Reflections of Student Learning

Student: Cody 7th gradeVisual # 1

Cody struggles greatly when trying to express things in any aspect, especially when he is asked to write down something. In the beginning during the first lesson, click! Photography Changes Everything, I had the class view a series of pictures and write down everything that they see as well as predict what they may be doing. The pictures shown were of a wealthy African American family during the 1930-1960’s. After describing what they saw they then completed the worksheet (A Story in a Snapshot) that went along with those pictures. I allowed this to be completed in groups. The great thing about the worksheet is that they were able to use the questions to guide them. For EC children this is very helpful as they struggle to come up with things off the top of their heads when given a task such as this.

For each picture that was shown I modeled how to look for details and make inferences, as well as how to write these thoughts in paragraph form. As I modeled I talked aloud expressing my own thoughts about the pictures. Before modeling I required students to describe what they saw and predict what was taking place. On the back of the worksheet Cody had written the description about photograph #1. As he described the photograph he did so in paragraph form correctly placing the periods and commas, but did not place a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence. Prior to this Cody had written his ideas in list form and in incomplete sentences.

After Cody’s group completed the worksheet they each choose their favorite picture. Cody and one other student then were to analyze the picture once again and write another paragraph on it. Both agreed on photograph #4. Cody and his partner came up with a very clever paragraph which improved greatly compared to the first. Before they began writing I observed that they studied the pictures and discussed orally what they wanted to write before trying. Once they had written their paragraph I helped them to edit. This paragraph included character and a setting. There are some misspelled words and capital letters placed where they should not be. That surprised me considering we had edited the rough draft and corrected all misspellings and capitalization errors.

Next piece of visual writing done was of his piece of art. By this point about a week’s worth of instruction had taken place. Due to Cody not being able to express himself through writing I took a dictation. “I see a rectangle, square, and circle and are geometric shapes. The teacher’s face is Ms.

Campbell and it is an organic shape. The tree is making a shadow. The picture was taken at East Alexander Middle School. A picture was taken inside and outside. She looks happy and she is smiling. Mine and Teske’s are the same because we have two pictures on top of each other and have people in it.”

As he described his photograph orally he used many photography terms such as geometric and organic. Also, he did his best to describe every element of the picture he had taken and drawn.

Student: Ruby 7th gradeVisual #2

The same process occurred for Ruby as it did with Cody above when it came to completing the first lesson click! Photography Changes Everything. She too viewed a series of photographs and reflected as to whom and what was taking place in the photographs. As she completed the worksheet (A Story in a Snapshot) she did so with a partner. Due to her struggling ability with written expression, I paired her with another student who could write down what she wanted to say.

In zoning in on only the visual aspect she is able to describe bits and pieces of what she is viewing in the photographs only seeing the most obvious. She lacks being able to look for what is in the background, what kinds of expressions are being shown on the people’s faces, and so on. For example when orally discussing one of the pictures before requiring any writing she responded to photograph #1 by saying, “I see two women standing next to a car and they are in dresses.” She simply could not look deeper. I then asked her to look a second time and told her to really “tear” this picture apart. She didn’t begin to respond right away so I selected another student to name some other things that we had missed. The student instantly responds, “Both of the young women have on cool sunglasses, they are holding blanket, and there lots of other cars in the background as well as trees. If I had to guess I would say they were going on a picnic or going to watch fire works for the 4th of July because that one car has an American Flag on the front the car.” I then asked them look once more at the photograph and write down what they are viewing. Here is what she had written down the second time to photograph 1: twe see woman with glass on and cars-they are broubly sisters and no color (talking about the picture). As you can see no progress was made even after another student pointed out some of other things and even made inferences as to what they had or were going to do. Next I modeled how to put verbal statements into written paragraphs. Keep in my mind I had everything written on the board while using correct grammar and punctuation; partner did not help her with this. Here is what Ruby wrote: two younge women leaning against a car. both are wearing dress, hills and sunglass they are smilling in the picture. They could be at a park.

As mentioned earlier the great thing about the worksheet that went along with this lesson was that it provided questions to get students thinking about the different photographs. It required them to think outside of the box which most EC students struggle with. When Ruby’s group completed the worksheet it showed sign of progress as well as none. She had trouble answering questions like: Why do you think this picture was taken? If you could change something or add something what would it be? She answered questions like that with yes or no. The final piece of this lesson required her to choose her favorite and write a paragraph on it. She chose to do this alone. The photograph she chose was #9. This time she paid close attention to everything around the picture such as the person’s name and the date of when it was taken which she included in her writing. Also, she made reference to the picture being in black and white which showed that it was an older picture. Lastly, she predicted that the baby was on its way home from the hospital and the photographer may be its mom. Before having her write this on chart paper we walked through and edited, but you can see on the final product she still made some capitalization and spelling errors.

Student: Tyler 8th grade Visual # 3

For the first lesson Tyler followed the same process as both Cody and Ruby, although for my 8th grade group I had them write down in complete sentences what they saw in the photographs while predicting what, where, and why. Once they had tried I then modeled the thinking process aloud while also writing these statements in paragraph form on the board. Each photograph he viewed Tyler went into great detail as to what he saw and making inferences based on that. As he wrote he correctly placed periods, but did not always place a capital at the beginning of a sentence or would randomly write a word beginning with a capital letter. When completing the worksheet he was able to answer the questions the best while have had no help. This proved to me he had a high understanding when it came to visualizing art.

The second artifact of focus for Tyler is on the piece he created during the second lesson, A One In Two. Remember that these are double exposure pictures that were cut in half so that the student had to draw the other half. To help with analyzing his artwork I posted a list of questions: What does the image you created have in common with Teske’s photos? How are they different? What is the setting? Identify and locate some sensory details in the setting. Is there a story in this work of art? What polygons are in your masterpiece? Where did you use organic shapes? He is able to answer nearly all of the questions. He began by listing exactly everything that he sees in both the photograph and the drawn picture. He mentions what is seen in the background of both, tells that the falcon shows that he goes to East (East Alexander Middle School), that the painting of the falcon is on a brick wall which is describing the texture. Also, goes on to tell of the different shapes that are seen in the picture. After completing his list he then writes it in paragraph form. His paragraph includes the facial expressions of both pictures, tells that he looks cool on the (meaning it was neat that he had taken a picture of the wall first and his face second and it showed up on the wall) because the falcon looks like it is going to get him. When comparing the photograph to his actual drawing he says that the photograph looks real, but the drawing looks animated. This is what he had written in response to his artwork: I look board and happy at the same time. It looks like a falcon is about to grab me and take me away. But I look perty cool looking by the wall. One looks real and the other looks animated.

Based on both artifacts and informal observations and one-on-one discussions I know that he truly understands what to view and look for in pictures as well as understand that ultimately that will help make inferences about the photographs. I was not surprised that he did not use more photography terms like Cody because he has a hard time memorizing specific words but can give the meaning for it.

Student: Chelsea 6th gradeVisual # 4

I have chosen to focus on a different visual aspect from the second lesson, A Two In One. At the beginning of this lesson students viewed several of Teske’s photographs. This was to introduce students to double exposure and photomontage. As they viewed the pictures I didn’t focus as much on writing in paragraph form as I had with the first lesson. I wanted students to write about: facial expressions, sensory details, mood, setting or settings, etc.

Before discussing the pictures as whole class I had them take a couple of minutes on each picture and write down and describe each. Next students were able to discuss the photographs with a neighbor and then we did so as a class (Think-Share-Pair). Chelsea was able to pick out the pieces I asked for above but was very vague with responses. But this shows great improvement compared to the responses given during the Photography Changes Everything lesson. On that artifact she simply states the characters in the photography and may give a setting or predict what is taking place.

The second artifact of focus is on her art work. She was very creative with her piece creating photomontage instead of a double exposure photograph. She clearly describes the things she sees while also giving characters and a setting. Although she does not have this written down she expressed to me orally how she created her trees from pictures that she had taken of the school building and leaves from the trees and cut those up creating a tree.

Once discussing her picture together she requested everyone create a short story to go along with their pictures. Considering that students of my kind have a hard time with creating things from the imagination I was hesitant, but in the end gave in. I am mentioning this here because she deserves the credit for this idea!

Student: Cody 7th gradeWritten #1

The first artifact of focus is on the story Cody created based on the photographs taken and drawn. All students were required to write a paragraph while including a character, setting, and a short story line. Cody did an outstanding job writing his story. He did include a setting, characters, and short story plot. Once he had completed his rough draft of his story I sat down with and we edited his piece. The main focus was correctly placing a period at the end of his sentence. We have worked a great deal on punctuation and its placement. When going over his story he had misplaced all of his periods randomly placing them throughout. I asked Cody if he knew where to place them and he responded by telling me where ever he had to catch his breath is where it goes. I was stunned especially since we have been working on this since day one. The next step taken was a one-on-one lesson on correctly placing punctuation. After this mini-lesson with Cody I had him go back to his seat and re-read his story and correct his punctuation. When Cody brought his story to me again the second time he had correctly placed all of his periods. We did not correct his spelling or tense mainly because I wanted to focus on one thing at a time. Much improvement was made after our short mini-lesson on punctuation.

The second piece of writing that Cody completed was writing a seven line poem. The format I used help guide all students by telling them to specifically use a noun, adverb or adjective. Cody did have help with this poem because he was required to use a thesaurus. Cody wrote his poem based on two contrasting items. He chose the photograph he had taken that was double exposure and the story he had written, The Ghost. In the beginning I had wanted students to compare and contrast the photograph they had taken versus the one they had drawn. Many of my students were struggling with this so I allowed them to use something from the story they had written. Cody compared and contrasted the face in the photograph to his friend, the camera guy, in the story. Overall, Cody did a great job writing his poem. On line 5 he was supposed to use adverbs ending in –ly which he failed to do, but did correctly relate it the line 7’s noun. Once again I did not focus on spelling. I have noticed when I tell students that spelling does not matter they are able to write freely.

Student: Tyler 8th gradeWritten #2

Tyler like Cody also wrote a story to go with his picture and a poem that is comparing and contrasting two things. Tyler also struggled with correctly placing his punctuation. He had many run-on sentences throughout his short story. I decided to do the same mini-lesson with Tyler as I had done with Cody. After the mini-lesson on punctuation he then went back to edit his story once again. Tyler was able to correctly place his periods throughout his story. His story did include a character, a setting, and a short story plot. He did a great job creating a story based on the art piece he had created. Throughout he wrote in the correct tense and misspelled few words.

The poem he created was based on the art piece he had made. He compared and contrasted the falcon to himself. Tyler followed the same procedure as Cody did when creating his poem. I was very impressed at how well he used the thesaurus. On his own he thought of things that falcons do. When it came time for adverbs he thought of words that could have –ly added to them. For example he said that falcons are swift when flying so on line 3 (adverbs) he wrote swiftly. Also, while using the thesaurus he looked up the words he could not spell. Overall, Tyler did a great job progressing from not understanding punctuation to writing a poem on his own while using a thesaurus.

Student: Chelsea 6th gradeWritten # 3

Chelsea followed the same process as Cody and Tyler. Her picture was different from most other student artwork. Instead of creating a double exposure photograph, she made a photomontage. As she wrote she included all the components that were required: character, setting, and short story plot. She too struggled with misplacing punctuation. For Chelsea all it took was having her simply proof read her story and she was able to correctly place punctuation marks. The next thing we worked on was spelling. First I had her sound out the word and how she thought it should be spelt and if she still could not spell it correctly I would spell it. Chelsea’s biggest struggle as a writer is staying on topic and writing ideas in sequential order.

Chelsea also wrote the same type of poem as Cody and Tyler. She wrote her poem based off of the photomontage she had created. The two nouns that are being compared and contrasted are a falcon and a flying bus. Also, she correctly picked adjectives to go with those nouns. She did not choose adverbs that ended in –ly but the words she did use worked well with the poem. While writing the poem she did ask for some help, but very little. She was determined to complete this assignment on her own.

Tyler

The Big bird

I was pickt up by a big bird. I looked up at it and it and it looks like a falcon. It tok me to its nest. I was scard. I thot it was going to eat me right then. I jump out of its nest and I ran to the wall in the woods. It few trod me and hit the wall. It killed its slof.

Cody 11-19-2010

The Ghost

We was at East Alexander Middle School. My farnd had a crme and he took a picth of the grand. Wen he

got home he saw a face in the grand. He cont wont to tell me wen we got to school. He was happe to teel

me wats was in the pitch. We was terin to fitr it out but it was hard to frater it out.

The Gloomy Day at Schoolby: Chelsea Nicole Flowers

Once there was a falcon and a flying bus. They were at school. It was nice and sunny when they got home. They said they were going to the park. But right when they walked in the school door it started to rain. It rained all day. THEY WERE MAD!!! So the next day they went to the park.