Having a group of MFA students and the head of
fiber faculty changes this conversation. They all wanted to talk at the same
time. They started to talk over each other and I had a hard time
getting in one of the questions. They answered it before I could ask them,
“What do you see that makes you say that?” They were also bouncing off each
other’s questions in a high level of discussion. This group has worked together
in critiques and understands what it’s like to have a high level discussion
about artwork. They saw more than what was actually on the surface
of the artwork and pulled out additional surface details. The level of
understanding for formal art helped the discussion go much farther than what we
had talked about on Saturday in the classroom. I did enjoy having my peers do
this for me. Also, filming this helped me to see that I need to work on the
location and angle of the camera. The audience was very much into the
discussion and pulling out what was in the art and what the art might be about.
After we had the critique of the artwork, I turned off the camera before we
were done talking about the work. The group gave me a lot of advice
on how to improve my student’s understanding of different ways to look at
artwork. It was fun to be on the other side with Jo in the discussion. I love
that she was a big part of it.
Way to go for your first test run! It sounds like the biggest issue you had was trying to keep control of the discussion. In a critique it is very easy to talk over each other which is why I can understand your peers reacted the way they did. I think how you prompt your group for the next session will be important. Before you start the discussion you could tell the group to not talk over each other and to wait for you to call on a person with their hand raised. I think that would help you maintain better control next time. All in all it sounds like it went well, good job!
ReplyDeleteShirley, I would've been so nervous to facilitate a discussion with fellow MFA students, way to go! I'm sure you had a really rich discussion. I'm curious to know how they felt about the potential effectiveness of VTS in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you learned "in the trenches" the importance of laying the ground rules of a VTS discussion before starting. It is very important for ask the group to raise their hands (on indicate in some way) that they want to speak and wait to be called upon. I'm sure you realized how necessary this was when you were trying to paraphrase. Even though VTS is student-centered, it remains teacher-facilitated. When participants take over, it feels like a run-away train and is very hard to manage. For the group you were facilitating for, who have experience discussing art with one another through critiques, it may not have been such a big deal, but you can imagine that if a less confident student was in the group, he or she would have been overwhelmed and may have her his/her ideas to himself/herself. Anyway, if I understand correctly that you videoed it, I'd love to see the video! Perhaps I might have some suggestings. Fun post to read!!
ReplyDelete