Burton "The Art of Lesson Planning" A Guide for Teaching and Learning

 Burton, J.M. (2013). Part 1 Creating a “Vision”  Part 3. The art of planning lessons. In, Guide for teaching and learning.

Noticings:

- Major ideas come in excellent buckets of 4. "Material, Product, Motivation Dialogue, and Objective." "how objects, ideas, thoughts, and events might look, feel, act, and are situated, etc." 

- Importance of "balance" is explicitly noted several times throughout the research. Everything holds a relationship that should be carefully thought-through. And when we consider the area of learning, it is not solely for the sake of the child, but we must be open to learning ourselves. (Very Teacher SEL)

- Stresses the value of play and experimentation in the learning process. 

- Every material has a unique opportunity and possibility. Materials and subject matter go hand and hand, one can lead the other. "...different materials will invite different kinds of reflection on subject matter for each possesses its own characteristic qualities and properties."

- Burton stresses the value of observation instruction in art. I have started to work this into my teaching from a drawing perspective, but its very important to keep resurfacing how we can we this type of learning (observational) with any material. 

- Special Note: Burton raises an excellent point about teaching to the elements of art. which sometimes I do. (safe teaching mode). She states "One might critique this approach to materials and processes in its perceptual, functional, and formalist guises as overly conventional, deeply eurocentric, reductive, and separated from experiential content. While artists of the Bauhaus and their followers may have identified elements and rules for their use for their own design purposes, this hardly encompasses the multiplicity of art practices of the rest of the world either traditional or contemporary.5" 

So if I am to create an anti-racist art curriculum, I have to speak to this critical take on how we observe and discuss art. I must never limit myself, students, or other educators of the "extensive possibilities" that come with looking at all kinds of work and acknowledging their unique meanings.  

Questions:

It is such a complex state of thinking and acting that requires a balance of intentionality with flexibility, what advice can you share with new teachers on how to take on the very important and complex task of educating children artistically? 

Where can we make space to teach into cultural understandings, structures, norms, skills, premises? 

Profound Statements: 

- "...all lessons should be designed with an eye to how they build on and incorporate prior learning." 

- "...for a lesson, it is essential that teachers feel comfortable in their knowledge of the possibilities, processes and structures involved in its pedagogical use." 

- "Often times, children and adolescents are taught canonical techniques... The problem is that too often the techniques demonstrated, or exemplified, have little resonance with the nuances of youngsters own ideas, and not infrequently leave little room for personal imaginative interpretation."

- "conventions that do not wholly capture how space is perceived by an observer as they move about, nor how it feels on their skin and in their bodies, nor how it takes on emotional attributes such as feelings of isolation or fear." (Art Therapy)

- "In short, while children may actually perceive space in much the same way as adults, their experiences of it will be different as will be the ways in which they choose to represent their experiences in a material." (Art Therapy)

- "...when children’s interests turn to questions..." (I love this statement because it depicts the spark of learning. 

Application: 

I will rely on the basics. Never put my "carriage before the horse" when providing an open, flexible space for all learners. 

Burton uses 3s and 4s in conceptual structures. I find glowing take-aways when I think this way too. I should structure my book in this simple, yet complex state. 

I will use Burton's "Focused and Fundamental" approach to my lesson planning. I, sometimes, leave my lessons too open ended and then I run into a bucket of children who feel lost during "experimentation" because they cannot think of what to make. Then I run into giving them the what to do in order to just complete the assignment. My lessons should be an exploration of their thoughts, responses, and imagination. I can accomplish that through planning out the "fundamental" a bit better and holding more space for "motivational dialogue" that pushes them to observe their world.