"Michael & James"
Stephen Assael Lambdin
Assessing Student Engagement & Learning
It has been decided after multiple attempts that I am going to pursue my advanced Graphic Design class in the VTS experiments to follow. I am struggling with participation, which I believe could be caused by trying to get responses out of large class groups. My advanced class is a smaller group (around 9 students), and have a better understanding of what we are trying to achieve with VTS.
Students noticed the basic elements of the painting: An African American fireman holding a child in his arms. Little attention was given to this particular piece and discussion was kept to a minimum. There were talks of the man saving the child, that the child could have been injured in a fire, and one student even said (jokingly) that the fireman possibly helped the child out of a treehouse. I found myself once again trying to prompt the students into going further into the discussion, but had little effectiveness. I have decided to choose a piece that may be more interesting to them. Thanks to Mrs. Franco for allowing me to pursue different pieces of work in efforts to gain more discussion from my class.
Reflecting On Practice
The VTS felt as though it was conducted successfully. Although there was little participation, it seemed to flow much smoother and with little interruption. I was much more comfortable in showing the artwork this particular time, and I felt as though there was no need to omit any questions. I did find myself prompting students more in efforts to try and gain some sort of discussion topic within the piece, but only found that the students are willing to give me the minimum requirements only. As mentioned previously, I am attempting to pursue work that I feel could get a more discussion-based VTS going. There were no surprises, other than bad joking and lack of interest in the piece. Welcome to High School. I am extremely excited, however to be one of the firsts to get to work with High Schoolers. VTS will prevail!
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