October 1, 2013
Katie's Lesson
A Brief Overview
Katie has a great presence with the class. She gathered everyone to the middle of the room to read the book and asked if everyone could see from where they were sitting and even had someone move in closer because it was clear that they could not see from where they were sitting. As she read the book, her voice was inviting, yet it was clear and loud enough for everyone to hear. She asked many times throughout the book what the different foods were that each child liked. Before the book reading, we went over fore ground and background and were told to keep those terms in mind while she was reading the book, and a few times she asked us what was going on in both the foreground and background, reinforcing those concepts. As the book went on the children try to make their mother breakfast in bed, which she added was a very caring thing to do, reinforcing the big idea. The children end up making a mess and throw it all in the oven, which they forget is still on. Katie then asked us all what we thought was going to happen, which was a great way to get different opinions and interpretations out in the open. After the book reading, she went over a few pictures from the book reinforcing foreground and background, however she did not explain so much what was happening in these images, which I believe the caring actions in each picture could have better reinforced her big idea.
She then moved into the demonstration and asked the class what they thought a caring action would be and how they would draw that. She asked us what we could put in the foreground and background. We gave her the suggestion to help someone cross the road. She drew the example fairly fast and told us we could go back to ours seat and get started on our own ideas. I believe she should have taught us at least one technical skill to make things appear closer or farther back in space. My suggestion would have been either overlapping, or line value and size. Younger children might not be able to comprehend overlapping, however explaining that objects you draw darker and larger appear closer to you and objects you draw lighter and smaller appear farther away from you.
As we were all working, she walked around asking basically everyone what they were doing for their action and what they were including in their foreground and background. I personally did not want to make people, and I asked her if I could make a moose instead and she agreed. She asked me what the Moose was going to be doing which was a smart thing to do specifically with children, just to make sure they are still following the project outlines.
When we were sharing our projects, Katie found a unique way to present what we had drawn. She had volunteers come up and perform their caring action with a partner and then the rest of the class was to guess what the action was suppose to be. I thought this was a great way for kids to get up and do something, but also a great way for different perspectives to surface. However, the pictures were a little left out in this process, and not too much was said about the foreground and background that was stressed so much during the reading.
She then moved into the demonstration and asked the class what they thought a caring action would be and how they would draw that. She asked us what we could put in the foreground and background. We gave her the suggestion to help someone cross the road. She drew the example fairly fast and told us we could go back to ours seat and get started on our own ideas. I believe she should have taught us at least one technical skill to make things appear closer or farther back in space. My suggestion would have been either overlapping, or line value and size. Younger children might not be able to comprehend overlapping, however explaining that objects you draw darker and larger appear closer to you and objects you draw lighter and smaller appear farther away from you.
As we were all working, she walked around asking basically everyone what they were doing for their action and what they were including in their foreground and background. I personally did not want to make people, and I asked her if I could make a moose instead and she agreed. She asked me what the Moose was going to be doing which was a smart thing to do specifically with children, just to make sure they are still following the project outlines.
When we were sharing our projects, Katie found a unique way to present what we had drawn. She had volunteers come up and perform their caring action with a partner and then the rest of the class was to guess what the action was suppose to be. I thought this was a great way for kids to get up and do something, but also a great way for different perspectives to surface. However, the pictures were a little left out in this process, and not too much was said about the foreground and background that was stressed so much during the reading.
Reflections
I thought that this lesson had a great big idea for this age group. Whether it is kindergarten or fourth grade, young children must constantly be reminded to do caring things for one another. I thought this would be a great way to get the kids to know one another and see what kinds of nice things they do, but also for a teacher to get to know their students. The only things I would have changed throughout the lesson would have been to add on skill to depict objects closer and farther away, depending on the age group and to gather the class together during the critique and have more of a discussion about some of the choices that were made in the drawings and hitting those key terms a bit more.