Cindy's Response

The lesson Marie had prepared focused in the Elements and Principles of Design, using an interactive website to enhance it. Marie's description of the sequence of events correlates exactly to my notes; I can add a few more details she left out. Marie accessed students prior knowledge at the beginning of the lesson as she explained the major 'theme' we would be exploring. She explained that she would be with the class until January, and had the students count the months from Sept. to Jan.; to give them a general idea of the length of time we would be working together.

She mentioned we would be studying 'rivers' and asked the children what they knew (accessing prior knowledge). The students mentioned that they had recently learned that there is a big river close to Philadelphia (the Delaware) and another smaller river that feeds into it (the Schuykill). They knew that Wm. Penn liked this location and decided to build a city there.

She then asked who lived in this area when Wm. Penn made this decision, and the students mentioned that 'the Lenape Indians' were there at the time.

She mentioned that not only would she be working on art lessons with them, but also on Literacy lessons, asking them if they could tell her what "literacy" means. The students answered "reading and writing".

She then explained that she would like to know what they already knew about the elements of art. She explained how they would fill in a word from the word bank on the test that fit each definition. As she slowly explained each word and definition, it became apparent that the words and definitions were above their level of understanding. We then put the pre-test on the overhead and went over each definition, explaining the definition in third grade terminology. She waited at the end of each definition to make sure each student had chosen a word that they felt might fit the best.

When this pre-assessment was complete, she handed out their journals and colored pencils. She projected the website on the board. The website demonstrated the technique of making lines with the words, "thick, thin, straight, curved, broken,wavy"and the students in turn drew in their journals a sample of each. Noticing that some were also labeling their lines, she suggested that all do the same, saying,"like we make diagrams in science".

The next section of the website illustrated the difference between 'organic' and 'geometric'. Marie followed the same procedure here, with the students listening and viewing first, then drawing a sample and labeling it.

The website provided 2 samples of artwork that contained these elements, and Marie pointed out elemnets and verbally quizzed them on what kind of line/shape the artist used. Since they had already done their own samples, they excelled at this and seemed quite fluent in identification of the taught elements. At this point, it was time for lunch dismissal.