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Concept Attainment: The Byzantine Art Project |
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Purpose Our group based this lesson on Hilda Taba's Concept Attainment model. We collaborated to develop a lesson that would put our classmates in the position of students as they participated in the presentation. We gave examples and non-examples of Byzantine art. The class worked together to define the concept, observing and listing characteristics until they came to consensus about the concept's attributes. Finally, after all class members were in agreement, we told them precisely what they had defined. Audience This lesson was developed for use in middle school and high school classrooms. It would be a useful introduction to the study of the Byzantine Empire. Students participating in this Concept Attainment lesson would gain strong visual imagery of the Byzantine ideology simply by being introduced to what was depicted in the art of the time period. Feedback from cohort members: -Overall scores from rubrics: 12, 12, 12, 11, 10.5, 10 -Written comments on rubric were very positive -Good use of individual responses -flexible enough to go back to beginning at student requests for review -Great graphics -Excellent use of examples both in number and in diversity -Loved music, went so well with slides -Lots of visual appeal -Costumes, music, and visuals added to the experience -Very well organized pattern of examples -Sequence of activities was great -Examples clearly demonstrated strategy- excellent -Definitely great group effort -Great examples particularly impressed by close parallels of subject matter in positive and negative Suggestions from cohort rubrics -More small group collaboration built into instructional design -Beware of student needs for review -Need something to address prior knowledge (KWL chart or advance organizer) -Culminating activity might lead to better closure -Concept might be too difficult without background knowledge -Future idea: add a hyperlink to basic art history lesson Comments from Dr. Larry Hannah: -Overall score from rubric: 12 -Kudos! -Lots of visual appeal -Very creative, using costumes, music, and visuals via PowerPoint -Very well organized pattern/ sequence of activities great -Your examples clearly demonstrated strategy -excellent -Definitely great group effort -Great examples particularly impressed by close parallels of subject matter in positive and negative Suggestions -Improve timing of slides to allow for "think time" GREAT JOB GROUP!!!!!!! You get an "A" from me! Reflection: Everyone in our group was fascinated by Hilda Taba's ideas. We were eager to try out hands at a demonstration lesson with our peers put in the role of students. At first, I was leery of the idea of doing an art lesson, but Ashleigh soon swept us away with her knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject. The day of the presentation, we all dressed in medieval robes and entered the room to Gregorian chanting. Our cohort-mates carefully observed and commented on the images and were able to define the main qualities and characteristics of Byzantine art. Taba's method worked! Without direct instruction, our students constructed a mental model of what make Byzantine art unique. Looking back on
this lesson, I am somewhat horrified by the gaudy revolving Word Art and
other aspects of the PowerPoint. I am also painfully aware that we
needed better scaffolding for student discussions. The power of teaching
this way has left a lasting imprint, though. When I designed Technology
Camp 2, the Integration Academy, one enormous chunk was devoted to using
database as a tool to promote student thinking via concept attainment.
-Byzantine
and Medieval History Links |
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