Blog TOPIC #11 Lesson 5

William Klein
Gun 2, Little Italy
1955

Assessing Engagement Learning

• Student willingness to participate in this discussion was great. I think having a good image is half of the battle but I had also spoke with them after the last VTS discussion when the class was split and only one group had really participated with any effort. I let the class know that I wasn’t going to stop doing VTS just because they didn’t want to do it and I reminded them that there were much worse things that I could be asking them do to other than VTS. I also made them aware that I had invited our Principle to sit in on our VTS lessons for the rest of the semester which is true. He wasn’t able to make it for this lesson but I hope that he does at some point. Yes, student willingness to participate has changed over time. It has had its ups and downs all along the way but there has certainly been vast improvement.  
• I think the better question would be, what didn’t students notice about the artwork? This was truly a great discussion and I was really proud of the depth of their observations. I will do my best to just hit some of the highlights from the discussion so that I’m not writing pages. My students had several scenarios as to what could be happening. I heard that it could be a “hold up”, that they could be “just playing”, that it could be a “racial dispute” or that it could be “staged for the photograph”. All of the students were in agreement that the figure holding the gun was a woman. Several came to this conclusion because of her clothing. They thought she seemed to be wearing a dress or a skirt and noticed that she was wearing bracelets and jewelry. My students mentioned several times that the children could be related maybe brother and sisters or even cousins. It was also suggested that the figure with the gun could be their mother or their nanny. There was a lot of discussion about the facial expressions of the children in the photograph. The words "goofy" and "weird" were used to describe the boy by several students because of way his eyes are cut towards the figure with the gun and because of his awkward smile. One student said that the boy reminded her of a ventriloquist puppet because of the expression on his face. She said that the boy looked "creepy" to her and ventriloquist puppets "creeped" her out. One student noted that the boy's expression looked forced and that's why it seemed "weird". Another student noticed in contrast that the girls' expressions looked genuine and therefore maybe they didn't know about the gun. It was stated by several students that the children in the photograph didn't look scared and there were several reasons brought up for this. One said that maybe the children are so used to guns that they weren't phased by it, another said that maybe the girls didn't even know the gun was there and the photograph was taken before the boys face changed to show fear or worry and yet another student suggested that the boy was playing and pretending to be a cowboy and backed up this observation with the print on the boys shirt. Many students also noticed the hands of the figure with the gun and boy. There were many scenarios suggested here too. It was suggested that the boy was being forced to take something or give up something. It was also suggested that the figure with the gun was holding onto the boy to keep him from getting away. The student's also commented several times on the clothing of the children and the fact that they seemed dirty and even noticed their teeth being dirty and missing. One student suggested that this photo could have been taken during the Great Depression because of the way the children looked. Another topic of the discussion was the people walking by in the background. Initially students were saying that the people walking by weren't phased by what was happening or that they weren't noticing what was happening because the children were smiling. Later in the discussion a student suggested that maybe the people walking by did notice but were unsure about what to do. Lastly, and this was a first in any of the VTS discussions that we have done and maybe what I'm most proud of them for was that the students began discussing the statement that the photographer was trying to make with the photograph. This came about when the students were suggesting that this photograph was "staged". A student suggested that the photographer was making a statement about the oppression between adults and children. Another student thought that the photographer was making a statement about "murdering innocence". Also students were making observations about what the photographer did intentionally in the photograph or how the photographer had to set up the photograph. One student said that she thought that the photographer intentionally cropped out the woman's head so to hide her face. And another student noticed that the photo was taken at eye level with the children and suggested was done so intentionally. 
• The students were mostly interpreting their observations. And yes they were offering evidence to support their interpretations without prompting. I found myself having to prompt them much less often for evidence during this discussion. 
• Student interaction was very respectful during the discussion. They allowed one another to speak without talking over one another and they listened and payed attention to each others comments. Yes, the students are linking their responses to each others and they are disagreeing very respectfully and by doing so the discussion seems to grow very naturally and it just seems to flow. The students feel very free to speak their thoughts and I think that is a direct result of the atmosphere of the discussion that we have created. 
• I think that the students are really starting to see the benefit in VTS and that it is applicable in our class and that the discussion does have value and that they are learning more about photography through these discussions. 

Reflective Practice

• This discussion felt great. I was nervous going into it because of the image but after the first minute I knew that I had chosen a great image for my students and that they were very engaged. I have learned several things with this discussion. The first is to always trust my first instinct. I knew when I saw this image again that it would be great for my students even though it was a bit controversial. Secondly, I confirmed that when you hold your students to higher expectations and standards they will rise to those expectations. (although I've had many classroom experiences where this didn't work so beautifully)
• Yes, the prescribed behaviors and questions for the VTS are discussions are becoming very easy for me to use. I did not omit or change anything. 
• Yes, I was able to scaffold vocabulary through paraphrasing. I think that the teacher in me does this without thinking but when I was making a conscious effort to do so I was definitely using a higher lever of vocabulary than the students were when I was paraphrasing. One way that I can reinforce this is when students make statements that are linking to another statement I can repeat the richer vocabulary from the previous statement so that students are being exposed to the vocabulary repeatedly. The surprise during this discussion was that the students began to think about the photograph and what the photographer's intentions were with the photograph. Moving forward I will certainly chose images that will push the level of discussion and encourage thoughts of the photographer.  

 Planning for the Future 

• As I mentioned above, planning for the future I want to focus on choosing an image that will push my students in their level of discussion. They have grown so much but I really think that they can continue to grow in the depth of their discussion. 
• I think that I can accomplish that by choosing an image that does make a statement in some way and I do think that with my students that a little bit of edge or controversy helps the discussion.