STELLAR Professional Development Opportunity 2018

The University of Oregon and its Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art offer 6 months of high quality professional development designed to integrate instruction in visual literacy and argument writing.

Professional development activities:

  • A Kickoff workshop at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art January 20, 2018
  • Training, coaching, and mentoring in the use of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)
  • Strategies for teaching reasoned argumentation and argument writing aligned with CCSS
  • Twice-monthly presentations, workshops, and collaboration opportunities in Second Life
  • Interactive discussions on key ideas from related books & articles

Additional FREE opportunities:

  • Field trip to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
  • Access to the VTS online Image Library
  • Class projects with teaching artists from Lane Regional Arts Council
  • School visits from Artie the Art Bus of Imagination International
  • Earn PDUs

Participate in research (optional):

  • Help us continue to develop and evaluate the project
  • Complete surveys, test of visual literacy, brief quarterly reflections, eLogs
  • $1000 stipend upon completion of the research activities

To learn more:

  • Contact Peggy Marconi, Project Coordinator, with questions.
  • Email: pmarconi@uoregon.edu
  • Telephone: 541-505-6987; Fax: 541-346-2565

 

Featured Teacher: Jack Stepp

Featured Teacher Jack Stepp

Featured Teacher Jack Stepp

“Art and design is in everything we do and every subject we study. Visual literacy is as important now as it ever was. We really need to take advantage of opportunities to educate ourselves and our children in the arts.” So says Jack Stepp, an art teacher at Creswell High School. Creswell, with a population of about 5,000, is a community undergoing a metamorphosis. “Creswell has been trying to find its place after 20 years of transition from a mill and farm community,” says Jack. “We have survived some deep budget cuts over the years and are beginning to build again.”

At the high school, which boasts around 400 students, Jack also teaches architectural drafting, CAD, and woodshop to students from all four grades who arrive with varied interests and skill levels. He has found VTS an effective technique to get students engaged. “As an art teacher I am used to leading student discussions. With a VTS lesson the instructor acts as the facilitator and allows the student driven discussion to follow a natural course . . . Once the students understand that there is no wrong answer and the momentum gets going, students become so engaged and want their opinions to be heard that they get irritated if you don’t call on them. They almost fight for their turn to speak.”

Given the range of students involved in Jack’s classes, he also finds that VTS  encourages students to respect other viewpoints. “The VTS method stresses that there is no wrong answer, listening to others opinions, and if you disagree you do it in a respectful manner that does not belittle those opinions. It teaches students that it is ok to disagree. This can be a difficult concept for adults. The hope is that this will carry over to other classes and even their personal conversations.”

VTS also seems to spur students to be more mindful in their individual work. “One unforeseen side effect of using VTS is that the students begin to build narratives about the work they are speaking about. I began encouraging them to create a narrative before beginning a new artwork. This has increased their interest in completing assignments that may otherwise be routine practice . . . I use VTS mainly in Drawing classes. When we begin a new project, a courtyard drawn in 2-point perspective for example, we will do a VTS lesson that has a variety of courtyard drawings, photos, or paintings. As the students participate in the classroom discussion they naturally begin to form a narrative about the example. Then as they work on their rough drafts for the assignment I encourage them to create a narrative for the picture they are creating. This leads to an increased level of detail and engagement in their own work.”

Of the STELLAR Project, Jack says, “I feel that teachers from all disciplines should try this program. It is a great tool to use in your classroom to encourage deeper thinking. It helps students to be more thoughtful. Most importantly in a time when formal exposure to the arts is diminishing, it teaches a greater appreciation for art, not only among students but teachers as well . . . I went into the program with a colleague that I knew pretty well, one that was new to our building, also peers from our other schools. Those relationships grew much stronger as we went through the program together. It was nice to get to know colleagues who work in our district, but that I only see two or three times a year.”


The STELLAR Project is pleased to honor our outstanding participants and mentors in this Featured Teacher series. Check back soon to learn about more of our fantastic teachers!

Featured Teacher: Karen Batten

Featured Teacher Karen Batten

Featured Teacher Karen Batten

Karen Batten teaches English and Spanish at Oakridge Junior Senior High School—a district serving about 500 students in a town with a population just over 3,000. According to Karen, “Most classes are open to any grade. For example, in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes, I have students from all grades 7-12.”

Karen joined the very first cohort of STELLAR participants, where she quickly revealed herself as an outstanding teacher and colleague. When the first cohort finished its year of training, she joined the STELLAR team as a mentor, assisting and advising new participants in their training and practice. Her contributions have been vital to the STELLAR Project’s efforts in Oakridge and elsewhere, as having mentors on-site to answer questions and work through issues is particularly useful in remote districts.

“Since STELLAR, I definitely feel an even stronger sense of collegiality, of team spirit, of working toward a common goal,” Karen says. “In our rural town, some teachers are local, and some commute in. Teachers already have very full, busy schedules, and a job where we’re isolated from other adults most of the day, and adding a commute for many of us makes regular professional and social gatherings pretty difficult to schedule. Being able to meet on-line was wonderful . . . You can be in your PJs, but you can access great professional development and contact with colleagues from your school and from all over. STELLAR gave me more time with my colleagues.”

STELLAR provides participating teachers with a free field trip to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, an experience which Karen says she found especially memorable. “It was great to get to take them to an actual museum and have them experience art in person instead of just projected from a computer . . . It’s rewarding, and no extra “trinkets” or “awards” are necessary. Satisfaction and fun are the ultimate reward.”

In the classroom, Karen found Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), which is one of the STELLAR Project’s key ingredients, to be an effective tool to keep students engaged and curious, while encouraging an environment of mutual respect and collaboration. “During VTS discussions, students listen to each other, build on each others’ hypotheses, explain evidence to support their opinions, and rethink and revisit assumptions.” While Karen herself uses VTS with middle- and high-school students, she states that the strategy works with many age groups. “I’ve seen colleagues do VTS at the elementary level. It’s super for all ages, and it naturally lends itself to varying degrees of depth and complexity.”

Though Karen incorporates a traditional VTS session into her lessons at least once a month, she doesn’t just use VTS for visual art. She also uses it in teaching grammar in her Spanish classes, and in literature discussions in her English classes. “I can tell students are more eager to contribute . . . I think VTS discussions help students be more open to being proven wrong, to considering multiple possibilities . . . VTS helps teach students that it’s ok to go through a process, to change your mind, to entertain many possibilities, and to not know.”

Karen believes that VTS builds skills that benefit students far beyond just the classroom. “VTS helps students learn about, practice, and start to incorporate some great life skills: hypothesizing, holding different possibilities in mind, considering others’ views, supporting your opinion, reevaluating, and more. I see students more open to believing that mistakes are welcome, that thinking things through is as important or more important than knowing what some expert says about the theme or symbolism . . . Students are more engaged. Learning feels fun, and the skills we’re practicing are applicable to… everything.”

Now that she is a STELLAR mentor, Karen’s VTS training continues, as does her use VTS in her classes and her daily life. “[VTS] has served as a good reminder to pause, to look deeply, to wonder. You know, it’s helped my communication skills, too, when I remember to use it. ‘What do you see that makes you say that?’ accompanied with genuine curiosity, is so helpful for understanding people in your life!”


The STELLAR Project is pleased to honor our outstanding participants and mentors in this new Featured Teacher series. Check back soon to learn about more of our fantastic teachers!

STELLAR Featured in Arts in Education Quarterly Newsletter

STELLAR is honored to be featured in the fall quarterly newsletter of Arts in Education. Check the link here, or read the full text below!

Every other Wednesday evening, teachers from across Oregon get together to learn new skills, plan lessons, and break into small groups for discussions and presentations, and provide each other with feedback, and they can do all this in their pajamas. No, Oregon schools haven’t dropped their dress codes; instead, these teachers are participants in the STELLAR project, a 2014 PDAE grant. Teachers from grades K-12 meet and interact through their personal avatars in Second Life, an immersive virtual reality environment. According to Dr. Lynne Anderson, project director, using this technology has helped make professional development more accessible, especially for teachers working in remote school districts. “The Second Life platform has been instrumental to the success of our project,” reported Anderson. “Teachers are busy professionals, and it’s particularly challenging for teachers in rural areas to get together for ongoing professional development with their peers. Second Life creates such an immersive, all-encompassing experience that teachers feel like they are in the same room with each other, even though they may be hundreds of miles apart. The same technology allows us to provide professional development to teachers from multiple rural districts at the same time, and bring in guest speakers from all over the world.”

A main focus of these virtual sessions is providing instruction on Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a student-centered approach to visual arts education. Through VTS, students are asked to interpret a piece of art, and then support their interpretations using evidence from the artwork itself; you can read more about VTS in our feature article. In the STELLAR Project teachers are taught how to use three very specific questions to engage students in the process of orally responding to specific works of art: (a) What’s going on in this picture?; (b) What do you see that makes you say that?; and (c) What more can you find? “The goal of VTS is to get students thinking,” explained Anderson. “And we are finding that VTS is an excellent way to integrate visual arts with writing because both involve making a claim, and then learning how to back up that claim in a thoughtful, reasoned way.” For many marginalized students, such as English language learners or those with learning disabilities, writing can be intimidating, but responding to a work of art orally is nonthreatening and more engaging. “Students respond to art in different ways, and they want to share that reactions with others. VTS helps students channel this impulse in a way that mirrors the process for argument writing – a form of academic writing that is foundational to success in school.” A teacher echoed this point in a written reflection on her experience when she observed that “during VTS, students of all abilities show an increase in confidence; all students show an eagerness to share their viewpoint.”

The STELLAR Project’s professional development model is designed to help teachers learn how to use VTS to encourage students’ enthusiasm for art and draw connections between art criticism and other forms of expressive thought. The project begins with an in-person, two-day kickoff workshop, during which teachers are introduced to VTS’ approach for teaching students how to interpret visual art. The kick-off workshop also introduces teachers to Second Life, where they meet virtually every other Wednesday evening at 8 PM for the remainder of the 9-month program. “The follow up session in Second Life offer teachers the chance to learn new instructional skills, construct VTS lessons together, and engage in small group discussions to share successes or solve challenges they are experiencing in their classrooms,” said Anderson. “Everything you can do during a face-to-face professional development session, we can do in Second Life; what’s more, we can schedule these sessions on weekday evenings, which works better for most teachers’ schedules.” In addition to their semi-weekly virtual sessions, teachers get feedback from in-person classroom observations two times per year. In their reflections, several teachers commented that the combination of virtual meetings and in-person visits helped them integrate VTS in their teaching practice. For example, one teacher observed “It was the regular reminders throughout the year at our online meetings, hearing other teachers’ experiences, and seeing VTS implemented in different ways that made it a way of practice for me.“

The STELLAR project also provides for teachers to bring their students to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. During the field trip, students have an opportunity to engage with art work up close. “For many of the students, the trip to JSMA is the first time they have interacted with art in a museum setting. It makes the experience come alive for them,” said Anderson. The field trip is also an opportunity for teachers to get a new perspective on VTS. “We do teacher observations at the museum, so teachers get feedback on their use of VTS in a new and authentic context.”

To date, two cohorts of teachers have participated in the STELLAR Project, and results from the project evaluation are promising. According to Anderson, the project developed the STELLAR Test of Visual Literacy to measure changes in teachers’ visual literacy before and after participation in the project’s professional development. The test consists of 20 open-ended questions, all aligned with one of five anchor standards of the National Core Arts Standards for Visual Arts. Results showed statistically significant gains on all tested anchor standards in the visual arts. In addition, teachers’ responses on the STELLAR Survey of Critical Thinking and Argument Writing revealed significant increases in teachers’ knowledge of how to teach critical thinking and argument writing.

From Robert Young: Special Offer for STELLAR Teachers

Game Day with the Oregon Ducks, by Robert Young, is an insider’s look at a UO football game. Although written for kids, this book is for curious Duck fans of all ages. Rich with photos, the book is packed with details about the games at Autzen. Did you know that 2,000 people work on a game day? Or, that the band practices about ten hours for their half-time show that last 6-8 minutes? Or, that the Ducks players wear GPS units in their shoulder pads to gather important information during games? You do now, and you’ll find out much more when you read the book.

Keep the book for yourself, or add it to your classroom library. You can also make it part of your curriculum by using the Common Core-based activities (including VTS suggestions). You’ll find them under the Resource tab on Robert’s website (www.realwriting.us).

But wait, it gets better. The publisher has agreed to offer TEACHERS a special promo for a limited time. If you order from their website gamedaywiththeoregonducks.com and enter the promo code TEACH on the checkout page, you’ll get 25% off the retail price.

Check out the book trailer: https://youtu.be/5COvLOf8pl8

STELLAR Kickoff 2016

The STELLAR team kicked off its third cohort August 18-19 with a two-day workshop held at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. New STELLAR teachers learned about the project, Second Life, and Visual Thinking Strategies.

Mirka Jablonski works with Cohort 3

Mirka Jablonski works with Cohort 3

Meanwhile, the mentor teachers attended trainings to further their knowledge and prepare to support their Cohort 3 colleagues in the upcoming year. Mirka Jablonski and Yoon Kang O’Higgins, both of VTS, worked with the teachers and mentors in an intensive training and practice session on Friday, August 19.

Cohort 3 practices VTS in the JSMA galleries

Cohort 3 practices VTS in the JSMA galleries

The STELLAR and OWP team welcomes Cohort 3! We are excited to work with you in the upcoming year.

New Book Coming Soon from STELLAR Collaborator Robert Young

OWP collaborator and author Robert Young is releasing a new book September 3. From Robert’s Facebook page: 

SOMETHING AWESOME THIS WAY COMES…

Koke Next Generation, Inc. has partnered with QSL Print Communications to publish and print GAME DAY with the OREGON DUCKS – An Insider’s Look at a UO Football Game. Written by Robert Young with photography by Jack Liu, this 40-page book takes you behind the scenes of a UO home game at Autzen Stadium.

Written for all ages, this photo-heavy account of GAME DAY depicts how a small army of dedicated individuals works together to bring you the ultimate Duck fan experience. From the security personnel to the food vendors to the equipment managers and everyone in between, this book is the ultimate backstage pass for curious Duck fans everywhere.

GAME DAY with the OREGON DUCKS – An Insider’s Look at a UO Football Game will be available for purchase at The Duck Store just in time for the Ducks season opener against UC Davis on Saturday, September 3rd or order online at GameDaywiththeOregonDucks.com. Retail price $16.95.

The STELLAR team congratulates Robert on all his hard work and are looking forward to reading the book.

STELLAR Students Honored at New Art Northwest Kids Reception

Three STELLAR students were honored at a reception for the artists featured in the New Art Northwest Kids exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on Saturday. Kyla Wilder, Gage Burton, and Melissa Rouska of Oakridge High School were all present at the reception, which was held in honor of the 44 artists whose work was selected out of hundreds of submissions from across the state of Oregon.

Kyla Wilder.

Kyla Wilder.

Melissa Rouska.

Melissa Rouska.

Gage Burton and family.

Gage Burton and family.

After the official welcome by JSMA staff, the artists and their guests were offered refreshments and the opportunity to tour the museum and take advantage of the attached studio. The reception immediately preceded JSMA’s biannual Family Day, which offered numerous activities including visits from Artie the Art Bus, Ballet Fantastique, and manga artist Marianne Walker.

The STELLAR team would like to send Melissa, Kyla, and Gage our best wishes and a hearty congratulations for their accomplishments. Well done!

Artie the Art Bus Visits Oakridge Schools

Artie the Art Bus

Artie the Art Bus

Artie is back at it! This time, the mural-covered mobile art classroom from Imagination International, Inc. (III) is visiting Oakridge School District. The bus brings arts education to schools throughout Lane County, seating 22 students at a time. In the last few months, Artie has also visited Creswell and Lowell as part of the STELLAR Project.

Artie is currently on the second of five weekly visits to Oakridge. According to III Community Program Instructor Nori Rice, Artie is keeping busy in Oakridge, hosting 4 to 5 sessions per day each Wednesday when the bus rolls into town. Oakridge art teacher and STELLAR participant Bev Isacksen said that students from all grade levels K-12 were participating in the Artie sessions, and that response from teachers and students has been outstanding. “Kids have loved it!”

Jose Ramirez drives Artie the Art Bus.

Jose Ramirez drives Artie the Art Bus.

At Oakridge, the Artie staff have been joined by comic artist Matt Brundage, whose work has appeared in the Vertigo Comics series Art Ops. Mr. Brundage worked with the students while also creating his own work—up to one complete character per hour! Mr. Brundage’s work can be seen at his Facebook page.

When Artie visited Lundy Elementary School in Lowell, the lessons focused on basic art skills and knowledge like using a color wheel. In the higher grade levels at Creswell and Oakridge, III teachers introduce the Creatures of Amalthea curriculum. The program teaches young artists how to develop creature designs and concept art for fantastical beasts. Developed by acclaimed creature designer Terryl Whitlatch—who has worked on films such as Men in Black, Jumanji, and Star Wars—the curriculum takes a research- and science-based approach to concept art, highlighting the importance of anatomy in creating believable creatures.

“Since classes only get 1-2 visits, the entire Creatures of Amalthea curriculum could not be included.  It is at least a week long or (5 session minimum) program,” Ms. Rice said. However, the curriculum can be downloaded for free at the III website. You can find out more about Creatures of Amalthea, including teaching manuals and videos, at https://imaginationinternationalinc.com/creatures-of-amalthea/.

School administrators who are interested in scheduling a visit from Artie can find more information, including how to contact the River Road Park and Recreation District at www.rrpark.org. To learn more about the STELLAR Project, visit owp.uoregon.edu.