I teach in the Liberty School District, which is just north of Kansas City. It is my sixth year teaching Art and my fifth consecutive year at the elementary level. My 4th grade students are the first group that I will have taught since their Kindergarten year. I have learned so much from them and watched them grow both as artists and individuals. For this reason, I am choosing one of my 4th grade sections as the focus of my Visual Thinking Strategies experience.
The class I am choosing is made up of 23 students; 13 girls, 10 boys. Student's ages range from 9 to 10 years old. They are an eclectic bunch, which is another reason I chose them as my focus group.
Three students are in a program called PEAK (Personalized Enrichment for the Advancement of Knowledge), which requires them to be absent from my room about every other week, as they travel to another school for their program. These students and I are constantly playing catch-up to get projects completed. They tend to be very gifted at remembering and regurgitating information, but struggle a bit with craftsmanship. This could be because of the time constraint.
Two students in this class have high-functioning autism. Often I sit near both students during lessons so that I can assist them with details that require fine motor skills. Their peers are extraordinarily kind and want to help them whenever and however they can, which is a great asset to me, as it is sometimes challenging to spread my time equally throughout the rest of the class.
Two students are in the SDC classroom at our school and come to my classroom only sporadically. Their lessons are modified to meet their needs, as well as their time allotment. I am always looking for new and interesting ideas for their specialized lessons that tie into the lessons their peers are focused on, which has been one of my biggest challenges since I started teaching.
Because I have been teaching the majority of these students since their Kindergarten year, I believe they have had in-depth experience with discussing art along with their art making. In the 50 minutes I see them per week, I try not to spend too much time talking, but I do like to include a 10 to 15 minute carpet time at the beginning of each class. This gives me an opportunity to teach students about various artists and art movements, and define the elements and principles we are working with. It also gives the students a chance to ask questions and make their own observations about the art.
I believe this class will be the perfect "guinea pigs" for my VTS focus group because of their diversity and positive attitudes. I look forward to introducing them to new and different ways of visual thinking!
