VTS1: Week 11 Blog Assignment.

I've chosen to do Marc Chagall's Birthday with my fourth grade students.

I'm hoping that it will ping well off of our previous discussions, as we have been doing several images of "People inside doing things." However, this one becomes a bit more abstract with the position of the figures as well as perspective. My students enjoy creating narratives, which I'm hoping will be appropriate with this kiss. But I think the intertwined people with different facial expressions will give them potential content to talk about for the relationship. I also think (coming off of Halloween) the abstract body positions and skin tone could have students wondering why they are floating, or if they are ghosts. My students also like pointing out (fairly obvious) details of objects that they recognize, and there are several in here for them to find. They've also been noticing the clothing that people are wearing, and using that as a reference point for a time period.

My conversations tend to be male dominated, so I'm glad that there is both a male and female in this image. I'm also glad that there are words my ELL students would be able to recognize, especially given our previous conversations. Ex: Window, flowers, table, dress...

I always have a fear of an image being too simple/not intriguing. But I've felt that way about almost every image in the curriculum so far, and our conversations have been great. So, I'm hoping that it continues with this one as well.

Anyone think the kiss will be a problem? Should I address it before showing the image? Only address it if it becomes a problem? 4th graders, I just never know...

VTS1: Peer Coaching 3.

Ginia-

I was very impressed with on or two of your students are becoming stage two viewers. It's even more exciting to hear that they are doing so despite other academic challenges. They are also very thorough in linking their ideas off of one another, which you reinforce during paraphrasing which is great.

I noticed several times in your video that you were naturally using conditional language. The note card might be helpful, but I think it comes with practice and reminding yourself that you cannot take any assumptions for granted. That will also help with question two. So even if it painfully obvious that it is a truck, "This object that you think could be a truck" or "What do you see that makes you say this is a truck?" That makes them provide evidence for the observations that feel extremely obvious, but can't be taken for granted. How do you know it is a truck from any other vehicle?

I saw you get stumped by Riley's comment about the license plate, as it was very cut and dry. Paraphrasing those simple observations is fine. However, be careful about asking if they can find anything else/more, because that might make the student feel like their contribution was incorrect or not as important. Also, there are a few times when you transition using "Ok" or "OK, good" which doesn't seem to bother your students, but also has the same potential to make some feel more correct than others. So just try to keep your response the same each time so it's neutral :)

I agree that your students were engaged and I had a sense watching your video that your students were enjoying the conversation/process, and that they will keep impressing you the more they grow! I bet you get a few more stage two viewers developing soon! Good job, and great job sneaking in some nice vocabulary words while paraphrasing. Keep it up!

VTS1: Week 10 Blog Assignment.

4th Grade Lesson 2 Image 1

Assessing Student Engagement & Learning

The good news is, that through all the talking and classroom management issues, there is talking. I think my kids are actually engaged, and that we are still just practicing some of the behaviors of how to have an organized conversation. Even when I say I'm going to wait to call on people who have looked closely for a long time, I have hands shoot up in the air before I can ask the first question. Even when I say please state only one thing you notice, I have kids who will ramble off a whole list. One of the most exciting things for me in this lesson was that a boy who had never participated before, did. And once again, they love to agree and disagree with each other, and are doing so respectfully. That shows they are listening to what the other person is saying, and finding parts in it to agree or disagree off of. 

Reflecting on Practice

For whatever reason I said "picture" instead of "image" in the first question? I also had a kid question what it meant when I said, "What's going on?" So that was interesting...that he was questioning if I wanted him to list what he saw or what the narrative was. And he went with the narrative of thinking someone was mowing outside. The classroom management part is still difficult for me. I have high engagement and then just one or two kids that are off task. I tried Mary's suggestion of stopping and apologizing to the speaker when the class was not listening/talking out of turn. I have kids that come into my trailer late, or kids that come in for the buddy room. One kid sat right in front of my iPad, and knocked it over for the rest of my video. Oh how kids are kids. And it kills me when I mention specific things in my instructions, like mention one thing at a time, and I have kids who still mention multiple things. But I don't want to be mad at them for being engaged. So, I again tried Mary's suggestion where I said, "You mentioned many things but what stood out to me was..." But then I feel like I'm breaking neutrality and giving more importance to one of their observations? 

Planning

Like I said, I need to keep hounding the expectations at the beginning of the discussion. So far, I've been doing this right at the beginning of class. Even if I try to wait a few minutes until most students are there, for whatever reason, I still have some kids who come in late. So I'm thinking I might try the next one at the end of class to avoid that disruption. I'm also wondering if I should just send those few students who are not on task and difficult to manage back to their seat, instead of stopping to give them a warning. I hate removing them from the conversation, but I hate having to interrupt the speaker and the flow of our conversation for everyone else who is engaged. Sometimes I feel like maybe they would at least listen better from back there instead of being a distraction for the rest of the group. 

VTS1: Week 9 Blog Assignment.

I am using VTS in a 4th grade class of 19 students. 8 of these students are ELL students. There are about 4 boys in the class that can really rock the boat behavior wise. My school has ~400 students in it, is a Title I school, and is currently trying to implement the Leader in Me system.

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

VTS1: Week 8 Blog Assignment.

What do you think you are doing well?
Right now, I'm happy with my comfort of the second question. I feel like I know when it is appropriate to simply paraphrase back when a really blunt simple observation is stated. I feel comfortable asking, "What do you see that makes  you say that?" And I am happy with the responses my students are able to give me. When a student is offering their own evidence, I feel like I am doing a good job paraphrasing it all back, or trying to pick out something specific to question an assumption they stated in their evidence. I also feel like my instructions of the expectations during VTS have gotten better each time, which helps eliminate problems each time.

How have you grown since your first VTS experience w/ professional peers?
I feel like I was really unaware of what to do when someone said something bluntly obvious. I also feel like I have been aware of how to neutralize some potentially disrespectful comments. Now that I have been becoming more comfortable with the second question, I feel like I am starting to add in the linking pieces to what other kids are saying, specifically referencing them by name.

Have there been any surprises for you so far?
I've been surprised at how excited I am about them simply agreeing or disagreeing with each other respectfully. That to me seems like such a big deal that can be overlooked. I've had a lot of problems with respect in my classes, so when we sit down and agree/disagree respectfully, I say how proud I am of them for doing that. And then when the discussion is over and students start to be disrespectful, I can remind them of our VTS discussion and how they were able to use respectful words with each other like adults. I think that is a really important life skill that I have been trying to hound into them, and I love how easily it shows up during VTS.

What do you still want to work on?
I still want to work on managing the class as a whole during a discussion. Sometimes my kids come in totally riled up and ready to pick on each other, and I miss things that are happening when I am so focused on the speaker, paraphrasing etc., Using Mary's advice of stopping the speaker and apologizing to the speaker for having to pause for students who are not being respectful, has helped. And like I mentioned, I feel like I'm setting up my my expectations better before the discussion. Shorter discussions are also better. So I'm trying to push myself to go from VTS facilitator, to facilitator+classroom manager at the same time, which is proving to be a challenge at points. It's just another ball to juggle while facilitating. I also really hope my ELL kids are engaged and learning vocabulary. Engagement seems to be increasing just slightly more each time, so I hope more students will participate the more I remind them to state one observation at a time.

VTS1: Peer Coaching 2.

Dionne,

It's so interesting to see what it is like for someone to practice VTS with an adults, especially who are more comfortable with viewing art!

It sounds like your viewers are becoming much more advanced, at least in stage two as they are discussing the artist's intentions. I also thought it was very interesting that one person offered up a theme, (communism) as to what the piece might be about. That is definitely a sign of an advanced viewer. It was also nice to hear that the group accepted this possibility and found further evidence to support the theme. However, just make sure you are using conditional language when talking about these intentions/themes. Make sure you are saying, "You think this piece COULD be about communism...what do you see that makes you say that?" That way you are leaving room for someone to disagree, instead of just leading the group to provide more evidence. If they offer supporting evidence that's great, you just don't want to make it seem like they have found the only/correct answer.

I agree that it is hard when multiple people start talking over each other. This is something that I have to keep addressing with my students as well. I reminded them that if they did not get called on, do not whisper to their neighbor and do not try to talk at the same time. You also might find it helpful to ask your group to just mention one thing at a time, as Mary advised me. That way you can still cover everything in the image but it gives you time to focus, as well as more opportunities for other people to join the conversation.

Being recorded is definitely awkward, but just remember that you are learning like the rest of us. You're getting safe and productive feedback, and you're not supposed to be TOTALLY AWESOME yet. Try as much as possible to just ignore the fact that you're being recorded, and don't put too much pressure on yourself when paraphrasing to throw in fancy vocabulary or anything. You're just confirming that you heard the speaker correctly, and trying to tease out visual evidence for their statements through the second question. Even though I bet your group offers evidence without being prompted too a lot :) And practicing with other people sounds like it is helpful, and that you are definitely wanting to keep working on your own performance!

Keep it up!

Lori

VTS1: Week 7 Blog Assignment.

Why not tell?

After reading these articles, I saw this quote on Facebook.
I thought it fit this discussion very well.

I understand that teachers who are aware of an artist's intent can feel like they are missing a teaching opportunity by not explaining to students the intent, backstory, or historical context of a piece. However in my opinion, this just goes back to the idea of a "Right answer" when looking at art. The correct answer, being what the artist's intentional message was.

And this seems to be a continued debate that I have had throughout fine art and art history courses. This question of, "Did we get it right?"

First, that brings us to the question of who gets to decide what the "correct answer" is. And in my opinion, only the artist can state what their intent was. And so many art historians throughout time have not been able to speak to the artist about their intentions, but instead use their own clues and visual evidence to derive a meaning. And since they are "experts" their own derived meaning is taken as truth and passed on to others to pass onto people sitting in an art history lecture or on a guided museum tour. So my first argument against telling people "the right answer" is that a good portion of the time, some expert somewhere had the skills to VTS a piece themselves, and they just took that answer and shared it as some undeniable truth. But how did they get that "answer" that was spread around as truth? By being equipped with visual thinking skills/strategies.

But back to this idea of the artist's intent. When you create art, sometimes you are judged on if you communicated your idea clearly enough to the viewer. But then, you are praised on if your initial idea, can be a spark for other viewers. This spark ignites multiple possibilities of "answers" from people who see what they want to see in the artwork because of their own personal experiences or knowledge. In my opinion, it is more exciting when what you started with, even if it was a great idea, can become something more to someone else. What you were shooting for could be just fine, but isn't it exciting if you land somewhere else instead? To me, that's what art is about. Awakening anything and everything possible in your viewer for them to connect to. If they get the same message you intended, great. If they didn't, that's ok. Different is not bad, it is just different.

And I also agree, that those "teachable moments" of connecting it to historical context or other world issues, will have been previously taught somewhere else. Students will learn about WWII in social studies, and then recognize it in artwork. I don't think that artwork is the sole means of teaching kids historical context.  So once they have learned it, if the image is developmentally appropriate, they should eventually be able to tease out those connections on their own. And they will remember them better once they are actually connecting them to their own background knowledge, not being told about it for the first time.

Furthermore when speaking towards my teaching philosophy, I have a hard time telling kids to memorize certain facts as truth and try to remember them for as long as possible. I believe in teaching towards self-discovery and creating kids that have tools in their own toolbox to take out into the world and be successful in any scenario. Being equipped to form an opinion with evidence, create connections to your own background knowledge, take in multiple answers, respectfully agree or disagree are more important skills/tools for students to be equipped with than knowing the assumed correct message of one piece of work.