My class has been progressively doing better with VTS. My ELL students are still pretty quiet, but appear to be getting more engaged as we go on. Slowly, more students are starting to participate. I was happily surprised to see how well the boys respectfully agree and disagree with each other. They are very much stage one viewers, stating simple observations or making assumptions of the narrative of the piece we are looking at. I wrap conversations up now after about 10 minutes, because that's basically how long they can handle it. The ELL kids will talk to their neighbor about anything else they notice at the end of the discussion. The boys seem to dominate the conversation.
I used the app called "Art Circles" to browse for some possible choices for my VTS lesson. It's great because it organizes pieces of work by phrases like "Saturation" or "Serenity" and lets you browse many pieces based off of what you're looking for!
 |
Alfred Eisenstaedt, Little Boy Staring Up at Medieval Suit
of Armor
|
 |
John Tenniel- Alice at the mad hatter's tea party
|
 |
Charmaine Olivia, muerta
|
 |
Gjon Mili, Pablo Picasso creating light drawing of vase of
flowers
|
 |
Marc Chagall, birthday
|
Our children sound like they have a few things in common. I love the idea of turn and talk to your neighbor, I will try that. I also am trying to limit the amount of time I VTS with them. "Art Circles" sounds very interesting. Finding images took me a very long time. I think the Marc Chagall painting is great. It gives them a lot to wonder about. I bet the boys would find the knights interesting. If they dominate conversation the majority of the time would you want to choose an image that might engage them more then the girls? Just a thought. Nice images!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteVTS Peer Coaching #2
ReplyDeleteLori, I can see that your images are really going to help your student. They have play and movement in each one of them. I see them pulling the viewer in. “Alice at the mad hatter’s tea party” might be the best one for your ELL student, but I hope you challenge them by using “Pablo Picasso creating light drawing of vase of flowers”. That image could change the way some viewers look at art. I do think that the image just might get your ELL student converted to art. If your ELL student is talking after the VTS lesson is done, you might want to say to the class that it is done. Just keep the lesson going in an informal way. Using apps is a great way of finding images. You can also try “Image Bank”
http://www.gettyimages.com/Creative/Frontdoor/TheImageBank as one more tool in you bag of tricks.
If your boys are dominate, the lesson should go slower in choosing each student so maybe the girls can have more of a chance. Good luck with your group of students. I know you will do just fine, because you’re a great teacher.
Lori- The boys are dominating the VTS discussions in my class also, and I'm not sure why. I do think the images you chose will encourage responses from the girls... but what do I know? :) My favorite is Gjon Mili, Pablo Picasso creating light drawing of vase of flowers, because of the movement and depth. I may use it with my class at some point, and I'm definitely going to check out the "Art Circles" app. Thanks for including it in your post!
ReplyDeleteLori, what a cool app! I definitely checked it out. I think the last image "Birthday" would be great to VTS because there are so many details to find, and I think the image would be enticing for these 4th graders.
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely have to check out the "Art Circles" app! Sounds like an efficient search tool. This is quite a diverse group of image. The first, second, and last images seem to be perfect fits for your group. Because your Stage 1 learners struggle w/ behavior and because of the dominant males, I would probably exclude Charmaine Olivia's Muerta simply because of the nipple. They might have trouble getting beyond that and it might prompt some responses that would make your silent girls nervous. The Picasso piece is fascinating, but could "stump" Stage 1 viewers. Again, I am so excited about the growth you are seeing with this class! I think you are just what they have needed!!
ReplyDelete