DRAFT

ENTRY 2 Instructional Context:

AJSpencer-Wise

This entry highlights my high school 3-D Design class. This class meets every other day for a 90-minute block. This 3-D Design class has 23 students, ages 15 to 18 in grades 10 - 12. There are 15 boys and 8 girls. 19 are White, 1 African-American, 2 Asian-Americans, 1 Native American, 1 Hispanic. Also in this classroom, being taught at the same time, I have an advanced Sculpture 2 class with 6 students, ages 17 and 18 in grades 11 and 12, 2 boys and 4 girls, 5 white, 1 Asian. Overall, students are White, upper middle class with 4 students on fee waivers. 1 student is an English learner, bridging, level 5 with Arabic as the home language. World-class Instructional Design and Assessment, or WIDA, standards classify student English language ability ranging from 1/ entering to 5/ bridging. Bridging means little assistance in English. 4 are students on IEPs (Individual Education Plan) that indicate they need extended test and project time, reduced distractions, seating at the front of the classroom, and reading test instructions aloud. I set the room up with desks on each side of the room, allowing for a center aisle with two fronts of the room. I place students who need it along the center aisle and I place a tutor/ partner right behind them to help them focus. I seat students to mix experienced students with beginners so they may help each other and apply their experience to each project while allowing all students to continue learning. I have students for whom this is their first art class and others for whom it is their second or third art class. To better understand student art knowledge I give all students a pretest on the elements and principles of art. I pair students with an art background with those without to balance group work and allow for peer tutoring. Medically, 2 students have type 2 diabetes, 3 have various food allergies and 4 have asthma and 1 has syncope: risk of passing out in class. I am hypoglycemic, so I can better relate with students who have a sugar crash or need a break during a lesson. I keep treats; honey sticks,

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

juice and snacks in the classroom for those needs so students can stay focused on lessons. State core standards for both art and Spanish classes with motivational quotes throughout the room help students focus on content. I teach Art and Spanish on alternating days in the same room. My classroom is a converted storage room, so space is very limited, especially when considering storage space and studio production space. During large projects groups of students go into the hallway to find workspace. There are shelves and storage drawers in the classroom, but my main storage room is south of the classroom; a converted locker room where I store large projects and most classroom supplies, such as cardboard and Mache materials. I have a white board, traditional chalkboard, laptop computer, projector and apple TV along with an iPad. I do not have a projector screen or class audio system, so I improvise with a whiteboard with a projector and small speakers placed on a cart to project lessons during the class. Due to the need of using a projector cart and to facilitate the number of students who need to be placed in the front of the room, I have the class physically divided into two sides with a center aisle, allowing two fronts of the classroom. This also allows me greater student interaction with students in a small room, allowing me access with the back of the room. The biggest challenge is being able to move freely around the room since space is limited. Students are incredibly flexible and kind as they deal with the small space and having to squeeze by each other on a daily basis. Safety is always a top concern with students working in close quarters. At the beginning of the semester I trained students to safely move around the room, especially when using tools such as x-acto knives and wire. As we move around the room to get tools, students often relay items to the front of the class to reduce problems with moving between seats with no aisles. During production time students frequently go to the hallway to have sufficient workspace, especially on group projects.

DRAFT ENTRY 2 Planning and Teaching Analysis

AJSpencer-Wise

My instructional goal for this lesson is to introduce students to basic leatherwork and basic chainmaille through making their own useable belt. As with all my lessons, students documented their creative problem solving and higher level thinking, learning to design, critique and discuss art, set goals and reflect on their learning through journaling. Students documented their work in a field journal model taken from Leonardo da Vinci including drawings and written reflections/ instructions and daily goals, peer evaluations and discussions, leading to a final field report where students wrote self-reflections to document personal learning. My class goals and curriculum are taken from a combination of state core, school wide initiatives such as reading, writing and ACT vocabulary across the curriculum and school art department collaboration using the elements and principles of art and art criticism discussion. The state core states: 3-D Design class provides an overview and introduction to fine crafts, their media, and the cultures they represent. With an emphasis on studio production, this course is designed to develop higher-level thinking, art-related technology skill, art criticism, art history, and aesthetics with a focus on creating and perceiving meaning in works of art through four art standards: making, perceiving, expressing and contextualizing works of art. I chose journaling to help build student portfolios and to allow for daily formative assessments in all assignments. Students document peer and teacher critiques to focus their own goal setting. As a department all art classes emphasize common vocabulary, the elements and principles of art, and art criticism: describe, analyze, interpret and judge. Students practice these skills in daily starters to discuss artwork of world artists and use the same model to discuss the artwork of classmates and themselves during critiques and final reports. All students learn to document learning in daily field journals, including notes and drawn pictures, daily updates for

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

goal making and adjustments to goals, and student self-reflections. Students use notes to write a final field report about their project and are evaluated on their ability to describe their learning in writing. This is part of a school-wide initiative with reading and writing across the curriculum. My instructional sequence focuses on a leatherwork and chainmaille project where students learned to measure, cut, stamp and/or tool, dye and seal leather to create the front of a functional belt with their own artwork tooled into the leather. The second part of the lesson required students to learn to make chainmaille using the European four-in-one pattern (every one link connected to four other links) to construct the back of the belt. To finish the project all students learn how to join the leather and maille and to complete a specific fitting and adjustment so they can actually wear their project home. The 3-D curriculum requires a cultural connection for historic instruction. Both of these crafts date back over two thousand years and were used in many cultures all around the world, including ancient Greece, Japan and Rome. This goal is important and appropriate for my students because it directly addresses the state, district and art department core curriculum and builds student ability to both make and discuss art using common vocabulary, concepts and art criticism models. It is age, skill level and disability appropriate incorporating an apprenticeship, peer teaching, model. Students increase their reading, writing and drawing skills while gaining the apprenticeship rank in two traditional craft skills, leather and maille. Students work together and teach each other working as partners and small groups in a cooperative learning environment. As a master leatherworker and master maille worker, I supervise work and conduct final inspections to grant promotions in skill rating. I wanted students to have something real and useable when they left class. This project will allow them to make something both functional and artistic. In this lesson I share my expertise and passion in medieval history and recreation to instill in students the joy of working

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

with leather and maille. This ties to our jewelry classes by teaching students a basic weave that can be used to make maille jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings and similar items of student interest. I share my experience and skills from my hobbies and I help recruit for our jewelry classes and the art department as a whole, hopefully increasing future enrollment in art classes. I also recruit for our schools Medieval Club, of which I am the faculty advisor. I ensure fairness, equity and access for all students by varying my instruction style and access to resources. I used individualized instruction, partnered work and small group, allow appropriate cell phone use in class, and I have computers with internet access. In section two of the video you can see students working on the computers, researching on cell phones, using design books in hard copy and even drawing freehand. I discuss designs with every student after they research, write and drawn design ideas in their journals. Students decide on a final design, trace the pattern onto the leather and begin basic tooling or stamping work. For anyone in need of ideas, I refer them to the books or computers to find a design, often with a partner. To facilitate a relaxed and welcoming class atmosphere, I get to know students through surveys about student background, art experience, favorite past times and hobbies and desire to learn in this class and icebreaker activities. I show students a PowerPoint about myself, my interests, art abilities, teaching experience to help set the tone in a relaxing, inclusive class atmosphere. I review IEPs, 504s, discuss students with other teachers and counselors to get background information. As seen in all video segments, the What is Art survey is posted on the bulleting board during the lesson. I use surveys the first few weeks of class along with my seating chart and student photos to help me learn student names and to ensure that I call on each student for individual feedback every class period. Once I have this mastered I post surveys on the bulleting board for all to see. I further specialize my instruction to include student

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

background or to further fill in holes/ gaps in their art education. I use pretest results to help meet students academically and I use student prior art experience to help make a seating chart. When I find skills or related family experience I invite students or family members to join us in class as a visiting artist to share their perspectives and expertise on the lesson. My knowledge of these students as early adolescence through young adult art learners and as individuals allows me to tie their life experiences and interests into the lesson while making it interesting, unique, and fun. Students build their confidence, self-image, feeling of belonging and camaraderie. I have some Boy and Girl scouts in the class who need merit badges. This project qualified them for the leatherworking badge. I am a scout merit badge counselor so I can verify their work. I ask students to make personal connections to the project and realize how much leather they use every day in our culture. We live in a community that has a lot of horses, so many students easily relate to using this skill. Furthermore during small group discussions, students acknowledged owning and using leather in their daily lives. I foster an equitable learning environment that allows students to actively create and respond to visual arts in a healthy environment by building on individualized instruction. I combine the fact that we all use leather products and the cool factor, as students put it, of learning to make real maille. As evidenced in the second part of the video, (:30 to 2:00), every student receives multiple levels of feedback on their work to help design, redesign and implement their artwork. While I conduct individual critiques, students work with each other. They trade journals in peer critique to give/ receive feedback before stamping or tooling. Students may move freely around the room and work with partners. As needed I conduct tutoring by myself or direct a peer student to tutor. I show students my own work in leather and later in maille to serve as the reference artist and to encourage students to be creative.

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

My classroom maintains a safe and healthy learning environment both physically and mentally as students monitor safe use of facilities and tools. Throughout segment two of the video you can see students moving around the classroom using various reference materials and beginning individual work. During the Prezi in part three of the video you can hear the video instructor discuss safe use of the wire and cutting tools. The classroom is clean and organized for ease of student use and safe manipulation of tools. I am certified in first aid, CPR. As students learn to use cutting tools I treat minor cuts without having students leave the room in most cases. I fostered a positive learning environment by helping students learn about making art and involving them in the assessment process as much as possible through use of student journaling, daily progress and goal checks. Students practice writing techniques and art criticism by starting every class with a work of art for student analysis and discussion. Each small group works as a team to share thoughts and descriptions of the days artwork. Students learn to apply this model to their own work during critiques and goal revisions. I maintain individual contact with every student and make a point to discuss progress with students on a daily basis. Once a week I conduct an in depth one-on-one session with each student to monitor their progress and review goals with them. During every class students self evaluate and set their daily goal, work and reflect daily progress. Students confer with peers daily to review goals and progress to offer informal critiques of work. At the end of every lesson students write their own field report to discuss the creative process, self-evaluate using the art criticism model and make a recommendation for their grade on each project using a class rubric. I use my knowledge of art content in this lesson series by being the artist of study and relating class studies to the formal vocabulary of art elements and principles. I am a master leather worker and a master maille worker. I show students my own work and described how I

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

made it, referencing art history and modern uses for both skills during the lesson. To introduce the leatherwork series I guide students through group research on historic ways to make leather with various tanning processes. I direct each group to discuss how they use leather items on a daily basis from shoes and purses to wallets, jackets and more. They present work to each other from their research before I issued them leather to pattern and cut. I made a beginning leatherwork Prezi to help walk students through the lesson; processes, design and sequence. During the third video, I created a Prezi presentation to summarize the history and technique of maille work including embedded videos, diagrams, photos and step by step analysis. During the presentation I summarized and built on that knowledge telling students how I made my full suit of maille and belts. I guide and tutor students through the process using the apprenticeship model: once I train a student or a small group of students about how to accomplish a job, it is that groups responsibility to train the next group and so on until all students were trained on the process, start to finish. I demonstrated how to safely complete good quality work at each station: rolling, cutting, closing and quality checking the links. I referred students to one another for instruction and I supervised instruction to verify the skill. I use many instructional resources during this lesson to provide students with many ways to learn the information. I use Prezi presentations to include the resources into one presentation: informational text, step-by-step process, reference photos, video tutorials and prompts for student discussion and classwork. In addition to the presentation I have many manuals on leatherwork available for students to read and use in class. This allows students to review information at their own pace and to review concepts individually or in small group. All students use journals to document ideas, copy designs from manuals or internet research and document progress. This allows students to internalize processes and demonstrates learning by helping them to think

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

through and plan projects. Journal documentation helps me to identify students who have not gained mastery of concepts and prompts me to reteach or match a student with a peer tutor. Student interactions resulted in acquisition and/ or reinforcement throughout the lesson. Material presented during Prezi presentations resulted in students taking notes and brainstorming ideas in their journals, as evidenced in the second video (25 to 45 second mark). Students used Cornell Notes to record ideas, summarized and reflected on notes at the end of class because I found this style of note taking very efficient. I used this in all of my classes due its success in increasing student retention of information and test scores. This process is seen in section three of the video (1:30 to 1:50 mark.) I paced my presentation based on monitoring student progress and note details, pausing, expanding or restating information as needed. During part two of the video I circulated the class and offered one-on-one instruction and reviewed student notes and design ideas. On a daily basis, students made individual goals held peer critiques and revised goals for the next class, as evidenced in their own journals. I facilitated discussions about student knowledge of technique and quality to reinforce student learning and skill advancement in making leather and maille. This took form in individual spot checks, student-teacher discussions and observations in technique, peer discussions and finally via student self-evaluation in both the daily field journal and the final field report. As students learned more about the techniques they changed to adjust the process during performance of the task and documented this change in journals. Students showed their own artwork and field journals for discussion as all members shared perspectives and observations. Each student recorded ideas and criticism in the journal to reflect on possible changes in goals and process. Journaling helps students to revise designs and process ideas while serving as a catalyst for student motivation and reflection.

DRAFT ENTRY 2 Reflection

AJSpencer-Wise

All goals for this lesson were met as students made their own tooled leather belt, including riveting the buckle onto the belt and punching holes to fit the belt and made a five or seven wide pattern of 4-in-1 European maille to make the back of the belt. Students documented their daily progress using a da Vinci field journal. Students wrote a final two-page field report analyzing their own learning while using the art criticism model discussing their own use of the elements and principles of art. Students filled out a self-evaluation using the class rubric. The evidence is in student evaluations, daily journals and the final field report, all of which each student turned in at the summation of the lesson. Students wrote about challenges faced while making the belt, described how they solved each problem, peer taught and demonstrated competency during class sessions at each stage of the process: cutting and tooling, painting and sealing the leather; rolling, cutting, closing, weaving and inspecting quality during the maille lessons. I personally checked each students project to inspect for quality and specific fitting issues. Every student wore their own belt out of class the last day. I could tell from student smiles and congratulations to each other they were proud of their work. This lesson will influence future instruction by incorporating the technique changes and student suggestions into the process. By analyzing this project systematically, I learned I should vary the way students can work in leather and maille to allow for more freedom of exploration. Example specific: for some students I needed to break it down to a more simple process. During the maille lesson I simplified the technique to make a row of three to the full length of the belt and then showed students how to widen the belt using a different stitch. For other students it worked better to have them discover the master link method by weaving to attach sets of five, as demonstrated later in the video presentation from part three. However, for most students this

10

DRAFT ENTRY 2

AJSpencer-Wise

approach was too difficult and work better in the simplified method. My biggest discovery during this lesson series is that I can step back and play a much more coach-oriented role as students settle into the apprenticeship model and teach each other. Regarding supplies, I will make sure that I have more pliers and more wire cutters to speed up production time. This basic lesson is intended to give students an appreciation for and a historic knowledge of work done in leather and maille. If students wish to learn more I can teach advanced lessons in our jewelry classes and in our Medieval Club, most often on an individual or small group basis. I teach jewelry using a smaller diameter wire and a smaller spindle using stainless steel, gold or silver. For making armor pieces I teach a circle pattern for coifs and other projects that advance on the basic 4-in-1 pattern to make specific items such as hauberks and chausses, chamailes, even teaching basic riveting of links. If I had the opportunity to teach this lesson with a different class I do not think I would do a lot differently, other than incorporating experience as aforementioned. I would again research student backgrounds and use a small group apprenticeship model with student journaling. This lesson seems to work very well as students produce supplies for links and master a series of skills to make the whole belt. Students are happy with the end results and are proud of their work. Some students suggested in their evaluations that I have links premade for them, but having them make the links is a key part of understanding what goes into making maille. Student feedback from the leatherwork suggested that I do larger projects and teach how to make clothing items, phone holsters and other projects, however these are all too expensive for use in a whole class setting. I would gladly teach these on an individual basis and charge students per project, which is the specific design of the Medieval Club. Overall I am very happy with how the lesson went and I look forward to teaching it again.

11