Blog 3

For my third blog, I plan to discuss two strategies in conjunction with one another – summarizing and note taking as well as identifying similarities and differences.

My clinical placement was with a Title I School, Enslow Middle, and one of the most exciting ‘advantages’ of being part of a TI school is the access to the best and newest technologies.  Fortunately, I was lucky enough to witness a learning exchange with the use of the PolyCom equipment, in conjunction with schools in Minnesota and Texas.  As part of the assignment, students in all locations were asked to create monsters, and in the end, they came together to share their creations.

In doing so, they used the strategy of identifying similarities and differences in that they discussed ways in which they created their monsters.  The great part about it was that some students created monsters by hand (using paper, glue and other materials), some created using computer programs – and some created both! They incorporated note taking techniques in that they recorded their work in progress, step by step – specifics like “I cut a large oval out of dark green paper for the eyes.”  This was so that students could recreate monsters if so desired – as well as be able to adequately explain their work to students in other states. 

Students were not given an overly abundant amount of direction/instruction in terms of creating their monsters.  And, they didn’t use any kind of diagrams, matrices, or graphic organizers for comparative purposes – though I don’t think it was necessary.  Instead, students completed a written critique (of which they were familiar with, since it is a part of most all projects they create).  On their own, they had to discuss similarities between monsters.  They had to compare the creation of works in paper with those generated by computer.  They even had to discuss similarities and differences between themselves and students in other areas geographically.  Overall, it was really an interesting project to observe – considering you never know what students will say, do (or make)!

I also thought that the inclusion of the note taking was crucial to the assignment – and an out of the ordinary technique in the art classroom.

After seeing such, I decided to structure my lessons in such a way to include note taking and feel it was quite successful.  I learned a lot from watching Ms. “Green,” and plan to incorporate even more of her techniques and ideas into my ‘bag of tricks.’ 

PREVIEW, Blog 4: Strategies I used in my lessons

Jordan