Blog Topic #10 Assessing, Reflecting, and Planning with Video B

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 have a treat for you all.

I had my Intermediate student prepare a VTS lesson for our class. Here is that video.

Blog #9 Teacher's Choice Proposal

       My students are in college at the University of Missouri.  I have 14 students that are in one or the other of my Beginning and Intermediate Fiber Arts class.  These are stacked classes and can have advanced and graduate students enrolled in them.

      Each student is at a different place in his/her education from early college to last semester seniors and some are not even art majors or minors.  My students come from various areas and different departments throughout the University and take this class for credit in the humanities area.  Each of my students arrive at class with varying amounts of art education.  I encourage them to bring in their own voice to their artwork through each of the areas we are using to help tell about their art.

We meet twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday at 8am to 11am for a three-hour block of time. 

      We meet in Bingham Commons.  This building is an old kitchen and dinning hall that was in operation about 20 or so years ago. This is the preferred place to have a fiber classroom.  We can beat paper, dye fabric, and make baskets in an area that is very forgiving.  We, in fibers, will work in multiple medias this semester.  We are also working with 3-D sculptural units, first surface design, paper sculptural, and basketry. Presently, we are in the 3-D paper sculptural unit.  Each student will beat own pulp and creates an armature to cast over. Then, our next unit will be sculptural basketry.  This is why I have chosen these four artists for my teacher’s choice images.

Blog #8 VTS to Date

The first thing that I’m very comfortable doing is pointing to an area that each student is talking about and I think I have this down pretty well. I have to use a long ruler to be able to touch the image on the screen, because of the very large desk that is in front of the screen. Also I think I’m showing to each of my students that I’m there for them.

Adding VTS to my curriculum involves decisions that help me see the artwork different after each lesson.  I’m now looking for more in each work of art that I’m seeing in my everyday life.  Also this experience has let me evaluate am I giving my students enough information so that they can see art in different ways. I know look at my peers artwork in an open minded way that helps me see that there is more to reflect on in art than just what is on the surface.

Trying to take out all the stumbling blocks by letting there be an open-ended question. Letting the students have freedom in looking, talking, and questioning the artwork without all the answers placed in front of them. The learning through approaches allowed the students to ask why and keep on asking why. Understanding art in itself can be difficult for some students, but using VTS improves their knowledge of critical thinking. I have been surprised that students not engaged in class, can be engaged in the VTS lesson. I see that they understand more than I thought they were.

To what degree would students learn the concepts of looking at art be taught separately?  This is a necessary question to ask the educator in expanding a student’s art experiencing in both creating and interpreting an art form.  In the present political climate of budget restraints and common core standards, it may be difficult to get a straight answer.  Nevertheless, we must continue to fight for the overall education of our students and that includes improving the art curriculum in primary and secondary education settings. Yet, I still want to work on the question of “What is going on in this picture?” “What do you see that makes you say that?” and “What more can we find?” Getting down each of these phrases is my biggest concern and the paraphrasing would be the next concern to me. Coming back with different wordings is something that I think I will be dealing with for a long time, but it is something that I am most compelled to over come!

BLOG TOPIC #7 Why Not Tell?

By not teaching the VTS or not telling the viewer what the work is about, we are just asking them to find their own meaning from their own experiences. Within a group of people you can pull many ideas and much more experience. What each person’s experiences will be is so different from the person next to them. So, by not telling the viewer, we are creating a bigger picture of what is going on in the world today and past experiences. We also need to grow as viewers and if we are just spoon-fed the meanings of the artwork no will grow in understanding and take more information away from the work.

There are many different possibilities that people can take from asking just one simpler question, “what more can you see”, changes the ambiguity of the artwork to something more fulfilling that they can ask more questions of what they are seeing. Part 1 & 2 helps open up the question, why is this artwork like this or what is in this artwork. If we stop asking questions and have the freedom to speak our minds on what we see, we have stopped the process of opening the mind to grow.

The evidence is in the question, what more can we find?  With that question being asked of the viewer, we are asking them to think beyond what is right before them. This question being asked of viewers is finding a method for them to be able to take away from their own experiences. The observations of artwork can not just be something that is not given through names and date, but a more meaningful journey that help each viewer associates with their own experiences. I find that with my own students having VTS in the classroom opens up a way for all students to voice what they see happening in each of the artworks that I display.

Blog #6 Assessing, Reflecting, Planning

Right out of the box, they were engaged.  Even my student, which is not engaged in class, started out engaged in the VTS lesson.  Then the class just went from there. Half of my students are in stage II and a small group are still in the beginning of stage I.  This shows me that some students are learning from these VTS lessons and some are just on the outside of the learning curve.  

During this general observation of my students, I noticed that the students asked more meaningful questions and I also noticed, by their observations, that their answers were more in depth. Overall, most of my students picked up on small details and tried to analyze the artwork.  

The students noticed “Color, color, color” that is dark, foboating, depressing, and gloomy. Then they moved to the man on bed that looked like a medical bed or a military bed. Then, they related the pile of clothing being 6 feet high as if it were six feet under or in the grave. They were exhibiting a form of reasoning out on what was going on in this image. They came up with different scenarios that might be behind the work. 

They were:  1) They observe the man on the bed that it might be a solider and the clothes were the weight of war. 2) They noticed pieces of clothing “a pair of sweat pants and shirts”. 3) With in the difference of colors within the clothing really had powerful ambiguity that helps this shape that is tomb like to pull the viewer in.

What did my students learn from this VTS lesson? That it’s okay to have an opinion, that this class can have an open dialogue or they were in a safe place to say what was on their minds.

The feeling of this lesson was great and after awhile I was in the groove with what they were saying and wanted to join them in a discussion of this artwork. They had it going on and it did not feel like a VTS lesson for me, but finding what the meaning of this artwork is. They have grown so much over the last few weeks and I’m so amazed by my students. I was very surprised that they are learning. I think that the VTS lessons are coming to a place that is opening up my students, so that they can understand viewing artwork is different than just looking at it.  I was so happy today that they have come so far in just this short time.

What I would like to work on is my timing and vocabulary, that way I can push the students timing and vocabulary to a level that is so far out there. They will never go back to just seeing art. I think I can accomplish this by broadening my own vocabulary by pushing myself to comprehend more of each artwork that I show.

Blog #5 Portrait of Possibility

I have chosen “Rikki” who would be helped by using VTS; I think the VTS would challenge him beyond where he is today. He is a very bright student, but I think it could make him a great artist and someone that could go to graduate school and with this push would help him to go down that path. Rikki really took to the VTS lesson today. He surprised me with his answers and the way he would come up with the meaning to the teapot. He looks at the meaning to the scroll design on the bodies to that of henna. The earrings represent babies and the teacup in the tummy as a baby that has not been born yet. He would feed off the other students and after I was done with the lesson, he and Amy wanted to keep going.  They sat there and kept analyzing it.

”Rikki” is the name I’m going to use as a pseudonym for my student. Rikki is a first year art student, willing to learn new things. Sometimes he does not always engage with the lesson plan. I would say he goes his own way, but he is very smart. I have to push Rikki sometimes and at other times he’s just a super kid.

I think Rikki would benefit by being exposed to new images, terms and techniques. Rikki is one of those students just on the brink of finding himself as an artist.

VST lesson plan; I would like to have Rikki find four to six images that he would like to know more about. Then, I would like to have him do a VTS lesson for the class. This would allow Rikki to see from both side of understanding the learning process.  I would videotape this so that we can go over after the tape after he is done. That way he can start thinking about the artwork in a new light.