This week was amazing for advancement in my research study! Students all have their first Visual Journal done and are progressing to have the next finished soon. Many students were able to finish framing their transparencies before the unfortunate realization that there were not enough and that neither the High School nor the Elementary seem to have anymore. So I’m in a bit of a pickle there but I’m sure I’ll think of something. I now have a large portion of my students beginning the planning stage of their Contemporary Personal Projects. I have been extremely successful with using my data from our baseline survey, bellringers, one on one conversations, and of course student work to connect students to artist’s, concepts, visual aspects that are inspirational and engaging to them! Several students who have made a connection to their contemporary art and have verbally expressed, Yes!, have now even began writing up their intended plan for implementation so that they can conceptually check for how implementation will unfold. Two students in particular are very involved with this process and have asked to come in extra just to progress ahead and are on the beginning stages of their implementation! I must get photos of this beginning before they progress further. Students and I have also received a plethora of praise, positivity, and curiosity for the display in our school commons of our Mixed Media Project! Sadly they will need to come off the windows so that students can photo document the layers and decide on their most visually significant layering. After that then students can complete the VoiceThread portion of the study.
This week was a full week of progress! I now have less than half of the students finishing the coloration portion of our Mixed Media lesson. On Friday we even started to use transparency frames on the finished ones to help with overall composition look on the project. It was also a great week for one on one conversations with my slower moving students and working on building better relationships with them to see if this assists with their slower progress. Students also worked on using the site Canva.com to compose their Photographic Essays. Students are to choose 10 important photos and then summarize why the photos are significant to them. It also gives me insight to their thinking on placement/composition. The Photographic Essays are also data collection information for me to help decide on where to steer them for our next unit, the Contemporary Personal Project. One major hick-up that I am currently dealing with is some students modge podge is not drying in the sealed transparencies. They are already sealed though and I am not sure what to try to speed up the process to make the modge podge go clear. Another big YAY! Is that baseline surveys are in (only two students have not completed it) and now I need to reflect on students preferences to implement my next steps. I’ve also began the process of finding students Contemporary Artist that their work, behaviors, and interests have indicated that they may have a connection with. This week I need to focus on getting requirements and the VoiceThreads going! Plus beginning those students who are ready in the planning stage of their Contemporary Personal Project!
Monday this week was a very positive day for my research study. I choose to bring in the Mixed Media lesson plans to have it reviewed by my Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) group. I explained to them that I have been facilitating to build relationships and collecting information that will modify the next step in my action research. They were very supportive of this and had some great insight on finer points to make the lesson better. Even though it will not be my turn to share on the next Professional Development day they asked to see the finished student work. This week was Homecoming and as such our schedule was adjusted to allow time for the High School Students to participate in many different activities. But even with the shortened schedules students continued to work progressively on how they wanted to go about adding coloration to their projects. I even had a few take the beginning steps to the Photographic essay portion of the Photovoice Unit, which we have decided to move up in the time frame so that the projects with enclosed Modge Podge can become fully translucent before photographing the layers and creating the Voicethreads. I was also able to take several amazing photos of students in working mode on Thursday even though I had to resort to my cell phone because our poor school cameras need to see a technology doctor. Overall it was a enjoyable short week! I wasn’t at school Friday due to my Childhood bestie finally tying the knot! This next week I will have more students start the Photographic essay portion, administer my baseline survey, and go over the requirements for creating their voice threads. I will hopefully capture more peer conversations as well as photographs too.
This week was students first full week of school but between assemblies, preparing for Homecoming, and MAP testing it felt way shorter. Even with all this extra it was a good week and I now have all but one students Parental Permission Form! I am not sure what to do about the one student who can’t seem to remember to even get the form home? I have sent an email reminder and done verbal reminders but no success? Should I leave her out of the data collection like the two students who asked to be left out of the data? The struggling student from last week is finding success with modified requirements to our current project and was so much more focused and into it this week! He is really impressing me with how he is using lines in his work! I also started jotting down a to-do list for him and his para to work from, which is improving his time of focus! He is wandering soooo much less than last week. I was also able to use some class time to write down peer conversations one day that were focused on the current project between my intrapersonal students and I am loving the communication happening with in the peer groups! Also the conversations that are happening when others help a different peer group that they are not usually associated with! I hope to find more visual observations of what is happening with my students who are intrapersonal though which means I need to get to taking some photos next week! I am unsure if I should use one of the nice school cameras or my cell phone for the photos? There are pros and cons to each. The upcoming week is going to be a doozy as it will be Homecoming, we have professional development Monday, and I will not be at school Friday because my best friends is finally getting married! I started concocting my survey this week as well and I hope to implement it this upcoming week to get a baseline of how they are feeling motivation wise and what could improve this baseline for them. I plan on using likert scales in my survey because of the variety in english skills in my class and I felt open ended ones would stress too many of them out causing them then to have an adverse feeling towards the study.
This week we had school Tuesday through Friday and things are really starting to pick up! On Tuesday I jumped into my first investigative project, “I'm sure you have all heard a pictures worth a thousand words, well for our first project you are to document, research, investigate what reeeeally matters to you, what personal interest do you find worth while? You are requested to take a total of 20 photographs of things and places that matter to you. You will then use those photographs not only in a photographic essay but then incorporate the photos into a Mixed Media work.” This is how I worded where I wanted them to start at and for them to try to have the 20 by Thursday so we could begin the Mixed Media process. (I am wondering if I should rename this as I don’t necessarily want the Mixed Media as the focus but would like their Identity to become the theme of this project?) The prompt to collect/shoot the 20 photos was meet with a plethora of questions some of the more important ones being: Can I use past photos? Can we photography our best friends? What about pets? Does it matter if I have a passerby person in my photo? I was extremely pleased with the energy I felt from students about how they would showcase their interest. Some jump right in with expressing to others their ideas while others seems a bit more stuck and I went to spend time with them. We also talk a bit on composition and how would they showcase place verse objects. They were to get the photos outside of school time as our districted has upped the severity of the cell phone policy. Wednesday I reminded them of collecting their 20 photos and I touched base with my remaining students who have not turned in their Parental Permission Forms. This day was also a struggle for one of my students and I reached out to staff only to be meet with unhelpfulness. Thursday was a doozy of a day and not only did I instruct students how to start their Mixed Media projects but I was observed by my principal. I am excited for Monday morning and getting the chance to review what is going well and what could be worked on, I thrive for descriptive reflective criticism at school. I just never am a 100% on how I am doing comparatively in our school. I choose to break down the steps and verbal as well as visually display them on our Art website. I hope that this helps as I have a total of three students with IEP’s/504’s, two that are considered at-risk (due to low attendance), and a student that English is their second language. After going over the written directions I then demonstrated what they would want to start as they went through the process. We talked of emphasis, line quality, visual texture, and ect as I demonstrated to try and give them a larger idea of how they could showcase their imagery. I then allowed students to get started and they were given permission to actually use their phones on this day to download images to their laptops. I tried to leave more than half the time in class to assist students individual and provide more individualistic instruction to those in need. I also notice there were a few students due to where they are sitting that I am not getting to them as much as the others so I feel that a new table arrangement may be necessary on Monday. My one student who struggled on Wednesday also had issues during working time and trouble focusing. I would like to meet with my para for that class but can’t seem to find any time other that the 3 minutes during passing time between classes. Friday was another big day as students were given, in groups of 3-5, three different rubrics that had a multitude of various criteria. In their collaborating groups they had to go over what “aspects” they thought the group as a whole would want graded and “aspects” they personally felt they would benefit and want graded. I sat with the struggling students group and worked at keeping him engaged and a beneficial member of their group. Some of the students asked if they could have more time on the rubric on Monday as they were enjoying the process of the Mixed Media and wanted to spend their class time on it. I personal am perfectly fine with that and just as long as they have their personal “aspects” chosen before finishing their project. (I have yet to tell them they will be grading themselves). Monday during working time I hope to jot down survey questions that not only investigate contemporary themes that students may enjoy but deciding how to word the motivational interests questions and how this start to class is personally feeling to them.
Field Notes of a Family Room |
Side A Left Column Notes The overhead dining light is on casting shadows to the right side of the still life, should I have changed the lighting before starting? A obvious triangular composition is shown with the containers in the front view and I wonder if this is due to me placing the tallest item centrally when setting up. The vines are reaching out to the translucent bottle that is refracting the coloration of the antler threw it and towards the tarnished sugar container. My own reflection is shown in the tarnished sugar container and I wonder if I will be able to see that when photographing. | Side A Right Column Notes Observation from left to right. A tarnished sugar tea service container slightly in front of a translucent bottle with a skinny neck and delicate raised designs on the outside . Next to the bottle is an old rusted girl scouts peanut crunch container with a purple and green vine plant spilling out from the top. Behind these containers is a deer antler and even though you can not see it a gray felt hand made bunny. |
Side B Left Column Notes Is this side a more visually attractive layout because its closer to the rule of thirds composition? Why do I like this side better than the Side A? Its interesting how the girl scout container is refracting in the translucent bottle this time and that the vine leaves are hugging the outside of the bottle. I think the lighting looks better at this angle as well even though the shadows do seem a bit to strong. | Side B Right Column Notes The antler is in clear view this time and it frames over the gray felt hand made bunny without actually touching it. The swooping arch of the antlers curve also hugs along the translucent bottle which is refracting the yellow tone from the girl scout container. The tarnished sugar container is now on the right side of the bottle. |
Reflection
In the first 5 minutes of this exercise I did my best to give rich describing words to the items in the still life and use my words to help mentally place where they are in relation to other items. I tried not to stop writing as well but sometimes there was a hiccup in my thought process before I got going again. The second 5 minutes started out easier but at the same time I was worried about too much repetition and that would cause my reader to become bored. The second 5 minutes I feel that I was more successful with writing on the right side column where I still think I was better on the left side column for the first 5 minutes. I personally believe that this exercise was very useful in working on differentiating on thoughts/questions vs. actual what's in front of you. It also exercised my brain on coming up with rich yet specific descriptors of items. The most difficult part of this was to continually write to continue with my thoughts and not get distracted. To work on and improve my observation skill I will need to practice my focus and to take the time to step back and actually look deeper not just glance and write the first thing that comes to mind.
In the first 5 minutes of this exercise I did my best to give rich describing words to the items in the still life and use my words to help mentally place where they are in relation to other items. I tried not to stop writing as well but sometimes there was a hiccup in my thought process before I got going again. The second 5 minutes started out easier but at the same time I was worried about too much repetition and that would cause my reader to become bored. The second 5 minutes I feel that I was more successful with writing on the right side column where I still think I was better on the left side column for the first 5 minutes. I personally believe that this exercise was very useful in working on differentiating on thoughts/questions vs. actual what's in front of you. It also exercised my brain on coming up with rich yet specific descriptors of items. The most difficult part of this was to continually write to continue with my thoughts and not get distracted. To work on and improve my observation skill I will need to practice my focus and to take the time to step back and actually look deeper not just glance and write the first thing that comes to mind.
Thursday, August 23rd 2018 was the beginning of my sixth year in my school district and the start of implementing my research project. The very first thing I did was share my research study ideas and hopes with my students along with passing out the Parental Permission forms. I then went on to explain what my study focus incorporates and how I will be collecting data to reflect on their engagement, motivation, and appreciation for the Arts by use of modified contemporary curriculum. |
Several students had questions about the study and one student in particular was panicked that they were going to be doing college level research. I reassured the student that they would be working through various projects and they would be investigating processes, materials, and artists but the data collection was my responsibility. I felt extremely fortunate that I choose to do my research with an upper level art class and have worked with these students in previous years. Overall, students seemed welcoming of my research project and sounded happy to get to try out a new curriculum. The next day I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of students who brought back their Parental Permission forms, almost half of the class! As they turned in their sheets I asked if they prefer chocolate or a sucker for turning in their sheet. The day before I told them no matter if they chose to participate or not participate in the study that they would receive a treat for turn in. Reflecting back on this approach now though I wonder if I should of not of verbally told them they would receive a treat but instead when the sheet was given back asked and then given their preference? Or if me following through on providing their treat of choice assists in building trust? In motivational reading by Ryan and Deci they had stated that surprise rewards build intrinsic motivation better than expected rewards. On Friday I also had the surprise of another student joining the class. Can a foreign exchange student receive permission to be in the research by having their host family sign? I made sure to give them a Parental Permission form though. There is a chance that I will receive a few more students because schedule changes can go until August 31st. We also started our Visual Journal covers after taking a Multiple Intelligences Survey. Students were asked to email a screenshot of their results to me as well so that I can use the information to better facilitate their learning. I am planning on going in to examine students results and document my findings on Monday. I want to use this information to assist in Journal construction to individuals. My hopes are depending on which Intelligences they align with to then provide a method/process of construction that meets those needs.
Ms. Broer
Fall 2018 blog
Archives
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018