CI 5155 Book Club

Hi everyone,

Thanks for typing this up! It's going to be good!

I will bring along some back up questions for the two chapters as well as for the activity in case the discussion starts to die....has this every happened in our class?!

Cassie, I believe I have plenty of tinker toys. I have five sets total, enought for 3-4 groups plus the setup outside the room. Will have that ready to go.

Questions: I will type up the follow up questions to the activity and have these ready to go for the groups. I can also facilitate the discussion if needed. I would say the activity could take up to about 30 minutes (3 min for intro, 10-12min for playing, 5 min for group discussions, 5-8 min for group discussion)

As for the conclusion, I think it's always nice to have some closing remarks to pull the presentation together. However, no readings come to mind this evening. I'm sure Brad will come up with a brillient closing or ending thought....:)

Till tomorrow,

Amie

Posted by apence at 7:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is what we came up with in class as far as how our presentation should start. Please feel free to add ideas so that we can figure out a good way to wrap up.

1. Ice Breaker- Tinker toy activity (Amy brings tinker toys; I will also bring a set so that we are sure to have enough.)
a. Round one- easy
b. Round two- difficult
2. Follow up questions- Continue with the questions while the class is still in their tinker groups. Each group should be given one question to discuss together first for a few minutes. Private group time will then fold into whole class discussion with each group reading their question and then opening up to the class for further discussion.
a. Questions we came up with so far:
i. What does this game have to do with the reading?
ii. What moments of crisis if any did you or your team go into during the activity?
iii. What were some strategies that you developed to help you be more successful?
3. Drawing activity (Edi has picture of face)- Now to go into something that is going to isolate the right side of the brain.

That is about as far as we got. I think that if we have three teams then this might be enough but we should maybe look closer at them and see if they are getting to the root of the subject matter. It might be nice to do a similar thing with more questions to follow the right brain activity. I also think it might be interesting if some of the questions between activity one and activity two might overlap, just a thought.

I don’t know how we want to wrap things up but I do think that it would be useful to have some perspective that is not necessarily an art teacher perspective but much more general. I’m not sure at the moment on how that would look so we will need to talk more about how we can do that.

Hope all of your papers are going well, see you Tuesday.

Posted by pupov001 at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are we still thinking of coordinating the tinker toy activity as a type of "ice breaker" for our instructional session? I believe my set would have plenty for our small class. It might be fun. Thanks for pulling together some options for the drawing activity!

See you all on the 14th.

Amie

Posted by apence at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting connection on the VTS (visual thinking strategies). This also reminds me of our discussions in an earlier art course about our currently developing visual culture. So much that we see today is visual. I think it’s important for students not only to learn to participate in the visual arts, but also use those skills & knowledge that they gain in the art room to help them “decode” and understand the visual world in which they live.

Many times, it’s challenging in my seventh grade art class to have students just work. They’re constantly asking questions “is this ok?” or “does this look right?”. We have a few documentation cameras at my school that I’ve taken a liking to. They’re a great camera that works like an overhead, but it projects what you’re doing up on screen.

I’ve found lately that by using this tool, I’m able demonstrate a specific skill and have all the individuals see clearly. This tool has greatly reduced the continuous questions and allows me to work with the students. They can see that I’m working and it helps them to keep on task. I’ve also found that I’ve had many more moments of complete silence, which signals that they’re able to get a better grasp on the concepts and are able make the switch to their right brain.

I’m looking forward to finishing the book. There have been many good insights and examples.

Posted by apence at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm with the rest of you. I am noticing so many things that relate to this topic as I go through my day in and outside of the classroom.

One thing that I have been paying more and more attention to is when that shift from right to left is being made in my class. I often feel that the art room is one of the few places in school where students are allowed to be more social and hopefully as a result can often bounce ideas off of each other and influence one another in their work. Still I am always reminding my students that if they can't work and talk at the same time then they need to make a choice to talk less and focus a little harder. So often when the room is getting too loud I will glance around at tables and notice that for the most part anyone who is talking is not using their hands what so ever. The more I read this book it has become clear to me that doing these things simultaneously isn't possible. Even switching back and forth constantly is prohibiting them from getting into a deeper right brain mode. On the flip side there are also moments when students are so engaged that you can hear a pin drop. When I stop them to clean up I will often hear them all complaining "already, we just got here". As a teacher I love moments like this because I know that they are engaged in a way that I often am when working on my own art. As an artist these are some of the most gratifying moments and it is fun to see student enter into that.

I have bunch of other areas where I have been seeing this connect but for now I will just add one more thought. The elementary art teachers and I are looking at a new teaching strategy called VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies). We are hoping to begin this with kindergarten and 1st grade next year. VTS is simply a way of looking at art and facilitating very open, no right or wrong, discussions about what we see. It is very much linked to visual literacy and helping kids to verbalize what they are looking at. VTS will hopefully not only strengthen the right side of their brain but form more connections between the right and the left instead of isolating the two. Reading this book has only been encouraging me to look deeper into VTS and I am excited to see how the two can support each other.

Posted by pupov001 at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I responded the same way you did when I read the sentence about grad school. While you are reflecting on these points from the art instructor point-of-view, I am looking at this book through the lens of an instructional designer. While it might seem strange at first, there is actually quite a bit of overlap! When I design tools for work, I have to start by identifying a goal, but then there is a creative process during the brain-storming phase that requires the ability to use both sides of the brain, first from the creative right lobe inventing ideas, then from the left lobe as I think critically about how it would be adopted, the type of experience students would have, or even how it fits within a specific pedagogical context. Additionally, I have to switch back and forth as I reflect on each of these points. When I imagine a students experience with the content, resource, or tool I am considering, I have to invent scenarios that again demand the creativity only the right lobe could lend.

As a small anecdote, I was removing the stitches in the hemmed sleeve of a sweater today. After I snipped the thread, I was alternating index fingers as I pulled each thread out, much the same way you would unlace a shoe. I immediately considered the test subjects of chapter three that had their Corpus Callosum bisected, and how much trouble they would have with that activity being that their hands were operating independently!

Posted by Bradford Hosack at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thanks for setting this up Brad. We're lucky to have you.

Posted by pupov001 at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks for setting this up Brad! I am not very good with technology. Hope you all have a great weekend--see you on Tuesday.

Posted by eisch049 at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The book we selected for our topic of discussion is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. You can view her work at http://drawright.com!

Posted by Bradford Hosack at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everyone -- welcome to our teams blog!

We can use this space to discuss our chapters and ideas as we work our way through the first half of our selected text. I am always available through email so feel free to contact me with questions regarding the blog, and how to post to it.

I am looking forward to our discussions!

-Brad

Posted by Bradford Hosack at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)