Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW: BRAVE ART AND TEENS

Literature Review: Brave Art and Teens

Collette Sanchez
National University

LITERATURE REVIEW: BRAVE ART AND TEENS

Abstract
This paper is a Literature Review on the textbook Brave Art and Teens: A Primer for the New
High School Art Teacher by Jodi A. Patterson. Included are the benefits of using this textbook,
especially as a new art teacher looking for a fresh approach to making art content meaningful for
teenagers. This book supports the Teacher Performance Expectation Domain E: Creating and
Maintaining Effective Environments for Students.

LITERATURE REVIEW: BRAVE ART AND TEENS

Literature Review
Brave Art and Teens (Patterson, 2011) is an amazing resource for art teachers, new and
veteran. Pattersons fresh approach enables teachers to create content that is significant to teens
in a way that relates to their own lives and also exposes them to the various cultures of the world,
art analysis, and modalities for personal expression. I enjoy reading this book because Patterson
asks readers to self-reflect on their own experiences as a teenager to remind us of the way we
looked at the world. This new perspective helps me create curriculum that will speak to my
students in a specialized way and also connect them to new ways of looking and communicating.
Pattersons motto is Speak from the heart, not the podium.
Brave Art and Teens supports the Teacher Performance Expectation Domain E: Creating
and Maintaining Effective Environments for Students (2013) because it really dives into the mind
of an art teacher and the minds of teenagers who are either experiencing art for the first time or
perfecting their craft.

The book contains various strategies that support an arts educator

maintaining their own classroom and creating a stimulating environment where students feel safe
to create, communicate, critically think and collaborate on visual arts problems. Patterson also
writes about how to freshen up boring art lessons by integrating current events that are
meaningful to teenager lives.

She excels at providing instructional strategies that foster

creativity, guide transformation, and how to share opinions in respectful, scholarly ways.
I have not finished reading this book because it makes me often stop and evaluate my
own teaching practice and self-reflection takes additional time. I also have been so inspired by
the content she writes about that its difficult to take it in all at once. I advise anyone who wants
to read this book to read one chapter at a time, reflect, implement the fresh strategies into their
own classroom, evaluate the results, revisit if necessary, and then proceed to the next chapter.

LITERATURE REVIEW: BRAVE ART AND TEENS

This book is essential for all arts educators who teach at the secondary level and like its
title, it takes bravery to teach the arts in a fresh and dynamic way to youth who may be resistant
to exploring who they are as people. Bravery is overarching theme of this book and it only takes
a brave art teacher to instill bravery in her students in order to ensure quality, meaning making
experiences in her classroom.

LITERATURE REVIEW: BRAVE ART AND TEENS

References
Patterson, J. A. (2011) Brave art and teens: A primer for the new high school teacher. High
Street Arts. Harpers Ferry, WV.
Teacher Performance Expectation (2013) Domain E: Creating and Maintaining Effective
Environments for Students. Retrieved January 30, 2016, from
http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/TPA-files/TPEs-Full-Version.pdf