VTS: Blog #11

Blog Topic #11: Preparing for Teacher’s Choice

Norman Rockwell
Freedom from Want
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

Paul Mathey
Woman and Child in a Room.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

• Why did you select this work of art?

I was really thinking about the way VTS sets up the images for its elementary curriculums. And about how they have staged the images to not just be appealing and interesting to each age group, but how they have selected images based on how long they have been VTS-ing.  You may notice that my second image is a VTS image from the elementary curriculum. I was looking at the images on the website and was thinking how well this would team up with my memory unit as well as the fact that it incorporates space. I was setting up a unit on memories and how we remember events. I was also hoping to raise student media efficacy, teaching them some drawing skills as they pertain to creating the illusion of space. I wanted my students to see examples of artists that show memory, space / depth, and discuss what they are looking at. I was curious to see if they would actually pick out any of these details.

• Why do you believe it is appropriate for your students, considering their age, stage, interests, and abilities?
• Why is it a good choice for the content/curriculum you are currently teaching?  How do you expect for it to support/supplement your teaching of the content/curriculum?

My students are 97% white suburban high school students ranging in age from 15 - 17, beginning viewers, with various interests and abilities. I wanted to tap into their idea of memory, so the primary image (Rockwell's Freedom from Want) was selected to be viewed the day after returning from Thanksgiving break, and the secondary image was selected because it was a smaller child that they could then think back to when they were kids. I also tried to select images that could have some abiguity and have additional discussion points (such as familial roles and / or class / affluency). There is also a sense of depth and space at work in these images that I was hoping that they would discuss. My intent is for their project to show an interior room in perspective, using the 6 depth techniques to illustrate space.

• In what way(s) do you believe it will challenge your students?

I think these images may challenge my students by the fact that they are more straight forward and that they might try to stop thinking / discussing at the first obvious answer. I think that by using the VTS format, they will be forced to examine the image more closely and hopefully see more than what meets the eye.

• What features/aspects of the work of art and its narrative do you believe students will notice?  What might intrigue them?

Obviously, the turkey will scream thanksgiving to them. I think they will notice the people situated around the table. In the Rockwell, I think the person's face in the bottom right corner will intrigue them. He seems to be looking out at the viewer instead of being engaged in the activity in the center of the room.