Visual Arts · 2nd Year

Active learning ideas

Exploring Textures through Frottage

Active learning helps students connect abstract concepts like texture to concrete experiences. When students physically engage with surfaces through frottage, they move beyond passive observation to tactile exploration, which strengthens memory and understanding of material qualities.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary - Drawing
• NCCA: Primary - Awareness of Line and Texture

• 15–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Experiential Learning
• 45 min · Small Groups

Station Rotations: Texture Discovery

Set up stations with different materials like wood, metal grates, fabric, and stone. Students move in groups to create rubbings at each station, labeling the 'visual feel' of each result (e.g., 'scratchy' or 'bumpy').

Explain how the underlying surface alters the visual outcome of a rubbing.

Facilitation Tip

During Station Rotations: Texture Discovery, place a variety of surfaces (e.g., coins, leaves, bark) directly on the tables so students do not waste time searching for objects to rub.

What to look for

Provide students with a small piece of paper. Ask them to select one surface from the classroom, create a frottage rubbing using graphite, and write one sentence explaining how the surface's texture affected the rubbing.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

Activity 02

• Think-Pair-Share
• 15 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: The Mystery Rubbing

Students create a rubbing of a secret object from their bag or the classroom. They swap rubbings with a partner who must describe the texture and guess the object without seeing it.

Compare and contrast different textures based solely on their black and white rubbings.

Facilitation Tip

For Think-Pair-Share: The Mystery Rubbing, give each pair a rubbing to analyze before sharing with the class, ensuring all students participate in the discussion.

What to look for

Observe students as they rotate through texture stations. Ask targeted questions such as: 'What is different about the rubbing from the brick compared to the rubbing from the wood?' or 'Which tool, graphite or crayon, do you think works best for this rough surface and why?'

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Inquiry Circle
• 40 min · Whole Class

Inquiry Circle: Texture Collage

The class works together to create a large 'texture map' of the school. Each student contributes one rubbing from a different location (the playground, the hall, the gym) to build a collective visual record of their environment.

Justify an artist's choice of surface when creating a texture rubbing.

Facilitation Tip

When facilitating Collaborative Investigation: Texture Collage, provide clear scissors and glue guidelines to keep the focus on texture rather than craft precision.

What to look for

Students display their frottage rubbings side-by-side. In pairs, they discuss: 'What is one surface you recognize from your partner's work?' and 'What is one thing your partner did that made their rubbing particularly interesting?'

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Start by modeling frottage with a few surfaces, emphasizing the importance of tool choice and pressure. Avoid using overly sharp pencils, which can tear paper and distract from the texture focus. Research suggests that students learn best when they experiment with tool-surface relationships in small, guided groups before independent work.

Successful learning looks like students recognizing how different surfaces produce distinct rubbing patterns and textures. They should confidently select appropriate tools and explain how the physical texture of an object translates into a visual mark on paper. Collaboration and discussion should reveal their growing awareness of tactile and visual texture relationships.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Station Rotations: Texture Discovery, watch for students who focus only on the visual appearance of textures rather than their tactile qualities.

  Ask students to close their eyes while rubbing and describe the surface's feel aloud before looking at the paper, reinforcing the connection between touch and mark-making.

• During Collaborative Investigation: Texture Collage, watch for students who assume any drawing tool can create effective rubbings.

  Have students test graphite, crayon, and pastel on a rough surface like sandpaper, then discuss which tool produces the clearest rubbing without tearing the paper.

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Methods used in this brief

• Experiential Learning
• Think-Pair-Share
• Inquiry Circle