Franklin Middle School, Melodee Strong, 6-8th grade, 5 hrs
On Wednesday, I returned to Franklin for the second week of my placement. I assisted Ms. Strong as she introduced some projects to students, including still lives and watercolor. Something that Ms. Strong said was impactful to me: she mentioned that the number one complaint she hears when teaching drawing is “I can’t draw” (I myself have said that). Since I have been visiting Ms. Strong’s room, I have noticed how comfortable I feel helping students with perspective and other drawing techniques. My own drawing skills have advanced farther than I could have thought since I started my undergraduate degree. And now, I am finding myself wanting to incorporate more drawing into my sketchbook. Eighth graders started their still lives on Wednesday and I am looking forward to seeing their progress when I come back after spring break.
For sixth grade, I helped cut down sheets of watercolor paper (much more a substitute for the paper, which worked surprisingly well), and watched as Ms. Strong introduced a new watercolor exercise. First, she showed a taste visualization video from the film Ratatouille and explained to students how different emotions or feelings have different colors, lines, etc. that can be associated with them. She played three types of music throughout the class period; Opera, Jazz (“Green Hays” by Miles Davis), and Samba. The songs had no lyrics (or in opera, was in Italian) to prevent students from including words or having language take influence over instruments and score.
Seventh grade worked on finishing their Picasso watercolor coloring sheets, and their palette was meant to be complementary or analogous colors. Many students restarted in class (they had a sub when they first worked on these) and I appreciated Ms. Strong’s approach to having them understand these traditional color schemes. When a student was confused/didn’t understand the color aspect, Ms. Strong asked them to pick a color on the color wheel and waited for a response. After the student said “red” for example, she would ask them what color was the opposite of red, and explain that those two colors were complementary. This method was more informative and helpful than asking a student was “complementary colors are,” which I believe I have been asked before, or have overheard. This method involved the student in finding the answer and helped them to understand how to find not only the complementary color to red but to the other colors on the wheel.