Sunday, September 14, 2014
Blog Topic 3
In all honesty, I was really surprised by my Pre-VTS assessments. As I have mentioned earlier, I am moving through this class with my Advanced Art class. I am not sure if the title of the class or my prior knowledge of my students gave me high expectations, but this exercise really made me realize that I believe my students to be more advanced viewers and artists than they really are. I felt a bit disappointed, because, really, many of my students blew through the exercise, writing only a few sentences about what they saw (and I have done VTS with some of them before). I would say my students are probably somewhere in between stage 2 and 3 viewers, by wanting to expand on ideas and imagery, but not have as much background in Art History and technique as a historian would. Before I sound too negative here, there were around three students who did an exceptional job, picking up things that I hadn't noticed in the given image. So it may be that I really have a range of viewing skills in my classroom.
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I too would be surprised if I had a classroom full of students who I believed to be seasoned art viewers, not provide detailed responses. I think this exercise was a great way to assess where everyone currently stands with VTS, especially since it’s the beginning of the school year. Hopefully with time you’ll start to see the gap between your students grow smaller as they learn to back up what they’re seeing with support.
ReplyDeleteDon't be discouraged! It's not unusual to be surprised at how "skimpy" pre-VTS assessments are. Remember that by high school, they have had lots of art years when they didn't really delve into art through discussions. Advanced production skills don't mean they understand the messages of other artists. You say you were disappointed. I"d be curious to hear what your expectations were. Did you expect a large number of detailed observations, lots of evidential reasoning, lots of art vocabulary applied to the image, all of the above? I'm also curious about the kinds of thinking (per Yenawine) you found in the few sentences they did write. That would help me understand what you saw that made you say Stage 2 or 3 (sorry, the questions have permeated my thinking about almost everything!). I was excited to hear about your satisfaction with the 3 students who excelled. Be sure to watch for the nuances in their post-VTS writings as I imagine there will still be growth for them. I suspect you hit the nail on the head when you said you have a range of viewing skills in your classroom!
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from. You have high hopes for our students and then they don’t perform the way you thought they would. Just remember that they will grow over time, since you have added this VST in to their curriculum. Be patient and understanding with this new phase that you and your students are going through.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience with the high school students writing short answers. I am thinking that the open-endedness of the pre assessment coupled with the fact that they don't receive peer interaction may be the cause. Also, I think the age group has a lot to do with it...perhaps there wasn't a high motivation to do well because it was a "pre-assessment."
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