STAR-Post (Art) Jul 2022 Issue 2 by moe_star

03↗ Foreword

Mdm Ang Hwee Loo

04↗ Reflecting on e-Pedagogy in the Art Classroom

Mr Lim Kok Boon

09↗ Reimagining ‘The Third Teacher’: Designing for a Blended Artist Residency with Miro

Ms Quek Jia Qi

18↗ Teaching and Learning Art in a Networked Collaborative Classroom

Mr Erman Abu Bakar

25↗ Digital Drawing and Beyond

Mdm Nur Nadiah Binte Junadi

STAR-Post (Art), July 2022

31↗ Differentiation using ICT in Art Lessons to Improve Student Confidence and Interest in Art-making

Miss Amanda Soo Li Xin

41↗ Engagement in the e-Classroom: ICT for Theory and History of Art

Ms Hailey Cheong

52↗ Contact Us

Foreword

Mdm Ang Hwee Loo

Deputy Director (Art) STAR

“We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act.” (Ron Garan, 2015)

In this STAR-Post, we are most delighted to bring you a deluge of technology enhanced art learning designs and ideas conceived by our art teachers in the fraternity. These lessons are embedded with innovative e-pedagogies that inform our methods and practice of teaching with technology. Art Master Teacher, Lim Kok Boon, summarises his thoughtful reflections on e-pedagogy in the art classroom and we see how Education Technology (EdTech) has transformed from a perk to a necessity for schools since the roll-out of Personal Learning Device in 2021.

With the affordance of EdTech, coupled with teachers’ resourcefulness and adeptness in navigating digital tools, meaningful technology integration in art learning is only limited by one’s imagination! A refreshing idea is seen in ‘Reimagining The Third Teacher: Designing for a Blended Artist Residency with Miro’ where a blended artist residency space was created to inspire student-artists to create, reflect and engage with artistic dispositions. To make learning purposeful and student-centered, another group of secondary school art teachers embraced the use of ICT-mediated learning design to scaffold lessons catering to the choices and learning styles of their students.

Let us continue to create new value for art education to provide the best possible learning experience for the future success of our students. Keep it up, teachers!

Reflecting on e-Pedagogy in the Art Classroom

Lim Kok Boon Master Teacher, Art STAR

Most of our students grow up with internet-enabled devices at home and in school. This means they are likely to learn1 differently compared to their teachers. Educational technology (EdTech) can be transformational because teachers and students now have easy access to various new tools to learn and play with. This short article hopes to stimulate our reflection and imagination on e-Pedagogy, a term used to describe the methods and practice of teaching with technology.

“e-Pedagogy is the practice of teaching with technology for active learning that creates a participatory, connected and reflective classroom to nurture the future-ready learner.” (ETD, MOE)2. Understanding e-Pedagogy concepts that underlie and inform our teaching practice can help us improve using technology. A cycle of theory, action, and reflection on e-Pedagogy should help us analyse our efforts to improve how we help students learn.

Understanding e-Pedagogy means recognising when learning is enhanced by technology and how that learning experience is participatory, connected, and reflective. This begins with cultivating a good awareness of the kind of Information Communication Tools (ICT) available to students and teachers.

New digital tools can extend conventional ways of artmaking. It is essential to retain tactile art-making experiences despite the conveniences of digital artmaking. Tactile art-making can stimulate learning in diverse ways. For a developing child, sensory and tactile explorations through art can lead to better fine motor functions and control. Art lessons allow students to gain dexterity and hand-eye coordination as they use their hands and fingers to work with objects, materials and tools.

Our learners’ profiles, artistic developmental levels, and task complexity should be considered when planning ICT-mediated learning experiences. Student instructions to use EdTech or digital tools need to be manageable. Otherwise, it may lead to frustrating and unpleasant experiences. As a rule of thumb, “less text is more” and “showing is better than telling”.

Our students’ prior experiences shape how they feel about digital tools. Past negative experiences may manifest as disruptive behaviour. Think about designing “quick wins” or positive first-hand experiences to help change their attitudes and classroom behaviours for the better.

Besides planning digital art making experiences, consider planning discussions on contemporary issues surrounding technology and art. Such discussions can help raise students’ awareness and discernment between private opinions and public sentiments on complex topics. Discussions about complex issues should be facilitated with care and given ample time for students to process. The discussion themes need to be age-appropriate as well. 04. 05. 06. 07.

e-Pedagogy needs to be built on sound pedagogy. E-Pedagogy is not just about using popular EdTech tools with popular strategies. As emeritus professor Michael Fullan puts it, “Pedagogy is the driver, technology is the accelerator”. Studying evidence-based teaching strategies and how they influence students from credible sources has helped me understand what good pedagogy is. Reading the Singapore Teaching Practice Wiki in OPAL2.0 (herek) is an excellent start. The report “What makes great pedagogy? Nine claims from research” (herek) by Chris Husbands and Jo Pearce (2012) is something I revisit from time to time to remind myself about the dimensions of good teaching.

Good teaching cannot exist without empathy, kindness, care and respect for our students. Good teaching needs to consider our students’ interests, hopes and dreams.

Teachers have the responsibility to help our students get a head start with new media literacies despite the challenges we might face in our schools. We can do so by riding the Smart Nation initiative3 and National Digital Literacy Programme, one wave at a time. Doing so might give our next generation the skills and fighting chance to surf the tumultuous global environment.

Endnotes

1 In 2018, around 87 percent of the Singapore population were using the internet. (https:// data.gov.sg/dataset/individual-internet-usage k) Curious about the history of the Internet in Singapore? Read https://www.tech.gov.sg/media/technews/history-of-the-internet k

2 ETD (2022, January). Guide to e-Pedagogy. Ministry of Education.

3 The Smart Nation initiative envisions “a transformed Singapore where people will be more empowered to live meaningful and fulfilled lives, enabled seamlessly by technology, that offers exciting opportunities for all.” (https://www.smartnation.gov.sg k) (https://www. smartnation.gov.sg/files/publications/smart-nation-strategy-nov2018.pdf k)

Reimagining ‘The Third Teacher’: Designing for a Blended Artist Residency with Miro

Miss Quek Jia Qi

Art Teacher

East Spring Secondary School

How can teachers be active designers of students’ learning experiences to nurture artistic thinking and dispositions? In times of social distancing and the abundance of digital information, how can we design meaningful blended learning environments to curate learning cultures?

Extending Reggio Emilia’s philosophy of space as the ‘Third Teacher’ in our 21st-century classrooms, I leveraged Miro to create a blended artist residency space that can ignite learning in student-artists to create, reflect, and engage with artistic dispositions. Inspired by my experiences in artist residencies, I seek to adapt aspects of the residency programmes’ design into a secondary art classroom for authentic learning in real-world contexts. My goal is for my students to pursue their personal development as artists: developing their skills within their field while learning from diverse artists, artworks and environments. Miro is an online interactive whiteboard to engage students in affective and real-time collaborative experiences. By making thinking visible, the following intentionally designed learning experiences will explore how inviting and inclusive digital spaces can allow for mutual sharing and exchange of artistic knowledge and collaboration.

Overview of Interactive Blended Artist Residency Space.

Virtual Art Learning Journeys: Leveraging online museum collections

If we can’t go out to the museums, let’s bring them in! As part of the blended artist residency, we can leverage existing online resources that museums have created due to the pandemic to plan for a virtual field trip to art exhibitions. For one of my lessons on photography, I invited students on a virtual gallery trip to London to view the National Portrait Gallery’s Hold Still community exhibition that showcased a unique collective portrait of the UK during lockdown through photography.

Screenshot of National Portrait Gallery’s Hold Still Online Gallery

Miro Digital Space Design for a “Virtual Gallery Trip to the UK”.

During the “virtual gallery” flipped classroom, students identified what design principles photographers use to tell a powerful story through their photographs. Extending their learning on photography, students connected to real-life stories deeply intertwined with the current global pandemic and responded to perspectives that they have not yet encountered, such as through stories from healthcare workers and families who have been separated during the pandemic.

Engaging with contemporary issues using museum-based learning

Museum-based learning strategies can also be used to activate students’ learning, and Miro helps make thinking visible and engage students in deeper discussions on contemporary issues. In this lesson, students were invited to discuss artist Kim Byron’s artwork, Synecdoche (1991-present), which puts a spin on contemporary portraiture. Tapping on prior context, where portraiture in the past often featured the rich and famous, we explored the theme of challenging representation while getting students to embark on acrylic painting for the first time.

Using visible thinking routines to analyse artwork with Miro.

Sharing one’s opinions can be daunting for the more reserved students in class. Here, Miro becomes an alternative safe space for them to articulate their thoughts. With their responses visible on the screen, we could tap on them to engage in reflective thinking. Using questioning to deepen learning, students gave mature responses relating to diversity and inclusion and shared relevant current affairs they knew, such as the Black Lives Matter movement. Teachers could then tap on their knowledge to extend the discussion on how stereotypes inform our implicit biases and how this bias impacts the way we create and interpret art.

This discussion thus paved the way to introduce the context of the artist’s work: how and why the artist challenged representation through creating a collective portraiture that captured a diversity of identities across class and race. The piece featured about 400 panels, each representative of the skin tones of strangers, friends, and the artist himself. Students were then tasked to role play as the artist and created a collective portrait of the class by making their skin tones. From here, we then transitioned from the digital environment to a physical one, where I conducted the traditional teacher-led demonstration for students on colour mixing while introducing them to colour theory.

Students role-played as artist Byron Kim in recreating their skin tones to create a collective portrait of the class.

Miro Digital Space Design for a “Virtual Cinema”. Using the ‘Step Inside’ thinking routine, the teacher guided students to analyse ‘Old of Things (2016), a film by Heather Teo and Victor Gan exploring how an elderly resident navigated her relocation from Dakota Crescent.

Virtual Cinema: The Power of Storytelling in Film

In our virtual cinema, students did a role-play in groups and analysed how we could represent everyday stories through film using the ‘Step Inside’ thinking routine. By introducing students to films that address social issues, students were able to reflect on how films can be a by-product of the culture in which they are created, being an archival medium for documenting memories and nuances of history.

Gallery of the Week: Co-curation with students

In the blended artist residency space, the “Gallery of the Week” feature also introduced students to different artworks every week. The exposure to various artists is key to broadening their understanding of what art could look like. As a gallery space that we co-curated together, students could also suggest artists or artworks that inspire them to share with their peers.

Artists Open Studios: Collaborative Learning

Driven by the communal spirit in an artist residency, ‘Open Studios’ is a regular feature in my art classroom, where students share their works in progress. Using feedback strategies such as Praise-Question-Polish, students were guided to identify the successes in their peer’s work and give one another feedback. Students who struggled with language could also refer to ‘Glossary Cards’ and ‘Question Bank’ on Miro to find help words that support them in Art Conversations. Getting students to respond using visible thinking routines encouraged them to generate personal ideas when they uncovered perspectives and built on new ideas for their inquiry. These exchanges helped students establish themselves as a community of learners.

Virtual gallery experiences can also be simulated for students as artists themselves.

Centres” is an art repository of art reference materials such as artworks, artists, video tutorials and help resource materials.

Research Centres: Differentiated & Independent Learning

Another feature of this blended artist residency space is our ‘Research Centres’ to encourage independent learning according to students’ interests and readiness. In the spirit of self-directed learning, students could find multimodal learning resources to use to further their inquiry or construct new knowledge in their independent studio time or after school hours - encouraging continuous learning. This art repository space allowed for differentiated learning in the classroom, where teachers could direct students to reference the differentiated help resources during studio time.

Independent Studio Time

Students would work in their own studio space during independent studio time and refer to the help resources on Miro for their passion projects. For example, students could use the ‘Research Centres’ to look up artist references or specific masterclasses to learn skill sets relevant to their projects. Blended learning offers students a personalised learning experience based on each student’s interests, needs, and capacities. This increases flexibility for students to exercise choice, thus creating an inclusive learning environment where different starting points, ideas, and interests are valued. Students appreciated that this blended artist residency space served as a one-stop platform that gave them easy access to what they wanted to learn. The real-time interactivity in Miro also made art lessons more dynamic and engaging, increasing student engagement and motivation.

“Research

The Possibility in Blank Spaces

Much of our work as educators is our ability to see the possibilities and potential in things and people. Like artists, we make the choice to see the void or the opportunities when given a blank space. When we embrace the possibilities that can emerge with technology and our students, we can create our own “Third Teacher” that inspires curiosity and wonder, and develop our students as active agents of their learning. It is about the perspective we take: when we choose to look beyond the emptiness, we will find something else entirely.

References

Fraser, S. (2012). Authentic childhood: Exploring Reggio Emilia in the classroom. Toronto, ON: Nelson Education.

National Portrait Gallery, “HOLD STILL - A PORTRAIT OF OUR NATION IN 2020”, accessed Jan 11, 2021, https://www.npg.org.uk/hold-still/hold-still-gallery/.k

Tomlinson, C. A. (2000). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of all Learners. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Seamless integration of Miro with the physical classroom.

Teaching and Learning Art in a Networked Collaborative Classroom

Mr Erman Abu Bakar Head of Department (Technology for Learning & Communication)

Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School

The biggest challenge for technology-based art learning is no longer the technology itself, but how to integrate it meaningfully in the art classroom. In the post-coronavirus world, there is likely to be a greater emphasis on digital learning.

One particular interest that Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School (PHPPS) art teachers have now is to explore the extent of self-directed and peer-to-peer learning online as reflected in the amount of progress students make in the physical classroom. With such technological circumstances, teachers have more control over students’ learning processes even when not in a physical classroom setting. Online platforms are also useful for students to learn from one another. They get to see how their peers draw and write, thus guiding them to make their own informed perspectives.

Apart from collaborative learning skills, the teaching of inventive and critical thinking skills are crucial components of art education. The approach that PHPPS art teachers took commenced with a phase of individual ideation, followed by intra-group idea synergy. Working with online platforms and softwares such as Canva, Procreate and Padlet, PHPPS art teachers explored how knowledge on elements of art and design can be learned in a collaborative setting that included the interplay of individual ideation as well as group collaboration, therefore enhancing social interaction and rich exchange of ideas.

Primary 3 students taking photos of their artworks with art teacher, Ms Jao-Pei-Jung before uploading onto Padlet.

PHPPS art teachers leveraged the collective knowledge of the Primary 3 students by collating all their artworks in the Padlet platform. The presentation of the students’ artworks helped motivate them to present the best design they have created to be submitted.

Screenshot of Primary 3 students’ artworks in Padlet.

PHPPS Primary 4 students first acquired an understanding of form and proportion through the observational drawing of a cat. The teacher set the context for the lesson by introducing cats as animals that like to travel. Students were questioned on whether they have cats as pets at home and whether they had paid extra notice to the cats around their neighbourhood.

The lesson then progressed to discuss how different locations in Singapore could tell us what the cat was experiencing from their own personal experiences. The students explored images in the Canva platform library and created a composition based on their chosen environment. Having a sizable collection of images in Canva allowed students to formulate more questions in the later part of the lesson where critical thinking and appreciation was encouraged. Students uploaded their artworks onto Padlet where the teacher facilitated a reflection activity using the thinking routine Praise-Question-Polish (PQP) to note areas of strength and areas for improvement in the expression and the quality of the artwork.

Primary 4 students exploring Canva app to create their artwork.

Screenshot of Primary 4 students’ artwork in Padlet with their peers‘ responses to the artwork using PraiseQuestion-Polish thinking routine.

Screenshot of Primary 5 students’ artwork in Padlet with their peers‘ response to the artwork using PraiseQuestion-Polish thinking routine.

Similarly, the Primary 5 students had lessons on tessellation inspired by M.C. Escher’s artworks. The art teachers set the context of the lesson by introducing marine animals and the vast seascape. Thereafter, students developed their drawing of marine life using tessellated shapes. Comments from peers on the Padlet platform helped improve students’ conceptualisation and creation processes.

[Pic on the left]

Primary 5 student using Procreate App to create the radial pattern.

[Pic on the right]

Primary 5 student assessing class padlet using QR Code.

This technology-based approach aims to facilitate students’ social and cognitive development by maximising idea generation, sharing and improvement of artwork. Moreover, this approach focuses on individual components within a collaborative learning model. It is designed to start from an individual ideation phase before easing into group activities as this facilitates the process for students’ to recall their prior knowledge. The approach draws upon students’ experiences and influences from a collective understanding of aesthetics to create while still preserving individual interpretations of the given theme or object. The teacher’s role is to provide a supportive framework for exploration in the art task, while the student develops his or her own ideas through purposeful discussions among peers with the materials and stimulus given.

Following the tessellation art lesson, students were taught radial pattern drawing using the app Procreate. Students noticed how patterns can be composed with such intricacy and it encouraged them to take further steps in exploring the myriad of brushes, textures, and transparency functions in Procreate to utilize in their work. They were then tasked to upload their artwork and comment on the artist’s intention behind the artwork.

[Pic on the left] Mr Ganesh, art teacher, guiding Primary 5 students how to use Praise-QuestionPolish to give feedback.

[Pic on the right] Screenshot of Primary 5 students’ artwork in Padlet platform with display of their peers‘ responses to the artwork using PraiseQuestion-Polish thinking routines.

This approach will situate lessons in a modular structure as opposed to teaching elements of art in individual lessons that are scattered throughout the primary art curriculum. The end-product created with the use of technology gives rise to student work that shows more thought and nuance. In this lesson format, a technology-based approach is designed, implemented, and evaluated to discern its effectiveness and impact on students. Working with technological platforms that encourage collaborative learning, schools can explore how the elements of art and design can be presented, taught, and explored in a modular, technology-based approach.

When learning of art is done in a collaborative environment with dynamic social interaction and a rich exchange of ideas, an artistic culture will be cultivated where students can confidently say, “Art is about my ideas, my identity, my community, and about the beauty of life”, rather than say, “Art is about lines, shapes, patterns and making photo-realistic drawings”. (Gude, 2007).

Reference

Gude, O. Principles of Possibility: considerations for a 21st- Century Art & Culture Curriculum. Art Education; Jan 2007; 60; 1 ProQuest, 6 - 14.

Screenshot of students’ artworks and responses in Padlet.

Digital Drawing and Beyond

Mdm Nur Nadiah Binte Junadi

Art Teacher Fengshan Primary School

Digital drawing and beyond

As educators in the information age, it is our responsibility to learn to use digital tools and engage our learners in new media like digital art. As technology evolves with the plethora of digital tools made available to create new forms of art, digital art flourishes. Many have questioned if primary school children are ready for digital art. When we factor in the amount of time and resources put into planning digital art lessons, should we also consider how technology evolves and renders older tools obsolete, only to be replaced by newer tools at such an astonishing pace?

PowerPoint as a starting point

In the first phase of my exploration with digital tools to make art, I dabbled in digital drawing using the ubiquitous, multi-purpose PowerPoint. Exploring simple shapes and lines, students created meaningful characters representing Singapore icons with just a computer and a mouse. While the use of this programme helped students to fill their works with vibrant colours instantly, reducing colouring time compared to using traditional mediums, the process proved to be rather limiting as pupils were restricted by the preset colour and shape options embedded within the programme.

However, this drawing activity using PowerPoint led me to the conclusion that today’s students are clearly digital natives and are receptive to these new technologies as drawing tools. This was how the trajectory towards digital drawing began for me.

Procreate and its free alternative: Sketchbook

With the emergence of the iPad and the Apple pencil that exactly mimics the precise coordination that one might have when handling pencil on canvas, drawing with older digital tools such as a mouse is rendered archaic. Installing Procreate after many fellow art teachers raved about how the brushes resemble real mediums was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The user interface is clean, and the application is loaded with a robust suite of tools.

However, it comes with a price tag. A little research led me to a comparable substitute - Sketchbook. While this free application is not equipped with the same amount of brushes, its interface is equally impressive and the features available are sufficient for beginners to create simple free-hand drawings.

Art club at work

Universal disc-tip stylus versus Apple Pencil

My first attempt at using the Apple Pencil with a Primary 2 class was disorderly. The iPad uses Bluetooth to pair to the Apple Pencil so before pairing, the iPad Bluetooth has to be activated. To use the Apple Pencil, one has to remove the cap and plug it into the lightning connector on the iPad and tap the pair button that appears. The process of pairing took about 20 minutes. I knew I had to find an alternative so I purchased a universal stylus in order to eliminate the painful time-consuming process of pairing.

Another reason for seeking an alternative is because the Apple Pencil requires charging. While the stylus is not as intuitive and responsive as the Apple Pencil and does not support palm rejection i.e. students could not rest their hand on the iPad touch-screen surface, they learnt to adapt to the tool quite instantly. Despite the drawback of the stylus lag, students learnt to be patient and adapted accordingly.

Many teachers would experiment with new ideas with the school art club before introducing them to the rest of the school. A digital drawing pilot project was launched with my P4 art club members where they were provided with the disk-tip stylus and iPad. They learnt how different kinds of brushes produced different kinds of effects, understood the importance of using layers, and learnt to adjust brush size and opacity to achieve the intended effect.

Padlet as digital storage space

I created a Google Classroom in order to have a Google folder where students could store their works. However, a majority of the students faced log-in issues. To solve this, I created a Padlet that required no login. This Padlet served both as an online portfolio where they uploaded their works, as well as a journal to reflect on their artistic processes. This Padlet was also embedded into a Google Site used as a home base for the learning of the arts.

Google Site - Padlet Journal.

Google Site as an alternative classroom

Students were given a print-out of the QR code that linked to the Google Site. Prior to their lesson, students could visit the “Resources” page of the Google Site where they had access to YouTube videos of demonstrations I created for them to have an idea of what they would be learning in the classroom. These videos also served as a “third teacher” in the classroom as students could re-watch the videos at their own pace instead of asking teachers for help, hence encouraging them to be self-directed learners.

Routine is everything

These digital art lessons implemented in the art club can be translated into actual classroom teaching. The key to successful implementation of these drawing, storing and journaling art processes is in the routine. Students are motivated to creatively express themselves on digital platforms. The role of art teachers therefore is to create a safe learning environment for them to get started and be inspired to create. The onus is also on the art teachers to make adjustments to the digital tools and instructions used to suit the learning needs and readiness of the students.

Google Site

Differentiation using ICT in Art Lessons to Improve Student Confidence and Interest in Art-making

Miss Amanda Soo Li Xin

Art Teacher Hillgrove Secondary School

How do you differentiate using ICT? Positioned in the liminality of this Personalised Digital Learning Programme (PDLP) season - many educators and students alike are still grappling with this transition.

When my colleagues and I were presented with this challenge, it was difficult to envision the roadmap with clarity! But therein lay the urgency to investigate so that we could meet the needs of our students. How can differentiating through ICT be used to help our students learn better? And how can we improve student confidence and interest in art-making?

Our Story: A Pop-Up Book Project

“Our Story” was a module that required students to investigate the theme of ‘identity’. Students worked in groups to create an A3 Pop-up spread that showcased an aspect of their school life. Over the course of 10 weeks, students utilized applications including Padlet, Google Slides, Canva and Adobe Photoshop Mix through scaffolded lessons that were focused on using these ICT tools to differentiate learning via Content, Process and Product.

Differentiation means tailoring instruction to meet individual needs. Whether teachers differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, the use of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction.

Differentiating Content: Collaborative Learning Resource using Padlet

Prior to the module, students were tasked with a holiday assignment to create an A4 Pop-up spread to introduce their hobbies. To support them in the assignment, they had to contribute to a collaborative class digital reference resource on Padlet - uploading different websites, artworks and Youtube videos that were related to how a Pop-Up book/ artwork looks or is created. Through the multiplicity of online media, the lesson was differentiated in a way where students were allowed to make their own individual learning choices from the plethora of media examples that best suited their audio, visual or verballinguistic learning styles.

Differentiating the learning content was necessary because it was the first time that students were creating a pop-up artwork. Being able to tap into the content relevant to their preferred learning style gave them the confidence and support they needed to accomplish the task.

We saw how students experimented with different kinds of folds, and learnt how to create their pop-up artwork on their own - giving them a preliminary entry into the module.

If your lessons incorporate varied types of interaction that include visual, kinesthetic, written, and auditory modes, you will increase the likelihood of your students connecting, processing, and applying knowledge. (Fountain, 2014, p.107)

Differentiating Process: Co-creating visual and written Rubrics using Google Slides

Proactive design that uses learning styles or multiple intelligences preferences can begin in two different ways: one is to pre-assess students so both you and they know what their strengths are; a second is for you to design a lesson without pre-assessment that intentionally includes elements that relate to all four learning styles (visual, kinesthetic, verbal, and auditory). ...sometimes it is not convenient or possible to pre-assess students. (Fountain, 2014, p.107)

When the term began and students were in the midst of their Pop-Up research and brainstorming, students learned to co-create a written and visual rubric for the project. This lesson persuaded them to understand the value of rubrics - so they would learn to use it to evaluate their own group assignment and make improvements to move their work to the next performance level. This also helped to set the ground for a more effective peer-assessment - occurring in later weeks.

The lesson was done in a scaffolded manner - differentiating process by employing a multiplicity of mini-activities to engage the different learning styles of the students.

For example, during the trigger activity, students were asked “What makes a good Pop-Up?”. Students were shown a recorded video depicting a range of Pop-Up artworks of varying successes (appealing to the Visual Learners). Physical artworks were also made available for students to touch and engage with (Kinesthetic Learners). Thereafter, all students engaged with the Mentimeter to suggest words that came to mind - supporting the learning of the verbal-linguistic learners.

In the main activity, students were briefed on the qualities of a good performance descriptor. Besides showing them the written rubrics, they were brought through an exercise where they were told to close their eyes while the teacher read a rubric example. This was done to encourage students to envision in their mind what the rubric suggested in order to convince students of the need for clarity and descriptiveness when writing rubrics. (Visual and Auditory Learners)

During the writing of the performance descriptor, students worked in pairs on Google Slides and referred to their preferred mode of material/ rubric examples to craft the written performance descriptor for the “Excellent”, “Form of Pop-up” criteria. Examples of written and visual rubrics were given to the students in the document (Visual and VerbalLinguistic Learners) and physical examples of student work were also made available to students to touch and observe (Kinesthetic Learners). The versatility of Google Slides enabled the teacher to consolidate the activity by reviewing selected student work quickly, taking the contributions into consideration to write a performance descriptor together with the class.

Likewise, a visual rubric was created through the same format- using a library of images made available for the students on 3 slides. Students had the same visual, written and physical rubric examples available to them. They referred to the examples they preferred and worked in pairs to select images best suited for the “Aesthetic Quality” performance descriptors.

Through an exit ticket on Padlet, students articulated their learning and expressed the benefits of learning how to use rubrics as well as their understanding of the expected standard of the artwork for this project.

Differentiating Product: Creating Presentation aids using Canva or Google Slides

“...How students will demonstrate what they have learned about the topic...” (Fountain, 2014, p.16)

“Anything that helps students demonstrate what they have come to understand, know, or be able to do as a result of learning.” (Fountain, 2014, p. 117)

At the end of the module, upon the submission of their artwork, students did a group reflection on their art making experience and shared it with the class. They created presentation aids that were either in image, text or video format (as a poster, video or deck of slides etc). Varied digital tools and platforms were used to differentiate the product according to different learning styles. (Canva, CapCut, google slides etc.)

As face-to-face presentations could be daunting, students engaged their learning style preferences to create presentation aids that enabled them to verbalize their learning in a more comfortable way.

The results showed that 84.7% of the cohort felt that their interest in Art had improved.

Final Project Outcomes: Increased student motivation and confidence in art-making

At the end of the project, to find out how students felt about their own learning, a test on SLS was created to assess the students’ ability to problem solve (confidence in art-making). A poll was also conducted to find out if students’ interest in art had improved (motivation in artmaking).

When students were tasked to explain how they would teach a friend to blend, 86.1% of the students showed the ability to communicate the steps coherently. A similar result was also seen when students were asked to explain how to paint neatly. (Acrylic Painting was the prerequisite to the Pop-Up Module)

From the quality artworks submitted by the students, as well as the positive data received from the poll and tests - it was clear that the cohort’s interest and confidence in art had improved. It was highly encouraging to view their successful Pop-Ups and read their solutions to the questions presented to them in the SLS tests. This highlighted their ability to articulate key technical art processes accurately as well as serving as an indicator of a high level of engagement with the art forms. Throughout the project, the students showed the ability to resolve their challenges by approaching the teacher and their peers for help or look online for a solution. They learned to be independent and persisted in the face of difficulties - important traits that need to be fostered so that self-directed learning can take center-stage as we enter into the new age of regular Home-Based Learning.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Mdm Nurul Afia, Mr Rozaimi Abdul Rahim and Ms Tan Mei Hui for their contributions towards this research project.

References

Tomlinson, C. A., & Tomlinson, C. A. (2017). How to differentiate instruction in academically diverse classrooms. 3rd Edition. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.

Fountain, H.L.R. (2014). Differentiated instruction in art. Davis Publications, Inc.

Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR). (2018). Short Guide to InquiryBased Learning in the Singapore Art Classroom. Singapore.

Lower Secondary Art Teaching and Learning Syllabus. (2018). Retrieved from https:// www.moe.gov.sg/-/media/files/secondary/syllabuses/arts-ed/2018_lowersec_art_ syllabus.pdf?la=en&hash=ACF16CCBB0981C4F06C7DEF946D9D833F4680890 k

Engagement in the e-Classroom: ICT for Theory & History of Art

Ms Hailey Cheong Art Teacher

Faculty of Visual Arts, School of The Arts

“Please take out your mobile devices.”

Entering the classroom and commencing a lesson with this instruction often leads to bemused expressions and puzzled students questioning if they have misheard me. This is followed by the next most logical assumption — “are we playing Kahoot!?”, referring to the ubiquitous multi-player, multiple-choice quiz that seems to be the embodiment of ‘engagement’ for lessons or wedding receptions. To be fair, Kahoot! is incredibly user-friendly and students are familiar with the interface and gameplay — to the point of humming along to the lobby music while waiting for players to join — so it is a comfortable option to break the monotony of a largely unvirtual, technologically disengaged lesson. But there are other options.

I is for Immediacy

The allure of Kahoot! is that it is a fast-paced game where results are streamed live after each round. It requires minimum effort (but maximum data or wifi connectivity). This immediacy of feedback is pertinent in assessing learning as ‘checkpoints’ during contentheavy sessions, and can be achieved through using tools to extend the classroom into the digital realm by engaging learners through their devices in real time.

The Pear Deck for Google Slides add-on enables learners to follow your slide presentation on their devices, at your pace. It also has a function to embed multiple-choice or open response questions within the slides, a nifty addition that keeps students on their toes, and helps check for understanding of the concepts taught before proceeding with the lesson.

Student view of slide with multiple-choice question.

Projected (Teacher) view of multiplechoice responses.

Screenshot of Pear Deck welcome screen.

Projected (Teacher) of an open response question.

Projected (Teacher) view of responses.

An added bonus of Pear Deck is the option to download the responses as a spreadsheet, which captures the timestamp and student name for each response. This is incredibly useful for reviewing the concepts taught in subsequent lessons, or for follow-up sessions with particular students based on their response.

Sample spreadsheet of responses from Pear Deck Session (names of students have been edited).

While Pear Deck is a useful tool, it unfortunately does not come with catchy lobby music, or the frenzy of timed challenges. Platforms such as Quizizz and Blooket, however, allow the option to host live games, where questions are posed to students through their devices while a leaderboard is projected on screen. This adds an element of excitement to the game as the players on the leaderboard shift after every question. Students are thus given immediate feedback on how they are faring compared to their peers (you can even host games with neighbouring classes), with the experience enhanced by cute icons and suspenseful background ‘game show’ music.

While Quizizz presents questions and responses in a classic quiz format, Blooket allows you to create sets of questions that can be hosted in different game modes:

The game modes can be hosted live or assigned as homework, depending on the type of gameplay. I have found that students enjoy a ‘Battle Royale’ live — it pits players against each other each question round — or ‘Tower Defence’ — where they earn money every right question answered, to build ‘towers’ along a path — as a self-paced quiz. Depending on how many questions you have in a set, they may repeat throughout the game, enabling students to revise certain concepts or definitions within the same game. This has proven useful, for instance, when revising the definitions of various terms and the use of artistic vocabulary associated with new concepts.

While the free Blooket account lacks the option to download reports of games played, Quizizz has multiple quiz report options that can be used to review the students’ progress at the end of the quiz:

Blooket game mode selection screen.

Quiz

Highlights and overview page.

Quizizz report (by student).

Ultimately, the choice of platform to use is determined by the type of feedback you wish to receive about the students’ learning, the extent to which that feedback is needed to proceed with the lesson, as well as how it flows within the rhythm of your lesson:

Quizizz

Diagram comparing use of Pear Deck to Quizizz and Blooket

C is for Collaboration

There is almost never enough time for deep and meaningful collaborative practices within a single lesson. Extending the classroom into the virtual realm helps facilitate the continuation of a conversation or collaboration beyond the confines of a physical space or timed lesson structure. This has bearing on the new normal of home-based or independent learning days, where students are dispersed and often working at their own pace — there is a need for a centralised platform for them to virtually ‘gather’, even at different timings, to work on a set task.

The nature of the task determines the platform to use. For tasks that are slightly more straightforward, requiring either a simple or compounded response to a particular stimulus, platforms in the style of a virtual collaborative whiteboard such as Padlet, Jamboard and Miro are effective facilitation devices. These platforms allow students to post their responses on a virtual ‘wall’ that can be extended endlessly, not limited by boxes or the edges of a paper. Padlet is a strong favourite for its ease of use, clean interface, the option to add links, images, videos, audio and even create drawings directly on a post. More importantly, it captures the responses of the entire class within a single frame, which enables access to all other posts — a feature that is imperative for facilitating any form of peer review or critique. Different aspects of the platform should also be leveraged in order to scaffold the learning process by breaking down the assignment into smaller tasks using different functions.

Padlet wall for a Year 3 Theory & History of Art pairwork task.

Breakdown of how different features of Padlet are implemented in stages to facilitate collaborative learning.

Learning activities that may require more content-heavy responses can make use of Google Slides, which has similar functionality as a virtual ‘wall’ but organised into sections (slides) instead. Originally used only by the teacher as a presentation tool, I have found the use of Google Slide decks as a shared platform to collate responses, facilitate collaboration and peer evaluation to be particularly convenient and effective.

Part of a class Google Slide deck featuring pair work and peer evaluation.

The ‘Add comment’ feature, in particular, enables the user to highlight specific portions of text or images in any slide and comment on it — this allows students or the teacher to start a conversation about points raised in the content of the slides. The ease of duplicating slides also helps with peer evaluation work (as pictured in the image above), where simple rubrics can be added for students to review each other’s work in the slides. These slides can also be easily projected in class, for further discussion or review.

T is for Tracking

The various examples outlined above are task specific and have been used in different contexts for the teaching of different levels. More often than not, a single lesson could make use of multiple platforms to facilitate the lesson or unit — this is to accommodate a variety of factors such as learning objectives, lesson timeframe and progression, accessibility and whether the lesson is fully online, face-to-face or a mixture of both. The criteria for selecting which platform to use is thus based on these factors, and may change based on the objectives. One of the key criteria that remains constant, however, is whether the platform selected for the activity enables effective tracking of learner progress in order to fulfil learning objectives.

These are more clearly outlined in some sample unit plans for Theory and History of Art (THA) for Years 2, 3 and 4:

Breakdown of how different features of Google Slides are implemented in stages to facilitate collaborative learning.

Year 2 THA Lesson unit flow.

Year 3 THA Lesson unit flow.

Year 4 THA Lesson unit flow.

The physical classroom is extended naturally into Google Classroom as a virtual repository of notes, lesson tasks and assignment briefs. Lesson activities are planned with this in mind, leveraging on the element of continuity that comes with e-assignments. The integration of other tools such as quizzes and collaborative whiteboards into the lessons at planned intervals also ensures an immediacy of feedback, effective collaboration and ease of tracking learners’ understanding.

So, please take out your mobile devices.