Teaching Strategies Used in Class
#1: Growth mindset
One does not become an artist overnight, it takes years of practice, mistakes, persistence and hard work to become an effective artist. Throughout this class students will be asked to have a growth mindset in order to make the necessary mistakes to learn and grow into the artist they wish to be. Students will be asked to participate in class critiques of their own work and understand that any feed back, both positive and other wise are meant to encourage each student artist to grow into their medium.
#2: Intellectual Journals
Journalling is a daily occurrence in this photography class. Each student is expected to have their notebook each day in class to participate. The purpose of these class notebooks is to create an intellectual portfolio of their journey as a photographer. After each project students print out their strongest and weakest image and answer self reflective questions for that project. By documenting their growth, students will be able to see their journey both visually through their images and through their own words.
#3: Partner coaching
Students will have the chance to engage in deep conversations while uncovering course material with a partner throughout this class. Partner coaching is used during the critique process. A pair of partners are given an image to critique and they will take turns asking the other questions about the image. Each question is meant to have each partner explain the thinking. For example, partner A might ask, “what do you think the over all tone of the image is? What context clues brought you to that conclusion?”. Partner coaching allows students to conceptually dive into the meaning of an image.
#4: At first i thought… but then… so now i think…
This strategy is a tool that is regularly used in an artists self reflection. I encourage students to plan as much of their photo shoot as possible knowing that things will evolve as they continue to create images. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned, and that is the beauty of art! Using this model students acknowledge where they started out (at first I thought), then they reflect on what changed during their assignment (but then), and finally they end up with their finished product (so now I think). This model challenges students to reflect on what changed and how it changed their final product for the better.
#5: Contrasting Traditional learning with conceptual learning
Traditional learning is a model in which the teacher gives students nuggets of information to store and regurgitate the information back on a test or project. Conceptual learning, on the other hand, starts with the students pre-existing ideas of the subject and the teacher helps students refine that idea with the facts from the class. In this model students are asked to make connections and uncover the material themselves with the guided hand from the teacher. The projects designed for this class are made for students to make discoveries of their own and to allow them the opportunity to refine their style of photography.
#6: Iterative Learning Process
This class will focus more on iterative learning over linear learning. In this process students will be introduced to a conceptual question and each concept that is introduced will circle back to the conceptual question. Each style of photography circles back to the basics no matter what you are photographing. No matter how involved a concept might be, students will have to experiment with their projects and subjects to get the results they want for their final image.
#7: Authentic and relevant course material
In any subject, it is important to understand the roots as well as the modern application, the same goes for photography. In this class students will study works from some of the great photographers of our past; Ansel Adams, Gordon Parks, Man Ray, Paul Strand and many more to see the rich past of our medium. While these great artists have created timeless works, students may not see their importance until it is connected with modern material. By bridging the gap between old and new, students will see the importance and influence of the artists that came before us. This class will take a look at some modern famous youtube, instagram and editorial photographers like Peter MicKinnon, Tatyanna Chamere, Joanie Simon, Jimmy Chin, and many more.
#8: STUDENT CREATION OF CONTENT—INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLABORATIVELY
In this class students will have a plethora of opportunities to grow as an individual artist. Each project is designed to give students freedom to choose their subject, props, shot composition, etc. Projects are designed to help students discover what their personal style as an artist is. However, collaboration is just as key as individual work time. When students have the opportunity to work in groups, they get the opportunity to be inspired by others creativity.
#9: STUDENT REFLECTION ON LEARNING
Reflection is one of the most important habits an artist can have. Reflection on a students work and what they have learned will increase their metacognition while creating their next piece of art. The goal is for students to create habit of looking back at what they did well and what they might need to improve on from any given project. Self evaluation of personal growth will insight real change into what they want their art to be.
#10: EXPLANATION OF PURPOSE
Even though art is a fluid subject, ever changing and highly personal, there is a reason that students should learn all facets of the medium they are learning. In my class students will be informed of the purpose for learning different styles of photography. By giving students a chance to see the goal of the lesson, they are also given a chance to see how they are trying to grow artistically.
#11: Emphasize process over product
Despite popular belief, art is more about the process than the actual product. Art is a vessel for students to understand who they are and what they want to say. As a student artist, the best way to understand the intended meaning behind a piece to to go through the process of getting to the final work. As a teacher I want to encourage students to backwards plan and to understand that their project may end up turning out to be different than they once planned.
#12: Give students options: introduce multiple artists and media sources
When teaching any type of art it is importance to diversify artists that are used as examples. If only one artist is used, there is a good chance that that artist’s style will take shape in student’s work. The object is to incorporate many different artists from different backgrounds and mediums in hopes that students will be inspired and create their own personal style, rather than copy the voice of another artist.
references
Stern, J. H., Mohnkern, J., & Ferraro, K. F. (2017). Chapter 2: How Do We Establish a Culture of Deep Learning. In Tools for teaching conceptual understanding, secondary: Designing lessons and assessments for deep learning (pp. 33-46). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a SAGE Publishing Company.
Ralph, M. (2020, April 17). Teaching Strategies of Award-Winning Online Instructors. Retrieved June 19, 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-strategies-award-winning-online-instructors
Contemporary Approaches to Teaching. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2020, from https://art21.org/for-educators/tools-for-teaching/getting-started-an-introduction-to-teaching-with-contemporary-art/contemporary-approaches-to-teaching/