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Multimedia Product Artifact Report |
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Call & Response PowerPoint ---- (see artifact) At the end of the 1999-2000 school year I was asked to teach an English class the following year. The purpose of having me, the Art teacher, teach English was to increase language arts offerings at my school. During the summer of 2000, I developed Readings & Writings in Art, and I taught the class all four quarters of the 2000-2001 school year. The objectives of Readings & Writings in Art were to use the visual arts as a reference point for reading, viewing, speaking, and writing. I decided to create a multimedia presentation for use at the beginning of each quarter to introduce visual arts terms and concepts. This multimedia PowerPoint presentation is titled "Call & Response." Analysis The student population that I serve is considered at-risk for a variety of reasons. Basically, our students do not succeed in traditional comprehensive high schools settings, and our smaller, more structured, and individualized program provides an environment where most can successfully earn a high school diploma. Since we are a small school, all of our classes are multi-grade and multi-ability. I may have students ranging in age from 14 to 21, and this poses an interesting challenge as far as individualizing the curriculum goes. Many of our students have gaps in their learning from previous nonattendance issues in middle and high school. Despite these learning gaps many of our students are developmentally ready to engage in abstract and higher level thinking, however they lack practice. I realized there would be challenges in presenting potentially unfamiliar material to students that typically scored well below grade level on reading and writing assessments, and that I’d have to utilize a variety of instructional strategies to meet the diverse needs of my students. I made best use of the opportunity during my summer ILT course to develop the instructional design for Readings & Writings in Art, and to produce a relevant multimedia product for use in the class. Rationale I determined that the "Call & Response" product would provide an engaging medium to get students accustomed to the way one goes about analyzing, interpreting, speaking, and writing about art. I designed the presentation in two parts. The first, "Terms & Concepts" is intended to illustrate and define the Elements and Principals of Design and introduce other important visual arts terms, essentially, to teach the language of the visual arts. The second presentation, "Images & Words" provides visual, written, and auditory prompts for students to respond to verbally and in writing. Each presentation contains a wide variety of images representing art works form various periods in history and different cultures. This multimedia product is a visual experience, which makes sense given the visual arts context, and provides an opportunity for learning that is both verbal and nonverbal. Results I used this product every quarter last year, and the majority of students showed interest, and engaged in the discussions prompted by the presentations. I received feedback that the terms were clear because of the various art works used to illustrate them, and many of the students incorporated the vocabulary appropriately into their writing. I believe that starting the class off with a dynamic, on screen, PowerPoint presentation was a wise choice; it was more engaging than printed handouts on the same content, and provided a compelling springboard for conversation. Evidence of Value Students demonstrated a reasonable degree of proficiency in using the terms and vocabulary taught via the presentation. The nonlinear navigational elements allowed me to tailor each use of the presentation to the particular needs of each group. When a student made a reference to an image in a previously viewed section, it was easy to go to that image right then, as the thoughts were fresh. Although my students still struggled with writing conventions: spelling and grammar, the content of their work became richer as the vocabulary was used and revisited throughout the quarter. Reflection I am not teaching Readings & Writings in Art this year. I am relieved because it was quite a challenge teaching students how to write; I am much more accustomed to teaching visual arts classes. Yet, I miss the class as I feel that the content was unique, and provided the students with a perspective on the arts that is valuable for increasing their cultural literacy. However, my efforts are not lost. "Call & Response" is appropriate for use in any art class where I want to teach terms and concepts, and engage students in analytic and interpretive thinking. Also, my experiences teaching English have better prepared me to integrate writing into my art classes, and I have improved my assessment skills in terms of evaluating the written work of students. ILT Responsibility Areas #2 Designs instruction or human performance strategy to meet the needs of learners.
#3 Uses a variety of media to deliver instruction to students and to engage students in learning.
#4 Understands how to capitalize on the capacities and abilities of each learner.
#6 Uses incisive and relevant assessment and evaluation techniques.
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