Week 2

Grade Level Taught : 1st

NAME: Whitney Johnson

Art 309 Reflections and Thoughts about Teaching Saturday #1 Storytelling

Overall reflections about the first Saturday class experience:

In the space below, briefly address two or three of the following:

Select a key point on which you wish to reflect. (e. g., student behaviors, awareness of
school, a successful lesson)
What Ive learned about myself..
What Ive learned about the students
What Ive learned about teaching.
While content is the most essential part to every lesson, first graders need a lot of classroom
management! If one first grader isnt listening, none of them will. Therefore, when giving
directions of any kind, its important to have some sort of attention-getting device, such as
all eyes on me!

I feel good about.

I am frustrated by
I am going to work on..

REFLECTIONS

1. Describe the central focus and purpose for the content you taught in the learning
segment (Lesson).
The lesson plan was centered around rhythm and various fabric dyeing techniques.
2. Explain how you elicited student responses to promote thinking and develop knowledge
and skills related to form and structure, a medium of production, art context, and/or
personal perspective to create and/or respond to visual art.
We wanted our students to become aware of rhythms happening around them. We asked
them questions about visual rhythm, such as, where do you see pattern in this work of
art? Do you see repetition in this other artwork? How do these create rhythm? Then, we
asked them questions about rhythm in movement and dance by showing them a video of
a Hopi prayer dance. They also located rhythm in everyday functions, such as a cat
playfully responding rhythmically to the processing noises of a printer.
3. Identify one of the language functions essential for students to learn the visual arts within
your central focus and describe how you incorporated it into your lesson. You may
choose one of these or another more appropriate for your learning segment.
Analyze

Compare/contra
st

Critique

Describe

Interpret

Question

Students learned the vocabulary terms Natural and synthetic. We looked at example
images in a slide of natural and synthetic dyes. Based on what material the dye was
made from, students analyzed and explained why they thought the dye might be natural
or synthetic. Some students responded, the colors are too bright to be natural, or that
dye is made from a plant, so it has to be natural!
4. How did you demonstrate mutual respect for, rapport with, and responsiveness to
students with varied needs and backgrounds, and challenge students to engage in learning?
For one activity, we broke the students into small groups of two. We paired learners together
based on their strengths and weaknesses, and took emotional stability into account. We
originally wanted to pair Kate, who is loud and in-charge, with Benjamin, who is queit
and sensitive, but then at the last minute we realized this would create a clash of
personalities because Kate can be brash and blunt and sometimes rude. So we paired
Abby with Kate and Benjamin with Miss Lowman. He seemed to respond well to this
pairing, but it is also important to be hyper-observant. Benjamin was very active in this
experiment, but it also seemed like he was trying to please the teacher instead of learn.
This is a choice I would have to think harder about in the future.

5. What changes would you make to your instruction to better support student learning of
the central focus (e.g., missed opportunities)?
I think we should have explained more about the use of natural materials in traditional and
contemporary Hopi/Pueblo culture. We explained that traditionally, baskets were made
out of Yucca fronds and dyed in reds, yellows, oranges, and blacks. However, I wish I
would have researched more about symbolic interpretations both historically and
contemporary. I brought a framed work with many organized real-life examples of plants
and the dyes they created, but forgot to show it to the students!
6. Why do you think these changes would improve student learning? Support your
explanation with evidence of student learning and principles from theory and/or research.
(e.g., Deweys view of the learner, Blooms Taxonomy, Gardners theory of Multiple
Intelligences, Diamonds Brain research See Children and Their Art, pp.6-11.).
In Children and Their Art, authors Hurwitz and Day explain that Psychologist E.L. Thorndike
proposed the stimulus response theory, which holds that learning consists of a series of
pathways and connections due to a very specific response to a stimulus. Children who
see an image of a Juniper plant and the dye it creates, followed by a live experience with
a living Juniper plant, followed by another representation of a dead Juniper plant behind
glass, will remember better based solely on repetition.
7. Explain how feedback provided to students addresses their individual strengths and
needs relative to the standards/objectives measured. (Give one or two examples).
Kate has been having attitude issues. She can talk back to the teacher and can also be rude
to her classmates. Today, she did not want to be partners with Benjamin and said so
outloud, hurting Benjamins feelings. Instead of forcing them to be partners, Ms. Lowman
offered to be partners with Benjamin, and I had to let Kate know that was not a nice thing
to do. I explained to the class that we are all friends in the art classroom. Later, Kate
very politely asked Abby to borrow an eyedropper, so I made sure to give her positive
reinforcement and tell her that was a very nice way to ask for a favor!