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.
I think student choice of images is a great idea and seems to be a sure way to heighten interest and invest students in the learning.
ReplyDeleteThe second question, "What have we learned about ____ today?" might be used in reference to the artwork as students are lined up to leave the artroom, thus making it an unoffical part of the discussion. THis would invite them to express what THEY learned from the VTS and still be close enough, timewise, to the discussion for them to remember what they had talked about. Interesting! Try using it and report back whether or not you think it has merit. I'm curious!