After I added more images I went to work balancing the visual elements. I experimented with different collage materials and moved things around. I struggled with getting the top right corner to balance with all of the line work. I felt that it needed to be darker, but I didn't want it to detract from the imagery I was using. I ultimately decided on the composition on the far right. I am currently at a place where I think the piece could be done or I could keep going so I am taking putting it away for awhile to see if it becomes more clear. I really enjoyed creating this piece and I have other ideas for how I could continue to create other work around this topic.
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The objects and artifacts are significant to me because they are either mementos from students or they are objects that remind me of silly jokes or traditions in my classroom recently. If I were to look at the objects after a significant amount of time, I think they would make me smile and think fondly of the particular group of students I have had during my first few years of teaching. If I were to use this in the classroom, I would have seniors or NAHS members create a time capsule to be opened by future students. I chose to connect the reading to the AOE live podcast Episode 13 which was an interview with Sarah Dougherty, the visual arts curriculuum coordinator of Des Moines Public Schools. I was interested in this because I got the impression from the second two articles that it was a non-debate, distinctions that academics would make and argue about but something that they are taking to two extremes that no practicing teacher would do. This could be because the articles are now almost 15 years old and were written before my preservice training and all of my teaching experience and as Duncum says in his article that the shift to a more visual culture informed education would be "a quiet evolution." Maybe this was a non-argument or maybe it has just quietly evolved and resolved itself over the last 15 years. Because this academic argument felt so removed and pushing to the extremes of actual teaching practice, I wanted to choose something that was a little more accessible and connected to practicing teachers. and less academic. The Art of Education reaches thousands of art teachers through its publications and is important because it not only shows which educational trends and ideologies are reaching actual teachers, it also has a great influence on how teachers practice based on the content it promotes, for good and bad.
The Eisner article talks about how the struggle between the spirit of art education and the "culture of accountability" affects art education. It also mentions the argument of many art education advocates that participation in the arts improves test scores. I was interested in if the current push for arts integration has data to the contrary and this podcast discusses the Turnaround Arts program as well as standards-based grading. Turnaround Arts is a national arts integration program to improve student achievement, parental involvement, and attendance. Sarah Dougherty talks about how I would disagree with Eisner in that I think standards have made me more able to close in on the spirit of teaching. Dougherty discusses the difference between standards based and standards referenced grading. The hosts discuss how standards referenced grading is natural for art teachers because it is the way we already think. Dougherty talks about how teachers are limited by the reporting system that their school chooses to use. She even recommends Wormeli and Marzano, a name that Eisner specifically mentions as a theory too predictable and controlling for the arts. Dougherty talks about how her role is to help create that bridge from the initiatives to how it affects the art classroom. In her grading discussion, Dougherty talks about going fewer and deeper with projects and units rather than focusing on breadth and quantity. She discusses how the big questions make kids "have to connect the work that they do to the world around them." Big questions are "provocative, open-ended, promote divergent thinking, and make kids think about how they can change the world." Dougherty discusses that creation is the low-level skill in the art classroom and going above and beyond and thinking deeply is above even that. The show then discusses behavior and effort grades. Dougherty says that one of her passions is separating what students know and are able to do and their behavior and reporting them separately. She says it is worrying that students who are quiet and play the game may get passed on to the next level when they are not ready. Separating that data also pinpoints if students need behavior or academic interventions. She discusses that standards based grades indicate where a student is on their path to learning rather than creating a currency of points. She also talks about how evidence might not be from the final projects, it might be a conversation. She makes a great point about "autopsies" vs "health check-ups" when it comes to grading. I think the podcast does a good job of showing how practicing teachers are balancing the accountability with the spirit and marrying them together into a strong curriculum. I think the discussion at the end of the episode about talking about the big ideas and questions that artists are posing, and then challenging students to see how it connects to them really tie in to how teachers use visual culture in their classrooms. Questions like "why was it made?", "What was the maker trying to get you to think?", "What do you have to already know to be able to understand the message?" are relevant to classic art history as well as visual culture. I really connected to the Gude reading this week. It really spoke to the way I am trying to make my teaching and tasks that I am asking students to complete. I want students to use their voice and make art that speaks. For my digital project, I made two Thinglink images. One represents my old way of teaching. It includes student work examples from projects that were focused on the elements and principles. The results are expectedly convergent. I added text quotes from Gude that spoke to me and summed up my thinking about why I began to realize that this way of teaching was inadequate. The second Thinglink "A New Paradigm" showcases student work after I transitioned to more post-modern expression based teaching. The images are richer and have more depth. I can see student voices start to come through. In this image, I included quotes from the Gude article that spoke to me about ways the Principles of Possibility open up avenues for student expression. Many of these, I had been doing in my classroom without knowing there was a scholarly basis for them.
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AuthorMorgan Singleton is a secondary art educator with a Master's degree in art education. Archives
April 2017
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