Figure 32. Comparison of student responses. Pre and Post-Instruction survey.This is a comparison image from my paper. I think it shows the most how much growth my students felt over the semester.
Right now my research data is showing that I was successful in helping students develop their voice! The biggest evidence is definitely from my survey results. It was so reassuring that my students are more confident in their work and their voice. I think more then their voice growing, the recognition and confidence in their voice grew. My biggest challenge right now is just tackling the paper and getting in the right headspace to write it. Not having written since October, I am not confident in my own voice coming through in my writing and sounding professional. This time of year is always a struggle- It's been so long since break, the kids are cranky, the teachers are cranky, the weather is meh. It's tough to balance self-care and keeping all the balls in the air. I am confident that once I dig in, it will feel more fluent and less rusty and clunky.
1) Define Validity (in your own words)
2) Describe why validity is essential to making sure your individual research is credible. Validity is the idea that your study accurately represents the people and events that you are studying and that your audience can trust the authenticity of your work. Without validity, your audience has no reason to trust your research or your conclusions. 3) Define Triangulation (in your own words) 4) Discuss ideas you have for how your data and work together to provide validity for your research and strengthen research study findings. Triangulation is the idea that using multiple types of data collection will improve the validity of your study, because you are seeing the same patterns across multiple methods. Because I have data from interviews, student reflective writing, and survey responses, I am able to make sure my students are speaking throughout my paper, and I am not speaking for them. This exercise was very helpful as a visual person to be able to see what a paper looks like and plan what my paper might look like. As I have been reading our text and comparing it to my project, I have gone back and forth many times over what approach to use. After reading and going through the case study on gun violence, I think my paper is going to be mostly case study with elements of phenomenology and narrative. My project is the story of mine and my students journey through this phenomena of teaching and learning about artistic voice. Right now in my diagram, I think there are a few boxes that could be flipped, for example, the methods and the description of the classroom. There are also boxes like the themes and analysis that need more detail of what will be discussed so that it looks more like my diagram of the gun violence article. I think as I continue to dig in to my data this finer points will become more clear. I also think that looking back at the Walker article on the concept-based high school classroom and diagramming it will be helpful moving forward.
Hi everyone! Most of my data came in the last week of the semester in the form of students' final digital portfolios and oral portfolio critique. As you can see from my image below, I have been somewhat successfully using voice to text to transcribe recordings of their critiques. After a lot of trial and error, I found that the best method was for me to play the recording in my ear on headphones and talk loudly and clearly enough that the voice to text software can pick up me repeating the student's speech. I did find a service that would transcibe for you, but at $0.79 a minute, I cannot afford to transcribe over 8 hours of recordings! I will be spending this weekend continuing to work through transcriptions and sorting student's digital portfolios into an uploadable form. I am a little concerned about being a person this semester, as the week our paper is due is also the week I am taking HS kids to conference art show, taking MS kids to competition, and setting up and chaperoning prom. I am thinking that Monday after will need to be a personal day :). After reading the chapter this week, I think my study makes the most sense as phenomenology, because I am studying the phenomena of students finding or growing their voice. As I was reading I imagined trying to complete the steps of analysis for each of the five approaches with my data. I originally thought that my piece might be a narrative study or grounded theory, but after doing this mental exercise, the steps for phenominology seemed to fit and make sense with my data set. Espeically since I am immersed in transcribing students final reflections, the bullet in the phenomenology section "developng significant statements about how individuals are experiencing the topic." stood out to me because I am finding and remembering statements that students made that were so profound about their artmaking process. Now if only I can get them transcibed properly so others can find them profound as well! As a teacher, I want to make the kind of world where students value diversity, creativity, and can think critically for themselves. I hope my students get a diverse perspective from me, because I know I have learned just as much from them sharing through their artwork. They have such powerful and unique voices, and the best part of being a teacher are the moments when THEY realize they used them and feel that power.
Our discussion touched on the idea that our students most likely aren't going to be professional artists, and our class can and should still be valuable for those students. I remember reading a blog from Ian Sand's, a strong proponent of choice based art education, about rethinking Art 1 and creating a class that is for the 95% of students that won't make art at a professional level rather than a prep course for AP or post-secondary art education. My first year teaching that class was based around elements and principles, and drawing basics, and the projects SUCKED! They weren't making art, they were following steps. Now I start the semester in Art Foundations with the Forbes list of Top 10 Employability Skills, and discuss the 8/10 that we use and how we will use them. I actually show Chuck Close to my 7th grade students as a great example of a person who's art got better once he stopped focusing on realism so much. At this age, I just want them to try things and experiement. I had never heard of Lynda Barry before last night, and she is another great example for students that enjoying making it and trying something creative is enough. It doesn't have to reach some external level of quality. Both of the poems to me touch on the idea that we can be alive but not really living. Even when kids are making art, I find that I have to remind them to be present and not focusing too much on their converstaion, their music, etc. It is so important to be able to have a sensual and physical experience with the materials. ( I still haven't figured out how to word this in my HS classes that won't cause a giggle fit.) Most of all, I know that I will have succeed when students leave my class more creative, confident, empathetic people even if they can't name a color scheme, throw a pot, or draw. I would like them to have technical skills, but its those deeper thinking and feeling skills that they will need and use forever. After talking with Dr. Walker about teaching strategies, do you have any ideas on how you might start to incorporate contemporary practices in your own classroom? I'm not looking for full-blown lesson plans, but rather some brainstorming ideas on how contemporary strategies (and the work of contemporary artists) might begin to show up in your classrooms. Also: We have done two projects in class (Object Self Portrait and Walking Score). Reflect on your own experience in making these pieces. Take a look at the results. What big ideas might your pieces connect with?
As I was reading the Chapters from Dr. Walker, I was definitely drawn to her discussion about experimentation in the second chapter. i have brought up play before and we compare and contrast play, practice, and making portfolio quality work. However, I have been unsuccessful coming up with a way to scaffold play for students. I have started with a mantra from a colleague in the science department: "The difference between messing around and science is writing it down." So I have intructed students to have that scientific mindset of observing and recording what happens. I think having the structure of having the verbs will help students know what to do. There is also the element of pleasure in doing things like "to smash" that are a little unacceptatble and destructive that most students aren't willing to do without being told it's ok. The walking score and self portrait pieces that we did connect more to the sense vs. nonsense chapter. I think some of my older students would enjoy these more, but it would take a lot of support and front loading for some students to see them as valuable. One of my first art experiences at UNI was taking Drawing 1 with frje, who used a lot of these sense vs. nonsense strategies in his teaching. At the time as a freshman undergrad, I remember thinking that this crazy bs was a waste of my time, and wondering when we were going to learn to draw. It wasn't until later that I was able to understand, process and appreciate what he was doing. Now I can say that class was very valuable and impacted my teaching more than any other class that I took at UNI, and that a conversation that frje and I had, has had more lasting impact and is seared into my brain more than any interactions I had with other professors. In terms of teaching with contemporary artists, I would like to start having a monthly theme and periodically show students artists that fit into it. For my research, I have had my students start making "creative bank accounts" on their art websites. Rather than have them create a specific art object around a certain artist, I would rather they use this information to add to their creative bank account page more organically when they find an artist that resonates with them. |
AuthorMorgan Singleton is a secondary art educator with a Master's degree in art education. Archives
April 2017
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