Summative Project and Artist Statement

Using Visual Thinking Strategies in my classroom has benefitted me in so many ways.  I have been most struck by its focus on patience, quiet, and listening.  VTS, in some ways, mirrors my philosophy on life by placing so much importance on the true, careful art of these ideas.  VTS has helped me to become better at all of these, especially listening because it requires you to delve deeply into another person’s words and ideas and reiterate them back to the participant. 

As a metaphor for my learning this semester, I painted a stack of balancing rocks using watercolors.  I chose to make this painting because I felt it best expresses how VTS has benefitted me.  VTS has shown me that silence is something to be revered, and that the patience of speaking and listening slowly will be rewarded.  The balancing rocks are a little part of nature that absorbs the quiet and all the sounds around them.  The rocks stand quietly while being present will all that is happening around them.  The painting uses mostly pastel and neutral colors, with little flecks of browns to simulate the texture of the rocks.  The artistic choice of watercolor paint helps to drive home that feeling of flow and natural elements.  While the painting is simple in subject, it becomes complex in metaphor and idea.

Blog Topic 16 Pre and Post VTS Analysis

My data consisted of ten students.  There were some that were not included in my sample due to absences.  Here is my data pile with a cameo by little Pete.

And, here are my data screenshots.  The first is of my word counts and the second is interpretation or influence with evidence:

I was really saddened that both of my responses were considered to be not statistically significant because I really believe that VTS has benefitted my class.  As I mentioned in my last post, there are outside factors that may have affected my data, like the kind of day students were having and the fact that I was missing three kids from my sample.  Even though I am a hardcore believer in science, I still think that I have seen benefit from doing VTS discussions and I definitely plan to continue them each week.  My students really look forward to them and I enjoy facilitating.

Blog Topic 15

I was so surprised to see my students' final numbers this week.  They didn't all go up, but the ones that did went up drastically.  About 75% of my kids writing samples went up in word count.  Three students weren't included in my sample because they were absent on a day when we did the pre or post tests.  I also know that one student was having a particularly bad day on the occasion of the post test, so I think she may not have taken it seriously as her score went down a lot.  Overall, on an individual basis, my kiddos did a great job.  Most of them used more words and cited reasons for their thinking when in the past they did not.

I saw a lot of benefit from holding almost weekly VTS sessions with my kids.  They became something to look forward to on Friday's.  My kids wanted to see art that's out there, and they wanted to talk about them.  On week's when we didn't have discussions, the kids said they wanted to or that they missed doing them.  In a way, it feels like our discussions were a way to bond.  They got to freely speak about their ideas in a place that lacked judgement and fear.  I really feel that VTS has helped my class to bond with one another and with me.  Because of VTS, I am becoming more patient and a better listener, which is something I try to work on every day.

Blog Topic 14

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?