And the insights continue

Oh my gosh – what a revelation! This morning I completed the research project writing activity, and boy did I learn volumes! First I know I need to collect data on how long students write. My “hunch” is that less time will be spent doing the pre-assessment writing than the final writing. I was surprized at how much writing I wanted to do. Most of the time it seems students are at a loss for information to include (at least the junior high kiddos). But I had soooo much information that it was a real struggle to condense everything into the 60 minutes I allotted for the activity.

When I do this with my students I will make note of how much time each of them spend writing both the pre-assessment and final. I found I could have gone many different directions with what I had to say, so the organization may suffer at the expense of details and inference (I’ll get to this in a minute). I’d REALLY appreciate if you have time to do a quick read on the critical analysis I completed and let me know if it seems organized, you can find it on my blog (it is rather lengthy, sorry).

What excites me about the process is the way it made me THINK ABOUT THE ART WORK! Wow. There were numerous ideas that I was able to infer from my pre-writing. Things about the artist and artwork that I’m intrigued with and wanted to address more fully. Ways in which the artist “might” have been going that I hadn’t thought of before. My hope now is that my students will come to the same conclusion. Because if they do, then this writing activity is about MORE THAN JUST WRITING. It will be about the process of looking at art. Hmmmm, it’s been a busy morning at my desk and in my brain.