How Did I Miss This Article?

Interesting Article, http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-01-27T11%3A29%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=25

Week 2 -

Briefly describe your focus class for the semester and your teaching context.

Discuss & explain your choices of BIG IDEA, CONCEPTS, QUESTIONS, IMAGES and STUDIO ACTIVITY/ACTIVITIES based on course readings, personal VTS experience, curriculum goals/objectives, and knowledge of students as learners.

My focus class for this semester is a fourth grade group with 22 students. They have art every three days for fifty minute long classes. The school is located onboard the army post Ft. Leonard Wood and 99.5% of students are military dependents. The population is highly transient with most students moving after 1-3 years.

For my Big Idea I have selected Story, the concept that throughout time man has used art as a means to record experiences and ideas. While I think that all children can relate to narrative, being part of a military family, most of my students have had the opportunity to experience more in the way of change than their non-military peers. I think they will have a vast range of stories from which to select.

Essential Questions:

How do people express ideas through art?

How has art been used throughout history to tell stories?

What can we tell about history from looking at art?

What story will you share through art?

I have selected a diverse range of images trying to vary media, themes, and time periods. I’ve attempted to select images, which, as Yenawine suggests, offer the potential for multiple interpretation. Right now I am toying with the idea of VTSing 2-3 of the images and distributing the remainder among my five table groups and having students interpret (VTSque) and maybe share their interpretations with the class. If I go this route I’ll need to find another image or two. I included the Garza image after great VTS success with a couple of her images last semester.

IMAGES

Detail from Lascaux Cave painting

Las Posadas 2000 Carmen Lomas Garza
2000
 Oil on wood
30 x 42 inches
Collection of Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago, Illinois

Running for shelter during the air raids. Bilbao, Spain, 1937. © Estate of Robert Capa and Magnum Photos.

Detail from Column of Trajan

    

Louis Lang (1814–1893), Return of the 69th (Irish) Regiment, N.Y.S.M. from the Seat of War, 1862-1863. Oil on canvas. New-York Historical Society

Studio Activity / Activities

The studio activity for this lesson will be the creation of a bas relief ceramic tile, which depicts a personal story. Students will first brainstorm / mindmap ideas recalling times in their life when they have felt afraid, been proud, worked, experienced change, etc. They will create a series of rough drafts and ‘play’ with relief sculpture using plasticine clay.

Curriculum goals/objectives –

MO GLE’s:

PP2A4 - Select and apply three-dimensional media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas and solve challenging visual art problems - Grade 4 - Identify and demonstrate relief sculpture

IC2A4. Explain the connections between Visual Art and Communication Arts, Math, Science or Social Studies - Explain how George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton re- flected life in Missouri

HC1B4 -Compare and contrast artworks from different historical time periods and/or cultures - Compare and contrast two artworks on: Subject matter and media, use of value and space, theme.

Waynesville R6 Fourth Grade Third Quarter Common Assessments:

Students will create a relief sculpture.

Students will create the illusion of space.

I'm sure that I'll tweak this unit as it unfolds and I gladly welcome any comments or suggestions.

Week 2, Read and Reflect

Abigail Housen, Co-Founding Director, Visual
Thinking Strategies

“Eye of the Beholder: Research, Theory, & Practice” ~

 insights,epiphanies, surprises, and questions

"The art historical emphasis on style, period, material, and provenance are not the mental frameworks of interest to the naïve viewer." Abigail Housen

When reading this I was transported back to undergrad art history classes (six

b-o-r-i-n-g credit hours worth). I can clearly recall the struggle to keep my eyes open, seated in a darkened auditorium, lulled by the drone of the professor’s voice. I dutifully noted and memorized a description of the piece and pertinent information in order that I be able to regurgitate said info for the test, my 'second look' and then promptly forgot all but the Venus of Willendorf! There was no joy, no passion and most certainly, no growth and development of aesthetic response. How sad that I both entered and exited these courses a Stage 1 viewer!

I was surprised that Housen referenced VTS sessions with second graders which lasted as long as an hour. (p 18) I know the VTS manual suggests 15-20 minutes time per image and, rule follower that I tend to be, I am harsh on myself for consistently spending 25 minutes per session. Sheryl Lamme, I hereby give you permission to lighten up on yourself!

The thing that sticks in my mind after reading this article is just how closely aligned VTS is to the goals of 21st Century education. The website http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_Century_Education.htm gives the following definitions:

Teacher - From primary role as a dispenser of information to orchestrator of learning and helping students turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom.

The 21^st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery, and schools will need to create a “culture of inquiry”.

Learner - In the past a learner was a young person who went to school, spent a specified amount of time in certain courses, received passing grades and graduated. Today we must see learners in a new context:

First – we must maintain student interest by helping them see how what they are learning prepares them for life in the real world.

Second – we must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning.

Third – we must be flexible in how we teach.

Fourth – we must excite learners to become even more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside the formal school day.”

Isn't that VTS in a nutshell?

Random Scratchings for future lessons, What's an Art Teacher to Do?

Great Inspiration for Lesson on Identity and Social Perceptions for my drama filled Sixth Graders.

Doesn't it sound far more engaging / meaningful than my GLE based common assessments for this quarter - Students will use converging lines, Students will demonstrate a printmaking process?

A Find Worthy of Sharing

Researching Images for Week 2's assignment and my search yielded this website:
http://www.artsconnected.org/collection/98482/images-for-visual-thinking-strategies-vts-discussions?print=true#(1)

Definitely going to bookmark this at work, perfect for impromptu sessions of VTS.

Week 1 - Topic #1

What did you learn about your current VTS skills from self-assessing Video #3 from last semester?
I think I do a good job of asking the three questions, though I do not ask question  #2 as often as I do #1 and #3. Sometimes it wasn't neccessary and other times maybe I should have.

What do you think you are doing well? (What did you see that makes you say that?)
I'm good at paraphrasing. I enjoy the challenge, and I paraphrase almost everything.

What do you need to work on? (What did you see that makes you say that?)
I still need to continue working on keeping the time to about 15 minutes. My tape lasted 25 minutes. Students were squirmy and restless.

What behaviors/ skills will you focus on developing and /or improving during the semester?
I hope that this does not sound like a silly goal, but I would like to work on smiling more. As I watched the tape I realized that I only smiled three times during the video. I think that in my endeavor to remain neutral that my face does not reflect how much I really enjoy facilitating VTS. I want my students to realize that VTS makes me happy!

Week 1 - Chapters 1-3

Insights, epiphanies, surprises, and questions...

As I read Chapters 1-3 I could not help but feel as though another piece in the great endeavor to become a better art teacher puzzle were falling into place. (Please indulge my fascination with the way things fit together, I'm a bit of a relationship junkie.)That being said, it's no wonder that I am completely sold on VTS, and I believe I will become a huge fan of Walker's book.

Those of you who know me will probably recall that my undergraduate education, a hundred million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth, was heavily steeped in Lowenfeld and art making experiences evolving around creation and self-expression. Sadly, between trying to cram in state GLE's and local curriculum over the years I felt compelled to rush along in a rapid pace, students executing piece after piece. All of this time students were learning processes, but more often than not, most of the time that art was probably produced without a lot of meaning. I have read Stewart and Walker's book Rethinking Curriculum in Art so the concept of Big Ideas is not new to me. Little by little I am completely revamping my lessons, tossing some out completely and reworking others in attempt to infuse them with opportunities for establishing personal connections. Old dogs CAN learn new tricks! The format of Walker's book is very user friendly. It seems only natural that VTS be a part of building the knowledge base for art making. Questions running through my mind:

               Will I select artists to best convey my big ideas? (The examples of what not to do, while insightful, did make me wonder!)  

               What changes do I need to make in order that my students have the opportunity to research subject matter?

              

My major epiphany moment was completely on a personal level, reading the Donald Lipski's quote on the collection of objects ~"If I'm walking down Canal Street or looking through a hardware store in Sweden, if there's something that appeals to me, if I think something is substantial enough as an object, has enough resonance, I bring it home, not for the sake of collecting, but to expand my palette." AHA, thank-you Lipski! At long last you have completely validated the reason I have moved a massive rock collection literally around the world, the reason I purchase supplies, the reason I go to great lengths to procure found objects! When the urge to create strikes me it is comforting to know that the supplies are readily available and now I know why - I am continually expanding my palette!!!