Standards Alignment:
Standard 3: Knowledge of Standards and Assessment:
Standard 3: Knowledge of Standards and Assessment:
The standard I focused on for my first lesson plan was students ability to make informed critical evaluations of visual and material culture, information, and technology as well as the analysis of characteristics, merits and meanings of works of art. To demonstrate their knowledge I asked the artists to first create an artist statement describing the formal artistic characteristics of their work and then the "critics" were asked to use that artist statement to find which student they would collaborate on a critique with. Their critique focused on analyzing the use of color, shape, line, form and texture in their partner's piece. This was a genuine assessment of their knowledge using a task that artists are asked to participate in all the time. The critique of peers and your own work is a common practice in the art world and I believe this lesson was a loose R.A.F.T writing assignment that encouraged students to offer useful feedback to their peer artists.
The self portrait lesson involved a summative assessment of the students knowledge of different artistic movements. the standards we were assessing were the relation of visual arts to historical and cultural traditions, the application of tools, materials, techniques, and processes, as well as visual art as communication. I first gave a short power point presentation on three different historical artistic movements and gauged their understanding of the assignment. Then they worked independently on their self portraits in three or one of the styles of those art movements. This task enabled students to express themselves visually while demonstrating their knowledge of different historical movements.
This is one student's self portrait in the cubist style. After I explained that the cubist style was characterized by blocky shapes, disproportionate and out of place features, he used an app on his Ipad to take a distorted picture of himself that he then used as a reference photo for his portrait. This is a technique I may incorporate into this lesson if I use it in the future.
Standard 6: Individualize Instruction:
Individualizing Instruction and scaffolding tasks for students is essential to ensuring that every one of your students is meeting the learning objectives you've set in place. One of the biggest challenges I've faced in teaching so far is making sure that the lessons I plan are at the appropriate level of understanding for my students. To combat this challenge I have found it very helpful to provide students with choices and different levels of assessment that enable them to participate in the lesson no matter what their prior knowledge or artistic skill level is. I've found that a small "Kahoot" quiz is very helpful in gauging prior knowledge and in my lesson plans I have tried to include options for student who find the learning objective specifically challenging. Below are some pictures of the first stage of two lesson plans. I found the UBD style especially helpful for lesson planning because it makes you start with your learning goals for your students and then work backwards to create many avenues and options that help students reach those goals. These UBD's also highlight my understanding of the incorporation of the art standards into my lesson planning. I have also included some field notes from Teach Like a Champion that focus on how to instruct students by first showing them what they will be doing so they can anticipate your expectations, then moving into more cognitive and individual work that allows the student to take responsibility for his or her own learning and finally fully individualized learning that provides multiple variations of the lesson that can push students into deeper understanding.
Individualizing Instruction and scaffolding tasks for students is essential to ensuring that every one of your students is meeting the learning objectives you've set in place. One of the biggest challenges I've faced in teaching so far is making sure that the lessons I plan are at the appropriate level of understanding for my students. To combat this challenge I have found it very helpful to provide students with choices and different levels of assessment that enable them to participate in the lesson no matter what their prior knowledge or artistic skill level is. I've found that a small "Kahoot" quiz is very helpful in gauging prior knowledge and in my lesson plans I have tried to include options for student who find the learning objective specifically challenging. Below are some pictures of the first stage of two lesson plans. I found the UBD style especially helpful for lesson planning because it makes you start with your learning goals for your students and then work backwards to create many avenues and options that help students reach those goals. These UBD's also highlight my understanding of the incorporation of the art standards into my lesson planning. I have also included some field notes from Teach Like a Champion that focus on how to instruct students by first showing them what they will be doing so they can anticipate your expectations, then moving into more cognitive and individual work that allows the student to take responsibility for his or her own learning and finally fully individualized learning that provides multiple variations of the lesson that can push students into deeper understanding.
Standard 7: Knowledge of Technology:
As the world becomes more and more dependent on technology, it is important to incorporate technology in an efficient and useful way into our teaching. Technology shouldn't just be an afterthought added to a lesson to meet a standard, but instead it should be used to further the attainment of knowledge for our students or to provide scaffold tasks for learners with different styles. I incorporated technology into my self portrait lesson by using a power point to introduce the three artistic styles I wanted students to create self portraits in. I also created a "Kahoot" quiz to gauge their prior knowledge, but we didn't end up having time to use it. Although I incorporated tech into some of my lessons, I believe I have a long way to go in using technology as an efficient learning tool in my classroom.
As the world becomes more and more dependent on technology, it is important to incorporate technology in an efficient and useful way into our teaching. Technology shouldn't just be an afterthought added to a lesson to meet a standard, but instead it should be used to further the attainment of knowledge for our students or to provide scaffold tasks for learners with different styles. I incorporated technology into my self portrait lesson by using a power point to introduce the three artistic styles I wanted students to create self portraits in. I also created a "Kahoot" quiz to gauge their prior knowledge, but we didn't end up having time to use it. Although I incorporated tech into some of my lessons, I believe I have a long way to go in using technology as an efficient learning tool in my classroom.
Standard 8: Democracy, Educational Governance, and Careers in Teaching:
The best way to encourage democracy and equality in my classroom is to demonstrate it myself. I believe that my role as a teacher is to provide the best possible education I can to every student I am in contact with and to treat every student with respect and compassion. I think that setting those expectations of your students in your classroom early encourages it to become the standard of behavior. Collaboration with other teachers as well as your students is also essential to educational governance. Below are some student feedback forms that Ms. Blake had the students fill out about my self portrait lesson as well as her own evaluation.
The best way to encourage democracy and equality in my classroom is to demonstrate it myself. I believe that my role as a teacher is to provide the best possible education I can to every student I am in contact with and to treat every student with respect and compassion. I think that setting those expectations of your students in your classroom early encourages it to become the standard of behavior. Collaboration with other teachers as well as your students is also essential to educational governance. Below are some student feedback forms that Ms. Blake had the students fill out about my self portrait lesson as well as her own evaluation.
Narrative:
My time at Conrad Ball Middle School was very informative, challenging, and meaningful. I started the semester thinking that relating to, and teaching my students would be a breeze, but soon found out I was in for more of a challenge. I have come to realize that the challenges I've faced here were essential to becoming a better teacher. I have been appreciated then disrespected, called names and then hugged, and I have learned from all of this that my biggest role as a teacher is to work every day towards becoming a compassionate and caring individual that can impart empathy towards my students and teach them to take in that same compassion as a normality of their being. I have learned that I am not here to teach students how to paint a self portrait, but how to function as caring individuals in the world. I feel that in these current times compassion and empathy are suffering a huge hit and the only control I have to fix it is to change my own actions and attempt to model these behaviors to the people I come into contact with everyday. My specific content area lends itself to this goal because I believe the practice of self expression and collaboration towards creative objectives enables students to think about deeper concepts than they come face to face with on a day to day basis. A lot of the students that have worked with me this semester have opened up about their challenging home lives and as someone with little formal experience in psychology I have found it hard to know how to help. But I believe that giving them an outlet to express their feelings and an un-biased ear to talk to has been the most helpful thing within my power.
My driving question for this experience was, "how do we foster the development of good people, and not just good students," and I am seeing now that it goes beyond that. It is about how we as teachers develop a relationship with our students and other teachers to create a culture of compassion and equality within our schools. We mirror the environment within our school that we want the exterior world to take on, and hope that one day the world will be a more kind place. As my time with Ms. Blake's 6th graders come to an end I can't help but look back and feel melancholy. The relationships I developed with Allison and her students is something I don't frequently come across and I'm not sure if I will again, but I only hold excitement for a future where I have my own classroom full of students and I get to deal with all the challenges that holds. It's hard to put everything I'm feeling into a cohesive summary, but overall I feel that my passion for teaching has only grown stronger through this experience, and not only that, I have gained a feeling of intense importance for what I have chosen to do with my life. Before I saw my chosen career path as just a job, something I had to choose to make it through the world, and now I see it as an opportunity to make a real difference in the world. The influence we have as teachers is powerful and with that power comes responsibility to make the changes we see as essential to the health of our students and, on a larger scale, the health of our community.
My time at Conrad Ball Middle School was very informative, challenging, and meaningful. I started the semester thinking that relating to, and teaching my students would be a breeze, but soon found out I was in for more of a challenge. I have come to realize that the challenges I've faced here were essential to becoming a better teacher. I have been appreciated then disrespected, called names and then hugged, and I have learned from all of this that my biggest role as a teacher is to work every day towards becoming a compassionate and caring individual that can impart empathy towards my students and teach them to take in that same compassion as a normality of their being. I have learned that I am not here to teach students how to paint a self portrait, but how to function as caring individuals in the world. I feel that in these current times compassion and empathy are suffering a huge hit and the only control I have to fix it is to change my own actions and attempt to model these behaviors to the people I come into contact with everyday. My specific content area lends itself to this goal because I believe the practice of self expression and collaboration towards creative objectives enables students to think about deeper concepts than they come face to face with on a day to day basis. A lot of the students that have worked with me this semester have opened up about their challenging home lives and as someone with little formal experience in psychology I have found it hard to know how to help. But I believe that giving them an outlet to express their feelings and an un-biased ear to talk to has been the most helpful thing within my power.
My driving question for this experience was, "how do we foster the development of good people, and not just good students," and I am seeing now that it goes beyond that. It is about how we as teachers develop a relationship with our students and other teachers to create a culture of compassion and equality within our schools. We mirror the environment within our school that we want the exterior world to take on, and hope that one day the world will be a more kind place. As my time with Ms. Blake's 6th graders come to an end I can't help but look back and feel melancholy. The relationships I developed with Allison and her students is something I don't frequently come across and I'm not sure if I will again, but I only hold excitement for a future where I have my own classroom full of students and I get to deal with all the challenges that holds. It's hard to put everything I'm feeling into a cohesive summary, but overall I feel that my passion for teaching has only grown stronger through this experience, and not only that, I have gained a feeling of intense importance for what I have chosen to do with my life. Before I saw my chosen career path as just a job, something I had to choose to make it through the world, and now I see it as an opportunity to make a real difference in the world. The influence we have as teachers is powerful and with that power comes responsibility to make the changes we see as essential to the health of our students and, on a larger scale, the health of our community.