Blog #14

For my summative image, I chose to display a photograph I took in March 2012 of a portion of the St. Louis graffiti wall.

I think this image was a good choice for my kindergarten class at the end of the school year. It is pure eye candy for a 6 year old - bright colors, expressive graphics, fantastic creatures, letters, and numbers. The surface of the mural is very busy and crowded, but the space is shallow. The image was very busy, but the students didn't seem to be overwhelmed by it.

This discussion surprised me. The students discussed artist's intent, artist's medium, setting, and interpretation of the setting. I think the difference with this discussion has to do that graffiti is a medium they are very familiar with in their popular culture. The students can create a visual of a person spray painting. They can recall memories of having personally seen graffiti in an environment. This VTS session points towards activating prior knowledge of their visual culture. I would VTS this image again with the same age group at the same time of the school year (end). But I would also be tempted to use it as a pre-assessment for a unit on visual culture.