Transitions in the Art Room: Direct Instruction

My last 2 posts discussed the transitions Meet and Greet followed by Attendance, Now we get to the meat of the class - direct instruction. This portion of the class should take approximately 5 - 10 minutes depending on lesson. I liked to use the minute per year old scale to keep it short and simple. Kinder attention span varies from 4 - 6 minutes. 5th graders can handle 10 - 12 min.

What it looks like: students in assigned places, hands and feet to self
What it sounds like: voices off unless responding to teacher, body quiet

This portion of class can include a lot of visuals:
national/state/district Visual Art standards
content and language objectives posted and referred to during teaching
illustrated step-by-step procedures
illustrated vocabulary words
PowerPoint/Keynote presentations

Those visuals need to be set-up in advance. With today's scheduling nightmares (no time between classes), it's best if you can make charts that can be switched out easily. I know some students who have been trained by their teachers, to post objectives, directions, etc. as soon as the class enters the room. While you are taking attendance, one or two kids can quickly find what you want posted, put it where it belongs and get to their seats by the time instruction starts. I suggest you train 2 or 3 to begin with - once everyone sees it being done correctly, repeatedly, others can earn the privilege as the year goes on. At the end of class, these same students quickly put things away. When you are training your first group of students to do this, choose students who always like to be the 'boss', who are always concerned with getting things just right and can follow directions the FIRST time. Hopefully these are also the ones who finish regular assignments on time or early.

Of course, some of you have the luxury of HUGE classrooms! You may have room to permanently post these visual resources, only occasionally switching them out.

To begin direct instruction, I usually reviewed, through questioning or student to student discussion, what happened in last class IF it was a continuing project. Next, introduce ALL the information needed for today's lesson. Once students get materials in their hands, it will be extremely difficult to get their attention again.

I often moved on to a hands-on demo during direct instruction to show exactly what would be done and tools/materials necessary for completion. Some of my colleagues would do this seamlessly by using a doc camera or other technology that would not require students to leave their places. My classroom was not setup for these methods so I'll talk in my next post how I set up hands-on demos. Regardless of your methods, Direct Instruction WITH a hands-on demo should not exceed a total of 15 minutes and less than 10 min. is ideal, especially for your youngest students.

It would be great for my readers if you would list below what YOU include in your direct instruction section of your lessons.

Next up: the Hands-On Demo component of Art class.

Transitions in the Art Room: Attendance

The second transition in most art classes is attendance. Ideally, this transition should take less than 3 minutes. A quick glance at your seating chart and a look at your empty seats will tell you who's not present for class that day. Sigh...if things were only that simple, right?

There is a LOT of work behind keeping this a simple, quick task! My routine included my book of class lists and my book of seating charts along with a mechanical pencil - always sharp and an eraser attached so I never lose it. I buy one of those pack of 24 or 36 mechanical pencils at back-to-school sales every fall. Usually, I still could find at least one to use by May and I found about half of the rest during my end-of-year 'pitch or organize' cleansing rituals.

In the Elementary schools (it's a zoo!), you will deal with many things besides just whether a kid is absent. Juan has Speech and always arrives 10 min. into the class period, Abigail, Alyssa, and Sam have math intervention and have to leave 10 min. early, Ryan needs to take his meds every day at 10 am, etc, etc. I used a couple of methods to keep track of this craziness: sticky notes on the class list page for temporary things or written in my shorthand next to student's name for year-long events (meds, speech, etc). I had 30 different groups in a week's time and some of you have even more. Save your brain space for your creative lessons and WRITE IT DOWN if it will affect your attendance record! This info comes in very handy at report card time.

Some of my colleagues combine class list and seating charts - whatever floats your boat. This is an important transition so use a system that allows you to quickly learn who's present and who's not! When it's time for report cards, you'll be able to tell at a glance why Alberto never completed any assignments (always left early for Intervention) or why Athena finished her work but rarely followed directions (frequently tardy & missed direct instruction).

Final note about Attendance: Do this before any instruction begins. Before they announce a lock down and you can't remember if anybody left for the restroom. Before there's a surprise fire drill and your kinders run out the wrong direction, screaming. Before the office calls asking to send Kevin up to talk to the Principal. Take attendance first thing so you know who's present and who is not!

What helps you streamline your attendance-taking?

If you missed my last post on the transition of Meet and Greet you can read it here along with the transitions I'll be writing about next.