How to help students in develop ideas in a TAB classroom

Photo students are working on developing their final project proposal.

They’ve written down some ideas, brainstormed questions, and determined what they already know about the topic and what they still need to know, they’re off to a good start, but need to go a bit deeper with their ideas and consider some different approaches.

There are a lot of ways to help students to generate ideas, but here are the two that we most recently explored.

 

Asking why is a great way to help high school students generate ideas in your TAB art room.

My first question: How can I capture personality?

• Why do I want to capture personality?
  • Because I want my photos to tell a story.
• Why do I want my photos to tell a story?
  • Because I want to impact change through my artwork.
• Why do I want to impact change?
  • Because I believe that society has the ability to improve and adapt.
• What do I believe that society has the ability to improve and adapt?
  • Because it’s happened throughout history.

Rephrasing your problem starting with the phrase, ” In what ways might I…..”

• in what ways might I tell a story with my photos?
• In what ways might I impact change?
• In what ways might I help society improve and adapt?
• In what was might I replicate what has happened in the past?

Then students work on listing ideas/ answering the above questions. I usually have them write 3-5 questions.

Now students have a new set of questions to answer and problems to solve, that may lead them in a different and more interesting direction than their first idea.