Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences
The class in which I completed the majority of my student teaching was a combination of Freehand Drawing, Beginning Painting, Advanced Painting, Advanced Freehand Drawing, and AP Art, with students ranging from grades 9-12. My students included English Learners with various levels of English proficiency, including three students who had moved to the United States within the last year. The class also included students with moderate to severe physical and mental disabilities including Down Syndrome, Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Prader-Willi Syndrome, and impaired vision.
Throughout the semester, I learned all I could about the different backgrounds, abilities, and individual needs of my students. I reviewed students’ CUM files, where I analyzed the results of students’ scores on the STAR test, CAHSEE and CELDT in order to gain information about my students’ language abilities and literacy skills. I also reviewed students’ IEPs, and met with the instructional aides, student aides, and program director of my students with special needs. These conversations, more than anything else, provided me with valuable insights about how to make my art class inclusive for all students.
Throughout the semester, I learned all I could about the different backgrounds, abilities, and individual needs of my students. I reviewed students’ CUM files, where I analyzed the results of students’ scores on the STAR test, CAHSEE and CELDT in order to gain information about my students’ language abilities and literacy skills. I also reviewed students’ IEPs, and met with the instructional aides, student aides, and program director of my students with special needs. These conversations, more than anything else, provided me with valuable insights about how to make my art class inclusive for all students.
For example, I make it a priority to connect with the director of San Marcos High School’s special education program. I learned from him that the main learning goal for many of these students was to practice social interactions that would help them feel as though they were a part of the daily routines of the class. With this goal in mind, I developed a daily routine in which two students shared their work in front of the class. Sometimes students shared completed pieces, other times they shared works-in-progress. Students shared one thing they were proud of in their piece, and one idea about how they might change or improve the piece. I challenged students to use content area vocabulary, and make connections between their own work and work by famous artists and movements we learned about in class. Other students were encouraged to compliment and ask questions about each other’s art.
This routine helped general education students meet the California State Standards in art criticism. At the same time, it gave students in the special education program a chance to share their artwork with the class, while practicing speaking in front of a group. It also highlighted their presence in the classroom, which made other students feel more comfortable interacting with them during group activities and independent work time. Once we started this daily routine, the classroom felt like a much more inclusive environment.
This routine helped general education students meet the California State Standards in art criticism. At the same time, it gave students in the special education program a chance to share their artwork with the class, while practicing speaking in front of a group. It also highlighted their presence in the classroom, which made other students feel more comfortable interacting with them during group activities and independent work time. Once we started this daily routine, the classroom felt like a much more inclusive environment.
Another way in which I address the needs of such a diverse group of students is through planning flexible, open-ended projects that can be adapted in various ways to make them more or less challenging. For example, as an introduction to oil-painting, students created still life paintings of pears. The general assignment was to paint a pear, sitting on a flat surface, against a color background. Students observed real pears as subjects for their paintings, but many also used photographs as references to help them understand issues of light and color theory which can be more difficult to identify in real life. Students were encouraged to add a background of folded, striped fabric to their compositions, providing gifted students with a more challenging still life to depict.
To make the project more meaningful for the students in the special education program, I worked with one of their instructional aides to plan supplemental activities that they could complete in the resource classroom prior to the beginning of the unit. In these activities, each student received their own personal, plastic pear (much like you would find in a bowl of fake fruit). Throughout the week, they worked on decorating their pear however they wanted. Some drew on their pear, or covered with stickers of their favorite animals and cartoon characters. Others applied glitter, sequins to their pears. These activities made the students begin to see these objects as special, and they began to take on more significance than just something to eat. In art class everyday, they worked on creating paintings of their pears, using watercolor paints (which are easier to work with than oils). I worked with instructional aides to help students with limited motor skills learn to use a blotting technique to apply the paint. This gave them control over their paintings so that they did not have to use the hand-over-hand approach.
To make the project more meaningful for the students in the special education program, I worked with one of their instructional aides to plan supplemental activities that they could complete in the resource classroom prior to the beginning of the unit. In these activities, each student received their own personal, plastic pear (much like you would find in a bowl of fake fruit). Throughout the week, they worked on decorating their pear however they wanted. Some drew on their pear, or covered with stickers of their favorite animals and cartoon characters. Others applied glitter, sequins to their pears. These activities made the students begin to see these objects as special, and they began to take on more significance than just something to eat. In art class everyday, they worked on creating paintings of their pears, using watercolor paints (which are easier to work with than oils). I worked with instructional aides to help students with limited motor skills learn to use a blotting technique to apply the paint. This gave them control over their paintings so that they did not have to use the hand-over-hand approach.
On the day of the summative class critique at the end of the unit each student came to class prepared with their pear painting and ready to share it with the group. Each of the students from the special education program successfully participated in one or more components of the class critique, including stating which of the other students’ paintings was their favorite and why, and talking about what they liked about their own painting. One student with severe autism, who is uncomfortable in crowds and would not even set foot inside the classroom at the beginning of the semester came all the way to into the middle of the classroom with the rest of the group and shared his painting. The other students in the class commented on their favorite parts of the paintings by the students with special needs, and were very respectful and enthusiastic.
I am thankful that I had the opportunity to work with such a diverse group of students in my student teaching, as I am now more confident in my ability to plan instruction for students with very different levels of ability. I am eager to continue collaborating with my colleagues in order to find ways to make my classroom even more inclusive and challenging for all students.
I am thankful that I had the opportunity to work with such a diverse group of students in my student teaching, as I am now more confident in my ability to plan instruction for students with very different levels of ability. I am eager to continue collaborating with my colleagues in order to find ways to make my classroom even more inclusive and challenging for all students.