Emily Vaught Wendell Phillips Academy Art Education (Seniors) Planning Commentary 1.

Content Focus and Standards: Summarize the central focus for the content you will teach in this learning segment. Describe the standards that relate to this content Success Criteria for Content Focus: See the Danielson Framework - Domain 1a For the next few weeks, our student will be working on their own self-portraits. The state standards that we are focusing on are 26.B.4d Visual Arts: Demonstrating knowledge and skills that communicate clear and focused ideas based on planning, research and problem solving, and 26.B.3: Create and perform a complex work of art using a variety of techniques, technologies and resources and independent decision making. Students will start off each day with a Do Now that reflects something that they have already learned about drawing portraits and facial proportions. Their Do Now is to be completed silently and at the beginning of class and to set the expectations for the class from the start. After we have reviewed the elements and principles of art during the Do Now, the students will apply what they have previously learned in their selfportraits. They will show the importance and be able to describe the importance of these principles and elements during the entire process of their self portraits. They will use their knowledge of facial proportions to graph out and pre-plan their self portraits. As days go by, the students will study famous portraits, as well as constantly reflecting on their own complex works of art with peers and teachers. 2. Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching For each of the categories listed below (a-d), describe what you know about your students prior learning and experiences with respect to the central focus of the learning segment. What do they know, what can they do and what are they learning to do? Be very specific about how you have gained knowledge about your students.What sources of data have informed you? What teaching experiences have informed you? a.) Academic development (e.g., prior knowledge, prerequisite skills, ways of thinking in the subject areas, developmental levels, special educational needs)

The students in this particular class have already been taught and received instruction during Art 1. Since this class is a complete elective, no student is required to take this class and most of them are only in the class because they have asked or been approved to be in it. With this being said, prior knowledge of students is extensive because of the teachers prior knowledge and experience with each student in previous years. With this class being an elective and a further study of already learned knowledge, students are expected to dive much deeper into subject areas not only in production levels, but also in studying methods of artists and selected periods of art. One student does require special attention. This student has very little use of his body from the neck down. Since he is unable to physically draw, all assignments have been modified for him to study the art production on his computer and with texts. He is expected to look up and research famous portraits, and the artists whom have created these famous artworks. He is expected to point out all of the elements and principles of art in the portraits he has found as well as prepare a presentation and paper on a specific artist or work of art. Since this project will be extensive for all students, many days will be spent working on it. b.) Academic Language development (e.g., students abilities to understand and produce the oral or written language associated with the central focus and standards/objective within the learning segment) While working on art productions, we know the importance of written productions. It is also important for students to understand cross curriculum instruction and how everything ties together. During this project, mini lessons will be provided to show students previous art work of artists and their history as an artist. Once they have completed their self-portraits, students will be able to choose the artist that had the most influence on them. They will then write a research paper providing background on the artist and the importance they saw on this artist. Emphasis will be put on history and English during their research paper. c.) Family/community/cultural assets (e.g., relevant lived experiences, cultural expectations, and student interests) So much of art is based on the intention and purpose of the art. Students have learned in previous art classes that artists do not paint a picture because they just feel like it. Works of art include feeling and emotion. Students are always expected to put personality and uniqueness into everything they do. Students will get a chance to explain their intention behind their self portrait in their written portion and the influence behind their works of art in general.

d.) Social and emotional development (e.g., ability to interact and express themselves in constructive ways, ability to engage in collaborative learning, nature of contributions to a positive literacy learning environment.) Critique and self analysis is a daily part of working productions. It is so important that students constantly reflect not only with themselves but with their peers. Throughout every class, every fifteen minutes, students get time to think-pair-share with their elbow partner and talk about their own art work. During this time, students can reflect on their artwork while also giving feedback and criticism on their peers work. This is important for their growth as an artist, as a student, and their social abilities with their peers. e.) Learning strategies: What instructional and learning strategies have been effective for your students? How do you know? Working with advanced art students, it is known from the start that they love to work with their hands. They are extreme visual learnings and get anxious if they have to sit and listen for too long. These are all characteristics of good artists and a learning style that we embrace in the art room. As a teacher, I will provide short mini lessons or reviews at the beginning of class. After that, the class time is spent with individual work time. During this time we can work with students one-on-one that need help. Success criteria for Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching: See Danielson Framework - Domain 1b 3. Supporting Student Learning Respond to prompts a-e below to explain how your plans support your students learning related to the central focus of the learning segment. As needed, refer to the instructional materials you have included to support your explanations. Cite research and theory to support your explanations. a.) Explain how your understanding of your students prior learning, experiences and development guided your choice or adaptation of learning tasks and materials, to develop students abilities to successfully meet lesson segment outcomes. Assessment during our Exit Slips and discussion during our review of the Do Now has shown me as a teacher what is completely understood by my students and what needs to be given more time. Constant checks for understanding is something that I have not previously done in other classrooms but I do now because I can see the progress and the importance of knowing my students and backing that knowledge up with data and numbers. In the first chapter of Driven By Data, we learn the importance

of really knowing our students and knowing exactly what they understand and what needs to be reviewed (Bambrick-Santoyo, 620). b.) How are the plans for instruction sequenced in the learning segment to build connections between students prior learning and experiences and new content skills and strategies? As previously stated, many times throughout a lesson, a check for understanding is used. Even at the beginning of each class, the Do Now consists of material previously taught in the art 1 class. Having this review at the beginning of class lets us as teachers quickly determine what the students remember and what needs to be retaught in Art 2. If the students can quickly answer the questions without any doubt, we know the students are ready and we can move on. If the students seem to struggle with the questions we take a few more minutes of the day to review that lesson until a better understanding is proven from student answers. As the lesson goes on, especially with the lesson of facial proportions and the self portrait, the students are required to stop drawing a particular part of their face and review with the teacher. This helps the teacher know that the students are fully understanding what they are drawing and not just guessing on their paper. At the end of each class, the students are required to fill out an Exit Slip. This Exit Slip helps us as teachers to determine if they fully understood the new material being taught for that day. After the students have filled out the Exit Slip, we analyze how many missed questions and how many correct answers. If the class is more than 65% wrong, we know that the material was not understood and it needs to be retaught in a different manner the next day. c.) Explain how, throughout the learning segment, you will help students make connections between skills and strategies in ways that support their abilities to deepen their content learning. During my past teaching experiences, I have never given my students an allotted time to talk about their artwork. Given the current circumstances, I have changed my teaching strategies to include a time and place for my students to talk, but only during a specific allotted time and not at their own will. By doing this, I see a much bigger change in students understanding and application of the elements and principles of art. I have found that if my students can openly talk about where they see specific elements and principles and can see where they should be added, they can more clearly define each one and correctly use them to their advantage. d.) Describe common developmental approximations and misunderstandings within your content focus and how you will address them.

As with any art lesson, many of times, the students do not understand what is being asked of them until they can see the final product. Unfortunately, us as teachers, do not want to show our students a final product because we want them to come up with their own and use their imagination instead of copying example. It is a fine line to cross knowing when your students truly do not understand and need a visual to help them, or when they are just being lazy and do not want to come up with anything new. As a teacher we must know our students and help them to create their own works of art by looking at professional artwork and not just another peers work. I have found that showing them similar projects helps to motivate the students without completely giving away exactly what you want out of them. Fortunately, for a self-portrait project, it will be easy to show them others works of art without them being able to copy. A self -portrait should look like the artist and not anyone else. The hard part of self-portraits is getting the students to do all of their own work. They will always ask for help and expect the teacher to just start drawing for them. As a teacher, I will grab a scrap piece of paper and demonstrate how something should look before I start drawing on their paper right away. These are all helpful ideas that seem to really work with my students. They are ways of motivation without giving away their own end result. e.) Describe any instructional strategies planned to support students with specific learning needs. This will vary based on what you know about your students, but may include students with IEPs, English learners, or gifted students needing greater support or challenge. Students are only allowed to clean up one able at a time instead of the chaos that arises when everyone cleans up at once. In Doug Lemovs book Teach Like A Champion, No-Opt Out chapter, we learn that idle time is when student misbehavior happens(Lemov, 65). Therefore, students are expected to complete their exit slip while they are waiting for their tables clean up time. This way, the class is silent and orderly. If the students will be able to complete as much of the Exit Slip as they can, showing a mastery percentage of concepts and objectives, and also letting us as teachers know exactly where every student is on their project and what they have completed in one class period. Success criteria for Supporting Student Learning: See Danielson Framework - Domain 1e 4. Supporting Student Understanding and Use of Academic Language Respond to the prompts below to explain how your plans support your students academic language development.

a.) Identify the key academic language demand and explain why it is integral to the central focus for the segment and appropriate to students academic language development. Consider language functions and language forms, essential vocabulary, and/or phrases for the concepts and skills being taught, and instructional language necessary for students to understand or produce oral and/or written language within learning tasks and activities. My students have already been prompted and know the importance of speaking in an artistic language. They know all of the elements and principles of art, their definitions, and how to use them appropriately. They also have experience using a professional approach to critiques. They know they language and the right words to use to critique another students artwork or a professional artwork without giving just one word responses or harsh, unnecessary responses. My students are able to give constructive criticism to pieces of art in the works. They use phrases such as: I like this because... I would put more of this in the artwork. If this were my artwork I would change this. My students understand that no one wants to get their feelings hurt and to give constructive criticism is to help someone, not detriment the assignment. b.) Explain how planned instructional supports will assist students to understand academic language related to the key language demand to express and develop levels of academic language development. Consistency is a key role in teaching. My students are aware of verbal and physical cues to keep them on task. They know when it is appropriate to talk and when it is not, they also know the appropriate language to use when speaking about a work of art or about an artistic ability in general. In art, it is very important to get feedback as long as it is feedback that can be used and not detrimental to a person. Along with the importance of vocabulary, I teach my students the importance of being neat and cleanliness. Many people think that art is suppose to be messy, but in reality the bigger the mess, the bigger the clean up and the less time to work. I teach my students that art can be messy but there is no messy art. Meaning, take your time on a project, work hard, but keep your area safe and clean for everyone. This demands a technique and an expectation out of my students. If they act more responsible with their projects and their supplies, they will act more professional when in the art room and take their assignments more seriously. Success criteria for Supporting Use of Academic Language: See Danielson Framework - Domain 1e 5. Monitoring Student Learning

a.) Explain how the informal and formal assessments you select and/or designed will provide evidence you will use to monitor student progress toward the standards/objectives. Consider how the assessments will provide evidence of studnets use of content specific skills and strategies to promote rigorous learning. As noted in Doug Lemovs book, higher order thinking is critical to a students learning. (Lemov p.40) WIth the constant formal and informal assessments we do in the classroom, it is important to not just let a student get a correct answer, but to also think beyond that correct answer. It is important to reward correct answers, but do it by asking more questions that test for reliability and knowledge (Lemov p.41). At the beginning of class, our students fill out a Do Now question. While reviewing the Do Now, I often set out to find a way to relate what we have already learned, to what we are learning now, and even to what we will be learning in the future. Although, I do not come out and explain this to the students. I may ask them to answer the initial review question. After they have answered it, I may ask a student to elaborate and tell me how thy may have used that technique or word or style in the past. I will continue to ask students how they are using it now. Lastly, I will turn to my students and ask them to push the envelope farther and tell me how we will be able to use it at any point in the future. Even though this is an art class, it is important for my students to realize that they use and see art everyday. From the chair they sit in, to the building they study in, was all designed by an artist of some kind. It is very important that they can see the relevance in art every day and the impact it makes in our lives. b.) Describe any modifications or accommodations to the planned assessment tools or procedures that allow students with specific needs to demonstrate their learning. With the benefits of technology, all of our assessments, with the exception of the Do Nows, are all computer or promethean based. This gives each student, regardless of their handicap, an equal chance to answer every question. The Do Nows are shared out as a whole class and discussed until the teacher can see a significant stance of understanding. Along with the benefit of technology comes the ability of having each student test on a computer regardless of their writing ability. Every student is capable of selecting a correct answer with a mouse. Success criteria for Monitoring Student Learning: See Danielson Framework - Domain 1f

Citations: Bambrick-Santoyo, Paul, (2010). Driven by Data; A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction. 1st ed. San Francisco, CA; Jossey-Bass. Lemov, Doug, (20120). Teach Like a Champion; 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College. 1st ed. San Francisco, CA; Jossey-Bass.