TIGER ARTISTS LESSON PLAN/PRESENTATION REFLECTION Shalonda Farrow Tiger Team # 4 Title of Lesson: Don’t Judge A Book by its Cover Museum Exemplar: N/A Part 1 (before)

Present a brief description of lesson. In this lesson “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover,” we engaged students in a discourse pertaining to perspectives. The way in which we went about this lesson was by using common stories that our students were familiar with. For example, Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, and Jack in the Beanstalk. This lesson was intended to allow students to think about how stories could have different perspectives depending on who is telling the story. To develop perspective thinking, we first had students identify stereotypes of common characters throughout stories. Our focus book for this lesson was “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” by Jon Scieszka, and also VTSing various artworks. We had students discuss the choices that artists make in order to convey a certain perspective. In order to give students a sense of how the project will turn out, teachers present exemplar puppets acting out a skit from a well know story other than the ones that students would be assigned so that they could see what their art-making activity is for the day. After viewing exemplars students went to work. Students had a array of materials that they could work with ranging from felt to brads. Upon completion of the lesson, students communicated their learning and artworks by performing their own skits from the stories assigned to them. Furthermore, the lesson was enriched because the students could not use popular characters from the well-known stories, but had to create their own character within the story.

State instructional goal(s) of lesson in behavioral terms. Tell what you expected the students to know and be able to do at the end of the lesson?

Show Me Visual Standards Goal 2 and 4, National visual Arts Standards-Content Standards: Reflecting upon and *assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others, Achievement Standards- Describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses. With just a few of the standards and goals listed above, we expected the students to be able to successfully differentiate between characters in certain stories and their perspectives. We also expected the students to recognize the depth that perspective can have in terms of; motive, plasticity, empathy, stereotypes and characterization.

What did children already know related to your goal(s)? Students already knew a lot about perspective thinking. Most students had even heard and read our lesson’s focus book “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.” They instantly began talking about how the pigs were silly for building their houses out of easily destroyable materials. Then with the image that we were VTSing they bolted out various perspectives that could have been taken from the image. Therefore, in regards to reaching them was not far stretched because these 21st century kiddo’s cognitive skills were already very adequate.

What resources did you use and refer to in planning or during presentation?

The resources that we used and referred to in planning our presentation was the common core, Mo Standards and GLE”S requirements along with the outline that we were given from Kathy’s class. We utilized our classroom discussions, fieldwork, and readings for resources as well. For understanding how to assess our lesson we

reviewed …. Then there was the usage of the Internet for developing our exemplar puppets, video stories, and the many children books that we utilized. Part II (during)

What did students learn? Provide evidence of student learning. How would you assess them?

In line with what our objectives for this lesson students learnt how to: identify choices made by the artist/author which indicate the point of view they wish to portray, how to contemplate and discuss motive, or why an artist or author might choose to present a particular point of view, how background knowledge of a story can affect how we read a piece of artwork and interpret meaning, and how to identify with multiple interpretations of social constructs and perspectives. With this being said there were a few objectives that we wished could have been meet deeper. However away from just the objectives that we set out to teach I believe that this lesson reached a deeper level as well. I think that students also learnt from this lesson is the importance and value of how to understand that everyone has a different perspective and that having different perspectives is what helps us learn, comprehend, question things that we did not know are at first consider. The student’s engagement and conversations as they tackled developing original characters and those characters perspectives on the stories in which they were coming into was the evidence for me that the students learnt the lesson at hand. Above all their skits as well showed their knowledge! Therefore the student’s skits performances coupled with the creation of the character was more than enough assessment of their learning.

Did some students have difficulty participating in the activities? If so, what did you do to make it possible for them to participate?

For the most part students were able to create original characters with little assistance, but there were a few younger students that needed more scaffolding in the brainstorming session. Our team had prior knowledge of our student’s age, personality, rapport, likes and dislikes, which aided us in being prepared to lead direction when needed. With having this background knowledge I made it my goal for as soon as students arrived I wanted to have them thinking about villains vs. hero. In hopes that if they started dealing with this question early when it came time to come up with the perspective of their character they had all ready thought of its attitude. Still though when I saw a student struggling I would go over to them, get on their level, talk to them about what they were trying to do and engage myself in some purposeful self talk. This sometimes led to the student pausing me and say “Oh got it” or something like “hmm that could work or that’s and idea” all in which I just was a catalyst to what they had already been brainstorming.

Evaluate student questions/answers/participation o What ideas did the students share during the lesson? Students share tons of things! Like ideas about other stories that could have been used, ideas about what and why the perspectives played out the way they did, materials that they could and could have been used(that we didn’t have). Multiple characters for multiple stories. This list could continue forever they were creative genius. o Did students share ideas that stretched/challenged their classmates? Yes! Students where sharing and challenging one another for the betterment of the lesson. They even began to collaborate the characters. They engaged each other in conversations that pertained the perspective that the creation they were making should, might, and would take. Students pushed one another in all aspect such as design, assembly and

accessorizing. They help one another think about things such as how the creation might should and who they friends where, etc. o Did student questions display higher level thinking skills? I would say that the student’s questions displayed higher thinking levels skills. For instance we had students ask question about how the material would work with their character, could they more than one character, and they even upon completion of their character began to think about and converse about how they could use other stories and what character they could create. Students also asked question about the material that were being used and figured ways to alter them to get the effect that they wanted it to have. Students also asked many questions that just scaffold there learning. o How did you decide to use student ideas during the lesson? The way that we utilized student’s ideas during our lesson was by permitting the lesson to be about the student and their ideas, I feel that our group was really focused on ensuring that I our students knew that this lesson was about them and the meaning making that they would be engaged in. Students where encouraged to come up with multiple ideas and then make choices as to which idea they wanted to flush out. And if they had so many that they just love, to come to a way to combine them all. Students really appeared to enjoy the openness if the lesson and all in all this style seemed to flow for all involved. o Did you evaluate each student’s answer and work in a nonjudgmental manner? Yes I did evaluate each student ‘s they gave me answers and worked with all students in a nonjudgmental manner. I worked in such away that I wasn’t the one giving our students the answer but allowing them to find answer for themselves and even by utilizing their peers rather then simply giving them the answer. I would offer suggestion, model, or self-talk in situation I felt needed.

How did you manage/organize the whole-class into discussion, demonstration, studio, closing?

The environment was key to making sure the whole-class was well manage, organized, and able to participate in all the activities that where on the agenda for the day. Our group set up the classroom in a round table sort of a way in sets of roughly four. Then the students chose their own set and by chance they age ratio mapped out lovely. We started the activity involvement as soon as students arrived have great student to teacher ratio was even better! Students were able to get their ideas, want, and questions and needs meet in a matter of minutes; there was no long waiting. Students where directed where they needed to go and given the expectations of the studio space in which they were working. We the teachers gave exemplars of the task at hand and even gave students a demo of how to do one of the 3 puppet options given to them. The studio had designated work material and assembly station that allowed the student to move around and not be contained to one spot. Then for wrap up we had students exhibit and perform with their character. Before the performance we gave expectations of what and how we are suppose to act when someone else was talking and the skits went better than we expected. Overall the usage of time-management, consistency, transitions all coupled patience, determination, pre planning, thinking on your feet and lastly passion is what made our made manage/organize of whole-class into discussion, demonstration, studio, closing possible!

Part III (after) Was/were your instructional goal(s) appropriate? How did you meet the

needs of all of your students? I would have to say that our goals where very appropriate for the students that we worked with. With the diversity of ages we kept the instruction differentiated. We knew that we would have an age variation therefore we did not want our older kiddos getting boarded by a simple lesson while not wanting our younger kiddos frustrated because they could not understand the lesson. Granted the lesson still encompassed it share of challenges, but none that discourage our students, however ones that deepen, cultivated them. The openness of the lesson had students inspired by the possibilities that they were able to divulge in!

Were your directions clear? I would say that we had clear directions. Our directions had a directional plan, stated the task at hand with elicit instructions, was logical, were demonstrated, on topic and manageable.

What worked and why? All in all what worked for our group to me was the wiliness of all of us to come together. Things went exceptional well; my team was able to think on their feet, collaborate, listen, communicated, respect, trust and most if all support one each other. Because of the beautiful coming together of the teachers we where therefore able to create a rich environment that would allow for our lesson to go well as well. That being the case I would declare that the coordination of the atmosphere and expectations bestowed in the studio space, such as: Listen to the person talking, Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Responsible, (thank you CPS) and work hard. Lastly I think that each of us knowing that we where the future Chief Creative Officer (C.C.O.) that we need to be the Chief Example for Others (C.E.O).

What did not work and why? Explain any changes you would make with regard to:

o procedures you implemented o materials you used o questions you asked o room arrangement o activities you introduced

Did you model effective verbal and nonverbal communication? Part IV Reflection (1 page) It should be clear that much thought was put into these answers! Single spaced is acceptable.

• Did you make any “on-the-fly” decisions or changes during the lesson? If so, what were they? Why did these changes seem appropriate?

• What did you learn from teaching this lesson? What was unexpected or unanticipated?

• What new “Big Ideas” or epiphanies about teaching did you learn from this experience?

• What did you learn about yourself, your students, and the curriculum? The length of this assignment is flexible, but we expect that you should be able to address all questions in Part I-III in 3-4 pages. Be sure to edit your work. You may organize this discussion board reflection using a bulleted format EXCEPT for Part IV, where at least one page of rich and deep narrative reflection is expected.