January 30, 2011

Professional Development and Reflective Thinking

 
Students are reflective when they write artist statements in any shape or form.
Ms. Kitty teaches the classroom teachers how to make paste paper for book covers.


Ms. Kitty leads a workshop for classroom teachers at Ravenswood on creating a simple self-serve book binding studio in their classroom.
Ways that students plan and reflect: through sketchbooks!

Student Teaching at Ravenswood- Week 1

1st and 2nd graders work in the painting studio to express their ideas

Ms. Kitty has three categories of artwork that get made in the studio. The first is kind is “exploring” artwork where kids take it upon themselves to try out new things, play with materials, and experiment. The second is showcase pieces, where kids develop and sketch out their ideas, and then see their projects through to completion with good craftsmanship. The third category is a must-do project, where the teacher leads the students through a specific project she feels will benefit the students. These are not very common because she really wants the students to choose their own content and materials; however, sometimes they are important in order to teach a specific skill, standard, or idea. The projects I will be leading will be “must-do’s” but they will also include a lot of student choice within them.
This week at Ravenswood most of the younger students have been finishing up projects they were already working on so that they can move on to working on some new ideas and processes with me.

The 1st and 2nd graders learned how to critique each others works in progress using a structure Kitty invented called the “Art Sandwich”. As each class gathered on the rug, Ms. Kitty talked to the kids about how as artists and people, we need feedback in order to improve and grow. She discussed with the kids how suggestions for improvement are always better received when they are paired with compliments. In the Art Sandwich, the bread is compliments, and the meat is a suggestion for how the artist can improve their work. Students are reminded that they can’t just say they like it when giving a compliment, because then the artist does not know what they’ve done well. Instead, you should always give a specific reason why you like something. This is a great thing for teachers to remember too!

This student said he created an ocean!


Students worked in groups of four- one artist and three viewers. They took turns giving compliments and one student out of the group volunteered to give the meat of the sandwich (or the cheese if they are vegetarian). It was exciting to see the students talking about their work. Each piece was very unique because the students had been given free range of the painting, collage, drawing and construction studios. The students were a little impatient waiting for each other to think of what to say, so next time we might have them all write down their compliments and suggestions for an art sandwich and then have them share out with each other afterwards so they are focused the entire time. I was very impressed with how articulate and invested all the artists were as they talked about their own work.

Ms. Kitty (as well as myself) believes very strongly in critique and reflection even for very young children as a necessary tool for growth and learning. We always need to unpack what we learned, to be metacognitive. Another example of how Ms. Kitty teaches this to her students is this picture. Students exhibited their showcase pieces and then went for a "gallery walk" to view the artwork of their peers. They wrote compliments on post-it notes and placed them on the artwork. What can I say? Post-it note critiques work for all ages!

young kids write compliments about artwork on post-it notes and share them with the artist

The kindergarteners are working on a project that is all about the artistic behavior of envisioning. They are given the challenge of transforming a cylinder (toilet paper tube) into a specific idea. They first drew their idea on a planning sheet, and Ms. Kitty helped them think about what materials they needed. I then observed them working in the construction studio to bring their plan to life in three dimensions. When one of the students wanted to change his plan to an entirely different object, Ms. Kitty asked him to create a new planning drawing because that was the main idea (behavior) she wanted the kids to learn. I love looking at the drawings next to the sculptures. The planning helps the students be more anchored and invested in the process, especially when faced with so many enticing materials to choose from!

kindergarteners planning and envisioning (a robot!)
The collage studio before we organized it.

Ms. Kitty thinks through how to attach certain materials to each other with the students at the rug



Ms. Kitty and I spent a lot of time after school this week organizing and cleaning out space for the newly opened clay and sculpture studio, as well as straightening up the messy collage studio.  Even though labeling isn't part of the Reggio Emilio school of thought and methodology, it does help ESL students who are plentiful at Ravenswood. So we'll go for clear labels in the clay studio.


Student Teaching At Ravenswood Elementary School- Context

So I finished my first week at Ravenswood as of Friday. I was mostly observing but I did sneak in a couple of demonstrations and a lecture here and there.
My cooperating teacher is the wonderful and famous Ms. Kitty Conde.

Ravenswood is a fine and performing arts magnet cluster school, which means that Ms. Kitty is part of a cohort of teachers who really push to improve their instruction and who are responsible for integrating art with other content areas in order to support the other teachers in the school and help the students understand the integrated connections between subjects. In order to do this the FAPAMCA teachers give and receive rich professional development throughout the year.
I should give you a little background about Ms. Kitty's pedagogy and praxis.

There are three primary pedagogical influences that have shaped the way Ms. Kitty teaches art and organizes classroom structures. The first and most important is Lois Hetland, a professor at MASSART, who wrote a book called Studio Thinking. The book describes what the arts really teach on their own, when they are taught well. Lois Hetland and Kitty believe the arts teach artistic behaviors such as learning to envision, learning to develop craft, and learning to engage and persist (there are eight total that Hetland and her associates at Project Zero have identified). The second major influence is the Reggio Emilio schools in Italy. The pedagogy of Reggio Emilio states that the classroom, or the environment, is the third teacher. In this way, the supplies should be organized in an aesthetically pleasing manner and accessible for students to explore. The third major influence is the Lucy Calkins Writer’s Workshop Structure. Ravenswood School, in general, embraces this model, and the way it translates best in Kitty’s room is through the idea of the mini-lesson. Most days Ms. Kitty sets a timer at the beginning of class for 5-7 minutes and she teaches the kids a mini-lesson, such as how to attach one material to another, or how to shade, etc. The kids then can choose to apply the information they heard that day or not apply it if they so choose. She really works hard to respect the students’ studio time by setting that egg timer and limiting her talking time. The rest of her instruction takes place either with small groups of students who are working on similar things and need more direction, or one on one with students as she walks around.

Because Ms. Kitty believes wholeheartedly in teaching for artistic behaviors, in process over product, and in autonomy and genuine engagement on the part of the student, Ms. Kitty’s room is organized into “studios”. Students have a lot of choice in her room, as they pick which studios to engage with on any given day. You can read more about Choice or TAB (teaching for artistic behavior) here. In the art room at Ravenswood, there is a construction studio, painting studio, drawing studio, collage studio, sculpture studio (mostly clay), and technology studio. Throughout most the year, students can choose from any of these centers to express and communicate their ideas. Sometimes Ms. Kitty gives the students a theme to consider when making work, but often the students decide on their own content. Ms. Kitty does not devise what the project, or product will look like, but rather she has students focus on learning certain artistic behaviors such as envisioning, reflecting, persisting and problem solving. Furthermore, the students get out and put back their own supplies, everyday, no matter how young they are. When the kids are small not all the studios are “open” to them, but they still put back their own drawing, construction and collage supplies. Ms. Kitty believes this teaches kids to be independent and responsible for their own supplies. The kids really do know where things go if the classroom is organized.

The Construction Studio at Ravenswood!

January 22, 2011

The finished mural, MLK day mural 2011

Here are a few pics of the two mural panels after our marathon day of painting. We began painting at about 10:00 and left at 6:00. Not bad for one day's work eh?

Kayla begins to pack up the paint. Where are all the lids??
6:00 pm on MLK day. A few loose ends are left but we got to a good stopping point since all the wall spaces have some color.

A few days later Kayla and I went back to the community center to spruce up the mural and make it look a bit more cohesive. We added some details in the prairie, outlined some muddled shapes to make them more defined, and tried to find ways to join the bottom of the mural, which was painted by little kids, with the top of the mural which was painted by older youth and adults. We ended up with something that looked quite modern in terms of painting- very Matisse I would say. We didn't want to spend too long perfecting the paintings because we wanted to make sure all the work the kids did was the strongest presence.

I can't stop painting and finding more details to obsess over. Good thing there's a limit to how long me and Kayla can stay!

Here are a few pics of the mural in its most finished state. I think it looks pretty great and the kids and parents were definitely happy with how it turned out.  As we left the room we said good night to the creatures we hoped would come alive in their new home (when no one was looking of course!)

Kayla changed the raccoon's face from looking like it was overtired to looking curious and wise. Excellent!
Detail of upper right of mural panel 1
Detail of upper right on panel 1

Fox Panel completed

A view of the whole as best as I could capture

Part 2, MLK day community mural in process

focused artists
I can't get this image to stand up straight but it's really cute!

 
Regina painting the Fox Panel
 One the the kids wrote the word bits on a prairie dog and claims it doesn't say bites!
Kayla reads a book during a painting break as the adults try and keep on top of the messes.
Painting in process while Kayla reads a book to some eager listeners!
Derek and other adults work on the mural while the kids take a lunch break. It's getting dark and the overhead light doesn't work. It's a race with the sun to get to a good stopping point.
older kids stand on chairs to paint the top of the mural
I ponder with a little girl, "what should I paint next?"


 
Regina from Columbia College hoists a kid so she can paint the prairie.

In process with the MLK community mural 2011

Here are a few notes about the process we undertook in creating the mural at the community center.

First, after talking to Luis at Chicago Hopes, we decided the mural should be about the Illinois prairie. Since we didn't have the option to work with the students to develop their own imagery, we chose the prairie because it has a geographical connection to the students and because animals are always well loved.

We began by getting books from the library about animals and flowers of the prairie, and Derek, Kayla and I drew contour line drawings of animals and plants based on the books. We could have traced but we went for free-hand drawing for originality and pizazz.



Next we used the wonderful copy machine to play with the scale of our original drawings and create the effect of abundance.


In looking at pictures of the space, there were two walls which seemed optimal to paint on, so we created one large and one smaller mural composition. We copied and pasted our drawings together into two basic but large compositions which were "drawn" to scale to the best of our knowledge.


 Next, I made a visit to our friend Kinkos and turned these compositions into transparencies. 
We borrowed overhead projectors from Columbia College 
proving once again that they aren't obsolete technology!

Here we are projecting the mural design onto one of the walls. Once the images were projected and in the right spot on the wall, the older kids and the Columbia College students traced over all the lines using a neutral color of paint and brushes. The young woman on the left in the bottom photo kept exclaiming OMG OMG! as the magic of transforming a tiny drawing into a large mural began to unfold.



Here are images which show what the walls looked like before we got started.
Before and afters are always nice! America loves makeovers and so do we.


Mural Project for MLK Day 2011

Myself and a few other students from the Masters in Art Education Program at Columbia College designed a mural for a community center. We worked closely with Chicago Hopes, a wonderful organization which provides programming and tutoring for CPS students who are homeless. The mural was painted in the library room at a community center on MLK day by both the kids at the center and Columbia College students.

We had about 10 kids who helped us throughout the day. The littlest ones painted all the things they could reach, and the older kids worked hard on the butterflies and other flora and fauna which resides near the ceiling.


I will post some pictures of the process and the final result. There are many ways to create a mural, but I like the process we chose when you're working with a group of artists from the get go.