Transcript Ten Lessons Focus Assignment Final - AMcGhee

Elliot Eisner’s
“Ten Lessons
the Arts Teach”
By: Allison McGhee
Plan
• For my experience with the children, I am using Lesson #7 of
Elliot Eisner’s “Ten Lessons the Arts Teach”.
• The words of this lesson are, ‘The arts teach students to think
through and within a material. All art forms employ some
means through which images become real.”
• The focus is to work with a small group of four children, set a
familiar book to music, and then transfer their musical ideas
onto paper.
Implement
• I activated my plan by asking A,D,P, and C to join me at the reading
area of the classroom to share the story, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by
Eric Carle. The children are familiar with this book, as many of them
have previously read it to me throughout my time at my field site. I
used the picture cards I borrowed from my mentor teacher to actively
engage the children while reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
• All four children knew every word in this story. I began to sing the
book with the children, but stopped singing after a few pages and let
the children sing on their own. This worked perfectly as they finished
singing the book together.
Implement
• After we finished the story, I asked the children, “What was your
favorite part of the story?” A replied, “The purple cat! Cause I like cats
and my favorite color is purple.” C replied, “The teacher, the teacher!”
• Next, I explained to the children that they were going to draw a selfportrait or a picture of themselves using only a black marker on white
paper. Each child created a self-portrait and signed his or her name on
the drawing. My focus child, C, wrote his name sideways on what
would be his stomach in his drawing.
• Next, I asked the children, “What do you see?” Then, I had each child
draw what they saw using white paper and colored markers.
Observe
• The children responded:
“I see a purple cat cause purple is my favorite color!”- A
“I see you Miss Allison! We are going on a field trip to the mall!”
“Can you help me write that please Miss Allison?”- C
“I see a blue horse cause I like the blue horse.”- P
“I see a gray wolf!” “Can you help me spell that please?”- D
Interpret
• I began to see that the children developed an
understanding of the concepts of repeated patterns and
predictable text as they were able to sing the words
and phrases of the book together as a group.
• They understood that a book can be put to music. The
children loved singing along and continued even
without me.
• All of the children loved the idea of drawing and
writing about an idea or object that they “could see.”
Revisit
• We looked and talked about the work they did on Monday and I asked the
children, “What do you like the best about your drawings?”
• A pointed to her drawing and responded by saying, “I used a yellow
crayon to draw the cat and then colored it in with a purple marker.”
• Next, I asked the children, “What animal would you add to the book?”
• C responded, “A black bat!” D said, “A gray wolf!”
• Finally, I had the children use their handwriting skills to finish their
musical books. On the first page, the children wrote their first name twice
on the sentence strip. On the second page, the children wrote what they
saw on the sentence strip.
• Finally, C and A asked if they could add color and
other details to their drawings from Monday. I said,
“Of course!” and gave them colored markers.
Now I Understand
• Now I understand that children at this age become excited about topics for which
the teacher shows enthusiasm, just as I showed interest in reading and writing
about what I saw around me. Our shared enjoyment transferred to their drawings
and demonstrated a conscious effort to complete the activity to the best of their
ability.
• Now I understand that children at this age focus on making their drawings specific
and explainable. The children recalled a “storyline” or used a “past memory” to
construct a drawing that responded to the “What do you see” prompt.
• Now I understand that children learn by doing, involving, and creating with the
use of their minds and bodies. The children remembered this lesson two days later
because it was a story with which they were familiar and could make a personal
connection. The children asked for their books back so they could share them
with their families. When children want to share ideas and projects of which they
are proud, it demonstrates that they feel successful in completing the lesson.
Analyze
• If I were using this as an observational assessment, I would be able to report in
my notes that the children grasped the concept of copy change because they
were able to imitate and replace the author’s ideas about what the animals in the
book see with the object that they see and then transfer their ideas to images and
words on paper.
• Children’s literature provides opportunities for more than just reading; the
storylines often include an opportunity to incorporate rhyming and singing
activities in the classroom. These activities are often better than talking as the
repetitive lines and predictable text are stimulating and reinforce the visual
connection between words and images in the story.
• Music naturally attracts and captivates the attention of children. Teachers can
capitalize on the power of music and rhyming schemes in literature as the
sequencing clues and familiarity of the words and actions provides a relevant and
meaningful connection to the main idea of the story and to the children’s daily
lives.