Week 3: Pre-VTS Assessment

Actually, I did two Pre-VTS with two different groups. One group is in the Chinese Language School I have mentioned before. I thought the range of age would be 7-11, but when I saw them at the beginning of the semester, I was surprised most of them are around 5, and the biggest one is 9. So I changed my plan to use the K-2 level picture for them.

Since I changed my plan for the first group, I haven’t prepared to take videos and didn’t take it. But I will describe more details as possible to let it easier to compare with the performance they will do in the future. I use a regular class, so there’s a big screen for them to see the picture clearly, and I turned off the light to make the color brighter. I asked them look the picture carefully and think about what’s going on in this picture. They became silent for a long time, and I encouraged them to just say everything they can see in this picture. Finally one kid said he saw people in this picture are skating. Then I asked what did he see made he say that. He pointed the shoes with ice skates. And there are a few students pointed out it was winter, someone fell down, people are happy. One 9 years girl even noticed that there are some people skating in the back and some are in the front, for the reason that the different sizes of people. I am glad to see she can feel the space from observation. But there is a little kid pointed that there are some trees on the ground, what he pointed is the ice. I asked what did he see made him say that, and he answered because he saw lots of green color on the ground, and there are some black and white lines like branches. Obviously, he misunderstood. But I tried to be neutral, so I lead him think about the things (I pointed the real trees in the picture) in the background, and let him compare the differences between these two things. I think the thing I am most worried about is even though I keep encouraging them to participating in the discussion, there still are some kids do not want to talk. I have no idea to let them talk now. If someone meet the same problem, I hope you can tell me your solutions.

Another group is at my home, with just two 8 years old kids and using the Grade 3 level picture. I know the “group” is too small for just have 2 kids in. But I really want them have the chance to do VTS as well, and they are really talented little artists. Actually, they are in Grade 2, but since they are 8 and can write a lot, I choose the level Grade 3 for them. And it turned out an amazing job. I used my big screen HDTV to show the image and gave them the papers with picture and question on, and told them write as more as possible. They wrote a lot. Both of them noticed that there’s a man painting, and there’s a woman holding a baby, there’s a cat sleeping and there’s a trashcan. After discussion with answering the 3 questions, they found more details and really did an impressive job.  They found many details and inferred a lot of information from the details. For example, they noticed that the woman was dressed up and have a flower brooch on the dress, and she was wearing earrings, high heels, and use lipstick on her lips. One kid inferred that maybe she just come back home from work, and another one thought it was an important day for the woman so she dressed up and asked someone to paint her. They also inferred the time from clock, and noticed the image of cat on the wall, and thought about the place from trashcan and broom. I am surprised such little kids can get so many things from this image. They got much more information after discussion than the things on the work paper. Their mom was also very satisfied about their improvement and thought it is a good way to help them doing critical thinking. I think they will get more next time.

I really spent a good time doing VTS with these two groups at weekends. And I think I can do better next time.

Week2: Reflection

Week2: Reflection

I really spent a nice time with my roommates and friends doing VTS. This group of peers is all graduate students in Mizzou but with different backgrounds. Their major are computer science, philosophy, marketing and journalism. The place we did VTS is at my house. There’s a 42’’ HDTV in my living room, and I connected it to my laptop to show the picture. My friends were just sitting in the sofa around the television. All of them are unfamiliar with the artwork we talking about (I choose the Dad’s Coming).

At the beginning, I introduced VTS briefly, and then let them do the double take. I prepared a worksheet for everyone, with several questions on it just like Mary did in class. After the 30 seconds looking and writing the answers on paper, I started to lead them to discuss. They quickly find the theme of this picture, and I lead them to find more details to support it. The process is so successful, they found something I had not noticed before, and they thought deeper and deeper to analysis this picture. One of them offered a different opinion, she thought the family was just spending a normal day and having a rest beside the sea.  It is true that the painter captures a more ambiguous moment of watching and waiting. It may lead audience come out with another understanding. So we discussed the relationship between the meaning the painter want to express and the meaning what the audience can read from the painting. And most of us think one artwork should include these two kinds of meanings originally, what we should do is to explore more from the visual images. When looking back the answers written at first, they all found VTS help a lot to explore the artwork. They got many useful information during the discussion, and one said he should be with a group when next time go to museums, for the reason that it is totally different from watching artwork alone.  And another one said he had more interest in art now, since it seemed not so far away from daily life. It is beyond expectation that we took more than one hour to do VTS. I think they all like it now.

Forgot to say, we use our first language Chinese to do it, so it is far more convenient and efficient than the first when I use English at class. I think it is much better than first time as well. All of them think this is an impressive lesson, and the philosopher who is a teacher himself gave me a good advice. When someone said it maybe something, I always directly asked why do u think so or what do you see makes you say that, it would make people who cannot tell immediately feel nervous and don’t know what to say. He suggested me I could use “Are these details make you say so?” instead to lead people think more about it.

I really fall in love with VTS methods now, and can’t wait to learn more and make constant progress.

Week 1: Introduction

Week 1: Introduction

I apologize for changing the blog address. Since there’s another course need a blog and I want these two blogs to be separated, I create this one only for VTS. I just move the VTS part here.

Let me introduce myself first. As you all know, I’m from China. I graduated from China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and my major there was Art History. But I taught high school students around 17 drawing class in an art studio in China when I was an undergraduate student. After graduation, I came to America with my husband and taught art class in a Chinese Language School. Here, I worked with the kids between 7-11 years old. I taught them painting, and sometimes brought them some masterpiece to introduce. And I also have a private art class at my home, my students are twins, they are 7 years old (maybe 8 years now), I teach them Chinese traditional painting and let them see lots of masterpiece in Acient China. As my major was art history, I always introduced a lot, but when I have some experiences of VTS now, I think I should lead them to read more than just talking by myself.

This semester, I will continue work with the kids in Chinese Language School. Actually, I have not met them yet. (I’ll begin my class on the first Sunday after Labor Day.) But I think the size and the students won’t change much from last semester. There are about ten students, they are from Grade 2^nd to 5^th , most of them are America born Chinese, and some are mixed, some are from other parts of Asia.  Most of them can speak Chinese, so I could teach them by using two languages. The classroom is really nice, there’s a big screen in front of and close to the tables and chairs, so I think all of the kids can see the pictures clearly.  The class lasts for one hour and once a week.

I should admit, before this class, I know little about VTS, so I focus more on drawing or painting skills and developing their ability of imagination during teaching. Now I find VTS is important for the people to understanding the visual things, especially living in 21^st century, so I think I should make a big change. What I worry about is to lead the kids really discuss about the picture I show them, it may be a challenge for me, but I hope I will solve it. And I also hope they could love VTS, and develop themselves from it.

As a foreigner, my English is poor, there may be some language mistakes let you misunderstand or cannot understand so clearly, please let me know if have any questions. Thank you for patient.