Packet Four Meaning by Design

Cover letter Packet Four:

Dear Eileen,
I have highlighted the changes I have been able to make so far. There are more things that can be added I think. and also the final section for the Mandalas. I will also put in an appendix with the files for the templates and exemplars for all the exercises. This is the end of the skill building set, The next project will be to orchestrate the elements and principles of design into a Mandala style portrait of their identity. I have to finish a lot of evaluations for the design class and write more for the teacher Resident thing this summer. I have to put more in more about McNiff in the Mandala section, and there are a few more examples of work to add.
I am going to try to get this off today so that I can finish the prep work for the final individual projects. I hope I have cleared up some of the things you pointed out.

Always Jennifer










Cover Letter 1
Table of Contents: 2

Introduction: Meaningful Work 3-4
Portfolio Process 4-7

Chapter One: Pieces of the Learning Equation
Who is coming into the classroom? 7-13
Learning as journey 13-16
Creative Classroom: Language Acquisition 17-22
Chapter Two: Teaching Design 22-23
Theory of Design/Introduction to Visual literacy 23-31
Course Description 32-33

Chapter Three: Structures of Instruction
Introductory Unit 34-35 Introduction to Visual Literacy 36
Making Meaning in the Visible World 37-43
Semiotics 43-44
Meaning by Design Unit Breakdown
Building Visual Vocabulary sample lessons, student work 45-68

Chapter Four: Assessments and Understandings 69-77

Reflection and Conclusion 77-82
Annotated Bibliography Bibliography



















Introduction: Meaningful Work

Description of project and how I came to do this work

“Art is literacy of the heart.” Elliot Eisner

When the children had completed an absorbing bit of work, they appeared rested and deeply pleased. It almost seemed as if a road had opened up within their souls that led to all their latent powers, revealing the better part of themselves. They exhibited a great affability to everyone, put themselves out to help others and seemed full of good will.
(Maria Montessori, Casa die Bambini, 1907)

When I began work as a Community Arts Education Specialist, I was motivated to take the job because I saw it as an opportunity to do meaningful work developing community arts curriculum. I was not happy at work. For three months, I did what I was told, but the work had no meaning for me. Several aspects of the job made my work tedious and inevitably, unfulfilling.
• I did not know what was expected of me, my job description was 2 pages long
• I had no stake in the outcome
• I had no voice in selecting, forming, accepting or declining projects
• I never knew when a job was complete or had to be done over
The day after I resigned, I was offered an adjunct position teaching design at a local community college. I prepared an authentic design studio environment for students to complete the learning objectives for the class. My goals were to:
• Develop course work flexible enough to respond to learning styles with a continuity of units that builds on and reinforces the previous unit in a logical progression.
• Present the language and skills sets of design in a context that models an authentic studio environment
• Create a learning model that moved incrementally from acquisition of vocabulary of design and skill sets to the understanding and use of concepts of design to create original designs.
• Implement differentiated approaches to presenting course material to demonstrate attainment of the course learning objectives.
• Involve students in the assessment of the progress of their work and mastery of course material through reflective essays and self assessment
Over the past four years I developed a teaching portfolio that:
• Introduces the historical and cultural use of design to create meaning
• Presents scaffolded units of learning that lead from recognition of the elements and principles of design to the production of original designs that demonstrate the understanding of the use of elements and principles of design theory in the construction of meaning through visual images.
• Engages students directly in the creative process of using the elements and principles of design to produce original work that has meaning
• Reflects the role of the individual in their community in individual and group work
• Develops critical thinking skills in the analysis of visual problems and generation of solutions
Students move through the course material and assemble a personal portfolio that demonstrates their understanding of the language and concepts of design through personal, creative work including intentional statements, reflective essays and self-assessments.
I have included an introductory power point unit on Visual Literacy, some sample lesson plans to introduce Elements and Principles of Design, analysis of the resulting student portfolio work and reflections on my role in the process. The final product will include templates for the exercises and a presentation of one completed student portfolio.

The Portfolio Process

The advantage of the portfolio process is that it documents a coherent timeline of a student’s growing understanding of the course material. The process of learning new words and applying them is demystified when a student assembles a personal visual dictionary to show the meaning or the application of a word or design concept in the images they have found. The portfolio collects and presents a student’s progress and growth in the course through the completed exercises that demonstrate the degree of skill acquisition in their original work products of intentional design. The exercises expand from a list of words to images generated by the students in increasingly complex developmental exercises. The portfolio becomes a personal study guide as well as a visual record of the acquisition of the skill sets used in the creation of original designs.
Students include all aspects of each project breaking down the design process through:
• Stating the intention of their work
• Planning and executing self directed projects
• Periodic group and self-assessments
• Personal reflective essays.
Language is often an obstacle to class participation. By parsing gradual acquisition of the language of design in evidentiary learning units, students gradually recognize the vocabulary through the successful exemplars produced by their classmates. I do not lower the academic bar in my class. I change the power dynamic by moving the risk of failure into a neutral arena where everyone is learning something new and ‘not knowing’ is an opportunity to learn something new. The students kid me about that, “Yeah Ms. B., just another opportunity to learn something new!”
Students are more willing to talk about images. They are increasingly multi modal, orchestrating visual, audio and physical dexterity as part of their social network. They are the experts in mediated experience and feel more comfortable with cultural images from the media. An image can trigger expression, evoking memory or experience. If they begin by doing that, they can begin to attach the new vocabulary to their world. I developed a class exercise where students are randomly given vocabulary terms, such as shape, balance, line, etc., printed on strips of paper. Images from class assignments or master works are pinned to the wall. Students take turns “pinning” the correct vocabulary word to an image they select and defend their analysis. In the beginning, I select examples that present one or two elements. As the course evolves, the images become more complex, incorporating more advanced vocabulary and concept of composition. This game is structured for a high percentage of success through repetition and reinforcement, adding new concepts to an existing body of knowledge.
Students are graded on their increasing ability to recognize elements and principles of design in their own work. Working in groups they select class work that has successfully demonstrated the assignment. It is then possible for them to improve their own work for the final portfolio. The portfolio has concrete benchmarks, visible evidence of a student’s level of growing understanding and gradual mastery of the course material. It also possible for me to identify and address difficulties early in the course and develop alternative strategies for students to successfully complete their work and modify or expand the projects. When the class is engaged in a particular project, I can give them more time to deepen the work or extend it as the independent final project.
I am able to select completed projects that most clearly demonstrate the highest level of understanding to determine a student’s success over a period of time. By using the most successful work, it is possible to support the fruition of a growing body of knowledge that has been applied in a meaningful way.
Personal creative projects evolve out of a process. The exercises develop critical thinking and physical skills that are the resources needed to create a higher level of competence. The catalyst of a student’s creative impulse cannot flourish without the reasonable expectation that they can successfully execute their ideas using the materials and tools.
The students have a great amount of pride in their portfolios. Each one is a unique record of the body of work produced and assembled in a cohesive relevant form. Being able to point to something and say, “There it is” has meaning outlasts a grade.

Student maquette and final book design (FA09)


Chapter One: Pieces of the Learning Equation

Who is coming into the classroom?


Design Class FA08(Photo collage)

“Who is the most influential person in your life?”
The students bring their experience in contemporary culture: I connect the theory used to communicate cultural ideas. Together, we connect the pieces as we think of ways to communicate what is meaningful to us as human beings.
Not being able to anticipate who is going to be in the class, I meet the students as they arrive, one semester at a time, one student at a time. It is important to identify the base of existing knowledge and periodically measure whether the students are incorporating the new academic material. The assessments help me determine the best way to assess work and helps students see the progress of the work.
Students, ages 14-80, represent the cultural, economic and educational diversity of the suburban Washington, D.C. area. There are at least four major components in the Prince George’s Community College that shape the academic and social composition of the classes. Among them:
1. Students concurrently completing high school while beginning college course work They may be home schooled or adults returning to school who, for any number of reasons did not complete high school. Many of the students take two-three years of High School level classes while they are earning their Associates Degree at the community college.
2. College age students who will either transfer credits, or after completing the AA, continue at a four-year college or university.
3. Adults continuing their education, lifelong learners who may be retired, on disability, or retraining for another career. They may have degrees in other areas and/or are taking the course for personal enrichment.
4. Professionals, designers, teachers etc who are required to take courses in their field for advancement, certification or licensure in another academic area.
5. Foreign Nationals who come to train in Medical Laboratory Technology, Nursing Radiology etc.
6. Students who are part of the Disability System Services through ADA, who can come to the school for free until they are 21.
There are many challenges teaching students with diverse academic backgrounds. There are often unanticipated gaps in the students’ math, reading and writing skill levels. To deliver academic content to students who may not read above fourth grade as well as post-graduate level students, I present lessons in a variety of ways to support as many learning styles as possible. In that way, students have a variety of ways to begin what can be a self-paced unit. By including written and visual instructions, a demonstration of the studio process and visual examples to follow, advanced students can work independently, giving me more time to work with students who need more individual support. Students are encouraged to work in groups, where stronger students can help other members of the groups. Design teams in class model an authentic commercial design environment, where stronger designers will work as leaders in their group.
I include lists of vocabulary words and strategies for solving the visual problems. In the beginning of each new section, I give short lectures supported by a power point to introduce the content area. I limit the lecture and direct instruction to two-three minute bites incorporating elicited responses and group work. I ask the students to respond directly to the images rather than tell them what they seeing. I encourage them to look again, longer and deeper, expanding their visual engagement, to give them time to experience that the longer they look, the more they see. One advantage of teaching in a multi-cultural class is that it demonstrates that we don’t see the same things in the same way.
I select images from contemporary magazine and newspapers connected to events or products that the students may find familiar. For example, I showed them a slide of a nuclear power plant in an urban setting with a cyclist in front. I thought we would discuss the photographers use of irony in combining bicycles and nuclear power. Most did not recognize the nuclear tower in the background. Also, they were not aware of Three Mile Island (1979) or Chernobal (1986), so they did not have the fear or irony associated with a power plant in the middle of small village in China where most of the population ride bicycles.
Having a diverse group of students gives a face to the issues of communication in a global community. Each student brings a point of view that becomes a valued asset as we explore the rich possibilities as well as the challenges of living in an expanding socio-economic community.
Regardless of the student’s past educational experience, the theory of design has a very steep learning curve. In some ways, it is an advantage that the specific vocabulary of design and material is new to most of the students. They can share that they are all learning some things that are new to them and that if they work together they can pool their individual strengths and resources to solve the problems and complete the assignments.
I become acquainted with the students though their work, a process that is respectful and worthy of the individuals who come into the classroom. Regardless of their age, prior knowledge or skill level, students are differently engaged in the various stages of the design process. Some work methodically, moving with precision as they complete each step sequentially, others skip ahead determined to reproduce the finished example, while others may start out highly energized during the part of the class where they are generating ideas and thumbnails and then seem to lose their momentum or purpose when they try to narrow their projects or select and develop one project more deeply. The design process is broken up into three distinct operational modalities:
1. Generative: the process by which many possible ideas are generated to solve the design problem (What are you going to do?)
2. Operative: the analysis of what skills and materials will be needed to complete the design (How are you going to do it?)
3. Distributive: completing the design and testing to see if it meets the criteria of the assignment. (How will it be used? Does it work?)
Some of the students are very creative but have poor concentration or organizational skills and cannot complete work on time. Sometimes they have great ideas but do not have the physical skills or materials to complete their work. Students who are not satisfied with the progress of their work or think they should be “better at it” can fall into a failing spiral. I try to encourage the students to locate the place in their work where they get bogged down or overwhelmed because most people do not have all the skills necessary to move easily through a design assignment. Every learning disability, personality disorder, and motor skill deficit seem to arrive at some point in a design class. Glue blobs and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? They either become better gluers or they give up. The hardest students for me to work with are those with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, a psychiatric disorder that often persists into adulthood. In a class where a full third may have a variety of ADHD, Autism, Developmental, Emotional or Learning Disabilities as well as students who have Bipolar Disorder or persistent low mood and the variety of problems that are life related circumstance, I find that I am often defeated by students with extreme conduct disorders. Fortunately, I only have one or two who were truly beyond my level of patience.
There is no uniform way that would move any group uniformly through a creative process, nor is it even desirable. The individual differences that arise in creative work are all part of each student’s creative process. It is what makes their work unique and meaningful. Sometimes they become anxious. They cannot see what their work will be or whether it will be “right” or “good”. Design work is the constant refining and redesigning to make something perform better, more useful or to develop something that has not yet been seen. It is about change and “not knowing”. They can get very nervous if too much emphasis is placed on the ‘finished design’. I reduce the anxiety of the finished work by concentrating on the importance of each step of the design process. As each step is completed, it is assessed and graded. Each step builds on what was learned in the previous lesson and leads to the next project. Each project incorporates the sum of what has previously been learned with the new concept, skill or material, allowing time for interest and engagement to expand as part of a longer investigation that leads to a larger, personal creative project. There is space for sharing, reflection and assessments driven by the depth of engagement and pace of the group. Lessons are modified or expanded to capitalize on interest and resources the students already have as well as remediate gaps in skill sets.
When students are fully engaged in their work, it is a moment that is vitalized. Presenting the course’s learning objectives in a process that capitalizes on personal experience and prior knowledge supports a learning environment where students are a valued asset. They become the stakeholders in their own trajectory of learning.
I have adapted a college level class to address differentiated learning styles in a self paced and self directed form that develops individual kinesthetic skill sets appropriate to a variety of learning skills and styles. Through the syllabus and pedagogy I hope to demonstrate the results of differentiated, process based instruction including analysis and assessment of student work from the portfolios and the rich possibility of building teaching units that allow time for understanding to be demonstrated over a period of time.
My hope is to communicate these insights to other practitioners and support the efforts to find more inclusive means of assessing student work based on what they have understood and what they will carry with them as they move forward in their lives. I believe that curriculum design must be responsive to what is happening in each class and the world around us.
As a teacher/practioner, I have the privilege to witness the small shifts as a student gains autonomy over their work. It is hard to describe the moment when a student begins to understand that they have the means to make tangible their personal creativity and expression of ideas. I have collected work that encourages me to go forward; results that demonstrate a high level of understanding in the application of sophisticated, abstract concepts completed by students who do not perform well on written tests.
I would like this portfolio to stand as evidence for the work I have done to find ways to make the learning environment a place where students can do meaningful work.

Learning as Journey

Does being a good teacher mean that I will get all of the students to arrive at some designated learning space on the same day, to pass a standardized test? Assuming that I could do that, I would have to believe that the test was the best measure of a student’s understanding of the course material. I would want to homogenize learning into manageable, measurable one-dimensional units that would teach students to correctly answer the questions on the test. I cannot imagine entering a classroom where that is the goal. As an art teacher, I am not held to rigorous testing standards of No Child Left Behind. I am lucky. As long as there is artwork on the wall, I am doing my job.
The best thing I can do as an art teacher is create a space where a student’s authentic voice can be expressed and heard. Feelings can be explored in a language that is at once visual and deeply encoded. From their silent work, a voice emerges, thoughts become tangible, and the work begins to speak. “I am here, this is what I see, feel, think…want… lack…” An image communicates across time, language and culture. Students can see in the evidence of their work something that is now formed outside of their mind, in a way that can be understood and communicated to others. It is a way of being known and connected to their experience.
I gave up trying to be a good teacher and moved into a more democratic learning space. The classroom became a place of learning where we all learned. I learned to give up the responsibility of “teaching everything”. Together, we negotiated quiet time during my lectures and presentations for more socializing during studio work. No break/ early dismissal. By connecting their goals to the course learning objectives, together, we orchestrated a learning environment where the specific skills and language of the course are valued, desirable, attainable and demonstrated as their journey. There is a vast amount of course material to cover in a design class, and I step back into the equation to introduce new projects and then I gradually disappear from the process as they become more self-directed. By the end of the course, my goal is to be invisible in the process.
Every journey begins from where you are. It is to find a better place to begin the journey of learning, a place closer to the destination, in a vessel that is built strong and sure, well supplied and a crew that is joined through common purpose. It is not hard to imagine a better place for me to be. I learned that this was something I shared with the students. They also imagined a better place to learn. Together, we made our class a better place.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

How are we known? In what ways do I let myself be known? What does it cost me to be unknown? What are the consequences of being known? What assumptions do we have in the classroom about what we know and how we know it? How do we explore this territory so that we feel that our unique experience of the world is a valuable resource in the class? How do we begin to talk about the things that matter to us?
Every learning journey begins with the place of learning and the community that has come together for a common purpose: to learn the material of the course. I have worked to create moments that stimulate a deeper understanding of the role images play in constructing our understanding of the world. My goal is to encourage students to use their own experience and capitalize on their individual talents and interests in challenging and creative ways, while developing new skills to communicate effectively and expand their community.
It is a costly mistake to assume shared intent, language, direction or purpose. Each student has an agenda of some kind. Whether they are players, sliders, coasters… they enter the class to get something, knowledge, a grade.. a date.. to create drama. They have more experience in their roles as students than I have as a teacher. I watch them. They teach me the social construct that is likely to influence the work in the class. Students physically place themselves where they are most likely to succeed, gravitating to the where they are most comfortable. Some sit with stronger students who can help them; someone who has the textbook and will share studio supplies. In a few days, by watching the students jockey for their comfort zone, I can learn a lot about how they operate. I tend to stay in the front until they have settled in ‘their place’ and then, I move around the classroom. Students work in groups of their choice.
School is often the social model where students seek alliances and practice being who they are, striving toward what they hope to become more fully. Self-realization is meaningful work, and though it is not in the course description, it forms the social trajectory of the class. The pack forms around students who are similar in age and culture. The older students sit together. Students who are unprepared, do not have a plan or are not sure where they belong, float around making alliances based on what they share or need from the other students. Being known, not being known, they identify at their own pace. I find that I cannot take anything away from my students, but seek to graft onto their spirit a method of questioning how they are moving through their lives. I begin my teaching journey each semester by asking students to generate a lot of questions about what is working and what is not working in their lives.
Conversations with students about things that matter to the students enable me to introduce projects that may interest them as they move them through the steps of design production and learn the language of design. If they are engaged in a meaningful project, students are more invested in using the language and materials to discuss and improve their work. By deepening their design work, they can express who they are and direct how they are known through their creative, authentic voice.
Community Classroom and Language Acquisition

The classroom is the community where the inquiry begins. For the lessons of visual literacy to have meaning, the dialogue of visual experience must be connected to teach of the students who come to the class. Each semester there is a variety of students that take this class. The school has open enrollment and there are no prerequisites for the class. Students arrive from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds; educational and professional experience ages 16-80, each arriving with their own learning style, disposition to the dynamics of the classroom and accumulated visual experience. My challenge is to engage the students in learning rolls that capitalized on their individual strengths.
The distinct advantages of teaching sighted students a course based on visual experience is that this is the way they have learned their world from the moment they open their eyes. Joining their knowledge base of visual data to the academic language that arises in the discussion of design is a process of connecting language and conceptual constructs to the things they have already experienced. I use a variety of ways to deliver information including, written breakdown of lessons, oral presentations, visual aids, decoding images to demonstrate how the mechanics of design work together to produce unique and meaningful images. Sometimes the lesson feels like a dog and pony show where every avenue of expression is used until every student can describe or demonstrate their understanding of the word or concept presented. In one moment the concept feels comfortable to them and then it can slip away. They practice recognizing and using the concept, then naming it.
I scaffold lessons in a classroom that is set up to model a design studio. Students are exposed to the correct use of language and design process through:
• Immersion in the language of design in the studio class environment
• Connecting the unique language of design to a clear visual exemplars in the classroom
• Locating exemplars that demonstrate the meaning of the word or concept as it is used in historic and contemporary design and art
• Locating exemplars in contemporary media, magazines
• Using the language of design to identify elements and principles of design and describe how they work together to produce meaningful images
• Replication of existing exemplars of design elements and principles
• Using the elements and principles of design to create original work that demonstrates understanding of the design process and the correct use of art materials
• Assessing the success of transmitting meaning in design work using critical thinking to determine the strengths and weaknesses if a design using the language of design.
Krashen’s work in second language acquisition reveals a similar pattern in learning the language of design with fairy predictable steps.
• Pre-production: students listen and do activities but do not attempt to use the language
• Early Production: students begin to use one or two words, recognize exemplars, use some word incorrectly, show interest in trying out the new words with guided prompts, matching vocabulary to images
• Emergence: Students begin to recognize application of concepts, identifying, matching and expression using correct vocabulary terms
• Intermediate Fluency: Students recognize language and concepts in more complex examplars and begin to use correct terms to express ideas and analyze creative work to isolate application of the vocabulary in use
• Advanced Fluency: Students are able to use language to express original ideas and create original designs using the application of the concepts
Krashen, Stephen D. 1987, Principles and practice in second language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall International.
- - - 1988, Second language acquisition and second language learning. Prentice-Hall International.

It was important for me to recognize that the language of art and design is not the native language of my students. I could not assume shared meaning of either the values or the language of the western culture that had developed the formal rules of design. I introduced what is common in the evidence of the beginnings of all written language, the signs and symbols that arrived independently in cultures other that Western European. The striking similarities of early pictogram symbols demonstrate the shared human desire to be known and to communicate.
Students can produce very sophisticated meaningful designs before they fully understand the formal mechanism by which their images are decoded. Drawing on their imagination and individual resources of exposure and experience of visual images in the commercial word, they move at different rates through the stages of acquiring the specific language of constructed meaning in applied design. It is emergent knowledge that is located across an array of cultural experiences and practice.
Paul Gee describes meaningful learning as situated in specific socio-cultural practices and experiences predicated by four resources necessary for decoding language and meaningful discourse.
1. Code Breaker
2. Meaning Maker
3. Text User
4. Text Critic
For purposes of my work, I see the connection of images as a way of making meaning accessible by connecting the new language to images and a knowledge base that already has meaning for the students. By joining multiple literacy’s around convergent themes in a community of practice, the discourse in class can be centered around the way meaning is created and sustained through cultural tools and social practice to sustain characteristic beliefs or activities of a particular group.
It is more effective to move students into design production where they can make their own exemplars of each word and concept as code breaker. Each student has individual break though moments where something clicks and they get it. At that point they can begin to connect meaning to the word in and concept in practice. As text users, they direct their skills toward a specific use. As text critics they analyze the elements and principles they have used in their design work to communicate and assess their success. Written and spoken language is a layer that comes naturally as it is connected to experience and later, it can be extracted and applied to explain the process in critical analysis.
The first time I presented an exercise where students made dynamic progressions using squares and lines to express abstract ideas, I was surprised at how quickly students were able to read the designs as special concepts. It was possible to begin with expressing simple ideas about the experiences of space and later connect the opaque academic language after students had successfully demonstrated that they could do it.
It is something I learned teaching non-swimmers. For example, the little ones were afraid to get wet. By creating a playful environment where the learning skill is a consequence of the directed play. So instead of “getting wet”, we played a game in the shallow water where through running and splashing to get the ball, they all got wet. Once they were wet, I confessed that I tricked them to get them wet. They all started laughing and splashing me to make sure I was wet too. They all learned to swim by the end of the summer. I learned that confidence is something that grows inside a child. I began to find ways for kids to grow their own ways of knowing what they can do and building self-confidence in showing what they can do. If someone else puts in, they can take it out.
Seminal Moment: a work, event, moment, or figure strongly influencing later development. The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 31 Jan. 2009

When I think back to a moment, after which I was changed in a way that strongly influenced my later development, I would like to know that in some way, I was still guided by some inner compass that honored my authentic voice. As a child, more often, my authentic voice was eclipsed by the intention, actions or agenda of the adults around me. Sorting out my voice was a process of recovery and reconstruction at some distance from the initial experiences or visual images.
We know that allowing for the work of the inner guide is the hardest part of working in the classroom. It is easy to emphasize our own agenda; to weigh the academics disproportionately, to push for the quick solution, to substitute our will for the child's. It is so difficult to keep from over-directing, to observe without judgment, to wait for the child to reveal herself. Yet, over and over again, when we do honor that inner guide, the personality unfolds in a way that surprises- that goes beyond what we could direct or predict. Dr. Sharon Dubble, Ph.D., Professor, Loyola College in Maryland.

Within every moment of experience there is the possibility of messages entering our brain that tell us who we are, who we should be, what we should be thinking and what we need to know. The importance of learning how visual images are designed to produce artificial seminal moments that change our perception, or shift our authentic voice is an important part of preserving our inner guide. Honoring the inner guide preserves the self that will direct and most strongly influence the later development of the student’s individual learning trajectory. My bias for academic excellence and creative individual work being only one part of the larger educational equation has led to many hours of extra course work, peripatetic conversations with advisors and colleagues, research, moments of frustration and fitful nights. I approach, wander around and imagine other ways of ‘seeing’. I point to the possibilities of interpretation of images and ask the students to tell me what they see, how they know what they know. Together we deconstruct the devices used by expert meaning makers, unlocking the mechanics of visual perception and putting the correct word with the evidence.
Images ask us to believe something both about the image and our experience of it, I ask the students; “What do you believe?”
Through environment, exposure, repetition, recognition, replication and origination, students experience the acquisition of the language of design in a differentiated environment in an authentic way, because most visual experience occurs in a differentiated environment. Not only do we experience the visual world in a complex and unpredictable social context, our experience of images is further influenced by our past experience as individuals. Within the complexity of experience, it is most important to establish a common language for discussing and communicating ideas about meaningful design.
Chapter Two: Teaching Design

My colleagues often begin instruction with the most abstract construct, the words. Spoken or written, the words are familiar in their form, but not in how they are used in design application. For many, the word ‘shape’ has a very broad meaning that is not specific to design. It is confusing for students to narrow their use of a word to the explicit geometric definitions of line, shape form etc. Students memorize the vocabulary list or not. If they are unable to memorize the vocabulary list, they begin the class already failing.
I try to demystify the language of design by isolating each element or principle, providing clear exemplars in the classroom. Students immediately associate an image with each of the vocabulary words used in fine or applied art and design. The elements and principles can be recognized and replicated a priori to understanding the more advanced theory and language of design. The student begins to connect images to words. That is where I begin. Students view and analyze examples of each element of design. They copy first and then extract elements from images. They generate original thumbnails and construct designs combining increasing numbers of elements and principles to create an original design.
Artists and designers make use of many if not all the tools of design in combination, making it difficult to isolate the individual components. It is very important for a student to see one clear example before looking for one element that is working with several others. Artists and designers use the elements and principles of design in ways that are subtle and evocative, creating powerful images directly entering the part of the brain that processes experience and emotion. And if the artist has done their job, you don’t see the toolbox, you get lost in the image. “What are we looking for again?”
Theory of Design and Visual Literacy

Gestalt: theory where perception of visual data is chunked into units of wholeness, groups or chunks of information that are processed together because they share similar elements such as shape, line or color.
In 1923,Wertheimer wrote Principals of Perceptual Organization, a comprehensive study of perceptual organization. In a clear and systematic way he establishes a design vocabulary to describe the construction of Gestalt theory. The principles of unity and wholeness built through the arrangement of elements. His book, republished in English in 1958, is more often used in pieces. The vocabulary he used to layout the psychological and mechanical apparatus of visual perception has formed the language used in subsequent work of visual theorists to describe the way in which images are transmitted. What distinguishes Wertheimer’s work is his belief that meaning in images can be universally understood without past experience or logical deduction. Brain theorists have proven that biophysical transmission of images bypass the area of the brain used for decision making in the central nervous system, resulting in physical reactions in the autonomic nervous system, raising of blood pressure, increased heartbeat etc. Reactions are then sublimated by reason or experience to produce a more intentional or rationale response. Neuropaths or signals may be so well established by past experience that some images or experiences enter a path of meaning directly, demanding an immediate physical reaction, followed by a slower, secondary assessment.
Wertheimer’s work in gestalt theory was developed within existing theories of dominant western culture. Written largely by men whose aim was to support and preserve the status and maintain the exclusive hierarchy of academia through opaque language, resulting in design theory that is not easily accessed by entry-level design students. It is the work of a higher order, thinking about the mechanics of communicating meaning through symbols and yet we expect students to adjust to the abstract marks of written language as if in themselves, they are sufficient to convey meaning and understanding.
Introduction to Visual Literacy
“The illiterate of the future will be ignorant of pen and camera alike.” (1935, Moholy-Nagy.
Visual literacy (1968, Debes) is defined as the ability to understand the meaning of a variety of visual elements, marks and symbols, and the words that are used to describe our perceptions and efforts. (1987, Curtiss) Further, it is the ability to construct meaning from images. Including elements of visual arts, linguistics, psychology, perceptual physiology, semiotics and cultural studies, visual literacy is crucial for obtaining information, constructing knowledge, discriminating and interpreting the visual actions, images, objects and symbols.
Education in the construction of meaning by design empowers students to be articulate, discriminating consumers of visual culture that dominates the 21st Century. Learning the language and mechanism of graphic composition includes pictorial structure (elements) and organization (principles) as well as point of view, the lens by which the image is manipulated through selection, editing, juxtaposition, imposition, perspective, size and scale or changed by the addition of text. For sighted people, the flow of meaning from images is a ceaseless stream that informs as well as manipulates experience.
Awareness of how images have been constructed in the past to produce a specific kind of experience or message is essential to designing meaning. Intentional image- making or design develops social responsibility, holding the artist accountable for the meaning that arises for the viewer. Every time I teach Introduction to Design, I am more convinced that teaching visual literacy is an essential element to constructing meaningful curriculum across all academic areas at every age level, giving students the tools to be responsible creators and consumers of information delivered in visual form. My intention is to document the process of building linguistic and critical thinking skills that enable students to analyze and create visual images that communicate meaning.
Visual Literacy:
• Empowers students to develop critical thinking skills in decoding visual images, investigating the underlying cultural assumptions that are embedded in images
• Enhances written and verbal expression
• Encourages students to analyze and evaluate the social and cultural values inherently contained in images
Students who develop these skills are able to participate in a larger informed conversation about the role images play in forming, recording and preserving cultural identity as they:
• Become informed creators and discriminating consumers of the visual world
• Question the assumptions and direction of the mediated world
• Engage in discourse regarding the responsible use of images
• Examine the impact of proliferating images that unfairly represent or support biased opinion as fact
Knowing that a student is beginning to understand how to use the elements and principles of design, and use the language to describe their work can be hard to pin point. It comes for each student at a different place in the course. The learning curve is the same, though it is experienced through each student differently. The first step into design is the hardest. The language and tools are unfamiliar or used in ways specific to design that sometimes excludes the common understanding of a word like shape or space. These are words that have to be relearned in the specific context of use in a design class.
I use a combination of activities to present new concepts and vocabulary. There is a list. There are definitions. These are for the students who do well at memorizing and like to have tangible evidence that they will be able to demonstrate this skill. It is how they know they are on the right track to learning and getting an “A”. They are the hard liners that believe learning has measurable standards that can be uniformly used to assess acquisition of knowledge. They are usually students who have successfully memorized lists in the past. When I hand out the lists they smile. They can do this. Students twist the list or stare at it. They may have had trouble memorizing lists in the past. I look out at the faces and read body language, a physical semiotic that reveals the alternately affirming and threatening nature of learning something new. It is the barometer of comfort zones, wellbeing and personal safety.
For students with personal patterns of failure and distrust, logical, successive steps have to be in place. Examples of successful projects completed by other students to demonstrate that they are completing the assignment. A student who believes that past successes will automatically guarantee success in design, may experience a different learning curve. Not knowing may be unfamiliar territory. Not knowing that they the best, or doing it right can be more unsettling for students who are used to confirmation that they are right. Students who believe that asking them to redo do a project means they got it wrong can trigger a defensive reaction. The intention of design is not to get it right the first time, but to examine the ways by which a design can be improved, redesigned or transformed to meet the needs of another group of consumers. Understanding the apparatus and language of design makes it possible to discuss the design and reshape it and demonstrating that students know the process means that I have to keep them engaged in doing it over as part of getting it differently right. Not knowing is where creativity begins, getting it “wrong” is an opportunity to learn something unintended. Design brings a particular order to otherwise disparate pieces of information, students who want a sure plan to get it right or want to be ‘done’ or be the best are not comfortable with rethinking an assignment. In some ways, ‘good’ students have problems in the class that are significant. Eliminating a bell curve assessment where good students soar above the rest of the class can threaten students whose comfort zone comes at the cost of the success of other students. It is important to address the individualized nature of creative work to realign the goal from successful product to successful process and thinking strategies.
Conclusion:
In a class where I am going to ask the students to talk about real things, self-realization, authentic learning connected to real life, we have to talk about safety. I demonstrate a shifting model of teacher power that hopefully, my role is to orchestrate the equation of learning. It is a leap of faith to believe that a student, once entering a methodology of planning, creating and assessing will maintain successful, lifelong habits of creating designs. Sometime the learning glue is not yet set, but I have a reasonable expectation that the learning momentum will be sustainable.
To make the course material accessible and meaningful, I ask the students to bring their dream and vision to the table. I ask how the course will add to their educational path. Together, we examine the habits of work and mind; process and intention to make self-realization in the arts something attainable and sustainable.
The students expect that I know the course material well enough to design a path of learning that meets their academic needs. I would like the path to foster a spirit of respect and possibility that honors who they are and the experience they bring to their work. Learning to articulate their individual intent in a language that can be transmitted to others brings students into a larger conversation where they can be known.
In an Art history class, one of the students handed in his Mandala. He said that he wasn’t sure if he did it correctly. I looked at it and said that it looked like he had done a design around his love of nature and cycles of the seasons. He looked at me in disbelief. “How did you do that?” I pointed to the various narrative and symbolic elements he had included, how he had arranged them to show a progression of ideas and said, “I read what you wrote”, he looked at me again still not quite sure if it was a trick. I asked if that was what he had meant to say. He replied, “Yes.” Then he looked at me and said quite abruptly, “This is what I want to do, I want to make images that speak who I am.”
The students begin by generating lists of words and attributers under four quadrants of personal experience: physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual. They are then guided to explore emotional characteristics of color, and assemble images and symbols to express their identity in visual form. I have a better understanding of the power of this transformative work as part of my teaching practice.
The Mandalas below are examples of the images drawn by two young men from the general studies program at the school where I currently teach design. This mandala was made by a music student who described his image as the tension and chaos in his life and his love of music. He uses the energy of the storm to charge his violin bow.
This mandala represents a student’s work to find balance by channeling his power away from anger into more productive areas through the strength he finds in nature, family and his religion. The split of the face into man/lion, seems to espress duality in this self portrait. The heart is divided.
The students are often able to develop powerful personal icons or symbols of their strength and place it into the Mandala quadrant to balance or work harmoniously with the challenges of their individual life circumstance. They are able to locate their individual identity as part of something larger that is expanded into their community and families, supported by their spiritual faith, intelligence and physical strength. Some of the students have family who remain in parts of the world torn by physical and emotional violence. They are conflicted about the split in the fabric of the family. Sometimes they feel uncomfortable moving forward in their lives, knowing that they are also moving away from their family’s culture.
The following mandala and poem were created by a Muslim student:

(Student work 2008)

My Mandala my journey
I didn’t choose to be brought into this world.
This world in search of happiness,
But the show of triumph
As I walk and dwell in this world of what they call the American Dream

Only to find out that the American Dream is only a dream
A split second of sleep and wake up productions
Though I know everything good and bad I do is being watched upon
By the oh so powerful above
I strive to do what compels me
And what compels me is only the past
And I look in the past of my homestate
And I tear out the joy of good memories
And tears of dismay for the bad ones
Though I am surrounded by the world in a circle of eyes revolving around me
I ignore,
Looking to my religion to calm my fears
Though the world is acrid, I will keep striving
I will keep walking.


Basic Design, Art 0151: Course Description

Art 0151 introduces the organization of visual elements on a two dimensional plane. The elements of art and concepts of design will be examined through lectures, demonstrations and related studio problems for the students to explore and solve. Techniques for handling of materials will be developed. Basic Design is a laboratory class.
Texts: Introduction to Design, Pipes, Alan Elliot, M.E.; Handbook of Visual Mechanics, Harvey, E.

Course Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of Design I, students will be able to:

• Define the language of design.
• Explain design concepts and perform basic skills in handling art materials, such as acrylic paint, tempera paint and other graphic tools.
• Identify design problems; explore ideas and generate possible solutions.
• Organize visual elements in a planned order on a two-dimensional plane.
• Create original works of art through the process of analytical problem solving.
• Critique and analyze, by discussion, the strengths and weakness of a work of art.
• (2009, Art and Music Department, Prince George’s Community College)

The physical organizational model of the classroom replicates a professional working design studio. Students model the process of design that is used in professional design studios by: setting and meeting goals, through planning strategies to complete goals and assessing success in meeting those goals.
Design Studio Policy: The Design Studio is your place of work for this course. You are expected to come with the materials you need to complete your work and conduct yourself as if you are in a work environment, whether you are working on an individual project or in a group. Discussions and critiques will be conducted in a mature, respectful manner. The first hour of the class is lecture and demonstration, introducing concepts, vocabulary. The remainder of the class is for studio work. The last part of the class is cleaning up and assessment of the day’s work. (Design Syllabus, Berringer, 2009)

The process of design involves self-direction, planning and execution of work as part of a design team. The students learn to negotiate time, space and materials with their classmates. Wasting time has a consequence. In design, time is money.
I used Danielson’s outline for reconstructing existing lessons to organize a clear process of presenting the Elements and Principles in the overall course design where the student:
• Demonstrates prior knowledge base,
• Experiences academic content through multimodal means of expression (visual, oral, written, kinesthetic), that capitalize on emotional and social intelligence
• Acquires language or vocabulary of academic area using clear exemplars
• Acquires skill sets through scaffolded lesson plans that model course learning outcomes including opportunities for critical analysis and self-assessment
• Creates original work that demonstrates understanding of the process of design

Design begins with the end in mind. It is not possible to design something without considering who will use it, how it will be used, constructed etc. It is a process that aligns naturally with intentional learning and understanding of the role humans have played in redesigning the world to accommodate our needs. The piece that is new is the responsible stewardship of our environment through green design and improving access through universal design. Many of the individual projects reflect the students’ growing stewardship for a world that is better for more people, by design.


















(Student Work 2007) Save the Forests

Chapter Three: Structure of Instruction

Visual Culture
“Sight, even though used by all of us so naturally, has not yet produced its civilization. Sight is swift, comprehensive, simultaneously analytic and synthetic, It requires so little energy to function, as it does, at the speed of light, that it permits our minds to receive and hold an infinite number of items of information in a fraction of a second.” (Gattegno, Caleb 1969.)

Introduction to the Elements and Principles of Design

Questions: What are the Elements and Principles of Design?
How are elements of design used by historic and contemporary multicultural artists and designers to communicate meaning?
What is the role of the artist in the community?

Rationale: In this Unit, students will be introduced to the elements and principals of design, they will recognize the application of the elements and principles of design used by historic and contemporary multicultural artists, they will analyze images for various sources and produce visual analysis of the applied use of the elements and principles of design. Students will model the use of the elements of art by generating original creative work that demonstrates:
• The artistic process of planning, creating producing and assessing the success of an original creative work of art.
• The students’ understanding of the application of the elements and principles of design in the production of original creative art, modeling historic and contemporary multicultural artists.

Activities: Students will:
• Define the elements and principle of design.
• Research and locate elements and principles of design in historic and multicultural contemporary creative work.
• Study images and cultural artifacts from a variety of historic and contemporary cultures and analyze the elements and principles of design used in the images and objects
• Demonstrating their ability to recognize the use of the elements of art in historic and contemporary multicultural creative work.
• Students will plan, generate and assess an original creative project demonstrating their understanding of the application of each of the elements of art that
• Incorporates physical skill set appropriate to their kinesthetic/grade CLO level
• Uses a variety of media to produce authentic experience of art materials
• Locates the cultural origin or influence of the selected projects
• Demonstrates authentic creative planning and self assessment skills
Guiding Questions: What are the guiding principles of design? What is the history of the development of design and design theory? What are some of the major schools of Design? Where are the principles of design applied?

Activities: Students will be introduced to the basic vocabulary used in design to discuss the formal elements of design. Students will:

• Research and view examples of historic and contemporary applied design in various settings, commercial, architectural, and cultural applications.
• Compile a vocabulary list of terms used in discussing design.
• Locate Principles of design in applied and fine art.
• Research the cultural use of design principles.
• Produce examples of design analysis.
• Create original examples of a historic design school, (Bauhaus, Art Nouveau etc.) from a specific cultural or philosophic influence.

Final Activity:

Students will plan, generate, assess and present an individual or group creative project that demonstrates their understanding of the characteristics of the elements in the communication of ideas, culminating in a community exhibition and/or display of the completed work.










Introduction to Visual Literacy, Making Meaning in the Visual World
Nagy, “the illiterate of the future will be ignorant of pen and camera alike:

The White Paper was commissioned by Adobe to introduce Visual Literacy as a vital element in curriculum development.

Curriculum benefits:

• students can learn better when teachers support a variety of learning styles

• students can improve reading and writing skills through the use of visual literacy techniques (studies have shown that processing in competent reading involves both phonological and visual information)

• visual literacy can contribute to visual-spatial intelligence (one of the multiple intelligences identified by Howard Gardiner). It can also be involved in other intelligences such as bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, and logical-mathematical. (2007. Lightbody, K)
"Students learn how to view critically and thoughtfully in order to respond to visual messages and images in print, nonverbal interactions, the arts, and electronic media. Effective viewing is essential to comprehend and respond to personal interactions, live performances, visual arts that involve oral and/or written language, and both print media (graphs, charts, diagrams, illustrations, photographs, and graphic design in books, magazines, and newspapers) and electronic media (television, computers, film). A media-literate person is able to evaluate media for credibility and understands how words, images, and sounds influence the way meanings are conveyed and understood in contemporary society. Students need to recognize that what they speak, hear, write, and read contributes to the content and quality of their viewing". [New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards May 1996, Language Arts And Literacy Standards And Progress Indicators, Standard 3.5:- All Students Will View, Understand, And Use Nontextual Visual Information]







Making Meaning in the Visible World
To Imagine a Form of Language is to Imagine a Form of Life" - Cy Twombly


The Wilder Shores of Love (Twombly) www.artchive.com/artchive/T/twombly/twombly_wilder

As a design teacher, I find ways to engage the students in the process of discernment in the visual world. I shake them out of complacent acceptance of image as fact and demonstrate that it is in their best interest to find out how they are being managed, coerced, and influenced by images. If they are going to make images, I want them to see the power of images. If I can demonstrate that meaning is intentionally developed to sell everything form war and culture to love and food, they may see that they are the stakeholders in their own lives as consumers and possible designers of media. Just slowing them down to ask some questions about the intention of the image makers is a start.
I begin with a powerpoint on Visual literacy, presenting images from the past up to the present that evoke various levels of recognition, projection, assumption and demonstrate the shared human desire to communicate. Each lesson begins with the vocabulary words that are introduced and explored in the presentation.
Vocabulary

Visual Literacy
Communication
Fine Art
Applied Art
Sign
Symbol
Representation
Abstraction
Gestalt

By examining petroglyph art from ancient cultures, students can see that the use of images precedes language as a strong conveyer of meaning. The first image is from Newspaper Rock, Utah. I have visited the Four Corners area and seen the markings made as tribes migrated through the area. They call this newspaper rock because it records the movement of tribes over time as they passed through this area. It is not clear if the marks were left to be read and guide tribes who might follow or as a record or prayer to the earth, but it clearly demonstrates a system of making meaning.











Newspaper Rock, Utah








Wall paintings in Chitradurga, India


Cave paintings in Chitradurga, India

The second illustration shows petroglyphs from India, characterized by similar markings, recording the presence of family groups, animals and early calendar or time marks.


















Cave Painting from Eastern Zimbabwe, made by Khoisan people thousands of years ago.
In this image, students are able to read more complex meaning regarding fertility, family units, and tribal hierarchy.
Students are introduced to the earliest representations of visual meaning found in petroglyph (rock art) of ancient diverse geographic cultures. From direct observation of the rock art, commonalities in the similar style of ideograms can be identified. In the pictograms made by contemporary researchers, students can more clearly see similar and unique ways of representing ideas. The multicultural desire to communicate individual and community identity can be identified and discussed by looking at and decoding the ancient petroglyph symbols from:
Africa











Europe












Australia














And North America














(www.crystalinks.com/petroglyphs.html)

This site has many images reproduced from pre-historic sites around the world.

Students locate designs motifs (Spirals, radiation designs, symbols, grids, rhythmic use of line) that we recognize and use in contemporary design.

After examining images that were created 30,000 years ago to tell stories of experience, we begin to look at contemporary images and think about the way contemporary culture expresses meaning. We examine urban grafetti art as well as the designed semiotics of Keith Haring. The connection between ancient meaning makers and the makers of meaning today help students see that this is a process that is still powerful and it is something they can ‘read’ without words.
http://thegood.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/1c-keith-haring-ignorancefear
As the students become more fluent in reading images, I introduce the way images can be biased by a word, or proximity to another image, (montage). These are images from the aftermath of Katrina. Students examine the images and asked to describe what they see. They are the shown the captions that accompanied the photos.






This image describes a young man as “looting” (AP Tue Aug 30. 11.31 am EST)





This image describes two residents “finding” (AFP 3:47 ET)








Communicating through images using designed meaning is a process of distilling shared experience into more generic of blended meanings. I begin talking to my students about semiotics in signage and what I call the tolerable limits of representation. I address the minimal amount of data the brain requires to assemble or order visual properties to finally recognize what it is. This can be very confusing to explain using words like gestalt. But trying to find a way to explain this concept led me to both more confusion before finally being able to demonstrate it clear through the use of selected images.
SEMIOTICS: THE WORLD OF THINGS, THE WORLD OF MEANING
THE WORLD OF SIGNS

….THE STUDY OF SIGNS, SYMBOLS AND SIGNIFICATION, HOW MEANING IS CREATED

Representation: Tolerable Limits of Representation

We begin by watching a film by Berger, “About Seeing”. This film demonstrates how the camera or any mediated representation of reality produces transportable and multiplied images, completely changing our understanding of image as representation or the specificity of one contextual meaning. Before images moved around the world in all these different forms, they were created for a particular use by a culture, specific to a time and space.
This is a photo of a tree. There may be many photos, but there is only one such tree and its meaning is derived from the experience of that tree projected and moved about in a new form to evoke a distilled memory of tree experience. If you have never seen a real tree, this photo would have no meaning at all.

Photo image of
specific tree



The second image is a drawing of tree-ness. It is the symbol of trees, having the characteristics of trees, a trunk, roots, limbs and leaves. The word ‘tree’ does not that look at all like any tree, but represents or signifies the qualities of tree-ness .







The logo/ symbol is designed meaning, seeking to capitalize on the sum of experience of all trees to convey protection, growth as part of a product identification, blending all that is good about trees with the product.
Logo/Symbol




Students begin to understand the construction of meaning through images as a way of condensing a lot of stored meaning and experience into a single image. Design purposefully capitalizes on our experience or projected experience of who we are, shaping what and how we know who we are.














Meaning By Design

Activity: Students will create original designs through the use of the elements and principles of design.

Desired results: The resulting designs convey an idea, meaning or an emotion. Students will be able to articulate the intention and rationale of their work and assess the successful transmission of ideas in their work.

Understandings: The use of abstract elements to convey meaning in historic and contemporary cultures.

Essential Questions: How do elements and principles of design work together to convey meaning? Are abstract images more easily understood across cultures? How important is it to understand the way meaning is conveyed?

Students will know: The characteristics of the elements and principles of design that signify a variety of reaction and response. They will demonstrate an understanding of the underlying theories of composition by producing original designs that communicate to others.

Assessment Evidence: documentation of the design process

Performance Tasks:

1. Plan and develop a series of compositions using the elements of design to explore visual weight, balance, emphasis unity and variety
2. Create thumbnails and written rationale to explore a range of solutions for each visual problem
3. Assess and test the level of success of designs and consider possible improvements
4. Complete and present a final product that clearly demonstrates the informed use and understanding of the elements and principles of design
5. Recognition and critical analysis of the work of other students, including possible changes that might improve the design

Standards:
1. Acquisition of the language of design used in the production and critical response to fine art and fine art design.
2. Implementation of design theory through the production of original designs that demonstrate the student’s ability to recognize, replicate and create clear examples of each concept.
3. Locating use of elements and principle of design in historic and contemporary cultures.
4. Modelling of an authentic experience of the design process through planning, execution presentation and assessment of original work.
Qualities that demonstrate successful understanding of the design process the signify successful meeting of each standard include:

1. Production of artifacts that demonstrate each concept and understanding of vocabulary through recognition of good exemplars, extraction and replication of exemplars from existing designs or art work and the creation of original exemplars of each concept.
2. Written analysis reflection and assessment of the experience of art and design using the authentic language of critical analysis
3. Intentional statement that clearly states desired goal
4. Planning and execution and completion of projects in an orderly way to meet desired goal in a timely way.

The authentic experience of solving design problems will demonstrate the levels of a student’s understanding of the way elements and principles of design communicate meaning. Each singular element will be identified and recreated as a component in the creation of original designs and collected in a student portfolio.

Work will be assessed by:
1. Comparing the finished work to the stated intention of the designer/student
2. Testing the successful transmission of ideas by measuring the ability of other students to “read” the designs.


Learning Plan:

1. Students are introduced to the history and language of design theory through the use of designed images to communicate in historic and contemporary cultures.
2. Students will locate examples of vocabulary words as they as used in existing images in magazines: extract the element from its visual context, isolate the element, identify and then draw the element.
3. Student will generate a variety of possible types of each element and create a series or visual inventory of examples
4. Student will attribute ideas, concepts and emotions in a variety of compositions using elements and principles of design
5. Students will apply knowledge to creative work for meaningful purpose through the production of an original work of art that communicates to others.










Unit One: Elements of Design

Guiding Question: What are the elements of design? Where do we find the application of the elements of design? How are the elements of design applied by historic and contemporary multi-cultural artists in the production of original work?

Activities: Students will gain an understanding of the words used to discuss the elements. Students will:

• Research the definition of the words used to identify the elements of design in a variety of research sources. (dictionary, art books, internet)
• Locate elements of design in applied and fine art
• Producing individual elements of design
• Researching various cultural uses of the elements of design in applied and fine art settings
• Create original examples of each of the elements of art
• Explore the use of elements of art to create meaning
• Plan and design an application of the student’s understanding of the elements of design in a cohesive form related to the kinesthetic CLO of the age group or cluster. (poster, small booklet or bulletin board display)

Lesson Plan One: Introduction to Vocabulary

Activity: Introduction to the Elements of Design

Movie: Elements of Design

Vocabulary Development

Design
Elements of Design
Line
Shape
Texture
Color
Light
Space
Time and Motion

2. Work together as a group to find the best examples of the vocabulary words in magazines
3. Cut and paste the each example of the vocabulary words on a piece of white paper.
4. They will pin their work on the Bulletin Board under the correct vocabulary word
5. They will vote evaluate the success of the examplars of the vocabulary and support their choice with a written assessment

Line: What are the different types of lines and how are they used to enliven space?
Line: a point in motion, a series of adjacent point, a connection between points, or an implied connection between points. Lines can connect, dissect or define shapes or spaces within design…

Objective: Student will recognize, produce and linear elements in creating original designs.


Worksheet One: Using lines to illustrate the various qualities of linear elements
Student will use the basic vocabulary of design to identify the various types of lines

Basis Qualities of Line;
• Length
• Weight (darkness/ thickness)
• Direction

Application of Lines
• Outline
• Contour
• Gesture
• Implied/psychic
• Calligraphic
• Analytical
• Directional

More Characteristics of lines
• Straight
• Curved
• Diagonal
• Intersecting
• Horizontal
• Vertical
• Broken or dotted
• Rectilinear
• Radiating
• Jagged









Worksheet One: Example



Demonstrate understanding of types of line by locating images in magazines and analyzing, naming and drawing the linear elements of various images

Student Work:


This sample shows a basic understanding of the variety of named line types done by an ESL student from Nigeria. The work is not done with much care, but is sufficient to begin locating these lines in images from magazines.








Worksheet Two: Locating images and analyzing Linear Elements

Strategy: Look through magazines and cut out two-inch squares of 8 images with different distinctive types of line. Using the template provided (2” squares) Glue the images in the squares on the left. With black ink, draw the linear elements from the images in the squares on the right. Use the lines in the middle to describe the types of lines you found.

Example:


Radiating Lines

Photo Inked lines



Diagonal
Intersecting
Geometric
Converging







Student work:

This is work done by the same student, demonstrating a basic understanding and ability to locate type of lines. In example three, he idealized the curve line as a straight line. He did not try to reproduce what he saw in the images.







Students demonstrate their understanding of the qualities of line by producing various types of lines.

Worksheet Three: Student will explore the dynamics of repeating lines in square and round format



2. Students create original compositions exploring the unique power of line in a square a circular format.

Strategy:Using the template provided, place four different kinds of lines in the first row of squares (straight, curved, jagged etc). Then invent a series of variations on each line in the columns below (varying width, direction etc). Allow the circle format to influence your lines.

Warmup: Try working with different kinds of line. As you work your way down the column, try to increase the power of the original line. Start with simple lines first. If you make them too complicated, you will have no where to go!


(Student work, SP09)
Students begin by exploring line in two formats, finally selecting ones that convey meaning to them and enlarging and labeling five of them to describe the feelings or ideas that are evoked.

Emotional Qualities of Line

Problem: Using the template provided, explore ways in which you can create simple design compositions in two formats (square and circle).
Objective: To create simple linear compositions and begin work with the illusion of time and space.
Strategy: Begin with simple thin lines in the first square and as you go down the column, vary thickness and position to create dynamic lines. Select one design and draw it in the final circle. Change the lines to reflect the circular format or not.
Extension: Identify the emotional qualities expressed in your lines. Use the four 3” squares and one circle to use lines to express emotion.

Confusion



On a separate sheet of paper answer the following questions:
• What are the advantages of working with more than one type of line in a composition?
• What are the effects of variations in line weight?
• How can line velocity be increased or decreased?
• To what extent can multiple lines create the illusion of movement or space?

Students locate the emotion or idea to connect to their images after generating a group of progressive experiments using different kinds of lines. “Chance” exercises such as this one, reduce performance pressure, increase production and relax some of the competitive components of ‘being the best’. Where the design process is individual and somewhat random, the naming and reading of the results are often fun group activities where imagination can result in more deeply seen meanings and interpretations. This can form the basis of a more intentional design.



(student work SP09)

Shape:
Question: What is a shape?

Vocabulary:
Shape: created when a line connects to enclose an area, when an area of color or texture is defined by a clear boundary, or when an area is bounded by a field of color or texture.

Examples:



1. (shape enclosed by a line) 2.(positive black shape enclosed 3. (negative white shape
a clear boundary) enclosed by a black field)

Shape Inventory

Warm-up: Students will generate drawings of shapes on the board.

Question: What are the different types of shapes? How does changing the number and size of a shape affect the space? Is there a feeling associated with any of the shapes?

Activity: Student will:

• Use the template provided to draw four different shapes in the top row of squares.
• Explore each shape by making it larger or smaller, or increasing and decreasing the number of shapes in the column of squares below the original shape.
• Move the shape into the final circle to see if the circle format changes the perception of the shape.
• Assess the inventory to select the ones that express some feeling
• Enlarge one of the shapes to fit into a 4” square. Use cut paper to produce finished piece.
• Display the finished squares
• Generate a list of expressive words that describe the final shapes.

Rationale:
1. Presents basic vocabulary used to describe shapes
2. Demonstrates the unique power of shape to communicate ideas and feeling
3. Expands visual vocabulary
4. Explores the unique power of shape to communicate ideas
5. Identify shapes as they are experienced in visual culture
6. Generate rectilinear, curvilinear, geometric and organic shapes.

Template One: Geometric Shapes




This template is used to continue thumbnails practice and developing use of shapes within two formats (Square and Circle)

As students begin to generate thumbnails, they are also practicing various levels of the following skill sets:
1. Recognizing and generating organic and geometric shapes within two formats using design materials, inking pens, rulers and templates.
2. Awareness of the use of shapes in space to create dynamic arrangements
3. After practicing making shapes, students begin to think about how arrangement of shapes in space can create boundaries, real and implied.


Students locate shapes within photos from magazines, labeling the type of shapes



Student has made drawings that are closer to the image, but not as clear examples of the types of shapes. The narrative details detract from clearly identifying the shapes with the exception of the triangle.



Using Square Shapes to Explore Limits and Boundaries. Basic Design

Objective: to demonstrate solutions to three specific visual problems that explore the establishment and violation of boundary through the use of square shapes.

Skill development:
Rulers: measuring, centering, drafting
Planning: Cutting the black squares develops the concept of design as the efficient use of both materials and work by planning a way to make the squares with the least amount of measuring.
Cutting: use of scissors and exact-o knives to cut the squares, safe use of cutting materials on protected backing or surface
Planning: arrangement, placement, and gluing squares to imitate the exemplars, or create new original arrangements.

Vocabulary:

1. Space
2. Shape
3. Implied Shape
4. Positive Space
5. Negative Space

Materials:
1 sheet black card stock
White card stock or heavy computer paper 8.5” x 11”
Exact-o blade
Scissors
Glue
Pencil
Ruler

Strategy: Students are given examples, patterns and templates to copy or self correct. I have found that is best to assume nothing about the skill level of the students. By giving all the students templates and visual aids to accompany the written directions, students can make notes as I demonstrate as needed. Students who are able to begin work right away have all the materials to begin. I am free to help Students who need more detailed explanation or demonstration of the use of rulers to measure and make ruled lines. Students who may be reluctant to ask for help can see other students begin the assignment. I can quietly address individual needs without holding back the stronger students. Frequently, on their own, stronger students will help students who are having difficulties. I encourage peer learning and cooperative work as a way of building the classroom as a place of community where together, we can accomplish more than we can as individuals. Introductory exercises are developmental, a way for me to assess physical skill sets as well as general planning and work habits. At his point, I emphasize planning, assessment and following directions. I give written, oral, visual examples, demonstrating the new skills and vocabulary that are introduced for each assignment step by step.
In this assignment, students measure, center and draw squares. They cut a sheet of paper to make black squares. It is important to give very precise models, including plans drawn to scale to help students use their materials more efficiently.
Students begin by lightly drawing one centered 4” square in pencil on an 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper. Copy at least two times for a total of three designs. (you may need more)

4” Square

From black card stock cut the following squares:
• 3 @ 2”x 2”
• 12 @ 1” x 1”
• 24 @ .75 x.75”
• 8 @ 1.5” x 1.5”
Use the Template to plan your cuts for efficient use of materials


Explore the drawn squares in each of the following three ways: You may use as many of the squares as you need, but try to use the least amount of squares.

1. Inside: Define the interior of the drawn square to establish the square as positive space.

2. Outside: Define the exterior of the
drawn square as negative space.

3. In and Out: Arrange the squares around the drawn square to establish interior and exterior limits and boundaries.

Strategies: Inside: From a distance the implied shape of a black square describes the inside.



Outside: from a distance the outer black squares create a boundary outside the inner white square



In and Out: This exercise uses the implied 4 inch square as a way of negotiating in and out of the square




Extension: Creating Patterns with Modular Units of Shape
Students use the “inside” pattern to create a rotation design that expands from one to four to a sixteen square grid pattern. This is basic copy, cut and paste process that supports extending unitary designs into a larger format. It also gives students practice in cutting, measuring and gluing.
One to Four Quadrants















Four to Sixteen Quadrants

This exercise expands the flexibility of moving a simple design to an applied design, multiplied, rotated for use in a tiling pattern.

Shapes and lines: more and less, the same

Problem: Working with shapes and line elements student will create a narrative progression of five 6” panels in which:
One element increases either in size or number and may change position
One element decreases in size or number and may change position
One element remains the same in size and position

Materials: card stock, black, and one color of your choice. 5 Sheets of mounting cardstock, or heavy computer paper with inked lined square format, centered 6” square

Here is a sample of one solution to this visual problem:



Notice that the red square gets smaller in size, the black squares increase in number and the black line remains the same throughout.
Samples of Student WorkSP09
A.

This student did the project twice. She was not satisfied with the first attempt. Though her cutting skills and measuring are not exact, her design is very interesting as both a progression and individual panels. She is able to orchestrate a multileveled solution to the visual problem that succeeds as good design. Using both lines and shapes and one color. She expanded the possibilities of each element to good effect.
B.

B. This student did a good job, though his measurements were not precise. His choices satisfied the objective in solving the visual problem. His design is visually strong, but the arrangement of the triangles is not related to the other elements.
C.

C. This design was done by a student from Nigeria. His work here is more developed the earlier warm-up work. Using a decreasing cross in the middle made the negative space increase (white squares) His central white line was not exactly the same, but the size of the blue squares are the same. He considered the arrangement of the blue squares as individual panels in a non-linear progression, both of which work very well. The white area (negative space) also increases.
D.

D. This student was able to solve the problem of increasing the orange triangles incrementally (2,4,6,8,10) using them to bound the decreasing pink square, however, four triangles got lost in fifth panel and became one square. Up to that point, her arrangement was well planned and sequential. She used two color elements (she was only supposed to use one) She incorporated the diagonals of the square and the triangle well so that all of the elements work together.
E.

E. This student reworked the project four or five times to get the increasing and decreasing elements and the one thing to be the same. The work is interesting, though not precise either in measurement or arrangement. There are extraneous elements not related to the visual problem. However, some of the individual panels are quite interesting. The irregularities seem to add to the mystery of their meaning in panel 1 and 4.


Chapter Four: Assessments and Enduring Understandings

Intentional learning, Setting goals, generating thumbnails, selecting project, testing results. Evaluating the success of the project to meet the intended goal.

Images communicate ideas by
• Making meaning through images of authentic expression that reflect personal and cultural identity
• Making Ideas Visible in tangible form
• Creating tension between abstraction and representation through literal and implied meaning, placement and movement
• Creating connections between words and abstract elements

Students begin to apply concepts of design using the elements of design to express more abstract ideas by generating a series of thumbnails to explore ways of communicating a variety of feelings or constructs in an “inventory” style exercise:



By generating four possible solutions to express four ideas, students can begin to understand that there is not a ‘correct’ solution to the design problem, but instead that there can be a number of solutions related to the use of the principles of design. For instance, in this student’s work, I can see that she understands and can demonstrate the nature of “stability” as being “bounded” by the limits of the format (the square) through containment, even though one of the boxes has elements (the triangles) that are more active elements. In exploring “dominance”, the student demonstrates the understanding of the role of scale and emphasis to express dominance in all examples. Her first solution uses position, the second uses tone, the third pattern and the fourth uses overlapping.
“Individuality” demonstrates understanding of multiple units in a variety of organized visual proximity as well as some of the dynamics of difference. In the first design, the visual tension is expresses through contrast and position within a stable or regular format. In the second example, the individual element is central and horizontal, dividing the regular, similar black squares. In the third example the circles are black and possibly moving strategically toward the white rectangle, or are blocked by the rectangle. In the fourth design, the small circle is being crowded toward the lower right corner of the box by the triangles.
The student uses a variety of axis (horizontal, vertical and diagonal) as the compositional key to expressing “opposition. The work exhibits a student’s growing ease and facility with a broadening use of the elements of design to express meaning. At the end of this exercise, students work in groups to identify the most successful communicators, and explore ways of improving or clearing up their designs.
They then select the best examples and enlarge them.
Student work for visual problem, “stability”.


Students are encouraged to recognize successful designs made by other students in the class as a way of learning to read design as a communicator of ideas. Students are shown clear examples of work before they begin the exercise. The range of solutions indicates their comfort in exploring possible alternatives to approaching the ‘visual problem’.
As beginners, they are encouraged to see the process of generating ideas, developing and testing solutions as the goal as they work on the physical skill sets of measuring, drawing, cutting and pasting. Often, they work in groups to either formally or informally “test” the success of their solutions. In a single exercise such as this one, a student’s understanding of the dynamics of space and the use of a variety of elements can be measured at a variety of academic, kinesthetic and social levels.

Academic:
1.Connecting vocabulary words to visual expression
2. Recognizing successful work
Personal:
1. Skill base: previous work in a design or art course, drawing and measuring, previous success in using language and expression
2. Organization: mental and physical process to order tasks to economize time and materials
2. Comfort Level: willingness to take risks, acknowledgement of the gaps in learning sequences and ask for appropriate help
3. Forming alliances for support and testing success

Community:
1. Work together to form a supportive environment where the varying challenges that arise in the class are met together
2. Recognize and celebrate the individual gifts that emerge in a supportive process.



Transformation Exercise: The last part of the meaning by design involves creating a time based transformation. Over a series of five panels, something must change in a series of steps. This is one of the more difficult concepts for the students. Whereas the books were connected after they were designed, the transformation is pre-conceived as a complete arc of an intentional design element moving across five panels.
STUDENT WORK
A.This student had a lot of trouble leaving representation behind for the conceptual rendering of words in the “Meaning By Design” exercises. I was amazed that her transformation was completely abstract. This is an example of a sleeper cell, an idea that suddenly manifests in a more difficult application.
A.
B. This student also clung to symbols and pictoral representation. Though it could still be a sun, the abstract linear elements are arranged and then transformed by the yellow intersecting lines.
B.
C. This student has continued to express her designs in complex patterns using lines and textures. She chose to move her rhythmic patterns across the prism of the color wheel.

This student has continued to experiment and push her designs into areas where she
has been unsure and uncomfortable. Sometimes creating something new can be exhilarating and sometimes it is the bravest thing to let go of what you know.







Assessment Final Calculation of Grade is based on the achieved points divided by the possible points times the percentage of each section shown below:


• 40% of grade: classroom and homework assignments (each assignment carries a possible 5 points if it is completed and handed in on time, including class participation and attendance, late work is marked down one-2 points for up to two periods late. Work not complete by second period after due date is not graded until the portfolio. Work may be improved for portfolio evaluation.
• 20% midterm portfolio: Work is assembled and graded for corrections. Late work is assessed as part of the portfolio at this time. Work is evaluated for developmental skills, use of material and creativity at this time.
• 10% tests and quizzes
• 10% creative project; Students follow a rigorous timetable planning and executing a process of design the incorporates a series of planning, execution and assessment s as they complete the project in a final presentation.
• 20% final portfolio: Work of the semester is presented as a whole, including improved work, independent work and written assessment and final practicum.
• 5% Student Art Exhibition *This is the only extra credit a student can earn.

Assessment:
In evaluating a project I ask the following questions.
1. Does the primary focus of the project clearly reflect the standards and objectives of the teaching unit? (1-5)
2. Am I measuring the success of the project on criteria beyond the scope of the assignment? Have the students performance been hampered by skills not yet introduced or developed? (Add points for exceptional work, but I do not take points off )
3. What is the starting point of the particular student and how much movement is there toward understanding of the specific lessons taught in the unit?
4. Is the task specific, non-arbitrary and does it reflect the process and the skills taught in the lesson?
5. Is there something else in the project that was demonstrated and could be assessed at this time?
6. What other evidence can I use to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the students in order to adjust teaching strategies?
7. Where is the evidence of understanding and skills indicated?

This is the peer- assessment form used by the students to evaluate each others work

Design Assessment: Proposal: Long Term Project Project Number_______

Title of Project_____________________________________

Your Name________________________________________________Date_________

Begin by checking the following:

1. Is the project complete?

a. Proposal (Name of project, stated intent) y n

b. Thumbnails (4) y n

c. Analysis of Target Audience y n

d . Written Rationale y n

e. Narrative element y n

What is it? _________________________

f. Element of time or motion y n

What is it?_________________________

g. Two maquettes or one fully developed model model y n

h. Self assessment y n


2. Evaluating the proposal:

a. Is the proposal well organized y n

b. Is it well designed, neat, easy to follow y n

c. Does the project use the elements and principles of design to communicate something?
y n

What do the elements and principles communicate? ______________

Does the designer use materials in a creative way? y n

Does the designer generate original ideas and explore a variety of solutions?
Y n

Standard of performance for proposal design:

The proposal is complete, well organized, presenting a design process that is clear. The designer has used images/type, the elements and principles of design to communicate an original idea that demonstrates informed and skillful handling of materials to produce a well, designed creative proposal.


Check one:

Project does not meet standard.

Project approaches standard.

Project meets standard sufficiently.

Project exceeds standard.



Suggestions, questions or thoughts that might help the designer reach standard.


Reflection: As I created more opportunities for students to practice the developmental skills, I noticed that I was experiencing a different way of assessing a student’s work. I became more aware of the great variety of ways student’s understand language and that in some ways, by expressing their understanding in a visual expression, I was able to see how they understood the words themselves. For example, when students expressed individuality, some of the students made images that looked more like ‘isolation’. During the critique, students expressed their understanding that individuality can set them apart form their friends. Other examples showed their understanding of individuality as difference; sometimes divisive or in a position of relative strength.
Many examples showed “individuality” in a context that expressed a social understanding of the dynamics of the role of the individual in a group or community. This afforded the class an opportunity to expand on how they experience the pressure of conformity. Students from diverse backgrounds and a wide range of age and socio-economic status, bring meaningful dialogue to the discussion about the assumption of shared meaning and experience.
I remain open to exploring the material that arises in each class and finding ways to connect what comes up into an opportunity to think about things in a different or more creative way. Each exercise asks students to begin by thinking about what the visual problem means to them personally. It is then tested and assessed to see how successful the design communicates. Students are then asked to tease out the subtleties of a design, to imagine a different meaning or a context in which the meaning could be subverted or misunderstood. Throughout the course I address the formal qualities that govern the way images are processed by the brain to decode visual data and as a class, they move toward more complex expressions of meaning in time and space. My part feels more like summing up what has already been demonstrated through the students' original work evoked by carefully constructed units.
Frequently students have a visual vocabulary that is organic and playful and some are more orderly and express ideas in formal constructs. By encouraging students to follow their creative instincts, they remain intact in their means of personal expression and benefit from the variety of expression of other students. As they display and discuss work throughout the course, they begin to use language of design with more confidence and depth.
At all times, students are encouraged to value the process of designing over the elusive “finished design”. By completing the organizational steps of generating, developing and testing their designs, they enter an authentic process where they can practice the cognitive steps of analyzing design problems. If students adapt to the steps used in solving visual problems, they can leave the course with a successful methodology for thinking about any problem. By removing the competitive model of the grade, students are less likely to take the quick or safe solution. By rewarding all completed steps on the process students begin to see the value of completing a step and assessing its success before moving to the next stage of development.
Throughout the process of honoring individual voices in this process, I became more attuned to the individual rate of absorption and expression of ideas. I broke up lessons to be more long term, moving an idea through a series of steps that could isolate specific skills in a progression that build on the previous concept or skill. This gives students time to process with less pressure to just get something done on time. Learning does not go smoothly, there are lots of fits and starts, stalls and jumpstarts. Students move along a path at individual levels as they move toward meeting the course learning objectives. At midterm, students present their portfolios and assess their progress. Specifically I ask students to:
• Reflect on how they have experienced the class,
• Identify where they had trouble, where they overcame obstacles or challenges
• Describe when they became comfortable with the process of ‘not knowing’ and at what point they understood that they did ‘know’.
• Project better habits of thinking or organization to use time efficiently
Many of the students wrote that they did not know for sure that they had successfully completed the visual problem until it was read or understood by other students during the period of critique and self-assessment. Some students were fairly confident that they were ‘doing it right’, rating the work as complete but noting that the work could be improved.
A student’s understanding of a concept does not come together in one critical moment, but pieces do begin to come together forming a growing understanding built on what they have successfully demonstrated. Once a student has succeeded in creating meaningful work, they can refine their skills and direct their work to what they are most interested in communicating. They are more fluent in communicating what is most important to them. By tapping into what they feel and what they know, it is easier to move them into a different mode of expression.
Learning the sometimes confusing and opaque academic language of design is the piece that can be added without a great mystery. It can be a part of a process that is more like locating the concept and giving it a name so that the student can tell the story of their work in correct academic language. It is the piece that gives the student entrée to discourse of design. It is an extremely important part of my role to insure that the students have learned to use the vocabulary in critical discourse as well as analysis of visual problems.
It is mid-term now and the work for the rest of the semester will be to incorporate color, and time movement into their working vocabulary. The students have entered the design process and are ready to tackle a more complicated visual problem that expands isolated constructs into a cohesive personal narrative. The students have some latitude in the development of their independent work. They write a proposal and make a contract to complete various stages of the work up to and including the final presentation and critique.
Conclusion:

When I began working on the curriculum for a design class, I thought that I had a pretty good handle on the both the subject matter and the people who might find this work interesting. I would develop a set of lesson plans that would lead a student from the introduction of the basic vocabulary of design theory to the creation of original work that reflects the students understanding of the elements and concepts of design in applied art and design. Many educators agree that speed of language acquisition can keep students from expressing the understanding of an academic area, they hold fast to the testing methods that are used to determine a student’s understanding of the concepts in the language of an academic course. The essays and critical analysis of design and design theory are part of writing across the curriculum requirement for the course. My findings have been consistent with second language theory, students who are fluent in one language are more likely to be fluent faster in the second language. My students who cannot write an expository essay, can not write critical analysis of art and design.
When the students come to the class they are often distrustful of what I might ask them to do. The syllabus means nothing to them. They look at me and wonder if they can trust me. They may wonder if I will be an easy or hard teacher. They find that I am both. The projects are difficult. The language is new and gluing is messy. Measuring is hard. Cutting is also hard. Creativity must be neat in a design class. I also see that they are not neat and they may not be able to articulate in written form all that they can demonstrate. One of my colleagues has already said that I must have a really great class to get such good work form them. I can’t argue that my class is terrible because they are really a great group. They have entered with a certain amount of bewilderment and they are emerging as a group of creative if not very neat designers of meaning. We have 5 weeks of instructional time left before the end of term and though I see an incredible amount of growth in the student’s work, I worry that the results might be seen as specific to this class or that I got lucky and had a very gifted group of students.
Sometimes, I believe that in 15 weeks, their desire to write about their own work will produce a coherent written paper about the design process. That does not always happen. My feeling is that their work stands for the understanding and should be valued as a legitimate evidence of understanding. I want to see changes in assessment models to address students who are held back or receive failing grades because they cannot pass written tests. In design and fine art, student work can demonstrate the ability to synthesize the elements and principles of design to produce original work. I would like to have more time to discuss this work with colleagues to see if they have any reaction to the work as ‘language’.
I could not have anticipated how much I enjoy seeing a student successfully complete work they thought they could not do. Seeing them move out of their comfort zone to try something new is fundamental to design. Not knowing is where creativity begins.