Providing Structure

Today, 7th hour was terrific. Students collaboratively created their edible color wheels, reviewed color relationships, color schemes and names in preparation for their oral evaluation before being allowed to eat the end result. It was fun, structured, social, concrete, and the results were immediate with lots of laughter and sense making. I rotated through the tables at least six times checking and making sure everyone was working, mixing colors so they were obviously different to each other, and catching students as they were finishing up and directing them to the next stage. Testing the students was fun, and I had to walk away from one table three times because students needed to teach each other resulting in 100% success. Giggles and finality came as cookies were eaten.

Thereafter, I showed examples of students' paintings depicting a major event or person who had an impact on their lives, and I read safe and moving excerpts describing symbols utilized so they could understand where they were heading and the relevance of working on the color wheel. The paintings are based on a color scheme and integrate color gradation. Students were 100% engaged. They sat, listened, and watched. They returned to their seats and completed a journal entry describing their favorite photograph using sensory words in preparation for confronting personal emotional content.

Upon reflection, in today's lesson students had collaborated, listened to a demonstration (moved to a different location), switched their minds to reflection (returned to their seats). Everyone was 100% on task, engaged, and they emotionally went from an all time high of social fun and laughter to quiet reflection and independent writing. It was Friday, and the best meaningful lesson for the end of a short week.