Week 5

·       Critically evaluate Image #2 that you have just presented to your students

·       Reflecting on Yenawine, was this image an appropriate choice for your students?

I think this image was a good choice for my kids. They already had some experience to do VTS, so they could read images in higher levels. And these two images were based on a same theme. In addition, it had expressive content, and there were still some objects they could list.

·       Did this image motivate rigorous & engaging discussion for students?

I think the students are very interested in the strings in the house at first sight, and then they find more things in common in these two images. When they went deeper, they got more. I think they became excited about it because we did 22min VTS.

·       Did this image satisfactorily support/expand Big Idea, Key Concepts, & Essential Questions for the unit?

Yes. It will be a great image choice for my unit. It obviously presented my big idea memory. They found both these two images reflect the time: past and now, and they think maybe these places were in the artist’s memory because she went there before. I think they got the idea successfully.

·       Was the image rich enough to encourage continued discussion &/or independent student investigation? If so how might you provide for continued inquiry?

Yes, it was. Since this image was a contemporary art, I think I can introduce more about contemporary art, explain how artists express one big idea using various media and what are the differences to express the same theme from past to now.

·       Did this image invite opportunities to explore the BIG IDEA through artmaking? Explain.

Since this image was about an installation art, maybe I can let them use clay and strings to build some three-dimension artworks to show one place in their memory.

ü  REFLECT on Image #2 and the VTS discussion:

·       Would you use this image again to introduce the BIG IDEA?  If so, why?

I will definitely use this image to introduce my big idea memory, because this image was closely related to memory and presented memory in a unique way.  Moreover, it can help students know more about contemporary art.

Week 4: Visual Literacy

ü  Reflect on Feldman & Yenawine

·      Consider the two authors’ comparison of visual & verbal literacies.

·      Consider where your own students as a group and as individuals fall on this continuum.

·      How does this translate into aesthetic stages?

Reflect on Walker Chapter 6 & discuss your strategy/rationale for the sequencing of VTS images, artmaking, and other instructional activities in the unit you are developing.

Visual literacy is as Yenawine said: ‘’the ability to find meaning in imagery.” In the 21^st century, the world is becoming  “a world picture”, so understanding visual images has become essential skills even for those who can read and write well in the language of words. Everyone must learn to read images because our culture is increasingly represented and perceived in visual terms. It is interesting by comparing visual and verbal literacies. As Housen said: “Today, words do not resemble the ideas or objects they stand for.” We read verbal literacy as symbols and pay attention to the arrangement and syntactic meanings. Visual literacy actually is based on the same operation. However, “Readers of images have more sequential options than readers of sentences.” It makes it possible that all viewers at different levels can get information from the same image based on their previous knowledge and background. The most important thing is that there is a language of images and that it can be learned. So to teach visual literacy is crucial for our art educators.

My students, according to Housen, are between Stage I and II. As “pre-literate”, they see things through their own life experiences and also want to be able to make more informed. So I always select images that encourage a narrative reading and relate to familiar contexts and activities. I also challenge them by using some contemporary artwork. When they are curious about the artist’s intention, they begin to compare and contrast, try to read the concepts behind the image. My unit plan is based on the big idea memory. The idea is easy to understand even for young kids. I want them explore their own memory and relate artworks from professional artist that present the idea memory. I hope they could find their own way to present their memory visually.