Submitted by: Tanya Rogish
School: Henrico High School
Summary
Students created an individual, professional blog that showcased their technical and artistic mastery and style while also portraying their skills with twenty-first century tools. Each art student maintained a blog of his or her progress throughout the year to document growth as an artist and to be able to use the blog as a professional forum for college applications and portfolio development. All students had an introductory statement which acted as a biography and expressed artistic goals for the year. Students explained what their concentration for the year was going to be, and how they planned to create artwork around that central idea. As the year progressed and students’ work evolved, they documented those changes and explained any factors that may have influenced the changes. Students photographed their artwork during class critiques held crucial grading points in the year and posted those images to their blogs. We also had an online critique where students were required to critique their classmates silently in class through the blog forum rather than speaking to the group in the gallery. The class then discussed the merits and negative aspects of both ways of critiquing artwork. Since this was an ongoing lesson, students had many opportunities to highlight their skills and express their individuality through ongoing use and discovery of technology
TIPC Ratings
This lesson is not rated for research and information fluency. Although students used each-others blogs as a source of information to share knowledge about their own individual growth as an artist, research and information fluency is not an integral part of this lesson
This lesson falls in the approaching level of communication and collaboration. Students authored their own blogs with the purpose of setting a goal and reflecting on their progress toward that goal throughout the year. Their peers were directed to collaborate by reading and commenting on each other’s posts to share knowledge and reflect on the progress toward their goals. Students also used these blogs by presenting them as a professional websites to potential art colleges and universities in the application process. Much of this work happened outside of the actual classroom.
This lesson falls in the approaching level of critical thinking and problem solving. Students drafted their own goals and then analyzed their progress toward those goals. They reflected upon their progress and planned future endeavors based on the experience. They also critiqued each-other’s work and responded to those critiques.
Students were allowed to define their own artistic goal for the year using the blog as an “interactive diary” to allow personal and public reflection. In each entry and project, students built upon the knowledge created in the previous one, ultimately building an online resume that would act as a portfolio for students to use for college applications and job interviews.
Student Artifact
A Journey of Self Reflection from HCPS Instructional Technology on Vimeo.
