Thursday, 13 December 2018
Wednesday, 12 December 2018
summative project report
Summative project report
Overall, I have enjoyed this project and appreciated being
able to bring community art practice into my degree. I am pleased with the success
of the taught sessions and the outcomes from the children. I am impressed with
the quality of the work created and happy with my role in facilitating it. The
lessons linked with the research and writing for this module and I have
improved on last year’s project my making this project more of a holistic body
of research. The lessons were effective in answering my research question and I
am glad they went ahead despite feeling at first that it was too ambitious an
outcome. I have also improved my writing and research skills, this year the
essay is more concise in terms of research focus and instead of a wide range of
sources covering a large topic I have written using a wide range of sources focusing
on a smaller area. This has meant the quality of my essay is better and
triangulates relevant theorists more efficiently.
Through this module I have developed confidence in the
classroom and gained more experience of planning and running my own workshops.
This will help me feel more confident and ambitious when approaching community
art opportunities in the future. My visual practice has also developed in this
module, I have become more colourful, playful and experimental in my work and
this is something that will be carried on throughout my illustration work. I wouldn’t
have achieved this level of playfulness without specifically focusing on a
younger audience, working directly with children, and analysing their visual
language in depth.
Weaknesses in my work that could be addressed further are my
organisation of the blog and the presentation of my final work. I should have
written more academically and reflectively when blogging peer review 1 and 2 at
the time they were happening as this would have helped me hit grade boundaries
more successfully. I am unsure if my final presentation of work looks appealing
and exciting, this is something I have always struggled with throughout
modules. I find professional presentation of work difficult and I find it hard
to be imaginative when presenting a final body of work for a project.
I am not as pleased with my personal posters as final
outcomes as I am with the lessons. I am pleased with the aesthetic of the
posters, but if I had managed my time differently it would have been beneficial
to explore the application and response of the posters as opposed to just
creating them. If I had longer I would gather more first-hand research
surrounding my own final outcomes. I would display the posters in public spaces
and gather public response such as questionnaires or informal conversation
surrounding the work with a specific focus on a young audience. I think this
would have helped me to further address my research question.
Overall the feedback from our final mega crit really made me
feel positive and proud about the project. The work was summed up using three
words from each person; effective, powerful, accessible, positive, empowered,
wholesome. These descriptions made me feel like I had really achieved what I set
out to do which was to explore how community art can aid freedom of expression.
To push my project further I would like to make my posters a free online
download for anyone to distribute as they wish and continue spreading a
movement of positivity.
Wednesday, 5 December 2018
practical work - final outcomes
here I have included all of the final posters from the classes run at Bankside Primary School as well as my final four protest posters
final posters from the classes run at Bankside Primary School
my final four protest posters
I chose posters as both my personal outcome and as outcomes for the classes, not only as they were a feasible activity to achieve in the classes time frame but also because posters are one of the most efficient and highly used forms of protest art. Protest posters have been used as early as the time of the 16th century when the protestant reformation nailed posters of Luther’s 95 Theses on the church doors. They have been continually used as a ‘powerful form of protest and a symbol of discontent’ to this day. Unlike banners or graffiti they are easy to make multiples of and it is possible to spread hundreds quickly over a large area. The simple protest poster has shown itself to be a ‘powerful’ form of artwork with the ability to ‘amplify one’s voice in a community’.(source) I wanted my four final posters to focus on protest art through a positive lense and use visual devices that would appeal to children such a large range of bright colours, wonky and playful text and personification of letter forms. My personal final outcomes have been heavily inspired by the work made my the children and their approach to image making, working with children first hand really helped me to take a new viewpoint when approaching making work and made me push my own personal practice outside of its normal comfort zone. This has resulted in a more playful feel to my work, something I have been trying to capture for a long time which has only started to truly come to light in my work now after this first hand opportunity to study children's visual language.
evaluation and analysis of childrens outcomes
The inclusive atmosphere meant the children weren't afraid to show me their work throughout the process and ask me questions throughout about what colours might work well together, or simply what I thought of their work so far. Although some children worked quicker than others and to different levels they were open to the idea of helping other classmates and often suggested it themselves, with many students helping each other cut out letters or volunteer positive ideas for each others work once they had finished their own posters and with no student ever expressing to me that they were bored.
Throughout all three lessons we discussed how text could be used creatively to make the work eye catching and exciting, specifically focusing on examples of work from Bob and Roberta Smith and the way bright colours and bold letters had been used. In my own practice I developed a series of hand lettered alphabets as a teaching aid for the children to use in their own posters, inspired by the hand generated independent nature of anti establishment art. I created all my alphabets using black ink or cut paper which could then be used to make collaged words for posters. I found the children were mainly drawn to the cut letters or really thick black letters as opposed to the more delicate type faces when they came to make their posters which showed me the really understood the idea of visually communicating a message boldly. A lot of the children also opted to create their own typefaces or cut out letters and did so very creatively with very few using their normal handwriting for their slogans. I think this was partly because of the supportive and inclusive learning atmosphere I worked hard to create which meant students felt more comfortable taking personal risks. The option of pre drawn letters or creating their own from scratch was another example of how I tried to incorporate stretch and challenge - this worked well will the higher ability students creating complex cut letter forms (1) and the lower ability students still achieving a successful poster in the time frame by using pre cut letters (2).
The categorising visual language of the STP approach was clearly shown in the protest posters that were created in the classes, for example fig 4 shows objects drawn as though they are ‘flying in the sky in various positions’(source) with elements like the heart drawn bigger than its surroundings to signify its importance. This kind of visual language actually works very successfully in the context of protest posters as the STP approach is actually much more effective at capturing a mood and an expression in contrast to the NPM approach. This is another reason I believe that it's important for children to become involved with protest art, not only to be able to express themselves and to exercise their creative skills, but also because they are naturally skilled communicators of their own form of visual language often using simplified imagery and symbols to express complex concepts.
Throughout the children's outcomes there was a lot of common visual themes, the one I saw the most being simple smiley faces. I think it is lovely to see that although approaching serious and sombre topics in their posters such as war and racism, the children tackled these by often using very positive imagery, this use of simple imagery also meant that the message of the poster was effective in its immediacy and quick communication of message. An example of this is an anti war poster (fig 5) which uses the imagery of a smiling earth with people holding hands around it, if we focus on the drawn imagery it shows a good example of the emotive STP and shows how children use simple devices such as smiley faces to personify objects and therefore make the work more emotionally relatable. Another common visual theme I noticed in the work produced was the use of multiple colours, in almost all cases the children could not help but use as many colours as possible in their posters (fig 6). From analysing all the work produced an affinity for many different colours seems to be a key part of primary school children's visual language and a technique which both draws them in and engages them when they consume existing artwork and design.
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Throughout all three lessons we discussed how text could be used creatively to make the work eye catching and exciting, specifically focusing on examples of work from Bob and Roberta Smith and the way bright colours and bold letters had been used. In my own practice I developed a series of hand lettered alphabets as a teaching aid for the children to use in their own posters, inspired by the hand generated independent nature of anti establishment art. I created all my alphabets using black ink or cut paper which could then be used to make collaged words for posters. I found the children were mainly drawn to the cut letters or really thick black letters as opposed to the more delicate type faces when they came to make their posters which showed me the really understood the idea of visually communicating a message boldly. A lot of the children also opted to create their own typefaces or cut out letters and did so very creatively with very few using their normal handwriting for their slogans. I think this was partly because of the supportive and inclusive learning atmosphere I worked hard to create which meant students felt more comfortable taking personal risks. The option of pre drawn letters or creating their own from scratch was another example of how I tried to incorporate stretch and challenge - this worked well will the higher ability students creating complex cut letter forms (1) and the lower ability students still achieving a successful poster in the time frame by using pre cut letters (2).
It is clear that children create very different pictures to most adults but it is often incorrectly perceived this is simply a less skilled form of drawing as opposed to a separate form of visual language. Professor Primadi Tabrani describes two major approaches when it comes to drawing, the space time plane (STP) and the naturalistic perspective moment (NPM) . The STP represents ‘multiple angles, multiple distances and multiple moments within one picture’ (source) it does not simply describe an object or scene, but instead it becomes a visual language which can communicate a message, this is the plane in which most young children draw. The NPM however is the one most often used by adults and works more like a camera, ‘drawn from one particular angle, one particular distance and one particular time, producing a descriptive picture’(source). picture 3 below shows a side by side contrast of the STP approach on the left to the NPM approach on the right, the picture on the left does not use accurate colours or proportions but it elicits more of an emotional response from the viewer and therefore makes it more involving and communicative.
The categorising visual language of the STP approach was clearly shown in the protest posters that were created in the classes, for example fig 4 shows objects drawn as though they are ‘flying in the sky in various positions’(source) with elements like the heart drawn bigger than its surroundings to signify its importance. This kind of visual language actually works very successfully in the context of protest posters as the STP approach is actually much more effective at capturing a mood and an expression in contrast to the NPM approach. This is another reason I believe that it's important for children to become involved with protest art, not only to be able to express themselves and to exercise their creative skills, but also because they are naturally skilled communicators of their own form of visual language often using simplified imagery and symbols to express complex concepts.
Throughout the children's outcomes there was a lot of common visual themes, the one I saw the most being simple smiley faces. I think it is lovely to see that although approaching serious and sombre topics in their posters such as war and racism, the children tackled these by often using very positive imagery, this use of simple imagery also meant that the message of the poster was effective in its immediacy and quick communication of message. An example of this is an anti war poster (fig 5) which uses the imagery of a smiling earth with people holding hands around it, if we focus on the drawn imagery it shows a good example of the emotive STP and shows how children use simple devices such as smiley faces to personify objects and therefore make the work more emotionally relatable. Another common visual theme I noticed in the work produced was the use of multiple colours, in almost all cases the children could not help but use as many colours as possible in their posters (fig 6). From analysing all the work produced an affinity for many different colours seems to be a key part of primary school children's visual language and a technique which both draws them in and engages them when they consume existing artwork and design.
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Monday, 3 December 2018
research - group questioning techniques
http://www.nsead.org/downloads/Effective_Questioning&Talk.pdf
Teachers use questions to engage the students and sustain an ‘active’ style to the learning.
The teacher also uses questions as part of the assessment of learning in order to determine how they best structure, organise and present new learning.
(factual checks – ie ‘Closed’ questions)., where the teacher asks a question and accepts an answer from a volunteer, or selects/conscripts a specific student to answer. These approaches are implicit in any pedagogy, but teachers need a range of ‘Open’ questioning strategies to address different learning needs and situations. Teachers must also pitch questions effectively to raise the thinking challenge, target specific students or groups within the class.
‘Big’ Questions or First Line Questions -
This is a strategy used by teachers to introduce new topics, projects and new areas of learning. It is best to begin thinking with 2 key actions. For example, if introducing the concept of ethical dilemmas and moral choices, we might explore this with the following:
1. Students can share and discuss what they already know about the new topic or concept e.g. “what do you know about behaviour that is right and wrong?”
2. Students are invited to engage with the new topic or concept in response to a Big question e.g. “How do we decide between right and wrong?”
Big Questions promote thinking on a wide ranging scale. These are the most open questions you can ask. These are sometimes referred to as First Line Questions, because there is no ‘bigger’ question you can ask on such a topic e.g. “Are we alone in the universe?” Such thinking can often be used to promote Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural dimensions of learning. First line questions are often associated with spiritual thinking that promotes reflection, consideration of the wider universe and profound thoughts. Such thinking can be inspirational if it enables young people to connect concepts or ideas across different topics or areas of work.
http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/Teaching_Approaches/Questioning
Teachers use questions to engage the students and sustain an ‘active’ style to the learning.
The teacher also uses questions as part of the assessment of learning in order to determine how they best structure, organise and present new learning.
(factual checks – ie ‘Closed’ questions)., where the teacher asks a question and accepts an answer from a volunteer, or selects/conscripts a specific student to answer. These approaches are implicit in any pedagogy, but teachers need a range of ‘Open’ questioning strategies to address different learning needs and situations. Teachers must also pitch questions effectively to raise the thinking challenge, target specific students or groups within the class.
‘Big’ Questions or First Line Questions -
This is a strategy used by teachers to introduce new topics, projects and new areas of learning. It is best to begin thinking with 2 key actions. For example, if introducing the concept of ethical dilemmas and moral choices, we might explore this with the following:
1. Students can share and discuss what they already know about the new topic or concept e.g. “what do you know about behaviour that is right and wrong?”
2. Students are invited to engage with the new topic or concept in response to a Big question e.g. “How do we decide between right and wrong?”
Big Questions promote thinking on a wide ranging scale. These are the most open questions you can ask. These are sometimes referred to as First Line Questions, because there is no ‘bigger’ question you can ask on such a topic e.g. “Are we alone in the universe?” Such thinking can often be used to promote Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural dimensions of learning. First line questions are often associated with spiritual thinking that promotes reflection, consideration of the wider universe and profound thoughts. Such thinking can be inspirational if it enables young people to connect concepts or ideas across different topics or areas of work.
http://oer.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/Teaching_Approaches/Questioning
Teachers ask questions for a number of reasons, the most common of which are
- to interest, engage and challenge pupils;
- to check on prior knowledge and understanding;
- to stimulate recall, mobilising existing knowledge and experience in order to create new understanding and meaning;
- to focus pupils’ thinking on key concepts and issues;
- to help pupils to extend their thinking from the concrete and factual to the analytical and evaluative;
- to lead pupils through a planned sequence which progressively establishes key understandings;
- to promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation and the formulation of hypotheses;
- to promote pupils’ thinking about the way they have learned.
if you want to help pupils develop higher-order thinking skills, you will need to ask more open questions that allow pupils to give a variety of acceptable responses.
Research evidence suggests that effective teachers use a greater number of open questions than less effective teachers.
Questioning is effective when it allows pupils to engage with the learning process by actively composing responses. Research (Borich 1996; Muijs and Reynolds 2001; Morgan and Saxton 1994; Wragg and Brown 2001) suggests that lessons where questioning is effective are likely to have the following characteristics
- Questions are planned and closely linked to the objectives of the lesson.
- The learning of basic skills is enhanced by frequent questions following the exposition of new content that has been broken down into small steps. Each step should be followed by guided practice that provides opportunities for pupils to consolidate what they have learned and that allows teachers to check understanding.
- Closed questions are used to check factual understanding and recall.
- Open questions predominate.
- Sequences of questions are planned so that the cognitive level increases as the questions go on. This ensures that pupils are led to answer questions which demand increasingly higher-order thinking skills but are supported on the way by questions which require less sophisticated thinking skills.
- Pupils have opportunities to ask their own questions and seek their own answers. They are encouraged to provide feedback to each other.
- The classroom climate is one where pupils feel secure enough to take risks, be tentative and make mistakes.
research also demonstrates that most of the questions asked by both effective and less effective teachers are lower order and closed. It is estimated that 70–80 per cent of all learning-focused questions require a simple factual response, whereas only 20–30 per cent lead pupils to explain, clarify, expand, generalise or infer. In other words, only a minority of questions demand that pupils use higher-order thinking skills.
Pupil response is enhanced where
- there is a classroom climate in which pupils feel safe and know they will not be criticised or ridiculed if they give a wrong answer;
- prompts are provided to give pupils confidence to try an answer;
- there is a ‘no-hands’ approach to answering, where you choose the respondent rather than have them volunteer;
- ‘wait time’ is provided before an answer is required. The research suggests that 3 seconds is about right for most questions, with the proviso that more complex questions may need a longer wait time. Research shows that the average wait time in classrooms is about 1 second (Rowe 1986; Borich 1996).
Bloom researched thousands of questions routinely asked by teachers and categorised them. His research, and that of others, suggests that most learning- focused questions asked in classrooms fall into the first two categories, with few questions falling into the other categories which relate to higher-order thinking skills
research - tuckmans stages of group development
developmental sequence in small groups - tuckman 1965
human realtions group setting - contain ordinarily from 15 to 30 members, usually students or corporation executives, and one trainer or leader, and endure from about 3 weeks to 6 months.
the task is to help individuals interact with one another in a more productive, less defensive manner, and to be aware of the dynamics underlying such inter- action. The goal is interpersonal sensitivity
At the same time, and often through the same behaviors, group members will be relating to one another interpersonally. The pattern of interpersonal relationships is referred to as group structure
The first stage of task-activity development is labeled as orientation to the task, in which group members attempt to identify the task in terms of its relevant parameters and the manner in which the group experience will be used to accomplish the task.
in the storming stage participants form opinions about the character and integrity of the other participants and feel compelled to voice these opinions if they find someone shirking responsibility or attempting to dominate. Sometimes participants question the actions or decision of the leader as the expedition grows harder. Group members become hostile toward one another and toward a therapist or trainer as a means of expressing their individuality and resisting the formation of group structure.Interaction is uneven and "infighting" is common. The lack of unity is an outstanding feature of this phase.
The third group structure phase is labeled as the development of group cohesion. Group members accept the group and accept the idiosyncracies of fellow members. The group be- comes an entity by virtue of its acceptance by the members, their desire to maintain and perpetuate it, and the establishment of new group-generated norms to insure the group's existence. Harmony is of maximum importance, and task conflicts are avoided to insure harmony
The fourth and final developmental phase of group structure is labeled as functional role-relatedness. The group, which was established as an entity during the preceding phase, can now become a problem-solving instrument. It does this by directing itself to members as objects, since the subjective relation- ship between members has already been established. Members can now adopt and play roles that will enhance the task activities of the group, since they have learned to relate to one another as social entities in the preceding stage. Role structure is not an issue but an instrument which can now be directed at the task.
only 50% of the studies identified a stage of intragroup conflict, and some of the remaining studies jumped directly from stage 1 to stage 3. Some groups may avoid the phase altogether
other info
forming- team meets and learns about challenge then agrees on goals to accomplish tasks, members are well behaved but self focused, members are focused on becoming orientated to the talk and to the other members
storming- beginging of gaining others trust, opinions are voiced and conflict may begin as power and status is realised, this is the stage where many teams fail, some may question the teams goals, those left may experience stress.Disagreements and personality clashes must be resolved before the team can progress out of this stage, and so some teams may never emerge from "storming" or re-enter that phase if new challenges or disputes arise. without tolerance and patience the team will fail. Normally tension, struggle and sometimes arguments occur. This stage can also be upsetting.
norming- the team is aware of the competition and they share a common goal. In this stage, all team members take the responsibility and have the ambition to work for the success of the team's goals. They accept others as they are and make an effort to move on. they are able to ask one another for help and provide constructive feedback.There is often a prolonged overlap between storming and norming, because, as new tasks come up, the team may lapse back into behavior from the storming stage
performing- hard work leads, without friction, to the achievement of the team's goal. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channelled through means acceptable to the team. Many long-standing teams go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances. For example, a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team.
These stages need not always be strictly followed one after the other; teams often get stuck halfway through the process. Rules of behaviour and agreements will then have to be drawn up but these are not always very productive. During the first two stages of the Tuckman stages of group development, it is about social-emotional tasks.
human realtions group setting - contain ordinarily from 15 to 30 members, usually students or corporation executives, and one trainer or leader, and endure from about 3 weeks to 6 months.
the task is to help individuals interact with one another in a more productive, less defensive manner, and to be aware of the dynamics underlying such inter- action. The goal is interpersonal sensitivity
At the same time, and often through the same behaviors, group members will be relating to one another interpersonally. The pattern of interpersonal relationships is referred to as group structure
The first stage of task-activity development is labeled as orientation to the task, in which group members attempt to identify the task in terms of its relevant parameters and the manner in which the group experience will be used to accomplish the task.
in the storming stage participants form opinions about the character and integrity of the other participants and feel compelled to voice these opinions if they find someone shirking responsibility or attempting to dominate. Sometimes participants question the actions or decision of the leader as the expedition grows harder. Group members become hostile toward one another and toward a therapist or trainer as a means of expressing their individuality and resisting the formation of group structure.Interaction is uneven and "infighting" is common. The lack of unity is an outstanding feature of this phase.
The third group structure phase is labeled as the development of group cohesion. Group members accept the group and accept the idiosyncracies of fellow members. The group be- comes an entity by virtue of its acceptance by the members, their desire to maintain and perpetuate it, and the establishment of new group-generated norms to insure the group's existence. Harmony is of maximum importance, and task conflicts are avoided to insure harmony
The fourth and final developmental phase of group structure is labeled as functional role-relatedness. The group, which was established as an entity during the preceding phase, can now become a problem-solving instrument. It does this by directing itself to members as objects, since the subjective relation- ship between members has already been established. Members can now adopt and play roles that will enhance the task activities of the group, since they have learned to relate to one another as social entities in the preceding stage. Role structure is not an issue but an instrument which can now be directed at the task.
only 50% of the studies identified a stage of intragroup conflict, and some of the remaining studies jumped directly from stage 1 to stage 3. Some groups may avoid the phase altogether
other info
forming- team meets and learns about challenge then agrees on goals to accomplish tasks, members are well behaved but self focused, members are focused on becoming orientated to the talk and to the other members
storming- beginging of gaining others trust, opinions are voiced and conflict may begin as power and status is realised, this is the stage where many teams fail, some may question the teams goals, those left may experience stress.Disagreements and personality clashes must be resolved before the team can progress out of this stage, and so some teams may never emerge from "storming" or re-enter that phase if new challenges or disputes arise. without tolerance and patience the team will fail. Normally tension, struggle and sometimes arguments occur. This stage can also be upsetting.
norming- the team is aware of the competition and they share a common goal. In this stage, all team members take the responsibility and have the ambition to work for the success of the team's goals. They accept others as they are and make an effort to move on. they are able to ask one another for help and provide constructive feedback.There is often a prolonged overlap between storming and norming, because, as new tasks come up, the team may lapse back into behavior from the storming stage
performing- hard work leads, without friction, to the achievement of the team's goal. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channelled through means acceptable to the team. Many long-standing teams go through these cycles many times as they react to changing circumstances. For example, a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team.
These stages need not always be strictly followed one after the other; teams often get stuck halfway through the process. Rules of behaviour and agreements will then have to be drawn up but these are not always very productive. During the first two stages of the Tuckman stages of group development, it is about social-emotional tasks.
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