7/30/2018
Topic:
Students with Disabilities
Kelly Parker
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Last year was my first year teaching elementary art after several years working with high-schoolers. It was also my first experience working with students that are visually impaired. I had three students (1st grade, 5th grade and 6th grade) that were completely blind. With some grant money I was able to purchase a drawing tablet that creates textured lines so the student is able to feel their artwork. The 1st grader really enjoyed this! My 6th grader was a more motivated learner and helped me come up with accommodations for the various projects as the year progressed, but I had to get more creative when working with the 5th grader, who was fairly content with doing nothing if I didn't continuously prompt him to work. Luckily there was another student that buddied up with him that was great at not only motivating the student to work, but giving me suggestions for accommodations. I also had to make sure that I was very descriptive in my demonstrations or when showing examples so that they could mentally visualize what the other students were seeing. I must admit that I found it very difficult at times to teach Art to students that can't easily grasp visual concepts such as color. These students were definitely most successful when working on 3D projects, so I tried to provide them with tactile materials as much as possible. Sometimes asking them to create more of a relief sculpture when other students were creating a drawing/painting. But I also found that they really enjoyed working the the drawing tools and paint even though they couldn't see/feel what they had created. Most of the time I would explain the project to them, then give the options/accommodations/modifications and allowed them to take ownership of their experience by deciding how they wanted to approach the project. |
8/1/2018
Topic:
Tools And Strategies
Kelly Parker
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I use technology all the time in my classroom, but I find it especially helpful to help certain students. For example, when working on a project that involved origami, I not only demonstrated how to create folds but I used a video that allowed me to easily freeze on each step. Then for students that were have difficulty following and needed more control of their own learning speed, I provided an IPad that they could control the video clip. |
8/1/2018
Topic:
Assessment of Learning
Kelly Parker
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Luckily I am not required to formally assess my students, but I still check understanding of concepts and skills through completed projects. Since I am able to modify and accommodate through the process as needed I can observe students understanding as they work based on their abilities. To answer the question though....I have a couple of students that are mute and I give them the opportunity to write their explanations instead of giving them verbally. For my visually impaired students I've given them the opportunity to use 3d objects to demonstrate a concept that other students are drawing to demonstrate understanding. |