Blog Topic #10: Assessing, Reflecting, Planning

The image I used for this lesson was this Native American  Hide Painting depicting the Sun Dance.  My third grade class was very engaged and interested in this image.  Only three students did not comment at all and most of the others had multiple comments.  In fact, I had to end the lesson with hands still in the air due to the fact that the lesson had lasted almost 20 minutes!

The observations started very simply by noticing the animals and Native American aspects of the drawing.  But also, right at the beginning the students had ideas about the purpose of this drawing.  Was it a map? An image of an island? Or was it just a drawing by a Native American artist?  The discussion also focused on whether it was a drawing on an animal skin or paper from "ancient times".  And these ideas were supported by reasons like the color of the "paper" looked old; or the outline and border of the skin looked "jagged and furry like an animal".  I also had students who looked at the outline of the shape and saw animal shapes in the outline; like a "goose head", or a "bear head".  This led to an observation that the two shapes on the far left of the skin were the same but in reverse, (which of course, was the head of the elk skin). I also had students speculate on what the drawing was about--a celebration because of the dancing in the middle of the scene; a hunt for meat because of the horse and riders with weapons; a roundup of escaped animals because the animals are all running in the same direction.  One of my favorite observations was from one of my focus students who observed that the black animals were bison. This was important because I had at least two subsequent comments that disagreed with that student and thought they were buffalo--not bison.  At this point I'm waiting for someone to say that bison and buffalo are the same (which is what I thought), but no one did.  So at the end of the lesson I asked the student who had initially observed "bison" to tell us what a bison is.  He said "they are kind of like buffalo but I think they are black".  At that point I said when they get a chance to look up "bison" and "buffalo" and then tell me what they find out.  Of course they were all excited to go look it up and in less than 30 minutes I had two students (the original bison observer) telling me more than I ever wanted to know about the differences between bison and buffalo!  In case you're wondering, in North America we only have bison but early American settlers often referred to them as buffalo so that's why we sometimes use them interchangeably, but actually buffalo are only found in Africa--now you know!  That was a real learning experience for us all!

I feel my students are really Stage 2 viewers.  They are constructing a story around the image based on their previous knowledge.  They are using elements of art to help construct their story by saying "because of the color or the shape", or noticing types of lines.

I loved doing this lesson with my students!  I loved how engaged and excited they were and how they really had astute comments.  The three questions come very easily to me and for the most part I'm able to use question #2 when appropriate or leave it out if the student has given their own evidence.  I did notice at least four times when I should have offered new vocabulary in my paraphrase but didn't think of it at the time.
-I should have offered the word animal "hide" for animal "skin".
- I should have offered the word "battle" for the word "fight".
-I should have offered the word "hunt" for the word "catch".

Both of my focus students offered good comments and seemed validated by their participation.  One of them was the bison comment from my student who is new to our school and seeking attention. And the other student who lacks confidence and struggles academically spoke up early in the discussion with an appropriate comment too.

All in all, I thought the lesson went really well--I can't wait to do it with them again so I can work on offering the new vocabulary without hesitation as I paraphrase.