Blog 2

**This has been finished for awhile, just forgot to post! Whoops!

The most obvious of strategies for me to describe/elaborate on of Ms. “Green’s” teaching practices would be that of nonlinguistic representations, considering the nature of the realm of art in general.  I saw many examples of this type of instruction, as it was described that “drawing pictures or pictographs (i.e., symbolic pictures) to represent knowledge is a powerful way to generate nonlinguistic representations in the mind.”

Considering one example of such, during the weeks closing in on the Easter holiday, my public school supervisor introduced a lesson on the art of Pysanky or Ukrainian egg decorating. Ms. “Green” read aloud an article and concurrently passed around student examples. Before the students began the project itself, she brought in a guest speaker from the area who still practices the art of decorating eggs (who elaborated thoroughly on the custom itself and many facts of it’s origin).  The speaker brought in examples of her own work, the Pysanky, as well as the specialized tools she uses.   

Together, both speakers discussed the many different ideas of symbolism that can be portrayed through the custom.  They explained how it is believed that some eggs have special powers – and that different symbols are often written on the eggs to show these powers.  A handout was then shared and students were asked to mentally filter through the information just received and consider what different symbols ‘meant to them’ and their lives.  They were also to contemplate the idea of tradition and if they personally were ever impacted by the role of such in their lives. 

Students then began sketching ideas for their egg creation.  They were required to demonstrate the understanding of ideas of symbolism, through the inclusion of a certain number of symbols (which they were to explain LINGUISTICALLY :) in the margins of their papers). They then continued the process of creating the egg over the course of a week, and to conclude they completed a written critique of their product as well as the process.  They were expected to answer each question (higher-level, critical thinking) with an answer of at least 5 sentences (= to a paragraph in ‘their’ language). 

Overall, I believe this was a great way to incorporate nonlinguistic representations in conjunction with the use of written voice.  Throughout the entire lesson, there were numerous examples for students to examine – as well as their own end result! The element of choice – mentioned in U.B.D/D.I was also essential to the project and lent itself to the creation of a variety of interesting eggs.  

Thankfully, I was with a gracious public school supervisor who more than willingly shared her lesson plan with me, as well as copies of all the supplemental information.  I will most certainly use this project in my future classroom.

Jordan