October 3, 2013
Mike's Lesson
A Brief Overview
Mike started out his lesson talking about family, and that he is “a firm believer that we create our own family”. I believe this was an interesting yet considering approach to the concept of family. In this period and culture, there are many children that do not have a mother or father, or possibly they have two parents of the same gender, or possibly, like Mike said, they have significant problems at home. There are many issues that could arise and when bringing up this issue, however Mike just brought it up that it is HIS belief that we create our own family and continued back into the lesson. Asking us to share what caring actions we depicted in our last projects, he reviewed Katie’s lesson, and went straight into the artist.
The choice of his artist was fitting as well. Carrie Mae Weems creates many different works of art that challenge and question different issues. He explains a little bit about her work and explains that she describes her work as more about humanity and what it means to be a person, rather than a specific race or gender. I will say that he says the word “cultural inequality” and explains it, however right after that, he says the word “gender biases” and does not. Going into the works of Weems, we really slowed down and looked at the photos and I think he was able to get the answers he was looking for because he was asking the right questions. Mike then referred to Debs lesson, which I thought was interesting. I hadn’t thought to link our projects to one another, besides our partners. He made solid connections to Deb’s lesson and linked it straight back to his own lesson. Looking through his photos, he made sure to keep restating the vocabulary words he had planned for this lesson, gesture and expression, and did not stray to different terms or ideas.
Moving into the demonstration, I noticed that there was no technical objective set in place. When we were looking at the images by Weems, gesture and expression were stressed, however when we got into the demonstration, those words were never used. I think that Mike was trying to get a different start to a family portrait than the typical “Mom, Dad, and Me”, however when he started drawing the suggestion dog, expression and gesture were not applied to the demo, and I think a lot of students would have failed to incorporate that if it were not to be shown in the demonstration.
As we were working, Mike was walking around asking questions about who and what we were drawing, which was a great way to get us thinking and on task. As we shared our works, he asked for volunteers to explain who and what we chose to depict in our family and why we chose to depict them. Many times he mentioned how expression was used and helped show that we cared about one another, which linked everything back to the big idea. At one point while we were all sharing, I was working on my drawing because I was jotting down notes and got a late start. Instead of saying, “You need to stop drawing and listen now!”, he simply came up behind me and said something like, “Josh, you just don’t want to stop working, do you?” I thought this was a great way to get someone on task without victimizing them.
The choice of his artist was fitting as well. Carrie Mae Weems creates many different works of art that challenge and question different issues. He explains a little bit about her work and explains that she describes her work as more about humanity and what it means to be a person, rather than a specific race or gender. I will say that he says the word “cultural inequality” and explains it, however right after that, he says the word “gender biases” and does not. Going into the works of Weems, we really slowed down and looked at the photos and I think he was able to get the answers he was looking for because he was asking the right questions. Mike then referred to Debs lesson, which I thought was interesting. I hadn’t thought to link our projects to one another, besides our partners. He made solid connections to Deb’s lesson and linked it straight back to his own lesson. Looking through his photos, he made sure to keep restating the vocabulary words he had planned for this lesson, gesture and expression, and did not stray to different terms or ideas.
Moving into the demonstration, I noticed that there was no technical objective set in place. When we were looking at the images by Weems, gesture and expression were stressed, however when we got into the demonstration, those words were never used. I think that Mike was trying to get a different start to a family portrait than the typical “Mom, Dad, and Me”, however when he started drawing the suggestion dog, expression and gesture were not applied to the demo, and I think a lot of students would have failed to incorporate that if it were not to be shown in the demonstration.
As we were working, Mike was walking around asking questions about who and what we were drawing, which was a great way to get us thinking and on task. As we shared our works, he asked for volunteers to explain who and what we chose to depict in our family and why we chose to depict them. Many times he mentioned how expression was used and helped show that we cared about one another, which linked everything back to the big idea. At one point while we were all sharing, I was working on my drawing because I was jotting down notes and got a late start. Instead of saying, “You need to stop drawing and listen now!”, he simply came up behind me and said something like, “Josh, you just don’t want to stop working, do you?” I thought this was a great way to get someone on task without victimizing them.
Reflections
Mike tackled a tough issue that can be very sensitive, however I believe he handled and delivered the lesson quite well. There are many times, around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day especially, where children are expected to make things and write things about their mothers and fathers when in reality, their family might be dysfunctional or ultimately unsafe. We have mentioned this in class that if this is the case, we should be the ones that are creating a safe environment for them, and I believe Mike was doing this.
I would say that the lesson would have to be geared towards older children. Not just because of the sophisticated terminology used in various segments throughout the lesson, but the tone in general. I felt as though I was in a lecture for a while, and although the supplemental information was great, to the point, and even understandable for that age, the way it was presented would have been disastrous in an elementary setting. I would just have more open-ended questions that get the students to talk more, or perhaps find a small clip where they can hear her talk, of course something they would understand.
I would say that the lesson would have to be geared towards older children. Not just because of the sophisticated terminology used in various segments throughout the lesson, but the tone in general. I felt as though I was in a lecture for a while, and although the supplemental information was great, to the point, and even understandable for that age, the way it was presented would have been disastrous in an elementary setting. I would just have more open-ended questions that get the students to talk more, or perhaps find a small clip where they can hear her talk, of course something they would understand.