&rfr_id=info%3 Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo Croes, J V., & Visser, M M (2015) From tech skills to life skills: Google online marketing challenge and experiential learning Journal of Information Systems Education, 26(4), 305-316 Retrieved from https://search-proquestcom.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/docview/1822074068?OpenUrlRefId=info:xri/sid:primo &accountid=15099 Curwin, R L., Mendler, A N., & Mendler, B D (2008) Disciple with dignity (3rd ed., pp 6683) Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Holden, T S (2012, May 1) Using art to assess critical thinking and reading comprehension in adolescents [Electronic version] Journal of adolescents and adult literacy, 55(8), 692703 doi:10.1002/JAAL.00084 Howard, L W., Tang, T L., & Jill Austin, M (2015) Teaching critical thinking skills: Ability, motivation, intervention, and the pygmalion effect Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), 133-147 doi:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/10.1007/s10551-014-2084-0 79 Isaacs, D (2016, May) Hard jobs take soft skills The Lane Report, 31(5), p 26-29 Jarvis, P., Holford, J., & Griffin, C (1998) The theory and practice of learning Kogan Page Limited Sterling, VA; London; UK Khasanzyanova, A (2017, May 26) How volunteering helps students to develop soft skills International Review of Rducation 63(3) Retrieved from https://search-proquestcom.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/docview/1822074068?OpenUrlRefId=info:xri/sid:primo &accountid=15099 Ling, K A (2016) Learning impacts of cooperative and traditional internship experiences (Doctoral dissertation, ProQuest) Retrieved from ProQuest (1664431076) Naufalin, L R., Dinanti, A & Krisnaresanti, A (2016) Experiential learning model on entrepreneurship subject to improve students’ soft skills Dinamika Pendidikan, 1(1), 6573 Office of Disability Employment Policy (2010, June) Teaching soft skills through workplace simulations in classroom settings In United States Department of Labor Retrieved from United States Government Publishing Office PR Newswire Europe (2014, May) Announcing the UK's first postgraduate certificate in the delivery of soft skills and experiential learning In PR Newswire Retrieved from ProQuest Remedios, R (2012) The role of soft skills in employability International Journal of Management Research and Reviews, 2(7), 1285-1292 Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.wmich.edu/login?url=https://search-proquestcom.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/docview/1417477902?accountid=15099 Smith, B A (2016) Teaching soft skills to generation Z The Idaho Business Review, Retrieved 80 from http://libproxy.library.wmich.edu/login?url=https://search-proquestcom.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/docview/1852708733?accountid=15099 Taylor M., Otinsky G (2008) Pre-Service Teachers and Sixth Graders Explore Social Justice as a Community of Inquiry In: Samaras A.P., Freese A.R., Kosnik C., Beck C (eds) Learning Communities In Practice Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol Springer, Dordrecht Templeton, D (1969) Critical Thinking and Teaching Art Art Education, 22(1), 5-9 doi:10.2307/3191305 Tulgan, B (2015) Bridging the soft skills gap: How to teach the missing basics to today's young talent Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc 81 ... organizes and maintains materials and documents Student nearly completes own tasks and maintains most materials and documents Student participates partially in tasks and is aware of materials and documents... Given the data accumulated from the art class, a grade may be presented on a report card Each category has an overarching standard that may be listed and a grade assigned on every report card It... soft skills, and recognizing them as a vital part of a student’s educational experience and growth 16 A SUPPLEMENTARY CURRICULUM FOCUSED ON TEACHING THE SOFT SKILLS THROUGH ART This curriculum