Another day, another lesson

I taught my Ink Blot Creations lesson for the second time at Heritage Middle School. The first time I had taught the lesson, it was with the sixth graders. This time, I taught both seventh grade classes and modified the lesson and teaching strategies to help iron out the wrinkles that I had discovered from the first day of teaching. 

On that first day teaching with the sixth graders, I had the class create two ink blot compositions using two-to-three colors for each piece. With the seventh graders, I decided to have the first composition be made of only black ink and the second composition use the two-to-three colors of ink. After I had introduced the project to the class, I only displayed an example of a ink blot made solely with black ink. Immediately kids were responding with things that they saw in the ink blot. Noting the unusual enthusiasm of the class, I had the students volunteer to come up to the board and point out what they saw in the ink blot so the entire class can see their perspective. After a few minutes of this,I then demonstrated the process of making the ink blots and went through it step by step with the class.

 When the entire class was finished and put their ink blot on the drying rack, I led another small discussion to find out what they had seen in their ink blot or their friend's ink blot. During this discussion I asked "Do you think color can change or alter these images that you see within the ink blot you made?" I recieved a few responses such as 'Color can add new images to the ink blot' and 'Color can add detail' I displayed my ink blot that I had made using green, gold, and red ink. Again, students were eager to share what they were seeing in the ink blot design. I again had students come up to the board and point out what they see. I showed another example I had made using different colored inks; red, yellow, and blue and asked one student what colors she saw. She responded with red, purple, green, yellow, orange, and blue. I than asked another student how they thought I was able to have so many colors by only using three different colored inks. I wanted to incorporate the color theory lesson that Mrs. DeLaigle had done with the class weeks prior and have them use this knowledge when deciding what color inks to choose. I again held another demonstration and explained the process step by step.

After the entire class was finished with their second composition and had cleaned up their stations, I asked the students what they thought we were going to do with these ink blots. I than passed around two completed ink blot examples with drawn images while I introduced the second part of the lesson. With only a few minutes left I led another discussion with the class about the images they saw and how they would draw it. Would it be realistic looking? What details would you include? Would you use only black fine point markers or would you use colored fine point markers? It was important for me to have this introduction discussion with the class before we began this process so the students could start thinking about and brainstorm ideas for how they want to execute their designs.

I definatly feel that this lesson with the seventh graders was more successful than with the sixth graders. Time management was a major issue with the sixth graders which I think improved greatly with the addition of the second demonstration and additional discussions. Although it was repititive, I believe that going through the process for both compositions step by step decreased the amount of horse play and increased their attention span/focus. When the students had to move around to the color stations they were careful about transporting their work from one spot to the next and also considered others who were passing by. For example, if they noticed a chair was not pushed in or an area was too crowded, students cleared the pathway and waited for stations to clear out; something that was not seen in the sixth grade class.