maria pairitz's
community of teachers portfolio
vi. self-directed learning
evidence
Quite often, school can be a place where students are not in control. The bell tells them when to end and start class, the teacher tells them what to learn, the principal tells them what they can and can't do, the resources provided tell them what is possible or not. It is easy to begin to become apathetic and disengaged during school when you are going through the motions of a ready-made system. But when we place the responsibility for learning back into our students' hands, they can begin to develop critical thinking and decision making skills that will enable them to contribute to society in a meaningful way. Art is the perfect subject matter to develop these skills and promote self-directed learning as art rarely demands the creation of a specific product, but rather seeks individual's creative responses to provided prompts. Through the evidence provided, I believe I demonstrate my ability to help students take responsibility for their own learning.
The evidence I have collected includes a curriculum framework I have developed called "Art Problems," Process Logs, a collection of DIY Projects for students, an essay on my stance on democracy in the classroom and in school, Sphere Pre-assessment, and AP Drawing/2D Concentration Portfolios.
Through this evidence, I have provided students' opportunities to take control of their learning. Each of these opportunities empower students to make their own decisions and take responsibility for the consequences of their choices. They allow students to begin to develop independence, critical thinking, and decision making skills. Art is the perfect subject for self-directed learning as they are often given the tools they need and then set off to create their own artistic responses and have to decide what sequence of events and techniques need to be done in order to achieve their final vision.
Ultimately, students in secondary are beginning to enter their young adult lives and need to develop skills that will allow them to become contributing members of society. I believe, through the evidence I have collected, I have demonstrated my ability to provide opportunities for self-directed learning in my classroom. I believe I have reached Ready to Teach.
Art Problems
Process Logs
In an effort to help develop independence and self-direction, I created process logs. These are an ongoing document that students keep that includes entries that document their progress during project. The entries include the date, a picture of their work in progress, and a short reflection on what stage they're at, what they are working on, personal insights or problems they've run into, etc. This provides students the framework that enables them to structure their own art making in the future as they are asked to reflect on the decisions they've made, the consequences of those decisions, and what they will take away from that experience.
During my time at IU, I had one ceramics professor that would also pose art "problems" where he gave an objective and we had to create a solution to that problem/objective. Posing the objectives as a problem that we had to solve helped stretch my creative responses as opposed to him telling us the objectives and exactly what end product should be. I knew that I wanted to incorporate this into my own curriculum so that students would be encouraged to direct their own learning as different responses produce different learning experiences. I walked students though the format before our first art problem and explained the concept and reasoning behind structuring it the way I have. I talked to them about developing their problem solving and critical thinking skills and how I was most concerned about developing independent thinking above all else. This definitely has provided a wide variety of responses as students are allowed the autonomy to respond to the problem in whatever way they see fit.
At the beginning of each art problem, I demonstrate techniques and concepts that will assist them in the development of their self-directed response. It is then up to them to apply those techniques and concepts on their own, in the manner and order which best fits their artistic response.
"DIY" Projects
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. I have created a resource file of tutorials for my Ceramics 1 class that helps avoid this issue, but effectively enhances and extends the literacy students gained from any project we work on in class and develops independent decision making and problem solving.
I have created a resource file of “Do It Yourself” or “How To” tutorials and organized them according to skills or techniques learned and emphasized in each unit. I based this off of the 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.
In EDUC-H205, we looked at whether or not the construct of the classroom and school should be democratic: allowing students to have say in the choices and decisions that govern their education. As a group essay, we chose to argue the idea that education should be democratic in its means and end. We stated that democracy only thrives when autonomous individuals have the capability to generate new ideas and solutions toward the betterment of society. We argued that to produce individuals who are capable of such skills, critical thinking and decision making must be practiced throughout a student's education.
AP Drawing/2D Concentration Portfolios
AP Art courses are yearlong program that ask students to develop a variety of techniques and skills which the art teacher provides during the first semester and then come up with a theme or concentration that guides a body of work for the second semester. The AP Concentration Portfolio is the epitome of self-directed learning. These students spend a substantial amount of time brainstorming and researching potential themes, looking at other artists and the world around them. They then have to create an artist statement that they must refer to throughout the creation of their body of work. I have included two examples of students I worked with during my field experience and a few examples of work from their concentration to demonstrate the level of depth that is achieved when students are in charge of their learning.
What I would like to do in my future teaching is take the idea of developing a body of work based on a single concentration over as semester long art course and apply it with my introductory level courses. They still would be guided on use of medium and techniques, but the concept they choose to communicate with those techniques would be up to them.
Sphere Pre-assessment
At the beginning of the year, I asked students to create a sphere from an assortment of random materials. There were no directions beyond that objective. My students surprised me with the variety of responses they produced. I use this pre-assessment as an opportunity to see what level my students are at and look for those who may extra support or need an extra challenge.
