Topic 2 Post-Feedback

The first article I read was Kohn (2004), 5 Reasons to Stop Saying Good Job.

The first quote that stood out to me is, “Is it possible that telling kids they’ve done a good job may have less to do with their emotional needs than with our convenience?” (Kohn, 2004, p. 106).

To summarize my learning from this quote….

Instead of saying good job out of convenience, discuss with children why putting their art supplies away, and then helping others do the same creates an art room that runs smoothly. Additionally, discuss with children the opposite. If a student (or your own child) does not put their toys away, throw their trash away, or leaves all of their art supplies out, discuss how that will negatively affect other people, the next class coming to the art room, etc. When you say good job students begin doing things in order to receive your (the teacher, the parent) approval, instead of understanding why what they did positively or negatively impacts the classroom (household, family, etc.).

The second quote that stood out to me, “A “Good job!” to reinforce something that makes our lives a little easier can be an example of taking advantage of children’s dependence. Kids may feel manipulated by us, even if they can’t quite explain why.” (Kohn, 2004, p. 107).  

This quote really hits home for me. In my introduction post I discussed how “good job!” might slip out more than I like. I am getting better at my habit of saying good job in a fast pace elementary art room, but of course it is no educators intention to purposefully manipulate children. However, it does make clear why saying “good job” all of the time is not the best practice, for educators, parents, caretakers of children as a whole. I can’t help but think about when we were training my dog to go to the bathroom outside. Of course you can’t explain to a dog the positives of waiting to go until he is outside. However, you can train them by giving them a positive reinforcement for when they do what you want. For example, I carried bacon in my pocket while training our dog. The second he would “go potty!” outside he got bacon. What I am trying to get at is, we don’t want to just “train” our students or children. We want to help shape all around good people.

The more I continue to read Kohn’s (2004) article the more I wish I could go back and be a fly on the wall during my younger educational years.

“Generosity became a means to an end.” (Kohn, 2004, p. 109). This is another quote I am really stuck on. In my classroom students are given positive reinforcement for helping others and being kind. It’s a dollar system (Dali Dollars), where if I “catch” a student being kind or helping others they earn a dollar to go in to the bucket. Students can nominate other students who they feel earned a Dali Dollar as well. When the bucket is full I pull names once or twice a month. Names that are pulled get to pick a small prize from the prize bin.

Positive reinforcement has always been something that I practiced in my art room. Am I doing too much?

My biggest take away from this article is, “Talk less, ask more.” (Kohns, 2004, p. 112).  We don’t need to fill every second with praise, we shouldn’t be. We should support our students and make them feel comfortable in our classrooms, which does not require constant praise.

Kohn, A. (2004a). 5 reasons to stop saying good job. In What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? And More Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies (pp. 106–113). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

The second article I wanted to focused on, “Is this okay?” Developing Student Ownership in Art Making Through Feedback (Low, 2015).

The first quote that stood out to me, “Feedback that focuses on more than one aspect of learning-the product, process, and progress-yields maximum benefit to students.” (Low, 2015, p. 44). This quote is important to me because stopping in the middle of a project is hard for me (and my students). Once the momentum of creating gets started, it’s hard to want it to stop, as all art teachers can relate. However, Low (2015) reminds me that feedback is essential not just at the end but throughout the art making process. Low (2015) also gives me 3 categories I can organize my research in for my independent project.

“I noticed three types of feedback in my classroom: teacher, peer, and self.” (Low, 2015, p. 44). This quote sticks with me simply because it also relates to my independent project research. I am building a toolkit for feedback. This quote gives me three categories to organize feedback strategies into.

Low (2015) also goes on to describe giving specific guiding questions during critiques that relate back to the project criteria. I think it’s really important to provide these guiding questions for students by setting important boundaries of what should be discussed.

Low, S. H. (2015). “Is this okay?” Developing student ownership in art making through feedback, Art Education, 68(1), 43-49. Here: ContentServer.asp-5

I found three different articles. The first one is a quick summarization of effective feedback and references Wiggins (2012) article, Seven Keys to Effective Feedback. https://theartofeducation.edu/2014/05/22/3-keys-to-effective-art-room-feedback/. This article I felt was important because it serves as a nice quick reference for art teachers. Quick and simple.

Dougherty, S. (n.d). 3 keys to effective art room feedback. The Art of Education. https://theartofeducation.edu/2014/05/22/3-keys-to-effective-art-room-feedback/

The second is Teresa L. Cothner (2001) Why study classroom art talk?

why-study-classroom-art-talkDownload

Cothner (2001) article covers a wider range of art talk (not necessarily just feedback) in a classroom including art criticism, art history, aesthetics, and studio practice. Cothner (2001) article interests me when it comes to feedback because it discusses how research on art talk in art classrooms was (I am saying was because it is dated 19 years ago) lacking at the high school level. I found this interesting as an elementary art teacher because my experience in a high school art room is that there is more conversations about art (critiques) compared to the elementary art room for as long as I can remember. Furthermore Cothner (2001) discusses how social goals can impact conversations students have about their artwork. “This (my art project) is an ‘A,’ I showed it to my friends, I am proud of it, I tried hard, It’s going to be in the art show…” (p. 15). While these statements show the student(s) are proud of themselves for getting approval from either classmates or their teacher, they do not carry much weight when it comes to why they created their art the way they did. This brings me back to why it is so important that we guide our students when reflecting on their projects.

Cothner, L. T. (2001). Why study classroom art talk? Art Education, 54:1, 12-17.

And the third https://theartofeducation.edu/2018/03/21/why-all-art-students-need-a-process-journal/. In this article Yang (n.d) discusses the use of Process Journals with his upper level students. The Process Journals are used in Yang’s classroom as an early finisher, in between large projects activities. How does this relate to feedback? Yang (n.d) discusses how students visit these journals in between projects, and while reading I started thinking about how my students could have a feedback section added to their sketchbooks. There is a part of the sketchbook that gives students a checklist on what to do if they feel they have finished their project. One of the first steps is to post their project on SeeSaw and then complete a project reflection on Google Classroom. However, last year was the first year I used the sketchbooks and the Google Classroom reflections were not consistent-I will be working on this for my independent project.

Yang, R. (n.d). Why all art students need a process journal. The Art of Education. https://theartofeducation.edu/2018/03/21/why-all-art-students-need-a-process-journal/

Thank you for reading. I know that was a long post. I went down a few different paths with this one.