Day Sixteen

Feb. 8
This is my formal reflection on the lesson. My University Supervisor came to evaluate today.

LESSON REFLECTION
Middle/Secondary Programs

Grade/Subject 9-11 Drawing I
Lesson Topic One-point perspective drawings in Surrealist/Dali-esque style Date 2/8/07

Learning Goals/Objectives:

The students have created symbols of themselves in the previous classes. I wanted them to realize that their symbols really can and do represent who they are. That was the goal of the ‘guess whose symbols these are’ game. I think it was shown, by the class’s correct responses that the students were successful, and that symbols can and do represent people.

Since the students were at various stages of completion, a number of the goals were met
by various students. Some students (particularly J####, who had been absent) were finishing the designing of symbols to represent themselves and sketching a preliminary arrangement of the symbols using one-point perspective in an interior/exterior environment.

The next step was one many students were working with, it involves a full-size preliminary drawing. Students are encouraged to make this drawing more cleanly than a sketch, as it will be transferred with carbon paper to the final paper.

Priming the final paper with gesso was a step that was wrapped up today. Students have been doing this step for the last three class, as space to gesso, places to dry the paper, and brushes are limited. Gessoing gives the paper more texture, useful for the application of charcoal, and also prevents the acrylic washes from immediately begin absorbed by the paper. The ability to combine and experiment with media is an important component of the Drawing I curriculum.

Having students at so many different levels of completion makes it easier when it comes to the demonstration of the materials. Although I will have to repeat the demonstration more often, I feel it is more effective because a small group of students is more likely to be able to see and hear, as well as ask questions.

Because the goals were mainly production oriented it was fairly easy to recognize when they were met today- most of the students made visible progess.

Student Grouping:
Students will remain in their same grouping for future instruction. Although some students do seem to be overly distracted by their neighbors, their would be more problems caused by moving them. The anticipated problems would include: loss of rapport, more discipline problems (i.e. yelling to friends across the room, getting out of seat and wandering room), and power struggles.

Activities:
Excluding the ‘symbol guessing game’ these activities were designed by MT to teach students one-point perspective, Dali’s historical context, surrealism, and the experimentation with acrylic wash and charcoal on gessoed paper. The activities also include planning exercises. These exercise emphasize that much artwork is planned and not just thrown together. The preliminary sketch the students to develop composition, and because both the students and MT and I are visual people, they help to communicate ideas.

If I were to do the ‘symbol guessing game’ again with one of the other classes, I would not follow it up with asking for someone to volunteer one of their symbols. It felt like it created an awkwardness to the instruction, because I had just provided examples of students symbols and it did not represent the ways in which a person can be recognized from their symbols. Also, I did not really work on responses to that, so I just floundered with “Okay...good ”.

Evaluation:
I haven’t really thought about the evaluation of this assignment. I will observe the way whichMT handles the evaluation. I have realized that because several students did not take the prerequisite for the class (a counselor ‘error’) they are severely behind in some of the basic drawing skills. It would be quite a challenge to evaluate their work with regard to the skills expected of the average students of this class. They would almost need some sort of modified evaluation for their work based on progress and effort.

General Reflection:
I’ve always thought the question on these reflections “If you were going to teach this lesson again to the same students, what would you do differently?...” is odd. Why would I teach the same lesson to the same students? But anyway, some of the things I would have done differently would include having more of the illustrations in my Dali book marked. I had some of the technique/color palate examples marked, but I felt like I was flipping around a lot in order to find just what I was looking for to show several students.

There were some behavior/classroom management issues, but I am still a little uncomfortable with corrections, as I don’t feel like I am really respected enough yet (as I am not the regular teacher), and I don’t want to nip in the bud the respect and rapport that I am working on building. Much of the individual instruction I would do in the same way, it felt like it was working and I was comfortable with talking one-on-one about the techniques/content.

The class will continue working in this manner until they are finished. I think the next major role I will play is to begin developing and introducing assignments in their visual journals that will lead into my unit.

I think ###### did great today. I could tell she was getting a little frustrated last class, she quit working on her drawing and started working on other artwork. I didn’t bother her about it, and she was farther along than anyone else anyway. I didn’t realize that her large-scale planning drawing was larger than the paper she had gessoed. She creates these amazingly detailed drawings, and so the images on her first drawing were going to have to be altered or condensed and this was why she was frustrated. Well today, she figured out how she was going to alter the drawing and I think she ended up with an even stronger composition than she had originally. She started the final steps with the acrylic washes today too. I think she just needed some time away from it. I know she does really like this assignment, because it is a lot like some of her drawing she does on her own that she’s shown me.

##### (played guitar on the ruler more than drew) had some trouble. The most frustrating part is that it is not because he struggles with drawing, it is because he struggles with staying on task. He is one of the students that I am trying to regularly monitor and redirect. He will make great little drawing of things on pieces of notebook paper, but then won’t take the time to redraw to incorporate them into his drawings. This type of student, the rather apathetic kind, is more frustrating to me than the student who struggles with the technical/conceptual part. I will be working with MT to improve my ability to motivate students.