January 22, 2012

It has been twenty two days since my last post, and it is no coincidence that it has been twenty days since we returned to school to begin the second semester. What a perfect illustration of how busy we art teachers are! Sometimes the day to day classroom needs eclipse reflective thinking about our profession.


My last post compared a well-crafted art lesson plan to a work of art. This post likens an art studio critique to a teacher evaluation.


It is standard operating procedure in an art studio to hang a newly blossomed work of art on a wall and allow classmates and teachers to critique it. Critics will often go through a litany of concerns and say things to us like "The balance between the foreground and background feels uneasy to me because I can not stop my eyes from going back and forth. I'm asking myself which is most important, and this sets up a nice dynamic." Sometimes the words are not so thoughtful, helpful or kind. You might hear, "What were you thinking?" or "Try again." The point is that we artists are used to our work being critiqued and held to a more or less uniform set of standards. 

We art teachers must also get used to being evaluated and held to a uniform set of standards. It that feels uncomfortable, perhaps brutal, then we can call on our experiences as art students to help us understand and withstand the process. As we hung our fresh, precious works of art on the wall and braced ourselves for the worst, we sometimes got crushed. But sometimes we got praised, and sometimes we received little nuggets of truth about our work that propelled us forward. As teachers, we might sometimes feel crushed by non-art teacher's evaluations of us. And sometimes we will be praised, and sometimes we will hear little nuggets of truth that will propel us forward.


We are not going to always hit the mark with our lessons. Perhaps our pacing is off and there's a mad dash to clean up and line up, or a new procedure is tongue-twistingly difficult to explain, or the students just don't "buy" it that particular class period. As professional educators, we must stay humble enough to know that we don't know it all. We must be curious enough to continue to learn about the art of teaching.  We must care enough to work at being better. And we must respect our administrators enough to trust in the evaluation system.


Let us teach on!

January 4, 2012

Think of a lesson plan as a work of art. 

In the art world we are accustomed to originating an idea and then pulling together some elements of art in such a way that our idea blooms in front of your very eyes. We artists select colors or shapes or textures as our tools to help us express an idea with an image or an object. We study artists who have come before us and formally dissect their work. We ask, "What tools did they use to express this concept?" Sometimes we even label artists according to the tools they frequently select, calling, for example, Albers a colorist and saying Oldenberg is "all about" texture and proportion. 

We can compare our lesson plans to a work of art. What are the similarities? A work of art and a lesson plan both start with an original idea, are meant to be an expression of something, are meant to communicate, contain many parts, are selectively put together, are a complete little world packaged up and experienced for a finite amount of time, and contain important ideas that are held forever in the minds and hearts of the lucky ones who experience them.

Friends and colleagues will ask me, "What art are you making now?" or "What have you done in your studio lately?" My recent answer is "Very little." I have produced only one stained glass piece, one painting, and a few drawings in the last two years. Yet I have done more creative thinking and more creating in the last three years than ever before. 

My recent works of art are lessons.

In each lesson that integrates art and social studies, I have a message I want to express to my students. I have to synthesize things from art and things from social studies. I have to think and feel the material, I have to allow that magic to occur, that mystical thing called creating. Then I select the teaching tools to use and with much care construct the lesson so it communicates what it should. A good lesson plan is rather like a piece of multi-media performance art in which the viewers are participants. 

If we art teachers can think of our lesson planning as a creative process and if we can think of our lessons as a work of art, I believe our lessons will be exemplary, we will be joyous, students will learn much, and students will be engaged.

”To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” --Pearl S. Buck

December 31, 2011

Bartering used to be a common way to get the things you needed for yourself and your family. My mother tells of taking two fresh eggs from her family farm in Fentress County, Tennessee around 1947, walking to the nearby store, and bartering the eggs for a pack of notebook paper for school and two little pack of Kits candy.

My mission is to teach the third graders the difference between bartering and buying. My first thought is to let them experience a bartering system in the art class. I could prepare the materials needed for a project by placing them in closed brown bags and randomly distributing them to students. After explaining the art project, I would tell the class that I will not be handing out any supplies for this project nor will they be allowed to use their personal supply boxes. Everything they will use for the project will come from the paper bags. The student who randomly chose the bag of sharpened pencils will have to barter those pencils for paper, glue, scissors, etc. The student who is holding the bag of unsharpened pencils will have to locate the person who has the bag containing the pencil sharpener.

This idea might work to produce a fun experience and some authentic learning,  but I need to ponder a little longer.

As I ponder, I will keep in mind that in every single class I teach the children need to think and to problem solve.

I will keep the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy by my side. (If you want to research this for yourself, there are many sources of Bloom's on the web.)

Remember: Recall previous learned information. (First, the kids need to remember the definition of bartering and the definition of buying.)

Understanding: Comprehending the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words. (Second, they need to be able to explain what bartering is, why people did it, why people do it now, and tell me what they are going to do during the course of the lesson.)

Applying: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place. (Third, the students will have to actually barter in order to procure the things they need to do the project. They will have to apply their understanding of the barter system to their own behavior.)

Analyzing: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences. (Fourth, I should see some discrimination and selection going on. The students should be able to pick the things they will need and ignore the things they will not. For example, if they choose to collage an image, they will need scissors and glue, but if they're going to draw their image, they will not need scissors and glue.)

Evaluating: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials. (Fifth, the children should be seen and heard evaluating the project, the processes available to them, the materials available to them, the materials in their own bag that will give them bartering power, their own artistic interests and skills. After evaluating these things, they could proceed with the bartering and the creating.)

Creating: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure. (Finally, we reach the sixth level of Bloom's, the most precious, difficult,and exciting: creation! After remembering and understanding bartering, after bartering for the things they analytically selected and evaluating their own needs, they will create a beautifully expressive work of art. )

On paper, this lesson idea has possibilities.

An idea for a new lesson is only a seed; let it grow before you implement it. 

I have selected an additional social studies SPI to teach to my third graders this year. It is:

3.2.spi.5. differentiate between money and barter economies.                             

Some sample questions about this SPI the children might be asked on TCAP are:

TCAP Coach Question 19:

Which of these is an example of someone using a money system?

A.    Hildy asks his parents for a goldfish.

B.    Travis trades one orange for two pickles.

C.    Farrah buys a shirt for seven dollars.

D.    Tracy and her family go on a trip.

TCAP Coach Question 48:

Which of these is an example of someone using a money system?

A.    Paula buys a dog from the pet store for fifty dollars.

B.    Amy borrows a jacket from her friend.

C.    Sandra gives her mother a gift.

D.    Tom and Randy trade books.

(These questions are from Tennessee Blueprint TCAP Coach: Social Studies: Grade 3, published by 

Triumph Learning, New York, 2008, authored by Gail Mack of Cypress Curriculum Services. Interesting that neither question has the word "barter" in it.)

Bartering, trading, buying...

What does the text book give me? The third grade social studies text book, which I use as a planning tool, is Social Studies Tennessee 3: Many Regions, One World, published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2009. The book tells me that the word "barter" is from the Tennessee Academic Vocabulary, and the text book glossary defines it as "to exchange one good or service for another good or service." (p. R20) On page 99 of the text book there are two paragraphs sub-titled "Money or Barter?" whose main idea is "Using money is often easier than bartering."

Let's let these ideas simmer.

December 28, 2011

SPI. 
This stands for "student performance indicator." An SPI is a statement that answers the question: "What will student know and be able to do at the conclusion of this lesson?" A sample SPI for third grade students in Tennessee who are studying social studies is: Social Studies Geography 3.3.spi.1.  Student will be able to identify the major physical components of the world (i.e., oceans, equator, continents, and hemispheres). A sample SPI for third grade students in Tennessee who are studying art is: Visual Art 2.2.1 Student will be able to use chosen elements of art in one’s own artwork. (You can access these on the TN Dept. of Educ. Curriculum Standards web site.) 


After several years of teaching art, it does not feel difficult to teach the Visual Art SPIs. That is not to say that I teach them perfectly, but that I do it reasonably well, and of course I continue to try to improve.


Teaching the Social Studies SPIs along with the art is a different ball game, one that I have to think about and plan for and really work at.


As mentioned the other day, I need to assess our progress thus far. In order to better explain my assessment process, I will do a "think aloud" as I do so. A "think aloud" is a way to model one's thinking to other people. It is a good way to explain one's thought process. So, here is what I say to myself as I assess  my third graders' progress.


"Ok, Val, you need to reflect on what you taught during the fall semester so you can plan what you will teach during the spring semester. So, do an overview of the Grade 3 Social Studies SPIs. Let's look them up...ok,  I count a total of 26.  I remember I had originally planned to teach only 15 of these social studies SPIs in art class because the other eleven SPIs did not seem to easily lend themselves to integration with an art activity. I remember that I purposely, and with some regret, set them aside. Of the 15 I intended to teach this school year, I see that I have already taught nine. Pretty good, that leaves only 6 of the original that I need to address. I feel happy with that because it is doable. 


Hmmm, I taught the SPIs, but I have to ask, did the students really learn the content? I know from tests I have given throughout the first semester that less than 100% of the students learned all the material. To be honest, I know from these class tests that the average score on the tests is around a 57% correct. That doesn't sound very high, but it matches up with what the third graders last year and the year before scored on the social studies TCAP. This indicates that this year's third graders are on track to achieve close to what last year's third graders achieved. 


That's not good enough.


How can we do better? 


1. I will re-teach the content that the fewest number of students mastered.
2. I will re-assess the learning of that content. Hopefully, the percent correct will increase.
3. I will teach more SPIs than last year."


I have now established two courses of action for myself: to re-teach to the third graders the more difficult social studies content and to teach more social studies content that is in addition to my originally planned art + social studies curriculum.


I am now ready to delve into the truly awesome and enjoyable creative process of connecting social studies to art, finding an art medium/process that will marry well with a social studies SPI, put the two in a lesson together, custom fit the lesson into the parameters of my particular students, our art room, art budget, length of art class, and size of art class.


Let the thinking and creating begin!

December 26, 2011

It is the day after Christmas 2011. Teaching resumes in our Knox County, Tennessee schools on Monday, January 9. Almost four months after that, my art students will be tested on their knowledge of Social Studies via the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP). The test date for our school, Lonsdale, will probably be Thursday, April 26 (which coincidentally happens to be my 55th birthday). The TCAP is a monster test, administered by the state education department. It is given to our students over the course of four days or so, and it lasts for a total of nearly eight hours.

We work hard, no, we toil, at Lonsdale to produce proficient readers and mathematicians, and consequently, little time is left for social studies instruction. To meet the students' need for social studies learning, I made a decision three years ago, in collaboration with my supervisor and principal, to teach Social Studies through Art. I am the Art teacher for the entire school, and I am the Social Studies teacher for the entire school.

My skills as an Art teacher will not be assessed by my students' performance on the TCAP. However, my skills as an Art teacher who systemically integrates social studies content into her Art classes will be assessed.

It is mid-school year. It is time for me to grade myself, to ask, what have I taught well up to this point? what parts of the social studies curriculum have I not yet covered? what needs to be re-taught? what content must I put aside, untouched, because time does not allow me to teach all the social studies content?  These next two weeks will provide a perfect opportunity for me to take stock of our progress thus far, to adjust my direction as needed, and to plan for spring semester.

We must allow student performance to inform our day-to-day instructional decisions.