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.