Art Homework That Doesn’t Need Marking!
Even the best, most dedicated, Art Teacher can sometimes feel the marking and assessment burden. Homework and classwork mount up and it all needs marking. Here I have 15 excellent suggestions for homework tasks that still move our students forward, but don’t need marking. Many of them also lead to you having an excellent starter for your next lesson.
- Research what the letters & numbers on pencils mean. E.g. the H and the B.
- Make a list of the items in their home that are made of ceramic.
- Collect an item to contribute towards a still life.
- Photograph or bring in an object that they will then draw in class.
- Set a homework to watch a YouTube clip that is relevant to the unit of work.
- Bring in an example picture of an artwork by an artist or movement you are studying to add to a class collage/display.
- Research an artist or artwork ready to explain it to a peer.
- Bring in a keyword to add to the display mentioned in number 6. Hand drawn or word-processed in an appropriate and creative way.
- Research what drawing from a primary or secondary source is, ready to discuss.
- Research facts about an artist or movement. All students stand at the start of class and get to sit down when they share a fact. Each student nominates which student gives the next fact.
- Introduce ‘creative drawing’ homework where the student chooses what do draw and in what media to embrace freedom of choice and creativity. These could be in a separate mini sketchbook or the back of their sketchbook. These are unmarked homework tasks that encourage students to take risks and experiment without the fear of a poor grade.
- Research the difference between a line and tone drawing ready to discuss at the start of the next lesson.
- All collect a colourful disposable object (eg milk bottle top) to make a giant colour wheel in class.
- Create a Pinterest board on an artist or theme.
- Older Students 16+ go to Arty Students and look at the exemplary projects here. Ask students to find a piece of work within a project that they like ready to discuss at the start of the following lesson.
Click on the image below to download this super-useful list as a document.
Thank you!
A pleasure 🙂
This is great! Thanks. I like to get my classes to write me a short article on spiritual art for homework too and also have a honest discussion about their opinions of artwork in a gallery or museum. Another activity is to go to a park and sketch the trees. Alternatively you could have them go to a duckpond and draw ducks. Other activities include a presentation on their favourite medium to use. You could even teach a powerful moving lesson on how emotion can be actively expressed through artwork as well. Or you can ask them to decoupage a shoebox etc for homework. Examples of cool original art homework projects are animal drawing, life drawing, flower tracing, toy design, bookmaking and so on. What about writing art essays and art competitions? Paired activities are good as well for fostering a sense of teamwork in class.
There are some great ideas here. If my students do a drawing I would have to mark it. Wouldn’t you?