Week 10 Reading

Which of Rath's thinking operations are supported by VTS?

Stage One, gathering data through observations,  is supported by VTS. The VTS questions of "What do you see happening in this artwork?", and "What do you observe that makes you say that?" encourage students to gather visual information through their senses. 

Stage Two, processing the data gathered, is also supported by VTS. This is done when  VTS questioning asks students to provide evidence for their interpretations. Also, higher level viewers  may me classifying artwork and comparing a particular piece to another.

VTS vs. Wasserman's new curriculum model

I interpreted Wasserman's article as suggesting that teachers shouldn't teach at the bottom of Blooms, define, identify, and recall. Teachers should use questioning techniques that allow students to process and apply knowledge, as well as evaluate ones own work. As in other articles we have read, the teacher should function as a facilitator that helps students build their own meaning and become better at evaluating themselves and their work. Wasserman also echoed reading from our class text that also suggested that curriculum should revolve around big ideas that students can study.

VTS correlates with Wasserman’s curriculum model in that higher order thinking skills are being taught through a questioning strategy. Wassermann’s curriculum goes through all the steps of Blooms, but VTS, as it is practiced with my kinders, does not flow past analysis, and that is me being generous. I can see, however, how a level 4 viewer is engaged in the highest levels of critical thinking. Creating a curriculum unit that includes VTS as part of the art experience is  a good strategy for developing analytical thinking.

Has VTS had an impact on classroom management in your classroom? Has VTS had an impact on the maladaptive behaviors in your classroom?

I don’t think VTS has had an impact on management and maladaptive behaviors. My gut feeling is that the students would need to be engaged in thinking skills curriculum daily for quantitative change to appear. Discipline in my school is still status quo – positive rewards for being good sometimes, and punishments for poor choices. It would be neat if the classroom teachers and counselors could implement this information.  I have been playing with the idea integrating P.E.T.S lessons in to my art lessons in order to encourage thinking skills for about a year. I think this article has given me the nudge to put the P.E.T.S. books into my summer To Do pile.

Blog #9

VTS and Relationships

Is VTS impacting relationships in your classroom that are, in turn, enhancing teaching and learning?

Student to Student relationships: I don't know if the VTS sessions are impacting the students relationships among peers, or how to tell.

Student to Teacher relationship: My focus class is the only class of K students to ask me why - why are we doing this project, why are we looking at this artwork. I would like to think they feel safe in verbalizing their questions to me, or it just may be the particular group of kids.

Teacher to Student relationship: I definitely view this age group differently after VTSing with them. They are so bright and such great thinkers. Going in, my focus was in helping them build basic fine motor skills and art literacy. My lessons with this group are really guided. I have a big discombobulation internally right now. They need guidance for skill development and it is hard for me to find ways to let them be truly creative.

Art Teacher to Homeroom Teacher: VTSing with this class has led to conversations with the classroom teacher that I had not had previously. I think it has helped build a bridge professionally between art and regular classroom learning. I can incorporate what she is teaching about writing and story telling into my art lessons and VTS.

Is VTS impacting classroom management/behavior in any ways? Explain.

Briefly, yes it has affected my procedures. I now have an area for discussing art work (dots on the floor) and an area for work (tables).

But I would like to turn this question around a little. Does classroom behavior affect VTS? My particular focus class has a behavioral diversity that is not present in the other kindergarten classes. I am noticing a breakdown in the quality of VTS sessions over the school year. I started my VTS journey with this class in the fall. For the first few discussions, a few students were suspended, or not in the district yet. I have not seen the likes of this in about five years, in a middle school. This particular kindergarten class is a different organism.  I can not underscore that enough.

Reading Week #9

The one unanswered question I had after reading this article was ---Is knowledge the same as meaning?

The rules for authentic discussions about literature seemed to reflect the rules for VTS, diverse roles, attentive listening, respect, etc. When reading this article, I reflected on the benefits and disadvantages of being a 'special area' teacher. As an art teacher, you'd have the benefit of long term relationships that impact the class environment. Yet, if the class as a whole has a lot of friction, that culture is sometimes hard to overcome when you only see the kids once a week. Also, the variety of grades and classroom cultures could potentially cause confusion for the teacher - a teacher would have to be able to code switch often to meet the specific speech genres of different grade levels. But it is food for thought - breaking down the speech genres of each grade level to better communicate with the students. Authentic discussions require a lot of pre teaching that the study did not mention - how to be a good listener, how to use humor in a positive way, how to discuss respectfully. It seems that the environment needed for authentic discussions requires a school culture that builds those basic skills and manners, year after year.

Sneaking off to the museum

I was in Saint Louis last week to visit my dad, and found time to visit the SLAM. I needed to gather more image resources because I felt I was running on empty, and the internet can only take you so far. This is what I found---

 

Edwin Landseer, Attachment, 1829

I realized as I VTSed this image with one of my classes that this had been a choice made based on personal meaning. But it is still a great image, because it was easy for students (non-focus group) to humanize animals, and the first class got the meaning right away.

I went into the photography exhibit and was reminded of a narrative photographer, Gregory Crewdson. A lot of his work isn't right for elementary school, but his work led me to others I remembered from a couple of years ago.

 

Gregory Crewdson

 

Simen Johan

 

 Holly Andres

Other images I making note of for possible later use - 

Blog #8

VTS Experiences To Date

In has been great to witness the thinking processes of my students this year. VTS discussions have opened a window that lets me view their cognition. To date, I have viewed kindergartners as students that need to be developed, which is true I guess of all people. Kindergarten is such of force of socialization that acts upon the children. It is cool to slow down a bit just to experience them, work with them, and reflect on their growth.

It has been a real eye opener to see the qualitative changes in their discussions. The change that happened mid year was astonishing.  I was noticing the reduction of matching behaviors before winter break, but after winter break I noticed a lot of comments insinuating cause and effect and narrative.  I really wish Mary would offer a research course next year to gather data on VTS. I would be interested in doing qualitative research that documented the changes in kindergartners, looked at classroom curriculum in the regular subjects, and tried to see if there was a transference of learning in two directions – art to regular classroom, regular classroom to art. But I think I would need a graduate course to help offer the validity to my request to the kindergarten teachers, since it would require time on their sides also.

The major challenge with my focus group is the behavioral challenges. This semester, I have been VTSing with all four of my K classes, but it is my focus class that has so many disruptions during our VTS sessions. My focus group is a conglomerate of behavioral differences. It includes the “regulars”, two very vocal CBI students, and three students with documented discipline issues – it is more than a classroom management issue – it is a survival issue!

Right now I am in search of a text that will supplement our class text and readings. I have early elementary art books that say they talk about meaning making ready to be picked up at UALR library that I hope may be close to our class text in terms of offering information on meaning making, but for younger students.

Right now, I think my writer’s block is coming from defining meaning making in the context of kindergarten. It is not something I have looked at before. I do like the theme of artist as storyteller, and plan to stick with it.

Week #8 Reading

I would like to add to Terry Barrett’s introduction that learning to make art does not mean you can communicate meaning verbally about your own art. I started volunteering as a museum docent a few months after I completed my BFA in photography because I did not know how to talk about art, especially my own. I relied on a gut feeling of “that’s it!” in judging my own work.

A lot from this article sounds similar to VTS facilitation. Clear ground rules that encourage respectful behavior, prompts that ask students to describe what they see, asking the viewer to make meaning, and as a teacher making sure the setting and works of art are appropriate. But what this article is describing is the process of art criticism, a process that includes description, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation. It almost feels to me that VTS could be a strategy to fulfill the first two steps in art criticism in the elementary classroom, the first three if engaged in by a more developed viewer.

There are two insights I have taken away from the article that I would like to use when VTSing with my students. The first is to occasionally allowing by students to choose the image they VTS from a preselected group of 3 I have chosen. Another is a question that can be used as a closure, “What have we learned about ____ today?” In a way, it would give the students a sense that their discussion was a learning experience. However, I know that there could be reasons not to end a VTS session with such a question. It seems that the author is hinting at a universal truth that can be gleaned by any viewer if the teacher guided the interpretation in the “right” way.

Blog #7

A. Burr Blind Man's Bluff

How does it compare to the introductory image for your unit?

In terms of complexity and detail?

I think this image is about the same when compared with Homer’s Snap the Whip, but more complex then the sculpture. The major difference for me would be the sense of space. Homer’s painting curves from the right side, moves parallel to the viewer, and then goes way back. Burr’s painting moves in a circular way in the confines of a room in which the viewer is positioned. I mention this because my focus class seems to still figuring out how to visually move in pictorial space.

In terms of ambiguity and meaning?

Both paintings lent to a variety of student narratives.

In terms of cultural and historic diversity?

Both paintings are similar in terms of 19^th century genre. But since my focus group has a kindergarten sense of place and time, I don’t think they noticed a marked difference between their culture and time and those displayed in the artworks.

In terms of style and medium?

There was not a big difference in the style and medium of the images. Both are narrative paintings. Both are 19^th century genre.

Were responses to Image #3 qualitatively or quantitatively different in any way?

The number of responses was about the same. One difference is that with image 3, two students offered evidence with their interpretations. Another difference is the reduction of “listing” responses.  Student responses to Image 1 were more narrative than responses from the previous semester, and I noticed a sharp reduction in “listing” and “matching” responses. I noticed a lot of cause and effect narratives along with the idiosyncratic stories. With image 3, only one student answered by listing observations. The rest of the answers were interpretations – some idiosyncratic, some based on personal associations, some based on evidence in the artwork.

Has the integration of VTS discussions into this curriculum unit impacted the student art products in any way?

The answer is no. I still have not developed a curriculum unit yet. I can’t see the forest through the trees. Developing a unit at the beginning of the semester seemed to be too much frontloading. I am still trying to distill our semester readings down to the early elementary level and figure out how to help my youngest students create meaning while at the same time teaching basic art skills. A big shift has also occurred in their responses that have allowed me to tweak the images I pick – we can move on from describing objects to creating narratives.

*One thing I have noticed that kindergarteners are asked to identify beginning, middle, and ends of stories in their classrooms. I think the teaching they receive in the regular classroom affects the way they respond to the art.

Has the integration of VTS discussions into this curriculum unit affected student attitudes or motivation in any way?

 I haven’t noticed a difference. A couple have asked, “When are we going to make something?” when they come to art and see the dots on the floor, and the lights dimmed. Most students come to art to “do.” It is terrible important that they learn to speak about art, and because of that I know I have to work hard ant making sure our discussions are valid and motivating to them.