1 In 5 Teenagers Will Experiment With Art

1 In 5 Teenagers Will Experiment With Art

More Things that Make Me Stop and Go Hmmm....

As part of my building's PBS program we are required to document that we regularly review the PBS Rules. Last year I created a Prezi, combining photos taken around the school and text, solely for that purpose. While viewing the Prezi with second grade today I found it very interesting that a student raised their hand and said, "I agree with what John said." Later in the Prezi a second student raised their hand to say they agreed with what someone else had said. Prior to VTS I can't recall this ever happening. The PBS rules review had little in common with a VTS discussion though I was paraphrasing individual responses. Could I be witnessing some transfer?

A Visual Thesaurus?!!!

I LOVE this! http://www.visualthesaurus.com/  Wonder if I can talk my school into subscribing...

A screenshot fails to capture the unique interactive capabilities of this site.

Today I got this Captcha and found myself imagining what a salipolo would look like. (Burnt Toast followers, you  already know how intriguing I find these silly things.) I thought it might be fun to take screenshots of random Captchas and distribute them among 5th or 6th grade students who could then execute a visual interpretation of the nonsense word. Then, discovered this website http://www.captchart.com/.

Seems that someone else has already beaten me to the draw. ~ Pardon the pun ;-)
Too funny, perhaps I'll share some of the more benign images as examples, the site itself is not appropriate for my kiddos.

VTS Summative Reflection

Post 14 - Assessing Growth

Elizabeth Olds, Skating (1942)

My target group is a class of 20 third grade students. Due to a highly transient population, I have collected data for 14 students. 

Pre-VTS baseline data

In the Pre-VTS assessment, the majority of students wrote one to three sentences. There were a total 39 assertions made with-out evidence, and only two assertions made based on evidence. Three adjectives were used, all by the same student. Students described 'seeing' six times and there was no evidence of conditional language, revisions of thought, questioning, connections, or inference.

Most students indicated that this was a group of people ice skating and that they were having fun.

I must point out that in a moment of extreme flustered-ness - I altered my post VTS prompt. Instead of just having students write about what they saw I asked them to look at the image and tell what they saw, how they knew what they saw, and what more can you find. 

Post VTS

By far the most significant growth I noticed in the Post VTS assessment was that of word count. Percentage of growth ranged from 10% to 743%. I did have one student (*7)who went backwards in growth. This child has an IEP for speech and language comprehension related issues. The classroom teacher, resource specialist, speech teacher, and I are in agreement that he seems to be regressing in all areas of his work. Interestingly enough though, that same student was the only one to use questioning.

As the graph indicates, Post VTS, adjectives were used three times, this time though, it was by three different students. Use of conditional language went from 0 to 8 times, with several students saying "It looks like..."Assertions without evidence dropped by 10, while assertions with evidence grew by 12. Visualizing increased by 14, and one student made a connection in the form of "In this picture people are falling on the ice. I know, because I've seen it."

A fair amount of the Post Assessment writing contains an inventory listing of things seen - people slipping, skating, and falling. It is winter, they are skating on a pond, lake / stream. However, more elaborate narratives are developing as well. "I think there are families there, and friends hanging out, skating, and fathers and mothers out on a date." (Part of a 59 word response as opposed to the student's 7 word response Pre-VTS "They are skating and some are falling." A portion of another students response, " They are laughing at each other and having fun together."

One of my favorite responses comes from a student who moved in after the Pre-Assessment, the data is not included in my findings."I think they are all friends or family because there are a lot of people and they look happy together. I see that they are having fun because someone fell and he is laughing. I also think it is Christmas time because most people are wearing red and red is a Christmas color." Additionally, a third grader in one of my other classes noted that "..the people that have fallen look more happy than the people that are standing." Pretty juicy stuff if you ask me!

My Interpretation

I believe my Students are mostly Stage One viewers. Their observations are based on personal experience. They are now very comfortable developing a narrative based on a work of art. I believe that VTS  has taught them to 'look deeply' at works of art. The growth increase in Visualizing and Assertions with evidence indicates to me that students are learning to substantiate their observations by telling what they see that makes them say what they do automatically. I'm not really concerned that these students have demonstrated little to no Questioning, Connections, or Inferences. I have observed these strategies being used during our VTS sessions; I predict that in time they will be evidenced in their writings, they just aren't to that point yet. ( I believe they develop a much stronger narrative when working as a group versus completing a written assessment on their own. )

Other interesting Findings

For the past three art classes students have been drawing a cityscape of a place they have either lived or visited. We have studied examples of cityscapes and have identified the use of foreground, mid-ground, and background. These must also be incorporated into their cityscape compositions. Post VTS three students inventoried things they saw in the front and back of this scene indicating to me comprehension / application of recently learned knowledge.

My Smile for the Day

I am challenged to mesh Big Ideas and GLE's with my younger students, there's so much process to be learned. To meet the core common standard of texture, first graders did a rubbing on a cut section of grocery bag. The paper was then crumpled, dipped in water and crumpled again. After it was dry, students cut and twisted the paper to form a tree. Then, to finish the project we discussed fall trees and how the leaves had changed. I asked them to picture a magic tree, it's leaves changing to look any way they could imagine, and I gave them a huge assortment of collage items. The room was an absolute wreck when they were finished, but I am thrilled with the results.

Let's Plan a Field Trip

Let's plan a trip to visit Crystal Bridges Museum! According to Mapquest, it's close to a five hour trip from Columbia to Bentonville, Arkansas.  Admission is F-R-E-E!!!  http://crystalbridges.org/Plan-Your-Visit

We could spend a night, or two at the Crescent Hotel in nearby Eureka Springs. It's a gorgeous old hotel with an incredible restaurant, a delightful lounge, and an awesome spa. It would make an awesome girl trip...maybe January. Any takers???

Oh the Possibilities!

Nick Cave
Soundsuit
2010
http://www.crystalbridges.org/Collection/Contemporary

Filing this one away for VTS part 2!

Look-Out Sixth Grade!!!

I've spent a lot of time this weekend searching for ways to reach those pesky 6th Graders. (B#tch or not, I refuse to concede defeat!) I stumbled upon this post and thought that some of these suggestions sounded excellent. Speaking in my best British accent, hiding notes... these suggestions appeal to my true inner self. http://blog.simplek12.com/education/top-10-ways-to-wake-up-students/

A Sneak Peek

Had great fun yesterday installing the first pieces in my planned Post-it VTesque series. Am also learning valuable Post-it information. Hard to believe, but not all Post-its are created equal when it comes to adhering to glass. Yes, I will share during my summative presentation for those of you who may be inspired to wage your own little Post-it war. ;-)

I only managed to get one eye completed prior to students arriving yesterday. My kinders and first graders did not comment. Fifth grade was the most inquisitive and a fourth grader wanted to know where the other eye was.

After school I 'posted' the other eye, a mouth, and two ears.  My room faces the main staff parking lot, afriend who was leaving texted that it looked great. I anxiously await Monday's comments from both students and staff.

Remind Me Again why I Selected this Vocation....

This year I see 460+ students, K- fourth on a three day rotation, fifth and sixth on a four day rotation. Classes are huge, and come back-to-back. (Literally, if I need to use the restroom I have to call the nurse to watch the class.)

Yesterday, I attempted to teach the process of glazing ceramics to a class of 29 sixth graders, 22 of them boys. Due to a day of snow flurries they were extra crazy. It was an effort in futility trying to get them quiet. I observed one boy, a student I had previously really enjoyed, making fun of me and saying that I was a b*tch. Let me just say the experience brought out the inner b*tch in me real quick! 

This the second year to have sixth grade in our K-5 building. Plans are in the works to move them to a special sixth grade center next year. Until then, my colleagues, I'm begging for some middle school survival tips!!! 

Week 13 Critical Evaluation of Image

Cascarones by Carmen Lomas Garza

Reflecting on Yenawine’s article on image selection, was it an appropriate choice for your students, considering their age, stage, interests, and abilities? Explain why or why not.

I do believe that this was an appropriate image for my group. For the very first time I believe every single hand was in the air for this session of VTS. Students could identify with and enjoy the narratives of the piece. As Yenawine suggested, the imagery was animated, spare in terms of things depicted, contained a small group of people with relatively equal gender representation. The activity and emotion of the piece was familiar, the setting timeless.

In what ways did it challenge them?  Was the challenge too great, too little, just right?

I think this image challenged students just enough. Students were challenged in attempting to identify the family members, one student observed that the figure others had identified as being the father might instead be a guest, or a teenage boy. She then backed this up by stating that the size of the figure seemed too small to be the father. (I wonder if this noticing of size relationship is an indication that this student may be advancing more toward becoming a Stage 2 viewer?) Other students were then intrigued to explore this possibility. They explored the fact that it was night, possibly late, and perhaps that this family was behind schedule for getting the eggs decorated. The sleeping child was also thought provoking.

What features/aspects of the work of art and its narrative did the students notice? What intrigued them?

Students observed that this was a either a family – Mother, father, and children, mother and children, or a family and a guest. They noticed the cat; the time of day, the eggs, art supplies, and that one girl was engaged in the act of cutting. There were a couple of narratives that developed, one that this was a family engaged in decorating Easter eggs for an egg hunt that might be taking place the next day. The other was that this was an ‘artistic’ family that just enjoying decorating eggs together. The boy that appeared to be sleeping intrigued students. Some children thought that perhaps he was asleep because it was night, and others thought that he was bored from decorating so many eggs.

Were there any surprises?

My administrator entered the room right before the start of our discussion.  He stayed, listening for far longer than his usual, brief classroom visit. He is pleased that I am using VTS and has previously expressed seeing it’s value as a way of increasing the development of higher order thinking skills. I was also surprised that the image I had appeared slightly pixelated when enlarged to the SmartBoard. It wasn’t extremely bad, no child commented on it, and it did not appear to interfere with VTS. Never having experience this problem before, I was annoyed with myself for not checking the image. Next time I will look for one with a higher resolution.

Would you use this image again with a similar class of students?  Explain.

I had hoped that students would observe that this was a Mexican or Mexican-American family and perhaps speculate that the eggs were tied to a cultural celebration. Given the age and cultural diversity of my group, they focused instead on the aspect that this was a family, engaged in a family activity, concepts well within the realm of what is familiar. I believe my students concluded their viewing experience as Yenawine stated in the article, “thinking that they had legitimate insights”. (p.5) I would use this image again.

Strangely enough, not one student observed that this was our second piece by Carmen Lomas Garza.