Blog Topic #8 - Peer Coaching

The Beatles - Yesterday & Today Album Art

1966, photographer Robert Whitaker

VTS Source Choice

I am one to love controversy.  I think it is a wonderful way to get people to discuss.  Being a graphic designer, I felt that using a piece of art that referenced what a designer does would help the student to relate to what we "do" in my field of study.  What better controversial designs to unravel than the "kings of controversy" themselves, The Beatles.  This album, Yesterday And Today, was one of many covers chosen by The Beatles that brought about much discussion.  The Beatles were so popular during the year of 1966, that even their view or "opinion" on the Vietnam War was a valued one.  Everyone wanted to know what The Beatles had to say about the war.  Soon to follow was the coveted, "Butcher Shop Cover," in which The Beatles portrayed themselves on the cover as "Baby Killers."  They did so in efforts to reference America's involvement in the war, and their protest of the involvement.  Obviously this was a BOLD cover for 1966, and Americans were outraged.  Ironically, it is the only Beatles' album that lost money for Capital Records.  So, now you know the history.

The VTS

I chose to, once again, VTS my advanced class, as they seemed to be much more reactive than my other classes,  It was exciting!  After revealing the cover, you could hear the gasps!  There was almost no need to introduce the first question.  The students immediately responded to the first question, one after the next, offering plenty of informative adjectives such as "gory baby dolls," "Happy faces and Death mixed together."  "deathly carnage."  I found it quite simple (this time), to lead students without feeling as though I was forcing them.  As the matter of fact, I really needn't say anything.  

Upon the second question (What do you see that makes you say these things?), conversation was plentiful.  There was a brief discussion involving the happy expressions of The Beatles as they "sat in all around in death."  The guys were discussing curiosities as well, asking questions such as "Why are they in Butcher coats?"  I was pleased to hear the answer "Because they are trying to keep their clothes clean."  It was an extremely involved conversation, and I completely focused on staying out of the conversation.  It was by far the best VTS thus far.

Blog Topic #7 - The Student

I am a firm believer that students do, in fact, respond to art based on their experiences.  I have really enjoyed learning the thought processes that occur within each individual student.  I have been taken to find that the most active students in the classroom are the most reserved when orally communicating a piece of art.  I, in turn, find it appealing and exciting that the less social students in the classroom are the more interactive during sessions.  I have also concluded that the more we VTS, the more relaxed a student becomes and the more easy for them to reflect on the works.  This being said, I have had to adjust my VTS focus from student to facilitator.  I have come to the current decision that I should provide less effort in trying to get a student to engage, and provide add more energy in attempting to facilitate.

In the group setting, the students seem a bit more relaxed than myself (in reflection).  I have come to understand through trial and error that tit is much easier to VTS a small group rather than a larger group.  I believe that it naturally makes the environment more intimate, and I feel like it allows for a much more open discussion.

VTSing the student has become a normal part of my daily classroom exercises.  I am not sure that I am facilitating appropriately, but I am looking forward to observing a fellow teacher as she VTSs her class.  I definitely feel that there is room for improvement in the ways in which I facilitate.  My biggest challenge to overcome thus far seems to be that I tend to become too involved with the student conversations.  Also that I do not prompt enough or use proper emphasis in ways to lead the student.  I am also focused on an entire group speaking, when I should be focusing more on the individual student at hand.  I have mountains, oh mountains to climb!

Blog Topic # 6- Video 1- Lesson 2

Visage Of War, Salvador Dali

Assessing Student Engagement & Learning


This was my first VTS video that I accomplished.  It was a struggle for me, as I wanted to have a completely involved session for Mary Franco to effectively critique.  I felt as though there was a lot of pressure to make a sound audio and video experience as to draw the viewer into the session.  I chose the artwork, Visage of War by Salvador Dali, as I thought it would be an extreme visual piece that would encapsulate much conversation to the class.


Students seemed extremely willing to participate in this VTS, as the image seemed to frighten and grip their attention.  Being my first video, I was a bit nervous to be videoed, and I believe that may have caused some interruption, as I did not really know the boundaries with VTS and video.  The first student to speak was plainly trying to be silly, as he soon realized that the other students were engaged.  this brought me my first video dilemma, which was how to handle those situations as a facilitator.  Most of the initial responses were such as:  "I see a skull, with other skulls, and snakes, and dirt."  Finally, one of the students described the image as "death."  I felt that this was a GREAT summation of the image.  I feel as though the students were quite descriptive, but I also got the feeling that there was a sense of withholding information.  I was unsure how to handle this, so I continued to let the conversation continue.  One student made reference to the name of the painting as a way of describing it.  


I was still referencing the questions from a piece of paper, which I felt gave more reason to prompt the students, although I was making a conscious effort to avoid doing that.  


Reflecting On Practice


In reflection, I am beginning to realize my faults mostly.  I believe that the way in which I approached the video VTS may have hindered the ability of the students.  I tried using a microphone so that each student could be heard, and that may have caused a sense of uneasiness with their deliberations. 


 I also feel that I am struggling with actual facilitation.  I committed the cardinal sin of giving the title to the students (as a way of introducing the VTS to the instructor).  This may have limited the conversations.


As odd as it seems, the positives of the VTS came with the students reaction to the piece.  It gave them enough subject matter to continue a discussion for more than 10 minutes.  I consider this aspect a success.  


My final flaw was giving my thoughts on the piece of art.  I feel myself wanting to take part in the discussions and helping to steer the facilitations in efforts to prompt them further.  I will keep pressing, and improving thanks to the wonderful and constructive criticism.

Blog Topic # 4 - Lesson 1

"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!

The Ragster Collage

I would first like to say thank you to those who responded with such positive comments on my last project excursion.  I apologize for not responding to each of your comments, but I am still trying to figure this blog thing out, and will be working this evening on how to respond to comments (uuuggghhghhh).  I am already feeling grateful to have such wonderful artists reviewing my work, and that of my young Jedis as they become live for viewing.  I have always been timid on posting work, but I am quickly gaining confidence thanks to the wonderful feedback.  I am posting my collage for your VTS experience, and I am very excited to hear the reviews.  Thanks for your support, and thanks for this class, as I have already learned and enjoyed so much!  I must warn you, there is a lot to look at.

Here We Go!

The Ragster Presents...Halloween Candy Self-Portraits

So, here's the thingy......Ms. Lindsay Wells (Heritage High Art Guru, Extraordinaire, Master of the Universe, 
He-woman of Art), and myself have created and currently conduct a Portfolio class for Seniors that are seeking entrance into undergraduate studies in Art.  We were flabbergasted to discover that hardly any student is prepared to show a portfolio that is worthy of scholarship, and more so of the portfolios that we viewed, NONE of them contained an observational drawing. 

So.... It was back to the basics! 

I wanted to come up with an observational piece that wasn't so boring for the guys, and keep them interested (especially since they were giving us their valuable social time after school to help better prepare themselves).  
So this was the result: 

·     Buy a butt-load of Halloween Candy
·     Get yelled at by my wife for buying a butt-load of Hallowee ncandy
·     Take it to school and hide it from the knuckleheads
·     Take pictures of each student and blow them up to appropriate size (11x17)
·     Have students draw/trace contour lines of their head
·     Have students create their faces using observational drawings of Halloween candy
·     See the result 

I have to admit that I was a bit concerned with what the turnout would be, (as was Ms. Wells, The She-Master of Art, Divine Creator of the Art Universe, Smack Salvador Dali in the face and get away with it because she is so awesome in art), because we believed that this might be a bit advanced for them.  But we gave it a go anyway.  I wanted to share the results.  The lesson that I learned was:
 
"Never be afraid to push your guys beyond what you may feel is their "scope."  They may produce some pretty good mouthwash!" - A Wise, Wise Profit - My mom, Circa. 1988. 

Check out some examples!

Senior Student

Senior Student

Senior Student

The Ragster (Student Example)

Topic 3 - Visual Art and Student-Centered Discussions by Philip Yenawine

Hello Blogsters!   First of all, please allow me to reference the link to the article by Philip Yenawine in which this blog topic is addressed: 

http://www.vtshome.org/system/resources/0000/0037/visual_art_and_student_ctr.pdf

Article Reflection

In reflecting on student-centered practice and aesthetic stage theory:

Five basic questions were introduced which are heavily set as the fundamentals of the VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) curriculum. 

What do learners naturally do at various points along the pathway of their learning?

What abilities can we support at any moment, and what concerns should we address?

What are appropriate challenges?

How do we as teachers recognize and assess accomplishment?

After certain achievement, what comes next; how do we help her/him keep moving?

Of the five distinct patterns of thinking (Dr. Abigail Housen study), when exposed to art, the were two distinct stages that directly reflected the VTS environment:

Accountive (Storytelling)

Constructive (Building frameworks for looking at works of art)

I feel as though the internal mechanisms involving the VTS learning stages mentioned were among many of the prevalencies between my students.  It would be hard to gauge as accurately, as I have High School students, where as the studies were conducted with 5th graders.  The students in the study seemed to be more active and descriptive than those in high school.  The accountive stage was almost obsolete in High School without vocally and formally promting students to be descriptive.  I believe that Constructive viewing will become more involved as students at this level become more comfortable looking at a piece of art and analyzing it.

As the study progressed, and age became more appropriate for my viewers, I began to see more interactives that seemed a bit comparable to those of my grade levels.  The discussion examples became more of a familiar zone for me, if you will.  I found that students more wiling to speak, took on a more leadership style road in their convictions towards the topic, and also felt that students who said less, were less likely to listen to those who were speaking, unless prompted.

                                      

Open-ended, facilitated discussion proved to be the most successful observation from my lesson plan implementation.  Once we verbally discussed the topics, much more adjective use, descriptive interactions, and imagination generation occured within the class.  I fel as though aesthetic develpment growth was achieved while engaging in open-ended, facilitated discussions.

In conclusion, open-ended thinkiing promotion and adaptation in a concept art class such as mine, is without a doubt an extremely liberating idea, granted there is extra effort placed in the facilitator's corner.  It is ideas such as these, and other (Writing to Win), that will generally allow focus towards open ended classrooms to thrive.

Thanks for listening.....Ragster out.