August 7th, 2013

Visible Thinking Strategies Fail

(and how a good teacher turns a negative into a positive) 

I put together the squares that made up a complete artwork from the pieces completed by my Art 2 students during the first two days of classes. I had a great plan to use one of the Visible Thinking Strategies from the Project Zero site called the Explanation Game:

The Explanation Game

Like many good plans however, this one turned into an epic fail, although no one but me probably realized that fact.

I notice that…why is that or why did that happen?

I began by having the students look at the completed put together artwork and then write down something they noticed on a large sheet of paper attached to the wall. (biggest problem, I needed to model more what a “good” observation looks like. “I notice a cow” is probably not as useful an observation for this discussion as say, “I notice that the top corner pieces have more color than the lower corner”)

Then I had the students, one at a time, attempt the “explanation” part of the exercise. They looked at the observations written down on the other sheet of paper and then attempted to explain why that was or why that occurred for one of the “I notice that” statements.

Again, some modeling would've been a good idea here (I’m kinda a Montessori, hands off, let the kids discover the answers and how to get to the answers kinda art teacher, but with VTS, if you want success, you have GOT to model these thinking behaviors). The answers were less than inspiring, with the exception of a few, and I shared these with the classes as good examples of what I was looking for in this exercise. But overall, this was a critical thinking fail.

I am an awesome teacher, however, and I do not let these types of fails get me down! I look instead for what I can take and use in order to turn this fail into a fabulous beginning. I realized that throughout the semester if we talk about what we see and why artists are making these decisions (in my class this is one of the main reasons for me to use this particular VTS), then if I do this same exercise before the Christmas break I should see noticeable improvement not only in the types of observation but in their rationales as to “why” (that’s my theory at least, and I'm sticking with it!).  I'm actually excited to see if I'm right, and it will be a cool way to show student growth for my portfolio. So epic fail or learning opportunity for my classes and myself ? – you decide, and let me know!

Finished artwork made up of all the individual student pieces

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Classroom Conversation Clips

One of the things I've noticed while working on this blog is that if I am having a hard time putting into words succinctly the exercises or discussions we are having in a class, imagine what it’s like for the students! Especially being in a doctoral program, I can get pretty out there with my connections and expectations. This, not so bad in upper level classes, but for my Art 2’s, they have to be a little more gently introduced to my meandering, heady, brain-hurting way of teaching. It’s effective a lot of the times, but I admit, can also be overwhelming! 

Reflecting upon your teaching practices is, I believe, one of the most important strategies to improving your effectiveness as a teacher. Thanks for letting me use this space as a reflective "confessional" at times! Now, let me go say a few "Hail Mary's"!