Blog Topic #5

Portrait of Possibility 

After observing the class and speaking with the teacher I'm partnering with, I have identified one boy in my class (I'll refer to him as Student A) whom I believe could benefit from VTS. He is a student in Intro to Art, and probably could be considered one taking the class "only for the fine art credit." During the first VTS discussion he did offer any contributions, his gaze was often away from the image, and he had his head laid on the desk at times. Student A could be shy, lack confidence, or simply be uninterested. 

I believe that VTS could show Student A how artwork can be meaningful and interesting. The notion that wrong answers don't exist in VTS will hopefully encourage him to "wonder" and participate. However, I think this will only happen if the image is enticing enough. The sense of community and group effort that VTS fosters will hopefully give Student A more confidence. 

To address Student A's needs, I think I will ask the group to gather closer to the image. Hopefully this will eliminate the temptation to stare off in another direction. Also, I will carefully choose an image that I feel the students' can relate too. Even with the help of VTS, I do think Student A (like many high schoolers) will be difficult to reach out to...but I am hopeful for a positive outcome. 

Blog Topic #4

VTS Lesson Plan #1, Image #1
Class: Intro to Art (grades 9-12)

Assessing Student Engagement & Learning

The student engagement in the Lesson 1 discussion seemed a little low, unfortunately. I'm not sure if the students were tired because it was first hour, if they were uninterested in the image, or if they simply didn't feel like participating. There was about four students who provided multiple contributions, and the rest were quiet.

The students noticed:

• The image appears to take place in an older time period...because of the clothing
• The male figure could be an artist...because of the art on the well and in front of him
• The male figure could be wealthy...because of the size of the room 
• The male figure could be the father of the two female figures
• The female figures could be maids/servants...because they appear to be assisting the male. 
• The male figure blends into the background
• The females' clothes show modesty...because of their long length and high collars

The students' thinking seemed to surround mostly surface-level observations. The students did notice some important details, but I didn't feel like they attempted to make larger connections find deeper meaning. 

There didn't seem to be much student interaction or collaboration to find more information about the image. Because of this, group meaning-making didn't occur as much as it could have.

I think the students learned that there are many things to discover in an artwork if they take the time to look. They students told me that most of them don't take time to look at art.

Reflecting on Practice:

The structure of the VTS discussion felt good, and I thought that I was able to implement the three questions successfully. I thought the paraphrasing was especially helpful because a lot of the students spoke softly, so when I re-stated their response, the rest of the class could hear their contribution.

Although I was able to use the questions and the teacher behaviors, asking "what more can we find"and waiting did not always seem to persuade the students to raise their hand and participate. Because of that, I was tempted to say more or ask them more guided questions, but I refrained.

If I omitted the second question "what do you see that makes you say that," I definitely don't think the students would've provided their own reasoning...so that was an important question.

I knew that VTSing with high school level students would be a bit of a challenge, but I was surprised that more people did not participate. I also was concerned that some student didn't even appear to be looking closely at the image...some were looking down or staring off into space.

Planning:

For my next discussion, I want to make sure that the image is interesting enough for this high school group. Because the VTS curriculum images are only k-8, I used the Lesson #1 for grade 8. I personally don't feel like the chosen image appealed to these students. Maybe this is something I can discuss with Mary and ask for guidance.

Blod Topic #3

Pre-VTS Assessments 

Class: Intro to Art (grades 9-12)

• I noticed that although the students were given a lot of space to write/ lines to write on, their responses as a whole were not very lengthy. Most students only pointed out visual characteristics of what was in the photograph, and very few students attempted to find a deeper meaning. A lot of students simply described an inventory of what they saw, and there was very little elaboration on the second question (what do you see that makes you say that?).  Some inferences were made about the man's occupation and mood. A few students  did use conditional language. 

A few students writing samples:

"A chef is posing for a picture in what looks like an older kitchen with a cigarette in his hands and a cup of tea or coffee on a saucer in the other leaning up against the counter."

"A man is taking a break from cooking. He is standing by a stove with pots and pans on it. He is wearing a chef hat as well. He is staring off into space as he is holding a cup of tea. There are cabinets behind him, timers above the stove, and a backsplash as well."

"This picture seems to look like a doctor, most likely a surgeon, drinking a cup of tea. I can tell that with the hat and the face mask thing and the scrubs that he could be a doctor. We can find that maybe he just got done with surgery, and he has had a long day at work."

• The thinking I noticed that Yenawine discussed was that it surrounds a single idea. Making up the single idea, the students have an observation and an inference. Although these thoughts can lead to more complex thinking, they are limited at this time. They have the ability to observe more, but they aren't volunteering any more ideas currently. 

• Reflecting upon Housen's descriptions, I believe most of these students are Stage 1 & 2 viewers. In some cases, students made bulleted lists of what they saw...falling into the Stage 1 viewing category. These students made "simple, concrete observations." Other students' writing aligned more with the Stage 2 description...they came up with ideas by referencing them to their knowledge of the world. For example: "generally tea makes you unstressed and by looking at his face, he seems distracted." 

• I was surprised that more students didn't go into further detail about the image...especially because of their high school age. I also noticed that a lot of the pre-assessments did not contain  very sophisticated writing and sentence structure. I'm curious to see how their pot-assessment will differ. 

Blog Topic #2

Last night I conducted the professional peer VTS discussion. Because I don't work in one particular school yet, I used 5 adults in my discussion: a working business man, a stay at home mother, a recent college graduate of economics, a retired teacher, and a young mother with an art degree (what a mix!).

First I want to say that I goofed up (sorry Mary) because I didn't see the images we were supposed to choose from. So...I chose my own! I chose to VTS the painting "Stop-Action Reaction: Jacqueline Kennedy, King of Hearts" by Tina Mion. I only felt confident about this choice because Mary led of VTS discussion of this image in Kathy's class this summer and it was fabulous! 

I definitely felt more nervous out of the classroom and in front of peers, but the discussion went pretty well! It was a slower start, but once the conversation got rolling, many great contributions were made. The group was not used to raising their hands so at times it was hard to stop in between each comment and paraphrase. Also, I felt that paraphrasing some comments sounded redundant, so I found myself picking and choosing which ideas to repeat back. I was really surprised how interested people were with the image as the discussion progressed (especially since these people were participating simply as a favor to me). 

The overall feedback was: 

• VTS makes you look at the image much more in depth than you normally would. 
• Helps you notice and wonder what the artist's intent is/ what the image means
• It allows you to react to others' comments (ping off each other)
• The discussion is like a chain reaction, and pieces come together when everyone collaborates