This image captures the many layers of learning and teaching that were going on in the classroom this week. Both the teacher and the instructor are engaged in this activity; both parties are working together equally to create the artwork. Uninhibited exploration is also evident in this image. The students noticed that as they moved around the paper, their shoes would make patterns and marks as well. They took this idea and pushed it further by coloring the bottom of Leigha's boots so she could make marks on the paper. In the following image, you can see the students emphasizing the pattern by tracing over it to make them stand out as intentional marks. It was interesting to see the students form together as a group to accomplish this episode of experimentation in that they saw this as a opportunity, executed it, and reflected on it with very little if any guidance from the teacher.
Also, one cannot deny the overwhelming sense of joy and laughter that is captured in this moment. This opportunity to color on a teacher's boot is not something that happens everyday in the regular art classroom. By setting up a classroom environment that encourages unique approaches and challenges seems to bring forth excitement within the students which I hope will continue to happen each time we meet. When planning future lesson, it is important for the teacher to keep this moment in mind, and how the activity provoked such excitement and energy in hopes of planning other activities which achieve the same goal.
This image marks another special moment during class where a student observed unintentional pattern in her work. At first, this student had just drawn the grid outline and said she was done. I thought she could explore more pattern and layering of pattern in this piece, so I asked her what she could do or add to make it have more. With my prompting, she started to color in the squares to make another kind of pattern. The most exciting moment was when she had finished this layer of pattern, she stood back, looking at what she had done, and said,
"Look! There's pattern coming through the pattern!"
What a great example of a student comprehending a concept in that she can both execute it and recognize it in her work! From a teacher standpoint, this also speaks to the importance of reinforcing an idea in various ways throughout the lesson. We, the teachers, were paying close attention to pointing out different kinds of pattern as well as different examples of where it exists in everyday life within the classroom. It seems that the breath of reinforcement allowed students to recognize patterns in a new way, which is what is happening in this image.
This image captures another important moment where students were participating in unprompted informal critiques of each others' artworks. This is a conversation happening between students themselves as they created their photomontages. The materials were spread out all over the table, so many of the students had to get up from their chairs and move around to retrieve the photos and supplies they needed. Creating an environment that permits students to move in and out of their seats helped to facilitate great discussions between students about their artwork.
Freedom to move around also helped facilitate moments of student to student instruction with is also going on in this image. In particular, the student in the middle had traveled to this side of the table to get some more pictures for her artwork, but she stopped to look at the work the other two girls were creating. She made some comments about how she liked what they were doing, and then she proceeded to give a demo of sorts about how she would put 2 of her pictures together on the photomontage. It was wonderful to see these students interacting, helping one another, leaning and teaching from one another without the "real" teacher being present.
With regard the conversation happening between these students, it is important to keep in mind how we as teachers allow students to move around the classroom and what affects that decision will have on opportunities for spontaneous conversations to develop between students. This kind of peer interaction is important and can be scaffolded by the teacher so that it becomes an encouraged activity happening within the daily routines of the classroom.
Here are a few more images of what students were learning and creating:
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