Using the Yenawine article as your guide, select an image that you think would be a good VTS choice for your students.
While I implemented the VTS lesson with image 4.2 in the text, I found that my students had better understanding and observations with similar cultural art pieces even though the piece belongs to China. So I would like to deal with Korean painting this time.
A lot of painting Yunbok Shin left during his entire life provide an opportunity for us to understand culture, tradition and people of the Chosen Dynasty Period (1391~1910). Among his many works, I chose this painting because there are interesting things going on that students might be curious about. Since my students are in 4th or 5th grade and they tend to be Stage2 viewers, I believe, through dealing with this piece, I can observe their understanding about the relationship between man and woman as well as meaning making process.
And as the Yenawine’s guidelines recommend, this piece also has stories artist intended, diversity, realism and series and theme so this painting is worth dealing with. Besides, I cannot stop thinking about comparing observations and responses about this piece between Korean students and American students. If this is possible, I could investigate how cultural familiarity or knowledge affects on students’ understanding and the process of making meanings.
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ReplyDeleteFourth and fifth grade students are interested in dating. This would be a good image for them. Are all of your students girls? Do you think their possible discussion would be different if boys were present?
ReplyDelete"Besides, I cannot stop thinking about comparing observations and responses about this piece between Korean students and American students. If this is possible, I could investigate how cultural familiarity or knowledge affects on students’ understanding and the process of making meanings."
In our latest Yenawine reading about image selection, he points out that what is readable in one culture, can be hard to read in another. Do your students have non-Korean friends that they can volunteer for your comparison group?
I agree that this would be a good image for you to use with your group of 5/6th graders. I believe the students would come up with great interpretations about the content of the image. I would love to hear what they had to say about the woman looking back at the couple. "Is she jealous...does she think they are acting inappropriately?" I could hear all these comments from my students.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I could see my students getting stuck in conversation because the only clues to what is happening seems to be the 3 figures in the image. I feel like it may be missing some 'objects/things' to lead the viewers to develop a variety of interpretations.
The setting is interesting, a couple embracing in the moonlight, the woman peering around the corner. The scene is ripe for interpretation. The age, maturity,and as you suggest, cultural differences would all figure into the appropriateness of this image.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would use this image with my focus group. My students live in military family housing, parents deploy for long periods of time, and sometimes infidelity occurs. I am afraid this image is too provocative for my group. I don't like to imagine the direction that the interpretation could take.
That's the good point Caila said that students could be stuck in conversation because they make meaning through observing three figures. I guess this can happen to American students because they don't have any familiarity or background information about the culture this image includes so that their interpretation could be simple and general. However, I expect that my Korean students can make much more meaningful interpretation through observing only three figures. They are familiar with historical or cultural characteristic of the period of the image. And there are many kinds of historical soap opera in Korea which have been very popular. Because of prior cultural exposure, my students could make meaning through observing 3 figure’s costume, status and background images as well as the figure’s motion or situation. Also, they could create casual relationship of this happening by applying cultural distinct of the period. So I said I’d like to compare observations and interpretation about this piece between Korean and American students in order to investigate how cultural familiarity or knowledge affects on students’ understanding and the process of making meanings.
ReplyDeleteWatching your video of students VTSing the Chinese painting (can't remember the title), I remember being struck with the amount of cultural knowledge they applied to the discussion. So, I am fascinated at your idea of "how cultural familiarity or knowledge affects on students’ understanding and the process of making meanings." FASCINATING! I hope you will be able to explore this in the VTS II class!
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