Apology Poems

Cindy had the children complete their "Apology to a Leaf" poems and copy them onto the iron transfers of their leaf rubbings and then mounted and hung them in the hallway!

 Some of them show off the students' new thesaurus skills for learning new vocabulary and making writing more interesting. Take a look:

 Alex: "To My Poor Leaf"- I confess for ripping you in half then breaking your spine. I was wrong because I was bored sitting on the ground at my soccer game. I'm sorry and I tried to put you back together with bandaids.

 Hailey: "Sorry to my leaf"- I am penitent for plunging into a pile of you and ripping you apart. I'm so apologetic, please forgive me. I was bored on a fall day and I saw a leaf. I picked it up and crunched you. I saw a pile of leaves and jumped in them.

 Laia: "To my leaf"- I ripped the leaf into pieces. I was wrong to rip you in pieces. I ripped you because I wanted to make an Art Project. I apologize.

 Daniella: "Sorry Leaf"- Please forgive me for pulling you off the tree. I just could not help myself. You were so pretty.

Emily: "Fall Leaves"- I am sorry I stepped on you and ripped and crunched you in my hand. I apologize. I stepped on you. I was wrong. I crunched you because it was a neat sound.

Day 4: Furtraders Narrative

Cindy 's writing with art lesson

Today Cindy presented our lesson centered around narrative writing and I took the debriefer/observer role. It's always fun to watch Cindy teach because she has a great rapport with her students and she's very expressive. She began my reminding the students of the mini-lessons they had worked on for planning a narrative. To mark how the narrative writing is different she asked the kids what kind of writing we had done last time (foursquare! response, informational). She wrote informational and narrative on the board and made sure the kids understood the distinction. She emphasized that when we write we want to make the reader interested and involved, and even entertained.

We passed out sketchbooks and pencils. Cindy passed out booksets about the artist Van Gogh. She said "Pretend these pictures are illustrations in a book, and we have to figure out the problem/solutions of the story". She asked if they knew what an illustration is. She asked the kids to glance through the book, but we weren't reading it today, just looking at the pictures. Some kids recognized Starry, Starry Night from art class. Cindy thought we should have our main idea umbrellas for our elements of art to help us talk, so I quickly drew them on the board.

elements of art main idea umbrellas

First we looked at a self-portrait of Van Gogh. "Does he look happy? Why not?" One boy, Justin, came up with a problem- he must have asked his girlfriend to marry him but she turned him down and now he was sad. This made us adults laugh thinking about poor jilted Van Gogh!!



looking at Van Gogh for problem/solution

 The next page contained a series of black and white reproductions of prints and drawings. "Ooh, these are in black and white..." (They're SKETCHES! was called out). As the kid looked at each image Cindy encouraged them to start off saying "I see..." to describe the scene and then asked them to imagine a problem and solution. She tried to give each student a chance and tried to pull out the quieter kids by calling on them directly. Many creative responses were supplied by the students and they seemed quite excited thinking up new stories from the pictures.

After a few rounds, Cindy asked "Do we all imagine the same story from the same picture?" (response: Nooooo, we all have different stories). "So when we go to a museum do we just walk by each painting and top for a few seconds, uhhuh... whatever...ok... passing by each one? What should you do?" (response: you should stop and make up a story). Some kids had a hard time getting started, and Cindy said "Well, tell me about it... first tell me what you SEE". And when a kid kept continuing with more problems and no solutions she said, "When a reader reads a problem and there's no solution, the reader gets sad or confused, but if you give a solution..." (response: Then the reader really GETS it!).

We came upon a very dark blue image, and Cindy said "What time of day is this? How do you know? Sometimes colors can give us a MOOD". She wasn't sure if she should bring this part of art elements up, but it was a very natural time to do so. I think Cindy knows a lot more about art then she thinks she does, and she led the discussion about the paintings very naturally, using the art vocabulary we had previously covered with the kids. The kids had so much fun making up problems and solutions that what was originally expected to be a preliminary exercise, became the main activity.
It was clear that the students had the concept, so we moved on to the image of the Furtraders on the Missouri. We passed out a new foursquare and copy of the painting for the kids to glue in their sketchbooks. Cindy demonstrated how to glue a page into the book since some had difficulty.
Cindy reviewed which information the kids should put in the boxes:
"First thing is..." (Look at the painting!)
" and then get the"... (information! the Setting! the characters!)... "and maybe the mood"
"then you'll invent a problem and solution"
She said, "Remember what Ms Elcin told us about looking at a painting- find the colors, shapes, foreground, and background. Like, what do you notice about this boat?" (response: Symmetry! It's straight.)
"What kind of a boat is it?" (Canoe) "Would you want to ride in that boat? How does the water look?"
"Let's imagine who these characters are.. friends, enemies, brothers, criminals?"


filling in a new foursquare

 At this point the kids started writing and Cindy and I roamed the room, offering tips, helping kids work out their ideas, and passing out final draft paper. We ran a little short on time, but Cindy said she'd allow them to finish their stories after lunchtime.


writing the good copy

 Before we finished, I wanted to inform them of our next activity, so I showed them a map screenprint I'd done on fabric, and said we were going to start talking about rivers, which was why we chose a river picture to write about today.

I think we have a good energy and cooperation going. The students seem very engaged and I'm hearing a lot of our art vocabulary from them. I'm currently thinking about what I can do about our river background collaborative piece that might connect to Cindy's geology unit somehow. Do you talk about strata?

3rd Lesson; Cindy's blog

This was the first lesson that the students had to use writing skills they have learned in the past 3 weeks of school. We have been VERY busy, frontloading the students with the writing skills that are necessary to be able to write informational pieces (using paragraphs, organized by graphic organizer-the four square). The writing mini-lessons I have taught and have given the students practice with are
1) organize your writing ideas (the four square)
2) use sensory words (still at beginning level)
3) follow Main Idea and Details format
4) use Signal Words to help your reader understand what you write
5) Use a "hook" at the beginning to make your reader want to read more
(I always suggest using a question as an introduction)
6) write a conclusion so your writing doesn't end in "mid-air" (a question here works well, also)
7) Use complete sentences and end marks (punctuation)

Marie's lesson provided them the perfect opportunity to practice some/all of these writing skills! We were very impressed that the students started to write directly into their graphic organizer (four-square) without too much confusion. Beginning writers often don't know how to"begin", Marie did an excellent job of putting "starters" in each square to get them going. They wrote very insightful responses to "The Gleaners", and are beginning to look at paintings in a new way. I'm thrilled that they are responding to art works and learning writing skills simultaneously!

The next lesson will be a different writing goal as they respond to a painting by creating a narrative, which must include a Problem/Solution. Let's hope it also goes as well!

2nd Lesson

Marie does such a thorough job in objectively describing exactly what occurred during the lesson! Sequentially, there is not much more for me to add. The debriefing notes that I took during the lesson correspond exactly to her account. I will add "teacher" comments that Marie may or may not be aware of that she is doing as she teaches. Marie has a natural "teacher" ability to intuitively assess student knowledge, which she may not be aware of!

Marie began the lesson again by tapping the students prior knowledge from the previous lesson, and reviewing it with the students. The initial response to "What 2 elements did we learn about the last time I was here?" was students answering random details about the elements. They hadn't organized the elements into 2 "main" elements in their minds so they answered random words which seemed to correctly answer her question to them such as thick lines, geometric, curvy lines, organic, straight lines.

These answers showed that they had absorbed the information, but hadn't organized it in a way that they would be able to access it. I suggested the graphic organizer of using umbrellas for the main idea and the drops under each for the details. I drew the umbrella for LINES and added the drops of straight, curvy, thick and so on; then another for SHAPES with the drops labeled organic and geometric. We have used this graphic organizer before to organize information in a logical way that the kids understand. Marie caught right on and used the same strategy for COLOR, adding 2 drops for primary and secondary, then putting smaller drops under each naming the specific colors. She continuously checked for understanding as and I rotated around the room looking at the student's sketchbooks. Again, the referencing to the literary concept that the students will be exposed to repeatedly, Main Idea and Details!

The lesson then moved on to The Gleaners. Marie's account of this is so thorough, I will just add some things from my notes that she didn't mention. Whenever opportunity arises, I am sure to connect the disciplines so the students are aware that the subjects they learn about are connected. We calculated the years, we referred to the geographic location of France, we connected to student experiences- he had 9 children, he liked to draw the area around where he lived, and so on. The painting we were viewing was "real"; we compared it to a Non-fiction piece of writing, because it was something he "really saw". Marie asked what kind of writing we would compare it to if it were something he had made up, and they quickly replied, "Fiction!"

She then compared artists to writers in that they first sketch (showed the sketch), then paint; whereas the writer first does a rough draft, then writes. He changed his mind, like writers do, etc. She asked if the Main Idea was the same in both, students understood and said yes. She then reviewed the elements of art learned that day, as it was close to dismissal. The final note I added was
ARTIST--Organizer-- SKETCH
WRITER--Organizer--4- square

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.