This lesson plan reflects the ways I utilize classroom technology to engage students in writing activities.

I taught this lesson October 3, 2016 in McKay 0016. This was the first class following the Assignment #3 due date. I wanted to start generating ideas on how to approach Assignment #4 before introducing it and thought discussing visual art as a class would begin that conversation. The questions we used to discuss this art in class are drawn from the upcoming assignment prewriting worksheets. Students collectively developed ideas about how to describe, analyze and interpret art. They were able to conclude the effectiveness of an art piece and discuss the ways that the artist conveyed his message. Students seemed really engaged with this lesson. For the most part, students were eager to participate and offer their ideas about the art. In the future, I might include art from various artists rather than just one artist, this way I could engage students with different tastes. I also think it might be effective to bring in music clips to practice analyzing multiple modes of art. I asked the students in the beginning of class what kinds of things constitute art- they responded with a variety of things such as music, movies, paintings, video games and performance art. Perhaps including examples of some of these other art forms would make the lesson more interesting in the future. This lesson demonstrates my eagerness to engage students through relevant and interesting subject matter in order to develop the skills necessary to approach their Assignment #4.

 

 

This lesson was fruitful in engaging students with description and analysis of visual art. I had ended the previous class with an “exit ticket”. I often end a class by asking students a question. When they pass in their response, I use that exit ticket to take attendance. The exit ticket also serves as an opportunity for me to poll the class. I asked each student to write down the name of their favorite artist. Although asking students to write down their favorite visual artist, such as a sculptor, painter, or photographer might have been more useful, I did not specify. In the future, I would specify, in order to engage with visual art that appeals to my students. However, I had not thought that through and so I had many students write down musical artists. The responses still helped in beginning the next class where I projected slide 2 featuring  many of my students’ favorite artists. We began class with a group discussion about what artists’ do- what their work is aimed to do- and we discussed the importance of expression as a means of communicating emotion.

 

The discussion about artists’ purpose then supported and developed the question on slide 3: What interests you about art? We shared ideas about what art does for the audience. Students talked about how art is meant to tell a message, convey a particular feeling, or show a representation of an important moment. With all of these ideas at the forefront of our mind, I asked students to take out a sheet of paper (or laptops if they prefer type) to start writing their ideas about the visuals we would look at.

 

For this activity, students were shown a visual and given 6 minutes to jot down responses to the questions, giving students 2 minutes to generate ideas per question. Then we regrouped and shared our thoughts as a large group.

 

Slides 4 and 5 show an image of Einstein sitting, holding the neck of a bottle of Jameson that is half covered by a brown paper bag, with his hand on his head. In front of his head there is text that reads “Just Google it!” with the word “Google” written to match the colorful logo we are all familiar with. I asked students to describe the visual based on factual information as they would be doing in their upcoming Assignment #4. They offered descriptive language and talked about the visual as I have described it above.

 

Next, I asked students to take those descriptions into consideration as they tried to interpret the piece. Students were excited to suggest meanings behind this artwork. Some thought that it represented Einstein’s resolution to technology. They saw his hand on his head as a sign of stress and disapproval, the writing to be mocking the unintelligible suggestion to rely on the internet search engine for knowledge, and the bottle in his hand as an exit to the current state of society. Other students suggested that this represented Einstein, a brilliant man, fed up with research and studying. These interpretations suggested that the text “Just Google it!” was Einstein’s own words, throwing in the towel, and hitting the bottle because he was done being smart. The different interpretations sparked even more ideas about what the art meant.

 

Lastly, I asked students to evaluate the art. They made connections between the visual elements of the art and the message being conveyed, then critiqued whether the message was communicated clearly. They considered their emotional reactions and shared ideas about how successful Banksy was in his approach to representing a cultural idea in a controversial way that would make the audience notice and think. The students were engaged and eager to participate in sharing their ideas. They challenged one another to think about the artwork differently and actively accomplished the tasks of Assignment #4 right before my eyes.

 

After we looked at a few examples of Banksy’s visual art, I moved on to give students a brief introduction of Assignment #4. I explained the key elements of the assignment in relation to the activity we had just completed.

 

Finally, I concluded with a slide that listed the homework for next time. When I introduced the homework, I again noted the connections between the in-class activity and the video they would watch before next meeting. I expressed that the reading would offer some guidance regarding the ways we write about a visual. Then I told them to be sure to narrow their topic for Assignment #4 and choose their building or artwork so that we could begin preliminary research during our next meeting, which was located in a lab classroom.

 

This activity demonstrates my ability to find interesting examples that engage students while orienting them to the academic work they will complete. This lesson offered a lot of opportunity for classroom participation and it allowed me a chance to hear from many students. It also made for a great discussion that each student could learn from. It demonstrated the ways that we vary in approaching visual analysis and interpretation.

 

Overall, this lesson proved to be successful. In the future, I would improve it by specifically collecting student suggestions for interesting visual artists. Then I would incorporate 3 different artists’ work as examples rather than many works by one artist so that students do not fall into patterns with their responses.