CREDE Standards part 2

The specific lesson that I chose to evaluate is from my Draw/Paint 4 classroom. All of the students in my class were asked to get into groups to work on a surrealist project. Each group had 3 or 4 students in it and they had to work collaboratively to create their own unique work. I showed them some examples of surrealist work and we discussed the elements. Next, each group had to pick different parts of speech from a hat. They each had to have a certain #. For example, one group chose : the Backyardigans, graffiti, ghetto, rain and there were a few other that I can't remember now. They had to take all of their words and create their own surrealist work on a huge sheet of butcher paper. Some of the groups started working well together right off the bat, while others struggled a little. I do recall that this is the class that our foreign exchange student from Kiev was in and the students were wary of working with him at first because they thought he was a little strange. I assured them that he was the same as them, they just needed to give him a chance and get to know him. One thing that the students did learn while talking and working with the student is what is one of Dr. Eugene Garcia's 5 "R's". The had to be culturally Responsive. What they said didn't always hold the same meaning for him that it did for them. Luckily, he was very open and easy to get along with and he shared with them how different things were viewed where he is from.
I do believe that I could have made it a bit better in terms of better reflecting the CREDE standards and Dr. Garcia's 5 R's and 1 T. I would have liked to find a way to incorporate more of the students personal lives into their work. Next time I do this lesson I will try and figure out a way to make it more personal to each of them.

CREDE Standards

This week, we have been asked to blog about how we, as teachers are or are not implementing the CREDE Standards into our curriculum. According to Dr. Roland Tharp from the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) there are 5 research-based standards that should be used to help create a classroom where all students, including ELL's, can have a "high quality learning experience". These five standards seem pretty straightforward. They include:
1) Teachers and students working together.
2) Developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum
3) Connecting school to students lives
4) Engaging students with challenging lessons
5) Emphasing dialogue over lecture.

Being a high school art teacher, I do find it very easy to implement these standards into my classroom. In fact, I already do use most of these in my classroom. I do constantly work with my students, sometimes on a one to one basis and other times collaboratively. Art is a great subject to use cross curricular language and literacy. I talk to students all the time about how everything connects together and most of the students projects are based on their lives and what they are interested in or feel strongly about. I try to challenge the students for every lesson. When it is too easy students tend to give up or don't give it their all. I am not really strong in the area of lecturing anyway, so that is a real easy one for me. I would rather take smaller groups and teach them.
More later....