Lessons in the Galleries.
SMC Justice, Community, and Leadership students create and implement visual literacy through museum education.
By JCL 350 students: Leah Ohms, Savannah Loyd, Laura Allen, Mirka Barbuis and Danielle Gutierrez
The Saint Mary's College Museum of Art reaches a broad audience, including students, faculty, the Lamorinda community, and the greater Bay Area, through its campus location and planning events to build community. The Justice, Community, and Leadership (JCL) program at Saint Mary's allows students to engage with multiple partnerships through Community Engagement (CE), including the Museum of Art. This Spring, our group from one of the JCL classes partnered with the museum to serve a greater audience through lessons and gallery visits with grade school (2nd grade) students. Our group facilitated the lesson and practiced teamwork, communication, and leadership skills.
Project Goals & Objectives
Our goal for this project is to work together to create an accessible environment where the students feel empowered to ask questions, observe, and make connections with art by "looking closely" and Visual Thinking Strategies. (VTS). VTS is an educational approach that uses object-based learning to develop critical thinking, communication, and visual literacy skills. It involves open-ended discussions about works of art, where participants are encouraged to observe, interpret, and discuss what they see. VTS is a collaborative, student-centered teaching method that improves critical thinking skills and fosters inclusive community-building dialogue through facilitated discussions of visual images. This lesson folds object-based learning to connect with visual literacy.
- VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies): "What do you see that makes you say that?"
- Understanding artists make choices.
- Applying the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design.
Our Preparation
Britt, the curator, and our supervisor prepared us with a lesson plan as a guide for the field trip. We worked with Britt to adapt the template to suit the group's needs. As a group, we met three to four times and devised a new guide. We discussed what objectives and strategies to include in the lesson plan and what we wanted the students to take away from the field trip. We created a custom guide and lesson with worksheets to help the students understand what elements of art and principles of design are. A note catcher provided a place for the students to record their observations and connect them to their thoughts. We divided the class into three groups with two facilitators/teachers. We did a run-through of the lesson plan to ensure the structure made sense to us and that it would actively reflect the lesson's objectives when we teach it.
The day before the field trip, we met with Britt to review and revise a script. The script ensured we would bring up our lesson's essential points and theme: artists' choices. We reviewed the lesson plan and discussed how much time we would dedicate to each part of the lesson plan (introduction, mini-lesson #1, mini-lesson #2, and big group debrief/closing). In addition, we reviewed the lesson plan's content, ensuring proper organization. We met up with our co-facilitators/teachers to decide who would lead the first mini-lesson and who would lead the second mini-lesson. In addition, we discussed the roles of introduction and closing.
The group prepared lesson supplies. These included eight clipboards, each with the elements of art and principles of design worksheet and the note catcher (a "See, Think, Wonder" activity), pencils, and name tags. The second three sets contained oil pastels, colored paper, and stickers.
Facilitation
Our group arrived ten minutes early at the museum to distribute and pair materials. As the students, teachers, and chaperones arrived, some group members greeted them. In contrast, other members directed the students to the galleries for the introduction, ensuring everyone felt welcomed and comfortable in the space. Once the students were seated, two of our members led the introduction, discussing our theme artists' choices and the planned activities and establishing ground rules on appropriate behavior in the museum. After introductions, the students broke into their groups, with each pair of facilitators leading their group to their first designated gallery.
For mini-lesson #1, the first facilitator introduced the essential vocabulary for observing art. The facilitator reviewed terms from the elements of art and principles of design infographics, giving students time to process the information and offering the opportunity to ask questions. After going through the terms, we transitioned into the first activity: the note catcher. The first facilitator modeled how to fill out the "See" column of the note catcher. They accomplished this by choosing one of the paintings from the galley and discussing what they noticed. They recorded their insights in the "See" column. Once the facilitator modeled the "See" column, they encouraged the students to choose a gallery painting and record their observations. During this time, the facilitators would confer with the students, engaging in meaningful conversations about their observations and encouraging them to look at different areas of the artwork.
The facilitators called the group back to continue filling out the "Think" and "Wonder" columns. Using the same painting, the first facilitator modeled how to fill out the following two sections. They started with a note for the "Think" section, which inspired their entry for the "Wonder" section, demonstrating how these aspects connect when exploring ideas. After modeling these sections, the students returned to the painting they had observed earlier to complete the remaining sections. The facilitators continued to confer with the students about their insights and referred to the elements of art and principles of design. As the first lesson drew to a close, the facilitators called the group back to invite students to share insights they wrote down or anything else they found interesting about the artwork with the group.
It was time for all the groups to rotate, so the facilitators led their group to the next gallery. For mini-lesson #2, the second facilitator built upon the practice of observing works of art. They took this further by considering the artists' choices when creating their art by implementing the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) method. The second facilitator allowed students to choose a piece of art they would like to explore further. As soon as the students agreed on which art piece to use, the second facilitator began by giving students time to look at the art, observing the types of materials, principles, and elements the artist used. After students had time to observe, the second facilitator asked the three VTS questions which are: "What is going on in this piece?", "What do you see that makes you say that?" and "What more can we find?". They started by asking the first question, allowing students to respond and expand on their answers with the second question. The second facilitator would build upon the students' ideas, linking them to the elements of art and principles of design. The third question invited students to look at other details about the art. After a few minutes of discussion, we transitioned into our last activity: artmaking. The facilitators joined the students, modeling by explaining what they were creating and the inspiration behind it. When the facilitators created their art, they referred back to the elements of art and principles of design to demonstrate to the students that the artwork reflected intentional art choices.
Students were at different points in their art when it was time to head back to the large group to conclude the field trip, so we did not have time to hold a mini-group debrief where we would share and explain the choices we made in our artwork. Nevertheless, we wanted to provide students the opportunity to present their art. The large group debriefs allowed students to explain what they had created. Many students were eager to showcase their masterpieces. Additionally, a few of our facilitators briefly explained their creations, drawing connections to the art pieces they observed and what aspects inspired them. We ended the trip by thanking the students, the teachers, and the chaperones for joining us.
Advice for Future Groups
We gained immense knowledge when reflecting upon our experience creating, adjusting, and facilitating this lesson. However, as with any project, our group agreed on a few elements that could have gone better. Our lesson was centered around the theme of artists' choice and the interconnectedness of this with the elements of art and principles of design. While we attempted to connect all of our activities with artists' choices, we could have done better at incorporating this theme throughout. Specifically, when the students made and shared their art, we could have asked them about their artistic choices to use as a concrete example of artists' choices. In addition, we should have integrated the idea of choice into VTS when demonstrating the process.
Another opportunity for growth is time management, specifically scheduling time to practice the lesson plan. We drafted and completed the lesson plan in about three weeks, giving us only two days to practice the lesson in the museum. Due to this lack of practice, we could make fewer connections back to the theme, work through awkward wording, and predict the timing for each activity. When we ended up facilitating the lesson, we realized that just one additional practice of the complete lesson could have alleviated these errors. By reflecting on our process and mistakes, we hope that future Engaged Learning classes learn and continue improving the museum lesson model we built.
Conclusion
Our group learned how to customize and implement a lesson plan for students in a museum. This lesson activated visual literacy and artistic choice. By changing and adjusting the lesson plan, our group learned effective collaboration.
In the future, we hope that the museum continues to partner with the JCL program to develop more lesson plans and increase the museum's engagement. We also hope other students find creative ways to engage students through events, facilitating lessons, and interacting with art meaningfully.
