1. How do
we know what our students know about the topics we plan to address?
I think we as teachers need to
be in touch with their other teachers to know what they are discussing in other
classes. Art is relevant to everything, and I think this idea would be
understood best by actually connecting it to other realms of understanding.
Another (maybe too obvious) way is to just ask them. Provide them with an
activity up front that draws upon knowledge they already have.
2. How
would you go about teaching for “deep understanding”?
To me, “deep understanding” is
synonymous with “truly meaningful.” I know I find the most meaning and
understanding of what I’m learning when I can apply it to my personal life or
connect it to other bodies of knowledge. Art alone is not going to be important
to every student, but when we show its potential to understand our own worlds,
it becomes meaningful and relevant to each person. I want to teach lessons that
have outside application, and provide opportunities to create projects that
students will keep and care about. I don’t ever want to see someone just throw
something away—that’s my goal.
3. How
would you teach for student relevance?
Again, I would interact with
the other teachers of my students, and also get to know my students on a more
personal level by talking to them in class. I want to be open and transparent about
my teaching decisions with my students. This might sound too simple, but I
might just ask them if they feel like our projects are relevant, and how we
might change them. Students have good ideas.
4. How
might teaching for student relevance be a ridiculously bad thing?
Teaching for student relevance
is never a bad thing. Being driven only
by student relevance, in their present circumstances can be limiting later on.
I think we often place our own limits on the capacity of students to understand
complex bodies of knowledge. We will have discussions that they would never
have with their friends or even their family. And I think that is a great
thing.
5. For
the unit you are envisioning, what will be your “entrance strategy”?
I am considering starting with
a lesson that I haven’t written yet, but involves making sculptures of an
object we know but with our eyes closed. I saw a wonderful piece at the
Marrakesh Biennale that displayed small sculptures made by various people that
were all blind. Those sculptures were then cast in bronze and I believe the
titles were both in English and Braille. Many of the objects did not look quite
like what they were titled to be, but they were beautiful. My big idea is “knowing”
and one of the ways we know the world and our circumstances is through our
senses. What would happen if one of those was removed? What would we see? What
would we hear? What would we feel? What would we understand that we don’t at
the present time? I would also like to talk about artists and influential
people who operated without one of their five senses, and how they found
understanding and constructed meaning in other ways. I could also use the
introductory art history materials lesson as the entrance strategy.
6. In an
inquiry based, constructivist approach, a key question is “What does that mean?”
What are some other ways that you can ask that question?
What does this make you think
of? How does this make you feel? Why might the artist have chosen to
do____________? Who do you think the audience would have been for this piece? Why
did the artist use these specific materials? Do materials carry meaning? What
do you think the size might tell us about approaching the piece?
7. As art
teachers, we often pose artistic problems for our students, defining the
constraints that we hope will cultivate divergent, creative solutions.
How do you plan to have students become researchers and pose their own creative
problems?
I think it will take a while
for students to become truly self-driven researchers. I think what we can focus
on is practicing posing our own creative problems. We can teach them how they
might approach an artwork, and this approach can be applied to all fields of knowledge.
Rekindling wonder is important, practicing how to work through problems is
important, and once they have experience with both of those things, over time I
think that their curiosity will drive itself.
8. At
this early stage in your unit, how do you envision the sequential organization
of learning experiences or activities? Make a list of what you plan to do in
sequence.
Exploration of Materials,
Artist’s toolbox
Invisible sculptures, Knowing
through senses – Megumi Matsubara
Drawing as Knowing—Louise Despont,
Cave Paintings, Leonardo Da Vinci, (+more)
Framed perspectives,
Photography as knowing – Timothy O’Sullivan
Painting & Power
throughout history—Hans Holbein, Kehinde Wiley,
Visual Culture & Visual
Literacy—images and stereotypes, gender and race in our world
Individual, self-driven
projects/Unknown outcomes
9. How
will you determine if what you are doing is working? What counts as evidence of
learning for you?
I need to somehow determine if
students care, because that is evidence of learning for me. I also think that
talkative students will show their learning through participating in class
discussions and more quiet students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge
through their work and written assignments. I think incorporating self-driven
assignments the second half of the semester/year will certainly give me an idea
about what students know, based on their ideas, projects, and thoughtfulness.
10. What
are the learning goals for your unit? What kinds of understandings are
you reaching for in these goals?
Students will come to
understand that knowledge is a continuously changing entity.
Students will examine how
perceptions and personal experiences influence what they feel to be true.
Students will experience that
not knowing is uncomfortable, but essential to growth.
Students will reflect on how
art-making is just one way to come to know something.
