maria pairitz's
community of teachers portfolio
ii. reading and writing
evidence
Teaching reading and writing is just one aspect of literacy. Literacy is the ability to look at the world critically. To identify, interpret, and respond to your surroundings. As an educator, it is my responsibility to help students communicate their ideas in an effective and meaningful way. I choose to help them communicate their ideas primarily through visual arts, but writing and speaking critically about their own art-making and others' is just as integral to the art-making process. Through the evidence I have provided, I believe I demonstrate competence in integrating reading, writing, and other literacy-based strategies into my lessons and curriculum.
The evidence I have prepared include samples of student writings from my unit on throwing for a Ceramics 1 course, a critique on CANVAS for AP students, student essays over a project in Intro to 3D, several artifacts from M464 Teaching Reading and Writing course including a resource file, a unit plan, and texts dedicated to expanding content area literacy, and journal excerpts from my mentorship.
Through my experiences in my mentorship, coursework, and readings I have gained a repertoire of instructional strategies specifically designed to further develop literacy skills. All of these experiences have also contributed to my growth in my ability to integrate reading and writing into my curriculum to enhance students' critical thinking and communication skills. The exercises I included were specifically chosen for my students as I considered their reading and writing skill levels and what aspects of those skills I wanted to develop.
I will use these experiences and artifacts in the future as knowledge to draw from when I teach my own classroom. I have reflected and assessed what reading and writing activities were most effective and engaging and can use that to make my lessons better for future students. I will capitalize on the feedback given by my mentor and students to improve future literacy activities.
I believe I have acquired competency in this teaching competency. I believe the experiences and artifacts I have collected for this expectation reflect my ability to successfully integrate and implement a variety of literacy focused activities in my lessons. I have confidence that this expectation has reached Ready to Teach.
Wheel Unit Test: Short Answer
I created a quiz for my wheel throwing unit I laugh in Ceramics 1 and one part of it was a short answer question. I wanted students to connect ideas of innovation seen in the evolution of wheel throwing to innovation in other facets of their life. In class, we had discussed examples of the topic, but I should've included in the quiz to provide an example we didn't talk because a lot of them just regurgitated examples from class when it is supposed to be the more conceptual part of the test. This was an opportunity to assess how well they were able to communicate their ideas through writing. Some did a great job being clear and fully answering the question, while others struggled to communicate a full idea. I made sure to address those who struggled with specific, applicable feedback and allow them the opportunity to re-write their response.
CANVAS Critique: AP Drawing/2D
Ceramics 1: Observations in Clay Notes
For a wheel throwing unit I taught in Ceramics 1, I created a note taking sheet with two columns. The first column was for them to jot down their observations while I threw on the wheel silently. I didn’t tell them anything I was doing so they could hone in on their observation skills and be more engaged in the process of creating their knowledge of how to work on the wheel instead of me walking them through everything step by step and half paying attention. I told them their goal was to make an observation that they think no one else would make during my demo. This made it a little bit of a challenge. I also said that they need to write down EVERYTHING. I said “If I put up my hair, you write that I put up my hair. If I pick my nose, you write that I picked my nose” which got a good laugh. During my first demo they were all so focused and engaged in what I was doing. When I finished the first demo, I reset my wheel and then asked them to walk me through their observations from beginning to end. When they told me their observations I was able to clarify and give additional information that they then wrote down in the adjacent column. This worksheet was such a success. It was so effective in keeping students focused and engaged because sometimes when you listen to someone talk and give a demo it’s easy to drift off in your mind and miss important information, whereas when I ask them to actively build knowledge from their own observations, they were more invested in learning the additional information I had to give. This note taking activity also gave them the opportunity to see how observational skills can contribute to their content area literacy. Additionally, since I moved at a relatively fast pace through the steps during my silent demonstration, they learned to write without fluff, to get to the meat of what they needed to communicate, which is an essential writing skill.
I developed and implemented this online critique after I brought up concerns I had about the fact that my mentor does not do classroom critiques after projects. Critiques are a crucial part of literacy in any art class and an important part of the creative process for students. It is critical to helping students learn to communicate their ideas and process effectively to others and helping learn how to give written and verbal critique that is helpful and respectful. Unfortunately, Ms. O feels that in order to allow enough time for them to work on their projects, she is forced to cut out critiques because it would take at least two class periods per project to get through everyones' artworks. I suggested that instead of an in class critique we create an online critique through Canvas so we can keep that critical aspect of art making without sacrificing in class work time. She thought this was a great idea and allowed me to implement it. Holding the critique online also allows the opportunity for students to use digital literacy and learn about writing on an online platform.
I created a discussion on Canvas and students were required to upload a high quality image of their project, comment on three peers' projects, and respond to the comments they received on their own piece. There was an in class discussion about ways to build a statement that is thoughtful and gives helpful feedback to the artist. For example, I wrote three sentences on the board "I like your painting," "I like your painting of the man," "I like your painting of the man because your use of color reflects his expression." These three sentences help students to understand how to create a statement that uses evidence from the artwork to substantiate their claim "I like the painting."
The critique was efficient because it saved in class work time, effective because everyone has access to Canvas and was able to post their images and comments, and engaging because this was a new way to use technology to benefit their creative process and writing skills.
While the online critique was a success, drawbacks include a lack of face to face interaction between students. A conversation online is much different than in class. It's harder to build off of each other's ideas, especially if you're only concerned with earning your points and don't take the time to read comments on other pieces and respond just because you have an idea or connection, not because you're required to. So I don't believe online critique should REPLACE in class critique, but possibly using the online critique for half the projects and in class critique for the other half so students are getting the benefits of both instructional strategies.
Essay Responses: Intro to 3D Totem Pole Writing
In our ceramics unit in Intro to 3D, students are asked to create a totem pole that used at least three symbols that represent them. First off, the process of taking characterizing features of your identity and transforming them into visual symbols is an important form of literacy. I think students sometimes went a little simple and reduced themselves to states, music, flowers, etc. things that are already symbolic in nature (or having a symbol remade) instead of really digging deep and creating a unique symbol specifically designed to communicate something about themselves. If we do this project again, I will definitely give more support in diving deeper into this.
The actual writing component of this project though was a final essay worth part of their project's final grade. They were to write an essay describing the symbols they used and why they feel their totem pole represented them. Ms. O focused on word choice (using vocabulary taught in class), sentence fluency, and organization as main focuses of the writing aside from communicating the main idea. This was a good opportunity for students to practice communicating their thoughts they have about their piece to an audience.
Expanding Content Area Literacy through Additional, Individual Projects
Below: Student Examples of Ocarina Project
For one of my projects in M464, we had to create a resource or tool we would use in our own classroom using C.A.M.P.E.D. which is to help make Connections to students' lives, Assess student learning, is Multimodal, engages Prior knowledge, is Engaging, and Differentiated.
I decided to take a problem that frequently arises in the art classroom and develop a tool to help fix that and help expand student's literacy concerning the manipulation of clay.
Pacing in art classes is extremely difficult. There will always be kids who need more time to finish a project, but then that awkwardly leaves other students who finished early or as expected hanging out as you don’t want to move on to the next project just yet. My project not only helps avoid this issue, but effectively enhances and extends the literacy students gained from any project we work on in class.
I have created a document containing “Do It Yourself” or “How To” tutorials and indicated skills or techniques used so students can apply their prior knowledge and experience from past projects working with those skills or techniques in an new, independent project. I based this off of a Ceramics 1 curriculum from my field placement. These tutorials are great because it offers students the opportunity to transfer literacy they learned from a project in class to an independent project that develops their problem solving skills while deepening and broadening their scope of possibilities that come with each learned technique in class.
CONNECTIONS
My document includes a variety of projects for students to choose from. Their choice of project reflects whatever personal connections they may have to it. For example, the Ocarina project might be chosen by a student who loves music or is in orchestra or band, or has ancestry or general interest in South and Central America. While another student might select the Bead project because they love to wear or make jewelry.
ASSESSMENT
What is great about these tutorials is that their success or failure is immediately seen by the student. If the Ocarina does not have a strong whistle, students know that the construction of their piece was not done accurately or carefully as described in the tutorial. They may choose to try again or take the lesson that small details and craftsmanship matter into the next class project.
MULTIMODAL
In my document I have included a variety of tutorials presented through different medias. Some have videos with time-lapsed demonstrations, some of these videos are silent or have captions, others have the instructor voice over the video explaining the steps. Others are articles with pictures of each step and an explanation.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
These projects are labeled with the techniques and skills used according to learned techniques and skills in our curriculum. So if we are on the coil building unit and a student gets done early, they will most likely select a tutorial that incorporates the coil building technique which effectively utilizes their prior knowledge (from completion of the class project) of the technique and enhances the lesson they just completed.
ENGAGEMENT
Engagement is almost innate because the student chooses the project they want to work on and they aren’t going to pick a project that is boring to them. Additionally, these projects are not items you would normally think to make with clay and are functional in their everyday lives.
DIFFERENTIATION
I made sure to include tutorials with different levels of difficulty. If the student struggled with the unit’s project, they should continue to develop their skill with an easier project while students who excelled in a project should further push and challenge their skills with a harder project.
M464 Teaching Reading and Writing/ Content Area Literacy
For our final project in M464 we had to create a unit plan with lessons that focused on developing content area literacy. These lessons also had to incorporate C.A.M.P.E.D. (see above). While I feel that the restrictions of this project and the lack of actual classroom application hindered the potential of my unit plan, it did help me think seriously about the ways in which I promote and develop students' literacy. We used "50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy" as our main source of inspiration for the instructional routines we included in our lessons. I believe I was able to come up with instructional routines that develop literacy that I would use in the classroom and would be successful. I don't think I would use this full unit as is though.
Content Literacy for Today's Adolescents: Honoring Diversity and Building Competence
50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy
I am including this resource from my course EDUC-M464 Teaching Reading and Writing. This text contains 50 instructional strategies with corresponding directions and examples for each strategy. All of the strategies included involve students exercising reading and/or writing skills. I include this book because I referred to this text when developing some of my strategies and materials for the unit I created for our final project. I also modified their adjunct display to create the "Observations in Clay" note taking worksheet that I used with my students in Ceramics 1. This shows how I have adapted a resource from one of my methods classes and applied it in a classroom setting.
Having this resource has been beneficial in the fact that every instructional strategy could be adapted to any content area. Often, I feel that the theories or strategies offered in my education classes don't apply to the arts and are very narrowly focused on elementary ed, but this text is adaptable.
After adapting several of the routines provided in this book, I plan to adapt several other routines from this text for future lessons as it proved to be efficient, effective, and engaging.
Another resource acquired from my M464 course provided insights to help teachers develop content literacy in their classrooms. This text taught me to recognize and appreciate all forms of literacy my students bring to class every day and to integrate youth culture and diversity within my curriculum. It encourages teachers to recognize adolescent's diversity and identity needs and offers strategies to engage students in literacy development. The biggest takeaway from this text though was making the content connect to student's everyday lives. No matter how fascinating the subject, if there is no relevance or application of the content literacy being taught, it will not deepen student learning. I heavily relied on this text when creating my final unit plan for the course, applying and adapting the theories and strategies in my own lessons.
Journal Excerpts
While they worked I noticed strange objects on the table at the front. I asked what they were and they were Ocarinas (ceramic whistles). Ms. O said that she set examples out and a step by step how to tutorial for students who had already finished their tiles and finished glazing their older pieces. We then talked about how having a resource file full of short tutorials on making odd, ceramic objects was a great strategy for those who finish projects early or work faster than the rest of class. These tutorials are great because it offers students the opportunity to apply skills they learned from a project in class to an independent project that develops their problem solving skills and deepening and broadening their scope of possibilities that come with each learned technique in class (ex: using the pinch hand building technique isn't just for building simple pots, it can be applied to make a complex object like an Ocarina). I will definitely apply this strategy in my own teaching as these individual projects expand on techniques taught in class, allow for student choice, and puts students in a position where they can't depend on the teacher to solve a problem but have to rely on the text and own research and problem solving abilities, while simultaneously functioning as a classroom management strategy by effectively keeping students who have finished early from distracting or disrupting other students' work.
....
One part of the quiz was a written response. We had discussed examples of the topic in class, but I should've included in the quiz to provide an example we didn't talk about in class because a lot of them just regurgitated examples from class when it is supposed to be more of a conceptual part. Then, a lot of them didn't fully answer the question, so I took points away, but wrote on the test that if they answered A, B, and C on a different piece of paper and gave it to me, I would give their points back because I am more interested in mastery than performance in one moment of time.
I think the sweetest moment of the day though was when D., a student Ms. O previously had who comes in during his lunch hour to hang out, came in and saw she was gone. He said he wanted to read his book to her. It was a national geographic book about the four seasons written for Kindergarteners. I said he could read it to me! So he read me the book, which was only four sentences long, but he had to describe the pictures in it and create his own "stories" for a few of them. As he was reading I understood that he was an ENL student (Ms. O confirmed later that day) and after he finished reading I said he did great and he said "I know, I'm really proud!" and I told him he should be. Literally so sweet. He then went to a classmate and read the book for her.