Dad's Coming, 1873, oil on wood,
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Winslow Homer
1. Did your colleagues notice what you noticed in the painting?
Yes. My colleagues noticed everything that I noticed. We all observed a young mother with her children waiting on a shore. We observed the young boy waiting with anticipation on his father. The shore seem to us to be a fishing dock or harbor and therefore Dad must be a fisherman. We all felt that Dad must have been gone for a while and that maybe the family had been waiting there for him for a while.
2. Did they notice details or offer insights you had not considered? How did you respond to these?
Yes. My colleague, Lacey, said "Mom appears to have started to doubt or give up on waiting with her gaze straying from the sea, she has started to turn away. Realizing she now has two mouths to feed alone." Based on VTS I remained neutral even though I thought it was a great insight. I rephrased her comment back to her and all of the participants.
3. How did you feel about facilitating this discussion and what did you learn from the experience?
Initially I felt apprehensive about doing this practice with my colleagues because it felt so elementary. Once we began that apprehension quickly went away and the discussion flowed. From this experience I have learned that even with my high school students the VTS questions are still going to be applicable which is something that I was worried about.
4. Were you surprised by anything related to this discussion?
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the VTS lesson and discussion. It wasn't something I was looking forward to doing. Because the process is so open-ended and neutral it really was relaxing and enjoyable for me as the teacher and the participants. This is something that I as a teacher need to do more often with my students so I'm really glad that I'm taking this course this semester.
5. What would you like to work on in your next facilitation and how might you do that?
I want to work on acknowledging responses. I feel like I need to be more natural at being neutral with student responses and rephrasing. I was never aware of it but I must have been strongly guiding student discussions in my classes prior to this.
-Comments on feedback from participants during practice lesson:
The participants in my practice lesson were very positive and did offer a little feedback. One colleague commented about the fact that I needed to pause for longer and she is right. I struggle with the amount of time to let there be silence in a discussion. Another participant suggested that I practice rephrasing so that I am more comfortable with the process.
Participants: Lauren Peters, Lana Peppers, Lacey Jones, and Ann Turley
Hi Lindsay!
ReplyDeleteIm Amy! (I just wrote you this awesome comment and it got deleted!!!! UGH) Anyhow, Hello! You and I are starting late on this class, so its fun to read your blog! Great job!
I am unclear in this process, as to whether or not we are to divulge the title of the piece at the start of the questions? When I did my practice lesson with my peers, I did not reveal the title and they came up with a broad range of answers based on experiences and then as we tied them together more, they wanted to know the title. It was as if they were looking for a "right" answer" as if there were such a thing.... The title did not help them much so it was not a big deal...HA!
Do you feel the responses from you colleagues might have been different without knowing the title?
Great job!
Hi Amy. I'm new to this and unclear on the process as well. The title was present when the image was displayed but I did not read the title out loud to my peers and I don't recall there being a discussion about the title directly so I don't know how much influence it had. Although I'm sure that it did. This is a great question and one that I need to ask before I do VTS with my class again.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with my kindred intellect concerning the VTS sessions so far. Most of my VTS groups have been with my family and daughters. Although I must say that is one cute child you have there on your shoulder.
ReplyDelete