Article in Review: “Basic VTS at a Glance” by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine

In this blog post, I find it necessary to outline the process of conducting a VTS lesson since this happens to be an entirely new concept for me. The steps are as follows:

1) Start the lesson by introducing the concept of VTS to your students--that it allows them to examine art, contribute their observations, and form informed opinions based upon the visual (among numerous other things).

2) Direct your students' attention to the first image. Allow ample time for them to look at the piece in silence, examining what they see.

3) The facilitator then need only use variations on the following three questions:

a. What’s going on in this picture?

b. What do you see that makes you say that? This question is used whenever students make comments that involve a level of interpretation rather than mere identification or physical observations. Teachers/Facilitators should first respond by paraphrasing the student's statement and then ask the question above. Students should also be asked to back up their interpretations with visual evidence.

c. What else can you find? This question should be frequently asked in order to keep the students active in the process of searching out further observations.

4) Conclude the lesson by acknowledging that viewing art is a continuous process that is subjective and open-ended. VTS lessons should be between 12-20 minutes.


ROLE OF THE TEACHER/FACILITATOR:

1) Teachers do not act as experts of the knowledge being presented; rather, they act as facilitators of their students' process of discovering and making meaning.

2) Teachers must be active listeners throughout the entire process. Understanding with accuracy your students' responses is key in keeping the experience authentic and meaningful for your students.

3) Teachers should point to the specific area of the image that their student is commenting upon.

4) Teachers should use appropriate body language and facial expressions to encourage their students to participate.

5) Teachers should strive to paraphrase each comment given by their students instead of repeating their exact words. The meaning of a student's comment should not be altered during this process.

6) Each student-generated comment should be accepted neutrally, meaning that the teacher should not favor one answer over another. This process is about "emphasizing a useful pattern of thinking, not right answers" (2).

7) If questions are asked by the students, teachers should first have the students themselves figure out the answer by looking at the image being presented to them. Only as a last resort should teachers give the answer.

8) Last but not least, teachers should strive to link converging and diverging ideas in order to demonstrate to their students the way in which thinking can evolve, how observations/ideas can feed off of each other, and how opinions change over time (2).