Chapter 5 Response

1. How do we know what our students know about the topics we plan to address?

One way we can evaluate what students know is to have them write it down. You could do this by having students fill out KWL worksheets saying what they Know, what they Want to know and later reflecting on what they Learned. You can also do this by having discussions at the beginning of a unit and also by finding out what students are learning in their other classes so that you have a basis for what the students should know.

2. How would you go about teaching for “deep understanding”?

I want to teach things that can have many different applications so that students will feel that what they are doing is meaningful and so they can make connections. I will also give them some ways for them to apply what they are learning in a relevant way and to always be making things that will help them to really understand the concepts I teach.

3. How would you teach for student relevance?

I want my activities and projects open enough for students to include something that interest them into them in what they do, while they are still learning about new ideas about art and different ways of making art. 

4. How might teaching for student relevance be a ridiculously bad thing?

If you are only teaching things that students already know about and like then they won't discover anything new that they might also be interested in. You may also end up limiting what you teach to things you think they may enjoy when the students could become interested in all kinds of things.

5. For the unit you are envisioning, what will be your “entrance strategy”?

Since my unit is about Observation and Perspective, I want my students to spend some time observing things that interest them and then allowing them to share their experience so that I can understand a little about their perspective. Then I can work to introduce new ideas to them in relation to the things that interest them.

6. In an inquiry based, constructivist approach, a key question is “What does that mean?  What are some other ways that you can ask that question?

Why is this important?

What effect does it have?

How should people respond to this?

Who would look at this art? How would they respond to it?

7. As art teachers, we often pose artistic problems for our students, defining the constraints that we hope will cultivate divergent, creative solutions.  How do you plan to have students become researchers and pose their own creative problems?

The first step is creating an environment where students feel safe to ask questions. This means that students need to see that their ideas will be respected and taken seriously. It is also important to be an example of the kind of questioning that you want students to do by asking the students really good questions. It is also important for students to learn many differents ways of researching and solving problems so they will be encouraged to do research and problem solving on their own.

8. At this early stage in your unit, how do you envision the sequential organization of learning experiences or activities? Make a list of what you plan to do in sequence.

Michelangelo and Breaking Things Down.

Impressionist and Drawing What You See.

Aesthetic Perspectives

Thomas Moran and the Constructed View.

Deb Sokolow - Stakeout!

Los Carpinteros - Messing with Perspective

9. How will you determine if what you are doing is working? What counts as evidence of learning for you?

I think that I will know if my classroom is successful if the students are engaged, are making work, are being thoughtful about their work and are improving their skills then I will know that what I am doing is working. I do want students to improve their skills, which can be measured by comparing what they could do at the beginning of the year to what they could do at the end of the year. Measuring their understanding of concepts could be harder. If I need to I can have them write or talk about the concepts to see they understand but I would also like to be able to see how they can use concepts in the artwork that they make.

10. What are the learning goals for your unit?  What kinds of understandings are you reaching for in these goals?

Students will learn observational drawing skills and understand how they can improve their skills.

Students will understand different perspectives that people have had about art and how those perspectives would change the kind of art being created.

Students will understand how artists might manipulate the images the make and how that can influence people's perspectives.

Students will understand different ways that contemporary artists have used the concepts of observation and perspective in their work.