Yearly, on Kindergarten Preview Day, I experience many emotions over how to communicate and present information about Kindergarten Art to parents in a short presentation to 3-5 rotating groups, with an activity for the little ones that welcomes and engages all participants. Last year, I created a slide presentation, set out project examples left by past Kinders, and placed paper and drawing tools on the tables. Still, I felt this was not an effective showcase of our Creekmoor Community, and did not include information from multiple sources.
This year, I planned a welcome committee of 4th grade students to create the entire presentation, with welcome posters, table top activities, video messages, and a student created slide presentation using photos of Kinders in action from my weebly art site. I realized immediately that time was of the essence, with only 3 class periods to accomplish this goal. The Teacher Guide was instrumental in organizing and revising instructional strategies and process:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f3PPUAw9DfWDcDRrujGOcMQcweQdnOxRWd9w1ZMrZJQ/edit?usp=sharing
as well as the Project Overview handout. Based on the group configurations and overall project success and assessments, I feel the handout was sufficient for information and guidance for students to jump right in. In fact, I could hear and feel the energy and excitement before I finished the handout reading. Most students had already decided on their top two group choices. In the future, I may scale down the content to communicate the same ideas with less wording. The handout can be viewed at the following link:
docs.google.com/document/d/10IcEZY_o_y7sGNtQVcTYKa1fXB4AnXHk1Ys6xQNGQd0/edit?usp=sharing
The preparation and organization was crucial to facilitating and assessing two 4th grade classes of 5 groups for 3 consecutive art classes. Because my ipad was in use, I assessed quickly from observation using a notepad for specific followups. An additional ipad would have been extremely helpful to me for not only assessing but to photograph student progress. The Video Producers did not stay close, and I was thankful for my Coordinators who located them so that I could review their progress and borrow their ipad!
Our 4th graders have experienced several PBL activities and fun in art this year, though this project gave them a great sense of ownership, community and pride. Students were challenged to solve creative problems to communicate a welcome message to an authentic audience, and collaborate with a team to meet their goals. Students had a choice and a voice in this project, and presented their work to an audience. The 4th graders expressed a connection to next year's Kindergarteners as mentors of Kinders in 5th grade, and this insight facilitated their interest in building future relationships. The Video Producer messages included a song about Creekmoor, and a group welcome message placing equal importance on verbal and nonverbal communication. Be prepared to smile when you view them at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9uwhb_3OCrURm1IdmRjNkpFblYxZmNSLVhJUF9yOWs2ajgw/view?usp=sharing
and also https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9uwhb_3OCrUWkZiaGxqQ1lHZmllM2ZySVpqei1xN1NjUXpr/view?usp=sharing
Collaboration extended beyond groups in one class to specific groups in both classes, specifically the SPCs and the NADs. The students exchanged newcomer design activities between classes, and the SPCs communicated outside of art the progress of searching for pictures, manipulating images and grouping them by theme, writing text, using elements of art to design slides, and building the progression of visuals for the slide presentation which can be viewed at: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10GsmR1wSEuP6fFsBSECY6nN88cOwDuIc26ewwit5clE/edit?usp=sharingdocs.google.com/presentation/d/10GsmR1wSEuP6fFsBSECY6nN88cOwDuIc26ewwit5clE/edit?usp=sharing
As an art instructor with a minimal working knowledge of technology and self taught application, I am proud of the students and feel a little empowered to take more steps to integrate technology in the art room with confidence. I have enjoyed the freedom of instruction with personalized learning and abundant choice. This project opened my eyes and heart to the power of choice and voice, engagement and motivation, and interpretation of creative expression!
Overall, students succeeded in reaching and in some cases exceeding assessment goals for process and product. The revision, review, reflection and celebration were such an important part of this project for students. In the future, I will include time for more celebration. I will extend communication with 4th grade teachers and our school community the process and product of our learning experience. I am also looking forward to improving future welcome committees with regard to assessment, project time allowance, instruction strategies for efficient and effective communication with students, and advance preparation with tools and resources.