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Best Practice [Conversation]

To Give or Not To Give: Homework in Art

Started on Sep 27, 2012 by The_smARTteacher
Last post on Feb 28, 2013

Do you (or should you) give homework to your art students? Why or why not? If so, what do your out-of-class assignments look like? How do your students handle the work?

3 Keeps, 0 Likes, 8 Comments

  • msbeersart 09/27/2012 at 05:09pm
    I am required to give homework to k-7 for art class. I work at a private school and parents are required to keep kids up on turning in homework. SO they do the work and most of the little ones get help from parents. It's nice when I would like for them to do extra research and don't have time to do it during class. I am also required to give quizzes and exams so the homework helps them continue to learn the material. It is also nice to give them the opportunity to draw at home with less pressure - its totally different drawing sometimes. Its a great tool but ultimately grading it/creating it takes time away from preparing for art projects. If there were 32 hours in the day I would say YES homework.


  • AmyHall 09/28/2012 at 12:23pm
    I do an Art Madness project each year where students have to research an artist and do a bio sheet and provide an example of their artwork. I have about 90% turned in on time - there is a lot of excitement about the project, so they are good about turning it in.

    This is really their only homework, other than providing found objects or visual resources.


  • RuthByrne 09/28/2012 at 06:18pm
    I do informal and optional homeprojects So I don't think it counts as homework.

    Kids are encouraged to "cheat" and look up a drawing skill we'll learn or use next week and practice in their sketchbook. If they show me progress they can skip that part of the instruction and continue with their project.

    This year we're doing an alphabet challenge. When they're not in school, Kids are finding and taking pictures of letters in the alphabet and sending to me to collect in an online album. This is becoming a family project for some kids & so easy in the age of cell phone cameras.


  • jfrisco 09/29/2012 at 08:25pm
    Msbeersart- Wow! I have never heard of such a thing as being REQUIRED to give homework! I am blown away! Sometimes I introduce the next project as a teaser to get their planning and creative thinking going... motivator. I let students "practice and plan" the upcoming projects at home before coming into class. Not every student chooses to do this, but I continue to be hopeful that it will catch on. When some students in the class have already taken time at home to do this step the others are envious that these students get to start their project quicker. I think that is a motivator in itself. They are always eager to start the next project. :)

    I have also tried to assign "famous artist research" as homework. I have only done this once... but I honestly can't tell you whether I found it successful or not. It was a toss-up. I will be trying it again this year to see how it goes. I will get back to you on it in December. :)



  • Melissa 11/05/2012 at 04:35pm
    Personal belief is that it is appropriate at high school level or middle school level in a scenario where you see child every day or it counts as a "major" subject. I would not give homework to elementary students that are seen once per week as it puts the burden of reminding them on the homeroom teacher. I do give them "unofficial" assignments like noticing the architecture in their neighborhood or drawing something outside, but it's more enrichment for fun. I've also asked them to bring in reference pictures or images for collages, so that they would have a choice and not have to settle for my pictures. The reward is using something they like.


  • Artmom2 11/28/2012 at 05:10pm
    I give a homework assignment every week to all my jr high and hs kids. I do not give any to elem. kids are required to spend at least 1hr on homework, they can use any medium they want, and topics usually deal with teen issues bullying, peer pressure,or their reaction to current events, the last one we did was their reaction to the taliban shooting of the 14 yr old girl, sometimes I let a student give the homework. All responses/reactions must be visual in nature very few if any words, the kids seem to like this, my rational is that this is a way to remind them that they can create art outside of the art room, and that I don'have time to teach them everything I would like to during class time.


  • Astabeth 02/28/2013 at 01:18pm
    I only give homework regularly for AP Art History. Most of the rest of the time, it is finishing preparatory sketches, gathering materials, or gathering images to use for reference. Anything that they will dawdle over.