Week5 Blog5

Portrait of Possibility

The student I choose I spoke of in the last post. I will call him DD. As I said in the last post DD keep arguing right after someone spoke. For example one student said ‘I think the red is the support that holds up the cards” DD immediately said “no those are cards!”. I asked if anyone has disagreements to please raise their hand for me to call on them. He did it again a few times and he never raised his hand. I spoke to him after class and told him I would love to hear from him but I want everyone to hear his opinion, so would he please raise his hand. 
DD had a total of 27 words on the pre-VTS, with a lot of straight forward ideas. In my opinion he is a very "it is what it is"; no other possibilities kind of person. I would like to see him listening to other's points of views and developing his imagination a little more. I also hope that reflects in his artwork and writing. 

I have another student I'm keeping an eye on, I will call him Texas. He had a word count of 24 on his pre-VTS. Texas has some social issues and prefers to sit and work alone. He contributed to the conversation and had amazing ideas about emotions that surprised me. My hope for him is to fell safe and comfortable during VTS to share more and build positive relationships with me and the class.

Week4 Blog4

6^th grade A class

I first asked my class to tell be what they thought Visual Thinking Strategies are. A student did get to the conclusion (from the pre-test) that it is “looking at art and writing about it”. I told them it is a new way of looking and discussing art. When I told them we would be doing VTS today; there where several groans. I think they where anticipating a lecture.

There was a lot discussion on the cards in the picture. Where the red (cards) cards or the stand to help hold up the cards. There was not very much listing. There where some interesting comments. One student believed the scene was taking place on a train because of the windows in the background (Harry Potter influence?). There was a collective “oh” from everyone else after that comment. The only problem I faced during the discussion was one boy keep arguing right after someone spoke. For example one student said ‘I think the red is the support that holds up the cards” the one boy immediately said “no those are cards”. I asked if anyone has disagreements to please raise their hand for me to call on them. He did it again a few times and he never raised his hand. I spoke to him after class and told him I would love to hear from him but I want everyone to hear his opinion, so would he please raise his hand. I think the students really enjoyed it. They wanted to keep going but it was going on 20 min.

I think I did well at sticking to the three questions as written. And for the most part was neutral. The exception was when they saw something I hadn’t; like the train idea I raise my tone of voice a little “ok!” instead of ‘ok”. I want to work on not worrying about time, and just watch them for the queue they are done. I also need to work on neutral voice.

Week3 Blog3

I gave my pre-VTS assessment to both of my 6^th grade classes. I use the Winslow Homer’s painting The Fog Warning. I feel this was externally important first step, because not only will it allow me to see if student’s writing and communication skills improve but it also gave me an opportunity to see at what writing level each student is currently at.

I was very surprised by the student’s lack of diverse adjective. Even the students who had 50 or more word count continued to use the same adjectives over and over. The adjective that was used by almost everyone was “big”. There was also a lot of listing simple assertions. I was also surprised that I would classify a few of my students at a stage 0 or early stage 1, just listing things in the picture not even creating a narrative; for example “a big wave”, “big fish”. I would guess (with my experience with these few students) they maybe the ones who don’t want to talk when we start a VTS discussion.

Week2 blog2

I choose to show George Tooker, Government Bureau for my VTS practice. I was only able to get 3 people to come but they all enjoyed it. I had my principal, jr high English teacher, and instructional couch participate. My principal liked VTS so much he would like me to conduct a VTS with the entire faculty. I was more nerves then I am when I VTS with my students, but I guess that can be expected. The conversation was good, but it would have been better with more people. I did experience that moment when it seemed that no one had anything else to say but they where just thinking and had a lot more. I had a question about if students could write their first impression before the discuss to have more ownership on the their thoughts. I said that is a great idea but that I have to first stick to the straight traditional VTS then I can branch off into VTS like concepts. Over all I think it we t well.