Author: powellka

3. What sorts of reading support can you build into your own classroom, and how/when will students be able to use these supports? Will you make a word wall? How can these kinds of spaces/resources be interactive?

There is not a lot of heavy reading in art class, and while I think this should remain at a minimum I think there is some opportunity to build in reading supports as well. Some text students may be asked to read might be about background information about an artist, their artist statement, their own research material, drawing prompts, power point presentations and so on. A few ways I have thought about incorporating more academic language building are as follows:

-Student handouts during power point presentations highlighting key words and definitions
-“Word of the day”-One word each class where students have to try to use it as many times as possible in their speech and visual journals
-Descriptive word lists as reference during critiques
-Sample critique statements with “fill in the blanks” distributed to each student so each has a chance to try a new phrase
-Play videos of artists talking about their work with subtitles on
-Artist statements with brick words bolded so they can be discussed and their meaning deconstructed
-Art projects centred around the meaning of one word, where students are required to read a variety of sources as inspiration for their artwork
-Daily visual journal prompts with academic language built in

Art class is a place where students are often enjoying the escape of the academic nature of other courses. I will be cautious when providing reading and writing assignments so encourage student creativity to be fuelled into their artwork. Art class can be a class where language learning can be incorporated in creative and fun ways. In well placed, small doses reading can enrich the creative experience and depth of art knowledge for students.

I have been thinking a lot about how we can ensure that both introverts and extroverts are able to demonstrate their knowledge in the classroom. I would identify myself as somewhere in the middle of this spectrum depending on the context I am in. According to the Myers-Briggs personality assessment I am an introvert, but people who know me might identify me as an extrovert. This is because, with practice I have forced myself to be able to communicate in front of many people. My sister is someone I would identify as more of a classic introvert. She recently started reading the book Quiet by Susan Cain. You can do a quiz on the website: http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/quiet-quiz-are-you-an-introvert/ to see if you are an introvert/extrovert according to her definitions.

One of the challenges I know I will face as a teacher is the ability to know what is being shared in group discussions and from whom. Small group or one on one discussions are a great way for introverts to have the chance to share in a less intimidating way. However, extroverts can sometimes tend to dominate these conversations unless the teacher specifically facilitates equal sharing. We have explored some of these techniques in our textbook and in other classes. I know for me, it would take practice to know how to manage these groupings effectively.

When it comes to having students share with the big group after a group discussion, I have found even in our teaching program that the extroverts will be “elected” or volunteer to speak for the group. The problem with this, is that only certain information about the discussion will then be shared based on the speaker’s bias and we still often do not hear the ideas of introverts. I would like to explore different ways in my own teaching of making sure everyone has a chance to share their ideas after a group discussion. Some ways I might try is having everyone right down one reflection from the group discussion, or making sure if there is a “recorder” that they know it’s their job to write down at least 1 thing each person said…and so on.

I would also like to share an article I found written on an interview with the Author Susan Cain about other ways to encourage engagement with introverts in the classroom. See the article here: http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/quiet-quiz-are-you-an-introvert/

Chapter 5 of Building Academic Language discusses the importance of questioning, group discussion and listening in education. This was a very practical chapter and would like to respond in a practical way. I have compiled a list of questions you can ask in art class:

Questions for art class

I also reflected on the suggestion that students should contribute questions just as often, if not more than the teacher. In the context of an art class, this could happen in a couple different ways. One way would be during a class critique of student artwork, students could write a question about at least a certain number of each other’s pieces. They could do this by placing a sticky note next to the artwork. That way class critiques can start with something to think about and everyone has a chance to contribute. The same thing can be done with the classmates offering reflections or reactions.

I have also participated in a “speed dating” style group strategy that worked really well in the art classroom. This technique was used to have students share their ideas for their art projects with each other and grown their ideas. This is called “idea generation”. It is meant to have the students critically think about their ideas, come up with new alternatives and develop their creativity.

I felt the guidelines suggested to help shape expectations during group discussions was very important. Especially when critiquing student work that may have many personal elements, students need to know how to have a productive and sensitive but also critical discussion. It is important to model these behaviours from the start and reinforce them by offering suggestions for productive language throughout classroom discussions.

There was a lot of emphasis in the article “A Focus on Vocabulary” on the importance of reading and being read to at an early age when learning a new language. This triggered reflections for me on the many ways my parents taught me language. From a young age mom wold take my sisters and I to the library on a weekly basis to take out as many and whatever books we wanted. My parents would then read to us every night before bed. I grew up with a love of reading and enthusiasm for learning. I am sure this can be largely attributed to these early routines in language learning. I feel very lucky that I had these positive experiences with language.

Lehrer et. al. mention a statistic based on socio economic status and language learning, “Hart and Risley (1995) found, for example, that 3year-olds in higher socioeconomic status (SES) families had vocabularies as much as five times larger than children in lower SES families” (p. 6). This statistic made me slightly uncomfortable in reading it. I think it is partly because I hope it does not perpetuate stereotypes of lower SES families as being illiterate or uneducated. Poverty should not always result in “word poverty”. I also think it made me reflect on the privileges I have had in my life. In regards to students who’s parents are ELLs as well, how can students improve their English outside of school without the aid of their parents or reinforcement of English at home? It is clear to me that it is not an easy task if the learner is older and does not have the advantage of rigorous language training and picture books that come with early childhood.

Through reading the article I was relieved to see a long list of concrete strategies that teachers can put into practice for their ELLs.
Some strategies that I see working for me include using synonyms, concept maps, dictionaries, word consciousness, and teaching about cognates. As a future art teacher I have never previously thought about making language learning an active focus in my classroom. Through these readings and class discussions I have realized how important it is. I also feel confident that I can work some of these strategies into my teaching without making too much of a sacrifice from other tasks. In the long run, I believe it will enrich classroom discussion and the life long success in learning for my students. I may even take them to the library…

The title of my post is a reference to the song in the television show Arthur. Here is the link to the song:
http://youtu.be/lg516PSgG5I

After reading the article “Disciplinary literacies across content areas: Supporting secondary reading through functional language analysis,” I was reflecting on how I could adopt the ideas and methods of functional language analysis in an art classroom. I am always looking for ways to connect my learning to practicalities in my own disciple. The reality is that there is not a lot of reading that happens in an art curriculum. Most of the focus is on the production of art. When I think about the challenges a secondary student might face in my classroom as an ELL, I can predict that it would be with expressing themselves verbally when critiquing art and understanding others in the same way. Another difficulty might come if I ask them to produce some written work in response to their art.

As I was reading the article I translated some of the recommendations into possibilities for developing language within the space of an art critique. Specifically, I will deconstruct table 1 on page 593. This table suggests the process of working through functional language analysis. It asks the reader to analyze the content, organization and style of the author. The same can be done for a work of art. A student can look at the experiential meaning of a piece through the who, what, where, when and why presented in the content. Secondly, the textual meaning can be deconstructed through the specific use of design principles in the composition. Thirdly, the impersonal meaning can be explored though the style choices and cohesive mood expressed by the piece.

A piece of art can be read in a similar way to a piece of writing. As an art teacher it will be my goal to build the academic language of my students through the use of a format like this in a critique, and the gradual introduction of brick and mortar words that the students can use to express themselves both verbally and textually.

My first impression after doing the readings was that I am so glad we are required to learn about how to better teach English language learners. Many of the concerns and ideas brought up are things I haven’t thought about before, but are very important to consider as a future educator. Something that stuck out for me to reflect on in chapter 1 was the idea that we all come from varied backgrounds with many influences on our development of academic language. I know I sometimes I take for granted all the privileges I have had in my life which had allowed me to develop strong English language skills. Some other points in the textbook also called on me to reflect on these same influences for how they might affect my relationships with students in how I grade them, teach them and so on. Starting to be aware of these influence more closely should surely lead to less bias in my teaching. Chapter 2 offered some problems in the way that we teach academic language to students and how difficult it can be to develop academic language skills in students. Chapter 3 offers some solutions to these problems. The sample dialogue was helpful in understanding how to model some of the example solutions. My group is presenting on these chapters on Wednesday so I hope we will be able to delve deeper into these ideas then.