My students were very engaged in this lesson (they woke up). I think
that the subject matter helped in this lesson. They kept trying to figure it
out. They kept trying to understand what the artist was trying to tell us. They
were pulling out things that helped other students to start gauging the
artwork. They noticed the undertones of the message that the artist was trying
to tell through this work. They talked about the two different feelings going
on within the work. My students are thinking on a deeper level with this
lesson. They went back and forth from stage 2 to stage 3. The students
increased their thinking about the work. I think that my students are learning
that this is a safe place to open up and talk about anything in the artwork.
They can dive deeper into thinking and meaning with art.
Reflecting back on this lesson, I feel that
my students have acquired more knowledge than I thought they would. After these
last few months my students are starting to look at art in a new light from
what they were doing before. I say that half of my class is engaged with each
new work that is shown. I’m trying to introduce more complex topics into each
image. I have witnessed that through using VTS my students and I are starting
to see artwork and the world differently.
With
them being much older, my college students have an advantage over younger
students. They have different behaviors than school age students and they also
think differently than their counterparts. Once or twice I did omit a question,
but my students are very good and did not allow it to affect them. They asked
why and I said the same question over and over. I have to tell you more about
VTS and why we ask the questions we do.
No surprise in this lesson, but I do see that most of the students are
starting to move quickly from stage 1 to stage 2, with two or three moving into
stage three.
I want to work on my linking back to each student, by responding back with two or three more people in the link. Next, I would
work on my paraphrasing, bringing in words that at least helped with my student’s
vocabulary level. I will accomplish this by adding new words to my own
vocabulary on a daily basis. Lastly, I need to work on when I omitting the question; I
know that I need to add something like a poster on the back wall to help with this
and going over the question daily for me.
I knew this would be a great image for your diverse group of students. With the recognizable and "known" elements of a human figure and children's toys, I was confident that it would give less experienced students an entry point into the discussion while still offering enough ambiguity and intrigue for your more advanced students to be hooked as well. The linking is a more complex behavior, so don't get impatient with yourself if you don't have it down pat already. As your confidence with the questions grows, you'll have more mental space to focus on other things!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job! I agree with Mary that the image seemed to be perfect for your students. They seemed highly engaged by their thoughtful sharing of ideas. With regards to wording of the questions or leaving out words I agree that a poster with the questions is a great resource. I have that up in my room also. I usually don't use it but it's nice to know it's there. The students didn't seem to skip a beat during those times.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you see your students progressing through this process. It does seem that the more we VTS the easier it is to link, i'm sure it will come to you. Studying vocab words is an interesting concept. I would love to add more of that to my teaching, unfortunately my brain doesn't always work as I want it to to recall information. It depends upon how stressful my day was. = )
You sound like your doing great and realizing what things you might want to work on. I think that might be one of the harder part of this process. Make sure your listening closely to your students and when trying to paraphrase and add vocabulary words don't change what the student is trying to convey, especially if they don't understand the vocab that you might add on. That could make the students potentially lose confidence in sharing.