Week 7 Reading

In the course of reading the week 7 assignment, I found many correlations between Terry Barrett's article, About Art Interpretation for Art Education, and my own classroom VTS experiences so far. Interpreting is personal and communal; their are many valid interpretations to a single artwork; interpreting relies in part on what the viewer has experienced in the past; voicing interpretations in a group setting can reinforce opinions or challenge them; multiple interpretations can unify a classroom - building shared meaning.

I had three insights arise as a I read this article.

#1 - On page 8, the author says,"To interpret a work of art from a time and place other than our own, we must at first recognize it is of another time and from another place." Upon further reflection of the paragraph from which the quote is excerpted, this statement points to a viewer whom is at least Stage III.

#2 - The authors we have read so far are well educated and have experience teaching in some way or another. They seem to be a little removed from the actual art classroom, though. I remember reading a study from last semester done in the classroom. Is there someone else out there to testify? :)

#3 - Barrett states that we may be more comfortable with communal interpretations than with personal interpretations (so true, in all subject areas). I like how she relates the personal interpretations to the communal ones and vice versa. It is not presented as either /or, but as being complementary.

Testing Zander - 5th Grade

After reading "Becoming Dialogical, " I decided to start testing a bone of contention that I had with the article. I was also inspired by the article to allow students to ask questions of images before we delved further.

This is my third year teaching elementary art, and I am still trying to find my footing. I began teaching by teaching a year of junior high, then a year of high school. I prefer longer, in depth projects that my elementary schedule doesn't allow. I have pretty much decided that each grade level is going to have an overarching theme that we explore in depth through a variety of art experiences to create meaning (and meet the state standards). The theme for 5th grade this year is Pop Art. We began with the Ash can artists, went onto Duchamp, and are into the pop artists themselves. The artist we are discussing right now is Andy Warhol. Before reading about Andy Warhol,  I showed four images mentioned in the excerpt the students were about to read - Coke bottles, 200 dollar bills, the Marilyns, and the soup cans. I asked the students to think about any questions they had about the artworks, and then to share them with the class as I wrote them on the board. At first they looked around the room at each other, then at me with a unsure and puzzled looks. I explained that I had just read a good article about how sometimes teachers don't ask enough questions of the students. I am fortunate that I had one brave student offer up a question that was not goof ball/ off topic. I think it gave the students courage to voice their questions. Above are photographs of the questions.  After the reading, we checked off the questions we had answered. I told them we would answer the other questions as we made our artwork in the following weeks.

Blog #6

Designing an assessment guideline for the kindergartners and integrating in to the curriculum  is going to be a big change. Right now, I just informally assess the younger students on whether they can or can’t do a task. I then re teach the skill by breaking it down even further or doing hand over hand guidance for the students who don’t have as developed motor skills.

To acknowledge the needs of the students, the unit will incorporate art experiences that are process oriented (skill building). The major emphasis will be on formative assessment, as Beattie suggests. I will probably use checklists, tallies, and note/journal reflections. For the students, I might have them use a pictoral rating scale to judge their work. Kindergarteners like to talk, so I think I might try modeling a whole class critque a few times, then let them work in small groups at later dates to critique their work. The formative assessment for this grade level will mainly be verbal or through the use of picture symbols. For the summative assessment, I will be asking the students to tell me about their work (interviews), since students at this level use narrative and action to explain their work.

VTS is a great tool for assessing the cognitive skills of my kinders. Since most can’t write well enough to express their thinking at this stage, VTS allows me a snapshot of their thinking. It would be a good summative assessment tool to see if the instructional methods were effective.

Week 6 Reading

Aside:

 I would like to question a statement made by Zander, that seems based on a faulty assumption, rather than experience.

‘Gallas (1995) says that in teaching science, the kinds of questions that engage her students are the questions that children naturally wonder about. “How do people age? How does the brain work? How is blood made?"(p. 70). The kinds of questions that children wonder about in art are likely to be very different. They might be questions like, "How do artists get ideas? What do artists do? Why did they use a particular style or material?”

To be argumentative, the same kindergartners that ask how a brain works will not be asking how artists get ideas, or why the artists use a particular style.  They will ask, “When do we get to paint? How do I draw a pig? How do I open my glue bottle?” The same students that are gaining basic knowledge in science need to gain basic knowledge in art.  

Now that I have those things out of my system, I found numerous statements in Zander’s article that echo what I have learned so far about becoming a VTS practitioner.

·       The article class for more active student involvement, and less didactic teaching.

·       Dialogue is a process in which the teacher is a facilitator (Burbiles, 1993).

·       The purpose of dialogue is to get to know different points of views.

·       There should be guidelines in dialogues that help develop good listeners that are respectful of differing opinions.

·       Student statements should be made using conditional language.

Two insights I take away from this article are that I need to question my students before I start “teaching.”  It would be such a simple question, “ What questions do you have as you look at this artwork? I feel KWL charts working into my unit plan.

Another insight is the use of open-ended activities. Such practices are also recommended in other class readings, especially in the course text. But the application of open-ended activities is starting to make more sense after reading this article, though I think I would have to structure it a bit more for the kinders, maybe by setting up centers.

Week 5 Reading

Baron’s concept of a good thinker begins with the uncertainty of a problem to solve and is guided by the belief that they will find a solution. The good thinker searches for solutions based on evidence.  The parallel between Baron and Glotthorn and  VTS is that when engaged in VTS,  a beginning viewer uses observations, backed by evidence, to create meaning. The one disparity is that in VTS, the beginning viewer constructs meaning in a group setting, where Baron’s view of collective meaning making is not cited in Leshnoff’s article.

Ambiguity in a work of art allows students opportunities to apply their knowledge of formalist elements of perception in order to decipher artworks. Ambiguity also allows students to make meaning of an artwork for themselves. The students will make meaning based on their own life experiences. Ambiguity also allows students the chance to consider the opinions of others and develop collective meaning based on various perspectives.  VTS methodology may foster the benefits of ambiguity by engaging the students in discussions of art that allows for meaning from a variety of personal experiences, the opinions of others,  and evidence gathered from observations.

Many of my images so far are open to interpretation by my kindergartners. They have been able to create a variety of narratives based on the open endedness of the artworks. Our last example lent itself to multiple narratives. The range of interpretations ranged from playing to kidnapping to the kids woke up when Santa was in the house. Gestures were interpreted as sneaky, playful, and fearful.

Blog #5

 

Little Girl in a Blue Arm Chair, by Mary Cassatt

Based on your growing knowledge and experience, was Image #2 an appropriate choice for your students, considering their age, stage, interests, and abilities?

·      Yes. The image was accessible, open to interpretation, narratives were easily implied, the subject matter was a scene from everyday life, and the painting was realistic.  The only thing missing was diversity. Even though the painting is from the 19^th century, I don’ t think my students picked up on it.

Did this image motivate rigorous and engaging discussion for students?

·      Yes, the students have moved past listing and matching recently, and make up a variety of narratives. They stayed seated for our 10-minute discussion.

Was Image #2 rich enough to encourage continued discussion &/or independent student investigation?

·      For some, yes. For most, no. It may be their age. I did a drawing activity after the VTS session based on the artwork. One of their literacy standards is to have a beginning, middle, and end sequence in a story.  I asked them to draw what happened after the story in the painting. I videotaped some of the students explaining their drawings.  I will post stills of that soon.

Did Image #2 suggest opportunities to explore the big idea through art making or expand art making already in progress?

·      If I knew what my big idea is……….. don’t know.

Blog #4 WORK IN PROGRESS

I will be  deviating from the sequence set forth by Walker. I don't feel our class text deals with the needs of younger elementary students who do not think abstractly, and who are still developing basic skills. I will be creating a unit that utilizes VTS to create meaning and critical thinking skills. At this point, my focus group is doing less listing and matching, and more figuring out cause and effect relationships related to narratives.  I really want to start to compare and contrasting images with this age group, but they have short attention spans.


I am tinkering with the Big Idea: the artist tells stories

Key concepts:
1. Some artists use their work to tell stories.
2. Kindergartners approach art from a narrative view point.
2. Kindergartners react to the dynamic and expressive qualities of art.
3. Kindergartners are taught linear pattern sequencing.
4. Kindergartners look for cause and effect patterns in art.
5. Kindergartners express meaning through a combination of visual, verbal, and kinesthetic expressions.




Possible images: