Dreams, Culture and Music 'n the Hood

On Nov. 15th, Matt visited Paula at Little Village World Languages High School and observed her revisit a Close Read of Faith Ringgold's quilt Dancing at the Louvre (1991). Using worksheets they had completed earlier in the unit, the students reviewed each step of the Close Read. Paula made adaptations from various versions of the Close Read strategies presented in this project and generated these prompts for the students to work through. Paula spaced the prompts out on a two-sided sheet of paper with enough room in each section to allow the students to fully articulate their thoughts.

1. CREDIT LINE INFORMATION. Students copy the credit line information and review that this can be examined for contextual clues. 

2. DESCRIPTION, I SEE... Describe all that you see. Images. Lines. Textures. Color. The elements and principles of art. USE ADJECTIVES. BE DESCRIPTIVE AND DETAILED.

3. CONTEXT, WHAT ARE THE CONNECTIONS. What do you know about the artist or about history at the time the work was done, that helps you understand this artwork?

CITE 2 PIECES OF EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXT HANDOUT (included later in this post).

4. INFERENCE, IT LOOKS LIKE…Guess what the artist’s message is based on the clues you wrote about in the description and what you know about the artist or history at the time the artist worked. What’s going on? What is the mood or the message? Back up your guess with evidence. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS? WHAT HAVE YOU BASED YOUR OPINION ON? 

5. JUDGEMENT, IS IT SUCCESSFUL? Did the artist communicate what she wanted to you? Is she skillful? Do you like the artwork? WHY OR WHY NOT? WHY DO YOU THINK THIS? YOU MUST GIVE A REASON AND BACK UP YOUR THOUGHTS.

You can watch Paula lead this Close Read process at this YouTube link.

Here are the two pieces of text Paula provided the students to facilitate their contextualization of Faith Ringgold. It was great to see this part of the research process given over to the students and to see which sections of text they highlighted or underlined. 

This process of unpacking Faith Ringgold's work is the connected to sewing and quilt-making studio activities. The students came up with different themes they wanted to represent in their quilt, i.e. Dreams, Culture and Music 'n the Hood, and in small groups created individual squares to be sewn together for each theme. The end product will be a quilt close to 3' x 5' that will be displayed in a local cultural center.

Learning to Love You More Workshop

Last week when our Studio Thinking learning community met, we spent time opening ourselves up to imagination and possibilities by responding to several of the assignments from Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July's project "Learning to Love You More."

A couple of days before that, Valerie Xanos, Kate Thomas, and Matt Dealy led a couple of workshops around reading visual texts such as those found in LTLYM at the CTC Young Adult Literature Conference held in St. Charles, IL.

On Friday night, we led a discussion in which we introduced key concepts brought forward by the LTLYM project and facilitated a hands-on experience for teachers to respond to LTLYM prompts. These assignments included:

16. Make a paper replica of your bed.
33. Braid someone’s hair.

38. Act out someone else’s argument.

54. Draw the news.

70. Say goodbye.

Then on Saturday morning, we once again began our workshop with a discussion around the importance of practicing our ability to critically read visual images/texts. Valerie then led a rich presentation aided by this slideshow (click on the link below the Close Read image to see the entire Powerpoint).

Close Read: A Visual Disciplinary Literacy Technique

Close Read Experience

Hi, just wanted to share experiences with CR so far.

After I showed them the powerpoint on CR strategy (I taught the steps then we practiced it as a group), I had students practice on their own looking at an image I provided. I included some artist background with the image to help with the context step. Later I have students do their own research regarding the artist.

They looked at an Elizabeth Catlett image and used a form I made (both uploaded to blog).
I had them try this without any help. I was interested to see how they did on their own.
Results:
Students who are used to doing critical thinking in other classes did great (as expected). The IB students handled it like pros. They learned the strategy and were able to apply their usual critical thinking skills to analyze the artwork very well. I found their responses to be very enlightening. As soon as I get a chance, I will upload a few examples.

Then there were students who were interested, learned from me, but did not do this often in other classes or on own. They did "ok". They certainly attempted to think deeply and write about their analysis and understanding. I know with a bit of guidance they will easily reach a higher level of thinking. (I'll also upload a couple examples of these)

Lastly, are the students who struggled with the process. They did not read or really answer the prompts given. They wrote the most basic answer they thought I wanted without really thinking about it. Sometimes they didn't answer at all. Perhaps did not listen or understand when I taught the process by example. These students all told me that they have not had experience in other classes doing this type of work and were frustrated at the level of focus I was asking of them. I can see they will need the most help and guidance learning to think and respond critically. Most of them were freshmen and sophomores. (also provide some ex)

So, I now want to think about the best way to facilitate improvement. Obviously repetition. I'm thinking of arranging heterogenous groups, with a student leader (higher level), a couple of mid-level students, and a couple struggling. If they work together on a few CR, perhaps peer teaching will make a difference.

What do you all think?

Close Read

I used the Close Read format extensively last year. I really like it and enjoyed the Context aspect of it. Before that I had used a more traditional and complex critiquing format (similar to Art Talk).

I've decided to combine the two.

What I like:

• Close Read works great for beginning students. It is simplified and it helps them break down the critiquing structure into bits that are easy to do. Gives them the confidence to find "clues" and make inferences. I tell them it's like being a detective.
• Context step helps them make sure they do research on artist, background and make connections. Love it!
• Not too intimidating for 1st year art students in HS. They tend to freak out if we ask for formal analysis as they do not yet have enough experience using elements and principles to create. That comes with time, to have the vocabulary and experience making decisions.

What I don't like:

• The judgment is way too vague, only referring to whether one likes the piece or not. An artistic judgment should include thoughtful responses and analysis of artist's intentions and decisions. Especially to use CR for student work, they need to think about their strengths and weaknesses regarding those decisions in order to make improvements.
• I've added prompts to make a more thoughtful judgment.
• Missing a formal analytical step crucial to more advanced students. This step should address the formal qualities of an artwork, decisions artist made about composition, elements, principles, etc. 
• I would add a step for advanced students.

So, with a little tweaking, I am continuing with CR.  The cool thing is, it's ALL THE RAGE in CPS. Mentioned in connection to CCSS and CPS preferred way for us to do units. CPS Art programs are strongly encouraging us to use CR. So when I include it in my unit/lesson plans, it hits those points and makes evaluators happy. Will help with my own REACH evaluation. 

I made a powerpoint to teach beginning students about CR. Once they get the hang of it, we use this method all year long. I've shared it with Every Art Every Child on Google docs. I don't know how to put a powerpoint on this blog. But maybe EAEC can do that?  Matt? 

Let me know what you guys do for critiques. I'd love to see other methods. Always learning...

Valerie

CTC Studio Thinking PD at the Art Institute of Chicago

The following two videos are in follow-up to yesterday's post. They are a continuation of the conversation led by Georgina from the Art Institute of Chicago's Teacher Programs. Project teachers are looking at Untitled, 1989-present by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.