In week five, I identified a student who I thought VTS might help. The student's name was Brad. After almost ten weeks of VTSing, I am sad to say that I did not see any improvement during the VTS discussions. Brad was one of three students who did not participate in any image discussion that we had. I am a little disappointed that Brad, and the other two students, didn't participate, but I suppose that doesn't mean that these kiddos learned nothing from our discussions. VTS offers such great opportunities for listening and wondering, which I know that Brad must have been doing. He was present during the discussions and attentive to what his classmates were saying. My hope is that he gleaned at least a little about artistic choices and meaning making during the discussions so that he may be better able to understand and implement these concepts within his own work.
In the future, I would be really interested to find a way to help these students participate. VTS is all about feeling comfortable, so it would be wrong of me to call on them. Anyone have any ideas about how to encourage these students without making them feel uncomfortable?
As I mentioned way back at the beginning of the course, big gains are seldom evidenced in one short semester. High School students are a particularly tough crowd because of their combined "right answer indoctrination" over their years of schooling and their sensitivity to appearing foolish before peers. It's almost as if they need time to fully believe that you aren't looking for a right answer. When Brad is ready and finds the image compelling, I feel like he will contribute. The fact that he was attentive even though silent does not signal failure by any means. Listening is a very legitimate learning strategy.
ReplyDeleteOne former VTS I student had good results with high schoolers by asking them to write to the questions for 5 minutes before starting the discussion. It served as note-taking to equip them for participation. If they didn't speak, she could then go back to them one-on-one to chat about what they did write and encourage them to share next time. VTSing in small groups is can also be an ice-breaker. I'm sure Yenawine would say to just keep giving him opportunities and wait him out. When the time and the image are right, he'll come around.