Chapter 5 Content Response

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.