Field refection
Elementary Classroom
Following your elementary classroom observation, describe how art materials, visual forms, images, or activities were used in the classroom by answering the following three questions (200 words total):
1. What form of arts integration or interdisciplinary learning units have you observed? In what ways were the visual forms investigated, learned, discussed, or produced in the classroom?
My host teacher, Mrs. Savage, integrates art in almost every activity she does with her kindergarteners. Every morning during the students morning meeting, she posts a picture on her smart board and asks her students to think about the photo. The kids can brainstorm about what they think, wonder, and know about the picture. After she gives her students time to think about the photo, she tells them to find a partner. Once the students grab a partner, they share their thoughts with one another for about a minute or until the teacher calls time. It is amazing to see children so young chatting away about a single photo. After the children have shared their thoughts with each other, the teacher randomly selects a few students to share their thoughts with the entire group. The teacher never answers the students questions or tells them exactly what the picture is of, and often times she even says that she doesn't know the answer to their questions.
2. Was there a Big Idea or theme used? If so describe. Were students working with narrative, observation, imagination, and / or visual thinking?
Mrs. Savage also allows her students to draw pictures to go along with almost ever piece of writing. For example, the students are now creating their very own opinion books and on each page they must draw a picture. Furthermore, she often conducts theme activities in which the students create different pieces of artwork. For instance, the theme for this week is "Earth Week." This week the students created their own moons using glue to create the craters and watercolor paint to add color to their moons. During the St. Patrick's Day theme week, the students created a pot of gold and wrote about what they love more than money. Thus, Mrs. Savage taught good character traits, literacy, and integrated art in one activity.
3. What suggestions would you have for integration and interdisciplinary learning for this unit or lesson you observed? Try to think how you could make the learning more meaningful, connected, and deeper. Be specific.
To make the earth day lesson even more meaningful, I would integrate a writing portion to it. The students could create their moons as planned and then answer a prompt asking them why they think the moon has craters. We would also have a discussion about the color of the moon once the students have finished painting their pictures. I noticed that some students used interesting colors. As a class, we could discuss why some of those colors may have been used incorrectly.
Art Classroom
Following your art room observations describe (200 words total):
1. The content of the lesson: written and spoken objectives, and resources used
I observed a very interesting art lesson this semester and I doubt that any of my peers viewed a similar lesson. Mrs. Savages kindergarten class collaborated with a fifth grade class to complete a series of stepping stones for Grant Elementary School. The objective or purpose for creating the lesson was for the children to think about and display artistically what kind of school they think Grant is. This lesson seemed to be worked on for many class periods because the children had already thought about their designs and drawn them out.
2. The teacher: her / his teaching strategies and format / process of the lesson as presented
The teacher had each student sit down on the rug once they had all entered the classroom. The kindergartener teacher used pre-corrects with her students and reminded them of how they needed to behave. The fifth grade teacher told his students that they needed to be an example for the younger students. The art teacher then walked through each step of the project and even demonstrated what the students needed to do. She set out all the materials on the table and released the students to their groups. Each kindergartener had a fifth grade buddy that they worked with and each pair worked with two other pairs. There was cement on the table, a mold for the cement, and pieces of glass and marbles for designing the stepping stone. The group I was working with decided to use an assortment of different colored materials to demonstrate all of the diversity at Grant Elementary School.
3. Student engagement of the lesson: classroom atmosphere, environment, and classroom behavior management
The art trailer was filled to capacity with both the fifth graders and the kindergarteners in it at once. However, the overall behavior of the class was exceptional. I believe this was because the art teacher, fifth grade teacher, kindergarten teacher, and two pre-service teachers where all present in the art trailer during this activity. The art teacher reminded each student of their group members and assigned a teacher to work with each group. The students were extremely engaged in the activity.