Class #13

Our class was a continuation and elaboration of the stations we started last class.  Before getting to work, we discussed the idea of using stations when teaching.  As I mentioned in my last post, I thought the idea of stations with a different project at each station seemed a bit chaotic.  Aileen proposed that while there may be a certain level of chaos, and acceptance of the fact that you will not be in control of each process, children find stations to be fun.  She said she has always had a positive student reaction to working in stations.  It was good to hear another perspective, not that I was writing off the idea entirely, but now I have become more flexible in my thinking about stations.  The best part for your students, according to Aileen, is that they do not think they are being taught.

With stations there is no teacher directly watching over students, they are working more or less independently.  If you were to leave instructions at each station, most likely your students would not read them or only read part.  At each station personalities emerge and most likely one student will take charge and the others will follow.  Aileen mentioned stations can be an opportunity to play and discover.  Along with discovery the objective may or may not be met, again you as teacher are not totally in charge.  Ultimately as a teacher utilizing stations with your class, in best practice your different processes should prompt thinking, not just provide different kinds of busy work.

While staying in our groups from last week we began working and rotating through the different stations.  In addition to the three stations we had last week (lashing with cardboard strips, stop-animation and tape casting) two more were added.  The new additions were making a book form with a cover made from ironed plastic shopping bags and to make an observational drawing of one of several globe or ball shapes placed on a table.  Each form was different material, for example some of the structures were made of paper straws, wire, cotton batting, aluminum foil, or plastic beads glued together.

I was immediately drawn to this structure and choose it for my observational drawing.

Another addition was collaboration and installation to the cardboard lashing station and the tape casting stations.  The first group installed their work and the next group was to make their own objects taking the previous group's work into consideration so that all the objects/spheres/balls/globes/pods would become one installation.

Installation views of Cardboard lashing and tape casting, 11/30/2010

In taking this work into teaching children and adolescents, I think projects such as these could be conducted as stations or one of these stations could be the sole focus of a class.  I had a difficult time with the cardboard lashing, I would definitely modify the cardboard structures for children.  The other project stations could also be adapted for a younger group.  I especially liked the "choose one" observational drawing.  In this example I do not think there would need to be much modification.  Having like objects shows students the many different ways of representing a form and I believe students would like having the option of choosing their still life object.  While I would not present these stations to a group of young students all at once, our station rotation serves as a rich collection of  prospective projects.