VTS and Document Analysis

My pull out GT class of third and fourth graders VTSed this advertisement for 15 minutes before completing a design analysis in a group setting. The only question I had to clarify for the students was #6 - concept of slogan. The students then planned an ad design for a candy they created.

Product Design Analysis

1.   What is the name of the product?

2.   What is the product made of?

3.   What makes the product special?

4.   Who is the target audience (ie. Boys, girls, men, women)?

5.   What is the claim (ie makes you smart)?

6.   What is the slogan?

7.   Does the product have a celebrity endorsement?

VTS Curriculum Unit

It's the thrill of the ride!

OzbunVTSIIUnit

Ozbun VTSII

View more presentations from eozbun.

Week 15 Reading

Cognition and Emotions in the Creative Process by Nicole M. Gnedza

After reading this article, I felt totally dejected. The educational system needs to be overhauled. Parents need to realize they are the primary educators of their children, and that schools are to help in the development of their kids - education needs to happen in the home and in the school.

Some of the developmental needs of kids can't be meet in the educational system as it now operates. It would be great if I, as an art teacher, could differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students. The ideas in the article are awesome, but next to impossible to implement. Time for students to think, plan, allow for intense emotions, experience failure, and revision requires a different setting and culture that now exists.

Students need partners in their education, and it is hard for one person to meet the needs of 28, or in the case of an art teacher, the needs 100 - 600 students.

I was inspired to some practical applications as I read this article. Students could be lead in biography studies of certain artists to understand the thinking and emotions of the creative process. Even at the elementary level, there are artists that younger students can understand such motivating artists as Matisse and Calder that had problems to overcome. Teachers become coaches - this has been echoed in other class readings during the semester in which students are facilitators and give some ownership to the students.

This article describes the way some students behave during VTS sessions. I have seen it with my students and with our teacher peer group when we meet. Some ideas come easily; some people need longer to look and contemplate; silence or daydreaming can be signs of thinking and making associations, aha moments can cause people to raise their hands, jump around, and go, "Ooh, ooh, ooh, call on me!" The teacher or VTS facilitator has the job of understanding and coaching the different thought processes and phases so the students can make meaning on their own terms.

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.

Week 14 Reading

Designing and Implementing Exemplary Content, Curriculum, and Assessment in Art Education by Karen Popovich.

There were several points from this article that I felt shared some ideology with VTS. The first was the emphasis on the use of big ideas in the development of an art curriculum. VTS images tend to follow a big idea for each grade level. Also, our course text and various course readings have advocated the use of big ideas. The second point was the cooperation of teacher and students to develop meaning. VTS is a facilitated discussion between all stakeholders in the classroom to create meaning. A third point was the emphasis on research, with out which the author felt students couldn't make meaning. VTS is an excellent way to research visual artworks.

Some things that surprised me were how well VTS seems to fit in with post-modernism and the study of visual culture. Both VTS and post-modernism do not target one absolute truth. Also, the "de-emphasis of high art over popular art," seemed to, in a small part, fit in with VTS. I think that choosing art for a VTS curriculum requires a teacher to balance many styles, cultures, time periods, etc - and doesn't necessarily make the statement that one type of art is best. Students should be given a wide variety of appropriate images to discuss.

Blog #13

                    

For my summative assessment image, I chose to display a section of the St. Louis graffiti wall.

·      I chose this image as a way to introduce collaborative working to my kindergarten students. Kindergarten students can make a class artwork by working side by side, but not with, each other. I am assuming this graffiti mural was made by numerous artists who worked independently, but shared a common workspace.

·      I feel this image is appropriate for my students at this time because it contains figures, words, narratives, shapes, and bright colors (eye candy). I think they will have a good time visually exploring it. Since the students can be idiosyncratic, this mural will lend itself to multiple interpretations. It is also similar to graffiti they see on the trains that pass through their community. Another reason I chose the image is that graffiti is sometimes not viewed as a “high art,” and I want to expose them to a variety of art mediums. Lastly, the space in this mural is shallow. Since there is so much going on, it is good to balance it a flat surface reading of space.

****Disclaimer – I do not advocate defacing public property. The graffiti wall is St. Louis is a free space for this type of art. I discuss these spaces with older students who like graffiti, and let them know that graffiti done otherwise is a crime.

·      I hope that by combining this viewing with a corresponding art activity, the students will view their own drawings as art, and understand why we can VTS a class project.

·      I think they may see the words as art – which will help us when they are in older grades.

·      I hope this activity paves the way for more collaborative work and the understanding of murals and other public art.

Week 13 Reading

Article: "A Toolbox Approach for Thoughtfully Structured, Creative Art Experiences" by Hanson & Herz

How might VTS be implemented into the 3 levels of the Toolbox Approach advocated by Hanson & Herz?

Teacher's Toolbox VTS can be a technique that teachers use to help students create meaning in a class setting. By using it through out the student's art education, the teacher can help develop students into more sophisticated viewers.

Class Toolbox  VTS being implemented into the class affects the class culture and how it collectively approaches art works.

Student Toolbox VTS can help mold the student's "habit of mind" that helps students look for meaning based on evidence.

Philosophically, VTS lends itself to a student centered classroom in which the teacher is a facilitator. As a skill set, VTS is a technique students can use as strategy.

If  classroom creativity is a group process, then VTS can lend itself to distributed creativity by helping students bring their knowledge and experiences to the class in an organized format.

VTS can aid divergent thinking, particularly fluency, by the last question "What else can we find?"

I found a strategy in a creativity textbook I am reading that looks very similar to VTS questioning. The book describes activities that promote creative thinking in young children. One such activity, Picture Possibilities, asks students to look at line or pattern pictures (think Torrance). Students are supposed to be given time to think about possible meanings. The teacher is to ask "What do you see in this picture?" "What else could it be?" pp 25-26


                      Torrance
                                             Book