VTS Week 10

This VTS was from 10/18/2012. It was part of the BWC lesson of Mytical creatures and was of the abominable snowman.

·         Student  Engagement Learning:

o   Describe student willingness to participate in the discussion. Are you witnessing change?

The discussion seems to be really similar actually. The boys did want to try and point things out themselves a bit more this time then previous times. Its hard to tell but I think they are more descriptive when describing this piece then last time. This could be because of the subject material more than anything. This image also brought in the boys using outside material into the discussion to assert their claims (TV, movies, etc).

o   What did students notice about the featured artwork?

They noticed the Yeti, the people in the background, as well as the crack primarily.  Descriptions about who was going to get who and what was what was primarily all they discussed.

o   Are you seeing more careful observation and deeper noticing?

 With this image they did, but it could have been due to less subject material actually in the image.  However they did describe everything in detail very well and used those descriptions to back up their statements.

o   Are students expressing their observations conditionally as they gain experience looking at art?  (i.e. “It could be…” “It might be…” “It’s possible…”  “I wonder if maybe…”

Some of their statements are conditional.  When comparing this weeks video to the previous one I notice the boys arn't completely sure what they are viewing. I think with these boys if there is a bit of ambiguity in an image they much more likely to use conditional language.

o   Are students demonstrating more flexible thinking? (i.e. “At first I thought, but now I think…”  “It might be…, but it could also be….”)

More so after their class mates say something of a differing opinion. Sometimes they will "talk out" what they see but they don't really revise on the spot it seems. This image did draw several different opinions on what the "beast" was and where it came from and multiple boys did use others arguments to modify their own. 

o   Describe student interactions during the discussion.  Are they linking their own responses? Are they respectful and democratic as they construct meaning?

They are "pinging" a lot more and I think the ambiguity helped cause that a bit for the discussion.  The boys are respectful and democratic as ever even though we had a lot more disagreement. We did have a little burst of laughter after one of the boys said "goat man" but even he laughed while he was saying it. I didn't take any of the laughter to be disrespectful to what he said.

o   Were you able to vary the questions from time to time without altering the meaning?  

I didn't really altar them in this discussion a whole lot really. Part of it was since I was trying to remain as neutral as possible and the image was a hard one for me to VTS (not so for the boys) I didn't want to break neutrality. 

o   What do you think students learned from this discussion?

I think they learned that there is a lot of differing opinions just like I did. No one seemed to totally agree on anything anyone else said. Yet they remained respectful. This makes me think that also they weren't entirely sure of their own answers either to an extent.

o   What did you observe that makes you say that?

Just the sheer amount of answers as well as a couple of revisions that happened throughout. 

·         Reflective Practice:

o   How did the VTS discussion feel and what did you learn by facilitating the 4^th lesson with your students?

This lesson felt alot better with the opening statement. However this image was hard for me to VTS only because I was a bit bored with it myself just because of the "lack" of stuff in it. I had also looked at it really closely when I helped with the Group C boys earlier that day. I probably shouldn't have looked so hard at the image earlier in the day but I'm not sure if that would have helped. The boys answers did help keep it interesting though.

o   Are the questions and prescribed teacher behaviors becoming more natural and comfortable? 

Yes they really are. Standing in front of them helps with that. Doing in front of my fellow peers is nice, but it just doesn't "feel" the same. 

o   Have you tried to reword the questions without changing their intent/meaning?  Did the change impact the discussion in any way?

Not really part of it I am still doing for continuity but also because I just really don't want to break neutrality. I think with more experience as time goes on I will deviate the questions some.

o   Were there any surprises?  Will these impact your practice moving forward?

Just the sheer amount of answers. Honestly I thought I had figured everything out in the first 30 seconds. However they kept the conversation rolling for a full 12 minuets! It just shows that even if I'm not fully into an image that doesn't mean they can't be.

·         Planning:

o   What do you want to work on as you plan for future VTS lessons? How do you think you can accomplish that?

Neutrality wasn't the easiest thing during this lesson. There were several time I wanted to say Yeti but I didn't. I assume thats just patience and with time I feel that will get better and better, hopefully not worse!