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| "A Meeting, 1884" Marie Bashkirtseff |
The class consists of students grades 6-8. All the students have had me as their art teacher since third grade and are used to talking and writing about art.
After giving them a little back ground about what I was up too with my own class, they were excited to participate and begin the assessment. Word counts ranged from 40-150. Most of them used conditional language and made assertions with evidence. Students are accustomed to backing up statements with evidence in classes so all of them explained why they thought what they did.
I found it interesting though, that some were very concretely in Stage one, while others narratives regarding the work were more Stage three boarding on four. One my students became enthralled with the mood of the piece and on paper followed a train of thought as possibilities unfolded. They noticed first literal things, such as facial expression and body language, details of the setting and what that might mean, but then they would comment on the lack of clarity in a line or brush stroke and wonder if that also contributed to the concern one of the boys in the painting was perhaps feeling.
I have several students in this class with IEP's. I was also interested in their responses, they were both concretely stage one. One boy looking at it and simply making up a story based on his own interests and knowledge. The other was the only one to notice the girl walking away in the background of the composition. (which I thought was interesting in and of itself) Again, she is often a loner and that was where her attention was focused.
As soon as they all finished they of course wanted to talk about it with each other and compare answers. The excitement was palpable! I was not certain if it was ok to discuss it with the kids, but I did. We went through the VTS questions and talked about the painting for a full 25 minutes. The students were excited and would jump up and point to the sections they were speaking of, describing what they saw and why they thought what they thought. I only had to prompt them at the start, they caught on quickly and when making assertions would explain what they saw to make them think this.
Im excited to have them create some narrative works of their own and then have them VTS each others work. I love that it will give them a deepened awareness that the world is seen through many different eyes with infinite possibilities for subtle differences.
This was an exciting post to read. It certainly makes the case for talking about art works within the visual art classroom. Clearly, your having done this with these students over the years has both expanded and elevated their thinking.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the VTS strategy, it would normally be okay for students to discuss a "VTSed" work afterward; you might possibly enter the discussion of the particular VTSed work, too, if you let some time lapse (say, a week) and as long as that discussion continued to allow and encourage THEM to find the answers; not the teacher imparting knowledge to them or more able students "filling in" the less advanced thinkers. One important VTS objective is for students not to feel like their ideas or interpretations are invalid or "wrong." You could certainly enter the inquiry with them sharing your own questions and inferences made while viewing. This is a delicate endeavor, though. VTS's aim is for students to increase confidence in their own senses and reasoning and, if a burning question persists for them after the discussion, that they are motivated and empowered to seek the answer through their own effort; perhaps even share their research with the class. And I am sure you probably did it this way. From your desciptions of your teaching and your description of your students' discussion, you seem to share a very similar instructional philosophy with Yenawine and HOusen. =0) My concern with THIS image specifically, however, is that for the data to be "uncontaminated," the Pre & Post test image needs to be the same image and should not be discussed in between. That way, any insights or growth evidenced in the post-test can most likely be attributed to results of the method and the student's own aesthetic growth and not to information/insights/ or image-related instruction that might have come from supplemental class discussion of the test image. Let me talk to Kathy and see what she thinks. Maybe we can use this case as a "what would happen if" scenario? I'm sorry if the "loose lips sink ships" rationale was unclear in my instructions. Don't panic, though. Kathy and I will put our heads together and decide how best to proceed. Again, this was an exciting entry to read and I'm sorry all kids didn't have you for an art teacher!
Yikes! Sorry! I did not bring the image back this week. In fact (here I go, rebel student) I VTS'd an image to use as a catalyst to an old assignment I havnt done in forever, which is "what happens next". I thought I might use the discussion we had this week and my observations as my next entry? Is that ok since I got overly enthusiastic (as did my kids)... :) I don't want to skew any evidence of growth so my initial image is put to bed until the end. And rest assured, I did not influence them with my own thoughts.... :)
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