Week 13

Cascarones by Carmen Lomas Garza
Gouache
1989
Collection of Gilberto Cárdenas and Deanna RodrÌguez, Austin, TX
http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/texts/garza.htm

The image I have selected is another work by Chicana Narrative artist Carmen Lomas Garza. The image portrays a woman with five children seated around a table. The woman and four children are making confetti  eggs, one of the boys seems to be asleep.    

I selected this image because my students had so much fun with their first piece by Garza. I believe it is an appropriate image for my Stage One third graders - there's a little something for everyone...a family activity, both genders are represented, a family pet rests in a simple but detailed just enough setting.

Cascarones are confetti filled eggshells. I doubt that my students are familiar with them, but I do have a couple of Hispanic students in the group, so it is a possibility. I hope they will be challenged and observant enough to notice that this family / group is not simply dyeing eggs.

I think they will observe the time of day, the fact that this is a Mexican or Mexican-American family, the sleeping cat, the calendar and the painting of the church on the wall. I hope they will speculate why the one child is asleep, and observe that the rest of the group seems very focused on their task. I wonder if anyone will notice that this is a 'repeat' artist.

Things That Wake Me Up in the Middle of the Night

My brain decided that 3:30 AM was an appropriate time to wake it's silly self this morning. "Shhhh, not yet!" I urged it, "Go back to sleep, you will be quite grumpy when you have second grade at the end of the day today". No amount of gentle encouragement was successful, and so, dear readers, my thoughts turned, as they often do, to art education. For reasons I can not understand, 3:30 seemed a delightful time to ponder a recent blog post 'Meet my Nemesis: the Color Wheel Assessment' of classmate, doctoral student Amber Ward. Wouldn't Michelle Marder Khami have a field day? And what would Olivia Gude have to say? I actually envisioned an entire round table discussion. Amber, I AM happy to report that you did an outstanding job of defending your stance, complete with enlarged images of said Color Wheel Assessment.  

Second Grade, I am sorry, for your sake perhaps I should not spend the greater portion of my Sunday lazing around, and reading art blogs.........

Week 12

Assessing, Reflecting, Planning

Assessing Engagement Learning:

Describe student willingness to participate in the discussion.  Has this changed over time?  If so, how?

 Students are becoming more confident in their observations. One of the first hands to shoot into the air for this lesson was that of Hunter, a student who is shy, and who rarely participates in any group discussion. Additionally, another student, one I called on last time, even though he did not raise his hand, was quick to volunteer this session.

What did students notice about the featured artwork?

Students noticed the three girls holding hands and wearing wooden shoes, the dog, the buildings, that the girls were playing some kind of a game, and that this was probably a scene from long ago.

Did students list or interpret their observations? Are they offering evidence to support their interpretations without prompting?

 Almost all students interpreted their observations and almost all supported their observations.

Describe student interactions during the discussion.  Are they linking their responses to those of others?  Are they disagreeing respectfully?  If so, how do liking & respectful disagreement impact the discussion? 

 I’m using VTS with all of my classes K-6, however, the students in my focus group more than any other group, almost always preface their observations saying  “ I agree with________ “ or “ I disagree with __________”. It’s funny, kind of an unspoken norm that this group has somehow instituted, all of their own accord. There are one or two students who are disrespectful, but I attribute it to impulsivity versus purposeful rudeness. This is a cohesive little group, they seem to enjoy the linking process, and no one seems offended by the occasional disrespect.

What did students learn from this discussion?

I think my students learned that play, companionship, and pets are universal experiences, crossing the boundaries of time and place. 

Reflective Practice:

How did the VTS discussion feel and what did you learn by facilitating this lesson with your students?

I’ve mentioned before, VTS feels very natural to me. I enjoy facilitating the discussion and am challenged, in a good way, by the paraphrasing. This lesson was particularly rewarding. I loved that two of my most reticent students were anxious to participate.

Were you able to use the questions and prescribed teacher behaviors comfortably? If you omitted or changed anything, what impact did it have on the discussion?  Why do you think that occurred?

This discussion was perfect. Not to brag, but I really felt that this was one of my best experiences in following the prescribed behaviors. Everything fell place just as is should have.

Were you able to scaffold vocabulary through paraphrasing?  How might you reinforce this learning? 

 I think I did a good job of scaffolding vocabulary. My students understand it as part of the process although this time when I paraphrased I had one student who, after I paraphrased, said,”No, I said…..” and restated his exact same observation. I said, “Oh yes”, and repeated my paraphrase. He argued and said no again, “I said…”. I replied, “Oh, I know, “I said…..”. It’s just another way of saying the same thing.” That satisfied him and we moved on.  I have observed that students occasionally incorporate my paraphrased vocabulary words into their subsequent observations. Gotta love that!

Were there any surprises?  How will these impact your practice moving forward?

No real surprises, as I continue to implement VTS with this group I have learned to predict the behaviors of my group. My little voracious reader boy will make profound and accurate observations, one student will always take a lot of time to point out something that really isn’t there. Another boy is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to religion. One girl studies the image so carefully and listens to others so intently that I can visualize the wheels turning in her brain – she enjoys contradicting observations made by everyone else. As I reflect, my heart can’t help but swell with love for these students! The VTS experience has allowed me to know them on a far deeper level than I usually do. (Seeing a total of 460+ students, all but two grades on a three-day rotation, most of the time I feel fortunate if I know their names!)

Planning for the future:

 What do you want to work on as you plan for future lessons?

 Due to assemblies, emergency drills, and various other school events, in order to squeeze this lesson in, for this week with my target group, I had conduct VTS without studying the image beforehand. Thankfully, the image was fairly straightforward, but I could feel a difference….I didn’t like that was viewing it for the first time right alongside students.

How do you think you can accomplish that?

I plan to photocopy the pages of VTS images and keep them on my nightstand. Even if it has been a crazy busy day, and what day is not, perhaps I can at least glance at them for a few moments before going to sleep :-)

Week 10- Video #2



 Assessing, Reflecting, Planning

           Describe student willingness to participate in the discussion. Are you witnessing change? Students are familiar and very comfortable with VTS, most were anxious to participate. I noticed that a couple of students who did not volunteer last time shared this session.

            What did students notice about the featured artwork? Are you seeing more careful observation and deeper noticing? Students noticed the setting, the subjects, and the emotion of this piece. There was only one student who offered an ‘inventory’ type observation. I felt like a lot of thought went into the most of observations. (I felt that the sparse background of the piece required careful observation.)

            Are students expressing their observations conditionally as they gain experience looking at art?  (i.e. “It could be…” “It might be…” “It’s possible…”  “I wonder if maybe…”

I see some conditional observations. One boy said “I kind of think’, and another girl said, ‘Maybe’.

            Are students demonstrating more flexible thinking? (i.e. “At first I thought, but now I think…”  “It might be…, but it could also be….”)

The second student I called on offered two possible scenarios, beginning her statement, ‘I think that it’s either…or….’ Another student changed the narrative he was describing, modifying it as he said it, like the meaning was clearer to him via the process of relating his thoughts orally.

               Describe student interactions during the discussion. Are they linking their own responses? Are they respectful and democratic as they construct meaning?

 My students are adept at linking. Sometimes I will call on someone ten minutes after another student has shared and that student will say ,”I agree with what John or Mary said” and then elaborate on the reason why. Students are not disrespectful in their discussion, however, there were two students sent back to their seats for failing to sit quietly.

Were you able to vary the questions from time to time without altering the meaning? 

 Yes, blabbermouth that I am, I think I do a pretty good job with varying the questions. In watching the video I realized that at the beginning I told the students that there are no right answers, fortunately, they had heard my spiel often enough that no one picked up on that….I meant to say no wrong answers!

What do you think students learned from this discussion? What did you observe that makes you say that?

First of all, though it’s not captured on the video due to a technical problem, when I first turned on the SmartBoard, there was a mild undercurrent of surprise that an ‘old’ photograph could be a piece of art. Additionally, students realize that I will call on everyone who volunteers to participate and that I will value all responses the same.

Reflective Practice:

            How did the VTS discussion feel and what did you learn by facilitating the 4^th lesson with your students?

 As I mentioned earlier, both students and I are comfortable with the process, and each other. I am no longer as anxious about time; I know what behaviors to anticipate from which students. This lesson further reinforces the passion I already feel in regard to VTS!

       Are the questions and prescribed teacher behaviors becoming more natural and comfortable? Have you tried to reword the questions without changing their intent/meaning?  Did the change impact the discussion in any way?

The whole process feels very natural to me, I enjoy facilitating the conversation. My rewording of the questions did not seem to have any impact on the discussion.

Were there any surprises?  How will these impact your practice moving forward?

Early on in the session I called on a student who is new to the group. He had sat through a previous VTS session, without actively participating and had never raised his hand induring art class. (The student has an IEP, and seems very quiet.)He told me that he had not held up his hand and I replied that I wanted him to look closely at the image, that I would return to him later. I had no idea how he would respond, and hoped that I wouldn’t be putting him on the spot. It surprised me that he had something to say when I called on him the second time. He linked his response with that of another student, and then contributed more information. In the future I plan to use this technique with other students who aren’t as anxious to share.

                             

Planning:

What do you want to work on as you plan for future VTS lessons?

Hopefully I managed to maintain neutrality, but I was extremely frustrated with one student when he spent several minutes trying to point out something that was not a part of the picture. I could not locate it no matter how hard I tried. He finally came to the SmartBoard and pointed to the ‘bag’ that he saw, and after all of that, said, “It has stripes.”(Inside I was screaming - it took so-o-o long!!!) I want to work on being more patient. Perhaps I could have extracted some more information from the student, but I he had already taken so much time that I just wanted to move on.

How do you think you can accomplish that?

 I just need to relax, breathe deeply, and enjoy the experience, however it unfolds.

I'm Not Sure Who Enjoyed it More...(me or them)

I had great success using Faith Ringold's Church Picnic for an impromptu VTS session yesterday. It was a morning of emergency procedure drills, first grade students were extra wiggly, and we had about twenty minutes of class to fill. We had such a wonderful time that I was inspired to use the image with my next class, the kindergarteners.

I was amazed at the details they were able to pick out and the narratives that developed. Older students might read the church picnic banner and perhaps that might inhibit the discussion, but it didn't have that effect on my little ones. They acknowledged that it was either a sign or, in the case of kinders - a list :-), but then moved right on. 

This image is a 'Keeper'!

Why does it take a genius to point out the obvious?

Vylynda recently posted this quote on FB, I couldn't resist sharing! 

VTS Prezi

Visual Thinking Strategies on Prezi

Monday is a PD day in my district. I have volunteered to share VTS with my elementary colleagues. (Mary, I'm fulfilling my missionary duties!)I started to create a Prezi. but found this one which does a pretty good job. Since I am unable to edit it, I'm planning to either a) zoom quickly past the strange photographs or b) VTS them.
What do you think?

(Looks like a fun group to hang-out with, whoever they are!)