Blog Topic #9: Teacher's Choice Proposal

My focus class is a class of 22 third graders.  Most of them are of average ability.  They are a pretty good group of kids although there are several boys who have some learning issues.  They are average Stage 1 viewers, although I've had some pretty perceptive insights as well--beyond Stage 1.  The four images (actually I chose 5 because I couldn't decide!), I've chosen I think would be fun to "figure out" for nine year olds.  I think they all have plenty of room for interpretation, yet are familiar enough for the kids to understand.

Image #1:  Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

Image #2:  Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat

Image #3:Happy Birthday Miss Jones, by Norman Rockwell

Image #4:  The Runaway, by Norman Rockwell

Image #5:  Taking in the Laundry,  by Grandma Moses

Blog Topic #8: VTS-to-Date

Since our first meeting in August I have become very comfortable facilitating a VTS lesson.  The three questions have become very automatic to me and I don't have to think about them so I can concentrate on listening and paraphrasing.  I think I am much better at really listening which makes the paraphrasing easier.  I try to link and that has become easier too, but there is room for improvement!  I really want to work on paraphrasing and building vocabulary when possible so that is my focus right now.

One of my biggest surprises has been how my classes ( I am doing this with more classes than just my "focus" class), have gotten into the routine of VTS and have really learned VTS "etiquette".  Some of my students did VTS last year, but even the new students and Kindergarten students have learned how to sit quietly, raise their hands and take turns commenting.  No one really talks out of turn or just blurts out a comment.  This surprises me because during regular Art class they will often blurt out an answer without raising their hand, but when doing VTS they seem to know the rules--and follow them!

My VTS experience with this class has been so awesome!  Yesterday at the Art museum it was so great to see everyone and listen to everyone share their VTS experiences.  Just as with teaching, some of the best learning comes from talking and sharing with peers and I think that is what happened yesterday.  I'm looking forward to more sharing through the blogs as it is very affirming and humbling at the same time.  I think I am learning so much from all of you!

Blog Topic #7: Why not tell?

After reading Yenawine's commentary on why VTS does not correct "wrong" observations I feel that he explains it so clearly and gives so many good examples of why students need to figure out the images for themselves.  His explanation makes so much sense and is so easy to understand especially after having seen VTS facilitation in action.

I too, struggled with the idea of "not telling" when I first became introduced to VTS (at a practicum 2 years ago).  As an Art major with an emphasis on Art History it seemed to go against everything I thought was important.  I'd been introducing my elementary students to Art History for years--much the same way I imagine Yenawine did at MOMA--talking about an artist and art style.  Putting the piece of Art in a historical context using dates and events.  Even though I tried to be very basic and thought that I was simplifying information I realize now that most of my students probably heard "blah, blah, blah" coming out of my mouth!  They simply didn't know enough to care about why Monet's Waterlilies are an example of French Impressionism (for example).  I now see that they enjoy the process of figuring out a piece of artwork much more than they enjoyed my telling them about an artwork.  It's like solving a puzzle.  And the collaborative nature of the process is so much more engaging than having one person (me) dispensing all of the information.  I almost think it might be easier to facilitate a VTS lesson at first if one doesn't have any art historical background.  Because, as Yenawine says "it is easy for non-experts to remain developmentally appropriate with their peers".

Just last week at a meeting of schools in my region I was telling two other art teachers about the many virtues of VTS and briefly explaining the process and philosophy.  I was met with incredulity when I said "and you don't give the kids information about the artwork".  So I did defend the VTS method by saying, "We're not really teaching them about the art, we're teaching them how to think--and they generally come up with the right idea by listening to each other, giving evidence and figuring out what it is they see in front of them."  But I really think it's hard to grapple with that idea until you see VTS in action and experience it for yourself.  I would also, (and did), recommend to anyone that they read Yenawine's book to truly understand the process as I think he states his point so well.

Blog Topic #6: Assessing, Reflecting, Planning--Video A

Assessing Student Engagement & Learning

I used image #3 from Lesson #1, grades 3-5, year one for my video because I had already used image #2 with this class.

As a whole my class was very engaged during our lesson.  The session lasted about 15 minutes.  Just about every student had something to say and those that did not were still very attentive.  The students began by noticing simple objects in the image such as the people and cactus. But they soon began to give a narrative to the image by offering suggestions such as:

-figures are a mother and child
-man and child
-aunt and child
-unrelated woman who rescued child
-They are sad.  The adult is comforting the child.

As far as the setting they speculated that:

-It's in the desert.
-There was a fire in the desert and they are escaping.
-It is sunset in the desert.
-There was a storm and lightning caused a fire in the desert.
-They were cooking dinner and went for a walk and forgot about the stove and it caught on fire.
-They are poor because they have no shoes or clothing.

Because of these many possible stories or explanations of the image I think many of my students are Stage 1 viewers but showing signs of Stage 2 viewers as well.  They are Accountive viewers by making a story, but they are Constructive viewers by using their own knowledge of the natural world to figure out the image.

I also had students give purely concrete observations without any hint at storytelling such as:
-The cactus looks like a noodle.
-The cactus looks like a banana.
-The cactus looks like a man's face.
-I think the word at the bottom is a name.

I think that the students are continuing to learn how to "VTS".  I think they are becoming more comfortable with VTS and are not worried about saying the wrong thing.  I think they are really looking and observing and trying to make sense of the picture.  With this image in particular they were able to bring in prior knowledge of what a desert looks like to help explain the picture.

Reflecting on Practice
I felt very comfortable facilitating this lesson.  I used the three questions just as written, although I did not always have to use question #2 because the students sometimes gave evidence first.  I think I repeated and paraphrased what the students said and offered new vocabulary when I could, i.e.--the word "cloak" for "some kind of blanket wrapped around".  I try to use the word "good" after each student's comment as my neutral word, but I noticed I did not use it a couple of times so I want to make sure I remember to do that in the future.  It feels comfortable to use that word--I just need to make it a habit.  I also had a hard time ending the discussion.  There were still some hands up--but no new hands--and the comments seemed to be degenerating to mostly silly ones about the shapes of the cactus.  I tried to acknowledge those comments equally but I did want to end the discussion at that point before we went too far down that path!  I do think the class had some great comments and really listened well to each other. Of my two students who I chose as "portraits of possibility", only one, Student A spoke up.  I was very pleased to hear his comment as he is my student who is very unsure of himself. (He had a very insightful comment about the possibility of fire in the background.)
Even though Student B did not have anything to say, he seemed to listen well and was attentive and not disruptive.

Planning
I want to really try to stay neutral and use my word "good" with EVERY student next time.  I also want to be able to "wrap up" the discussion at the right time--yet still give everyone a chance to speak.  I want to discourage "silly" comments by acknowledging them the same as other comments and not letting the student get extra attention for the silly comment.  All in all, I thought it went really well and I'm anxious to see what happens next time.