Saturday, November 2, 2013

RSS FEED: Strategic Modeling: Balancing Structure with Choice


Week 2

BLOG POST #1:

Strategic Modeling: Balancing Structure with Choice

“My goals are to create situations where all students feel that they have a clear understanding of a framework that can guide them in their work. This means there is some modeling that I will do for a whole class and some modeling that I will share only with students who are struggling. The continual dance is to find examples to share that provide enough information for students to move forward while maintaining their own, individualized processes of creation” (Block, 2013).

As an ART TEACHER, I found this part of the article to be the most meaningful.  With every new project that we create in class, there are many levels of student understanding, engagement, and interest.  Although I think it is important to teach to the lowest student in the class, I have found that if I don’t give the students in my classroom the time to figure out a process of their, on a given project, than we end up with a lot of very similar projects with very little personal expression. 

Early in my educational career, I found myself “spoon feeding” all of the students, even when I didn’t need to.  With experience, I have found that the students actually do better on projects where the guidelines are not as precisely “spelled out”.  This forces the students to come up with some of the creative process on their own and it has definitely enhanced the artwork production in even my lowest level classes.


Reference:

Block, Joshua. “Strategic Modeling: Balancing Structure with Choice.” Edutopia. Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Phillip,

    I also commented on this article after I read it. It's interesting to see how these concepts can be applied to education in any discipline. I applied the information to my role as a dental hygiene educator, while you did to teaching art. Nice work.

    -Sam

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  2. I have to agree with you on "spoon feeding" the students with all of the information presented. However, I feel it becomes more beneficial for students to actually learn from their mistakes and discover new ideas on their own. I do like the idea of giving students some opportunities within a certain project so they can show their abilities to be creative and discover new ideas. Thanks

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