VTS Pre-Test

I conducted my VTS pre-assessment with my school's smallest kindergarten class. Three students were out, so thirteen students were present. Kindergarten class periods are twenty minutes long, so I dedicated a class period to VTS. I knew ahead of time that they weren't focusing on the screen for long periods of time at their seats, so I moved the tables out of the way and put stars on the floor to mark places to sit. I taped the pre-test and the end of the second week of school. It took a while to get all the media release forms signed.  We had a bumpy start since the students were easily distracted and noticed the sounds of fifth graders going to lunch. But once we took care of business, counted bug bites, and put on band aids, I was able to communicate the rules about how to behave when the class is talking about an artwork. 
     The class as a whole noticed that the figures were ice skating, and some said they were dancing on the ice. A lot of attention was paid to the figures falling down. The students remarked that the ice was green, and near the end of the discussion one girl said the artist had made a mistake. The students also commented a lot on the black and white paint strokes on the ice. The varied opinions were that they were penguins, paint, tire tracks, brown under the ice, and stripes left by a tiger running across the ice. The students began noticing items in the foreground, then noticed things "far away" in the background, moved back up front, to the sides, and up front again. The students also found matches in the painting. One student pointed out that the sky and the ice were both the same color. Then other students found matches in colors and styles of clothing. Quite a few students found humor in trying to understand the overlapping figures, as in "that lady has three legs,"  "that lady has a stick coming out of her mouth," and "that ice skate is on that other person." 
    The students exhibited many characteristics of level one viewers. During the first half of the discussion, many personal associations were made when describing what the students saw. One girl talked about dance class when pointing out the dance like  movements of the figures. Another talked about playing in the snow and getting cold. Someone talked about falling down. The students talked often about the colors they saw. Some of the students "knew" that water was blue, and the sky and ice should have been painted blue. When trying to describe aspects of the painting they didn't understand yet, such as space and overlap, the students found humor and laughed out loud. The students moved around inside the painting while talking about it.
     I was surprised that this class was engaged and stayed seated the whole period. I was able to add the question, "What do you find to make you say that?" from time to time, and the students could give evidence for their observations. Another big surprise for me was how their observations seem to take paths around the painting.
     

Practice VTS Lesson

 

 1.    Did your colleagues notice what you noticed in the painting?

  

I chose Dad's Coming by Winslow Homer. The similarities between my colleagues' observations and mine were that the three figures were waiting, it looked like they were waiting for someone to return on a boat since they were looking toward the water, the figures were on a beach, there were boats and nets around and they were probably used for fishing. I was unsure if the oldest female was a wife or older daughter. I also thought the tide might be out since the boats were on the beach. I also felt that the people were waiting in a formal fashion - they had on nice clothes and were still and observant. My colleagues inferred a different narrative.They interpreted the three figures as a mother and two children waiting for dad to return. One person read impatience in the figures' postures. Another thought that maybe the dad had left the family, and that was why there were boats and nets being unused on the beach. 

2.    Did they notice details or offer insights you had not considered? How did you respond to these? 

One colleague noticed the connection between the white objects in the painting. She also remarked that the white sail in the center of the painting was the focal point. She added that a non-dominant part of the subject matter being the focal point was a good idea since it kept the viewer looking around the painting. I acknowledged her comments and summarized them, but didn't do cartwheels like I wanted to. Another colleague that the forms in the painting seemed really 3-D and kept the painting from feeling like it was full of flat space. I treated her comments the same. also. 

3.    How did you feel about facilitating this discussion and what did you learn from the experience?

I was really nervous at first, but got comfortable quickly. I was in my classroom, my guinea pigs were seated, and I had the lights off. I felt all their attention was focused in the painting. I observed that sticking to the questions, and letting the students reactions and conversations guide the flow of the discussion, was the best way to facilitate. 

4.    Were you surprised by anything related to this discussion? 

I learned that the science teacher across the hall used to paint, and was able to point out technical aspects of Homer's painting that I didn't notice, like the inconsistency of the painted water around the boat in the foreground - it looks lighter, and smudgy.   

5.    What would you like to work on in your next facilitation and how might you do that? 

I didn't go up and point to the objects on the screen. I need to remember to do that.

The feedback that I received from my colleagues was positive. First they commented it was a nice engaging activity, in contrast to the afternoon meeting we had just sat through. They also noted that I facilitated the discussion without being overbearing. One person noticed that when I summarized, I was rephrasing using art vocabulary. Another person said the summaries allowed her to stay focused as she was searching for other details in the paintings