Overview
Standard three requires teachers to use a deep knowledge of the subject area content and an understanding of effective
teaching strategies to create ideal opportunities for student learning. Instructional delivery should be varied, content level
should be appropriate and assessment should be both formative and summative with the goal of improving instruction.
Artifact 1 ( Students Completeing Grids)
Relevant Description: Gridded Self Portrait PaintingsIn the days preceding the lesson, I had briefly explained to the students that they were going to be creating a realistic self- portrait using a picture of themselves as a reference, and began having them take pictures of each other using the class camera. After these images were printed, I lead them in drawing a corresponding grid on both the image and their drawing paper, sketching the picture, and painting it in black and white. During the lesson, I broke up instruction and delivered it just as it was needed to prevent the students from forgetting or losing focus. After the students began drawing the grid, I asked them what connections they could see between the lesson and the processes and materials that Chuck Close uses. Students were able to recall from the earlier discussion that he also uses a grid, works from an image, and produces photorealistic work, just as they were. I provided as much group and individual feedback as possible and used praise of students who were doing well to pace the class and help other students stay on track I began the lesson “Gridded Self Portraits” ( Artifact 2)with a discussion about the work of artist Chuck Close, showing images of his paintings, and discussing his techniques. I introduced the students to vocabulary and art history relevant to the lesson such as photorealism, scale, and proportion, and used techniques such as Socratic questioning to help them engage in critical thinking and deepen their understanding. I invited students to participate in a discussion about the relationship between photography and realistic painting, and how the introduction of photography in the early 20th century has made some question the importance of painting. After the discussion, I gave students a reflection prompts to write about: “Do you think photography takes the place of realistic painting?” After the lesson was over, the students were asked to write another reflection answering: “How do you feel about your finished realistic self -portrait? Do you feel that it is worth more, less, or the same as a photograph of you?” I assessed the reflections formatively through feedback and comments written on their papers and handed back to the students. Since the idea of the learning objective (make connections between the nature of art, realistic painting, and photography) is abstract, a formative assessment of student reflections made more sense than a summative assessment.
ReflectionThe purpose of the reflections was to make learning concrete for students and to give them an opportunity to gauge their own learning. They were to help students understand the main learning objectives for the lesson, and to give them an opprotunity to respond and explore their own thoughts and opinions. I hoped that the reflections would make abstract issues in the contemporary art world such as personal identity and the nature of photography and painting concrete. I also used it as a way to create a more meaningful learning environment in which students engage in constructive learning to reflect on the meaning of the content. I feel like the strategies were sucessful. The students seemed to enjoy a chance to include their own opinons. The reflection questions were also intended to make learning more authentic for students by connecting the lesson to the work of a contemporary artist and a current issue of the relationship between photography and painting in the art world. Asking students to compare painting and photography and reflect on the relationship between them was a way of supporting the research- based strategy of Identifying Similarities and Differences. In this world of digital photography, photoshop, and Facebook, using photographs in thier work was relevant and interesting to the students. Through reading the reflections, I learned that students could write about the subject more fluently than before the lesson. However, some students seemed to make very small, if any, gains, so I can see that I should have discussed the subject they were asked to write about more throughout the lesson, not just on the first day. I think they would have made deeper connections if I had made time to remind them about the reflection and discuss it a little daily.
Artifact 3 (Student Work)
Plans for Improvement
“Students who are clear about what and how to learn in a given class become more motivated and engaged learners”(Fostering High-Quality Formative Assessment) ( Self Portrait, Chuck Close)
To improve the assessment practices of this lesson, I would have included a rubric for the finished painting specifying expectations. Although it was explained to them, some students didn’t quite understand that the point of the lesson was to use the grid to create a realistic painting of themselves based on a reference, and instead ignored the grid and drew themselves in a stylized, cartoonish way. This made sense because they had just finished a unit on cartoon drawing. Maybe a rubric would have helped them to understand that I was introducing a new style and technique. For this lesson, implementing a rubric and more cues could help build a meaningful learning environment that makes learning more intentional for the students by clarifying the goals and objectives. A rubric would also have given me a more solid basis for summative assessment of the finished portraits.
|
Please wait...
