Residency-- Barton Open School-- 3 Hours
Most of the day was spent reading and discussing the short story by Leo Tolstoy, How Much Land Does A Man Need? The lesson was opened by having the students share their opinions on that question within small groups. I was sitting with a group and listened to the students' opinions. Occasionally, I tried to expand the conversation by asking them questions about what they were saying in order to get them to further elaborate. However, they sometimes would respond by saying "I don't know" or otherwise trying to back out of their idea. If this happens again in the future, I will try to revert them back to their thought process by taking part of what they were saying and using it in an encouraging way. After having this discussion in small groups, we joined back together as a class and students told the entire class their opinion, while the teacher helped them elaborate. Then, the story was read. I think having a discussion around the theme of the story is helpful in students engaging with it. First, they established their opinions. Then, perhaps through the story, their opinions will change or evolve, but establishing their opinion first will make the shift in perception more apparent.
The teacher, who had talked with the school's art teacher, offered to let me sit in on an art class that day, which I accepted. The students there were practicing observational drawing by drawing small mannequins. I specifically helped one student because his dominant hand was broken and had to draw with his nondominant hand. He seemed to get frustrated easily because he used his eraser a lot. I told him not to get too frustrated with how it looked on account that he was using his nondominant hand, which is difficult. I also suggested we tape the paper down to the table so it wouldn't slide around so much, which seemed to help. However, I still had challenges trying to teach him. He tended to try to draw large parts of the mannequin all at once, instead of breaking them down into smaller parts and drawing those individually, which resulted in it looking inaccurate. This is a common mistake in novel artists. I tried to explain to him the process of visually breaking down a piece, and regurgitated the art cliche, "Draw what you see, not what you know." But, he was unresponsive to this. So, I tried a new approach where I asked him to explain to me what he was seeing. At first, he didn't seem to know what I meant, so I rephrased my questions to help him understand better. He then seemed to grasp it and was describing the breakdowns and shapes of the mannequins quite well. Once I felt like he understood what he was seeing, told him to start drawing again. However, he still continued to draw like he had been in the beginning. Later, the teacher came over and talked to him about the same concepts I had talked with him about, but he was not responsive to her, either. If anything, this exchange helped me practice different ways I can phrase certain ideas to reach different people.
Shadowing-- Urban Arts Academy-- 3 Hours
The warm-up activity went like this: two people went back-to-back. One person had an image in their hand and had to verbally describe the image to the other person, who could not see it. The other person was to draw what was being described. The goal was to get the drawing to look as close to the original image as possible. I've done this exercise before in a writing class and think it's a good exercise in communication. Not only do you have to describe something in words, but you have to do it in a way that someone else can understand.
The same hip-hop teacher from last week was here again this week. After doing stretches, he taught by demonstrating first and having the students imitate him. This week the dance moves seemed slightly more advanced than last week, which makes sense because that's how one grows as a learner and maintains interest in the subject. Something really important the instructor did was talk about safety. He showed the students how to do a maneuver slowly enough that they could see, and talked about common mistakes within it that can be harmful. It's good that he kept their safety in mind and reminded them to be smart about what they're doing and not to get too caught up in trying to learn immediately or looking flashy.