Assignment #6: Using VTS in Your Classroom - Lisa Anderson

Assignment:
Referring back to the videos, articles, etc. that you read/watched about VTS, discuss the implications and use in your classroom of implementing and using VTS. Add at least one website link, with a brief description about it, that demonstrates a way to use VTS in a classroom. Respond to 2 other participants.

My Response:
I think that my 5th grade students do a great job of using this model in science class.  Anytime we have a lab, each table is discussing what they think we might be doing with the materials that are laid out.  It is fun to listen to them discuss together in their groups.  I love the way this generates a lot of flexible thinking to open up what we might be doing.  What one students understands but can't articulate, another fills in.  The video mentioned "it helps students with their language because they are trying to put into words what their eyes are seeing."  There is immediate success regardless of race, class, culture, or language they speak.

Here's a link to a fun activity to use in your class. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/visual-thinking-strategies-improved-comprehension.  This is article was used at a teacher in service where a simple photo of a room was put on the board and the only question that was asked was, "who lives in this room?" Why?  It has a lot of great links to other photos that would stir up imagination and discussion.  I think this would be fun to do in my class randomly and after the discussion let students write a story about the photo.

Hi there!
It sounds like you encourage your students to discuss and provide them the time they need to work through their learning. It can be hard to let go of that teacher time, but I share the reverence for it that you do. Students hearing the language and ideas of their peers can sometimes go a lot further than we teachers can take them. Just think when we teachers all get together the discussions and learning we get from OUR peers! I sometimes think we could spend an entire SIP day talking about classroom strategies and never run out of things to say!

My teaching world in kinder is very different from your fifth graders. I bet your grade level studies a lot of topics that would lend itself well integrating art. I was recently in a fifth grade classroom when they performed a readers' theater of The Odyssey. Think about all of the abstract ideas in mythology that could be made concrete by integrating art! You are doing neat things in fifth!

It's amazing to me the amount of difference between the grade levels and the subjects.  I wish we had more time to go to other classrooms to see how each teacher does things.  As a music teacher, I think classroom teachers should come visit our rooms to see what we are doing as well.  We plan as a music staff, but we don't do very much cross curricular planning.  I know our first grade does a unit on the solar system.  Maybe I could plan a unit on the solar system about the same time. Wouldn't that be the ultimate goal?

Something I love about the article you linked to is that the task is so open-ended with all students being able to think creatively and, ultimately, back up their thoughts with evidence from what they can infer from the photo.  It is at the same time an easy task to engage with but also has so many opportunities for deeper thinking.

I like the idea you shared about writing a story based on the image. It seems like a task everyone in the class could be successful at. It would allow students to take their stories in whatever direction they wanted. Thank you for sharing this idea. I look forward to implementing it in my classroom in the upcoming school year.

I liked how you tied in your VTS to science. That is a great thing to get your kids thinking outside of the box and trying to brainstorm what they might be doing or making. Great website also!

I liked the lesson, too. The structure could be used with many kinds of photos. Students of all ages would like it. I was impressed with the website, too.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/visual-thinking-strategies-improved-comprehension

Lisa, I was looking at this same website to post about.  I loved the exercise and what it leads to.  I really like the idea of using this with my students as you mentioned.  I feel like after some discussion, or prior to the discussion the picture could be used as a prompt for creative writing.  In fact I might distribute 5 or 6 pictures to the students and then then have the "same" ones group up and discuss.  I could see this being very fun and even humorous, depending on the pictures that were used (Memes, maybe).

I love that you said “ it helps students with their language because they are trying to put into words what their eyes are seeing.”  I work in a school that has a high level of English Learners so I think VTS is a great way to get these students talking about what they are seeing.  It will help them with their vocabulary.  If they don’t know what something is then they are able to ask questions and a classmate can help them out.  It also involves teamwork!