In-spite of my nerves, I received positive feedback that I did an excellent job of paraphrasing and pointing to the images in the painting. That made me happy. The readings where very helpful in preparing me to implement the VTS method, but my anxiety kept me from being more confident. This was very frustrating to me.
I look forward to utilizing my experience of working with children to gain more confidence in implementing and understanding the subtleties of this method. Also, I was surprised by how difficult it was for adult artists to follow the raise your hand rule. Oh, artists! It made me internally chuckle.
My frustration with implementing VTS for the first time was that I felt pressure as the facilitator to not make a mistake. For example, I really don't understand the subtle difference between "What more can you find?" vs. "What else can you find?" yet Yenawine states in the text as it having a great impact on the students staying open and engaged (27).
It does take a few times before you feel comfortable with VTS, and doing it for adults, and artists, at that, can be intimidating! As for question #3: "What more can you find?"; apparently "What else can you find?", implies that there is definitely more to find; whereas, "What more can you find?", is more open ended--maybe there is more--maybe there is not. I agree, it is a very subtle difference!
ReplyDeleteMike, I could relate to your experience with doing VTS with adults (teachers). I had the experience of assuming that I could connect to my media, but had a little hiccup for a few minutes trying to connect to the internet which caused a slight delay and made me a little more anxious. I am with you about the subtle difference in phrasing too. I know with more practice and study we will get more comfortable and competent. Sounds like overall you had a good experience.
ReplyDeleteYou and Shirley have both facilitated peer rehearsals with those wonderful and crazy fibers students talking over one another. If you were to be planning to do this with this group all semester, I might suggest passing a "talking stick." Only the one with the stick can talk, which should discourage many talking at the same time. (Although knowing some of the as I do, they might wrestle one another for the talking stick! LOL!!) Anyway, you were a brave soul to practice with them. Rest assured that once the questions become second nature (and this will occur in pretty short order) you will be able to relax and focus on paraphrasing and other supportive behaviors. My first VTS experience was the same way. It will get better! (And you'll LOVE VTSing with 2nd & 3rd graders!!)
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