In order to lead students into the painting project -Natural and Man-made disasters that have affected humans and/or animals in some - I carried out a physical demonstration on colour mixing, creating light and dark shades and creating washes and textures. I referred to a colour wheel while carrying out the demonstration as well as my own visual aids (examples of texture, brush strokes, shades and washes.) while conversing with students and prompting them to explain their prior knowledge of the area while contributing to the demonstration (helping me along).
Demonstration and visual aids are both forms of scaffolding. Vygotsky (1978) informs us that scaffolding is important as people learn within a space of interaction called the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The zone defines the difference between what a learner can do by her/himself and what s/he can do with the help of a ‘more knowledgeable other’ (Addison and Burgess 2015, p.34).
The exploration phase is for both practicing techniques as well as discovering the possibilities and limitations particular to their subject matter and colour palette. I proceeded to teach in an active style carrying out a demonstration based on sanding and priming the boards in preparation for painting. It was explained to students that they must map out their composition onto board. I showed students examples of the grid system in order for them to understand how to transfer the images onto board. When there were issues with this system I proceeded to use an ICT teaching strategy to demonstrate how to scan and enlarge their images by use of Photoshop. To differentiate the learning for this scheme I advised the weaker student to choose a more simplistic composition than the advanced student.
Numeracy appears in many shapes and forms within the classroom as it stands and there is always ways to incorporate numeracy into lessons. For this particular project numeracy was emphasised through utilizing the grid system.
Literacy was emphasised through the use of word banks, hand-outs and visual aids.