Week 3- "Castle on a Cloud"

Last Friday I got to introduce a new lesson that revolves around castles! It reminded me of this wonderful musical number: 

First I made a power point to introduce some of the third graders to the historical elements of castles. I even showed some photos of castles I have traveled to. 

Above is a picture of the Tower of London, and the next is a funny picture of my sister and I at Alnwick Castle. Parts of Harry Potter was filmed at Alnwick Castle! That really got my student's attention.
This is the demo I showed to the class:

Basically, after learning about all the different exterior parts of the castle through a 8-14 minuet power point, I asked students to draw their own castle (with a few fictional components, like dragons) utilizing what we learned about through the power point. 

How do you approach planning and teaching to diverse learners? What accommodations have you made for diverse learners?

Diversity in the art classroom, from my experience, centers around the involvement of a student in their project and their ability to complete the project. The involvement of a student in the project basically boils down to whether or not they enjoy the project. If a student likes art class, usually, they will do their best to complete the assignment. In this case, most students also enjoy the time they spend in the art room. On the opposite end of the spectrum there are students that do not like, or enjoy the process of art making. For whatever reason  (sometimes it is lack of support at home, but not always), some students just do not want to participate in art making. Maybe the student is not a very visual or tactile learner, and they do not enjoy aspects of certain projects. To accommodate for these students usually I try to find out what interests them outside of school. If they can incorporate something they love into the assignment, they will usually get very excited about whatever the project is. For example, one student last week was having difficulty completing the writing requirement of a project. My co-operating teacher required that students write a half page about a clay piece they were going to create. The assignment was called "Story Pots". The student was struggling with spelling and thinking of a creative story. The student was very hesitant to begin, and clearly having a negative experience. After discussing this with the student, I had them dictate to me what they wanted their story to be for the assignment. We discuss their interests and they decided to write about soccer. Because the assignment was less based on writing skills, and more an exercise in story development and creativity, I felt comfortable helping the student with this aspect of the assignment.

There are also diverse learners who have a hard time focusing in all classes, especially art because there are times when we ask students to be out of their seats to get supplies and different materials during work time. These learners, especially very verbal tactile learners, have a hard time following directions and completing tasks. There are many management methods that I have seen other teachers use, and adopted to help these students. For example, I find that giving a student a goal for the day has helped in many cases. I have said "Today I would like you to work on staying in your seat." When I observe them out of their seat, one reminder usually corrects the student's behavior. Another method I have observed is the sticky note method. I will give the student a sticky note, and ask them to tally every time I have to remind them of the classroom expectations. I feel that accommodating for diverse learners means devising a simple plan that will work for them in my classroom.