Clase número tres

Homework (Monochromatic Landscape)
Pamela had several very lovely moments during her third watercolor class. As always, we did a little bit of homework to review last week (monochromatic landscapes) and preview this week (color landscapes). I downloaded a landscape photograph in color changed it into gray scale, and printed it out to give Pamela a concrete model. First, we did a color value study to study our shades of gray and labeled with the names of the things in the picture with the same shade: dark clouds (DC), grass (G), light clouds (LC), and trees (T). We practiced doing wet on wet, and Pamela watched me for starts and stops. We sprinkled it with salt for a misty effect, which fascinated Pamela. She struggled with relating the color study to the photograph, but, once we started painting, she was on a roll!



The Third Class (Colored Landscape)
Pamela loved this painting! She hummed while she painted and smiled several times. After she made her mountains (the wavy gray line in Part 2), Pamela gasped with joy. She loved the effect. Here are still shots of "watch and paint":




I scaffolded her more in the beginning (Part 1), when they were collecting and dabbing colors. A rainstorm mildly distracted her a little as did concerns over the power (the circuit breaker of an outlet popped).

Pamela referenced her teacher beautifully. She shifted between looking around the room and her teacher, waiting for Carrie to start. At one point, her instructor walked over to check the outlet, and Pamela shifted her attention and followed her movement. Pamela tuned out the chit-chat and knew to pay attention to instructions. At times, she waited at least 30 seconds for her teacher to paint and then Pamela would watch and paint. She rarely got ahead of her teacher, especially in Part 2.

I caught myself talking too much, especially in Part 1, and I was better at being quiet when Pamela relaxed and painted. I think my issue is the habit of making declarative comments which detract from spotlighting starts and stops. Plus, I sometimes get caught up in the product not the process. I need to loosen up.

At the end, Pamela is ready to quit. She waited for her classmates to finish talking and said, "Good! Wonderful!" Eventually, she told us she was finished.





Things to Do
Life got in the way of me doing as many painting lessons as I had planned last week. . .

• Lead a lesson on painting a picture of a red barn that I found in The Seasons of America Past with David and Pamela. Give verbal instructions and turn away for a moment, while David verbally spotlights what he is doing to let Pamela see she can follow the cues of students, too.
• Contrast two techniques: wet-on-dry for painting the barn with the idea of wet-on-wet for an apple--note to self: buy a hair dryer for drying colors and get an old toothbrush for splattering paint and a box for storing supplies.
• Guide Pamela in placing each new color in different hole when doing a color value study.
• Keep in mind during class that limiting my declarative comments to starting and stopping focus the spotlight on our current objective. In short, I TALK TOO MUCH!