TEACHING SESSION PLAN

Module: Contemporary Art Level / Stage 6

Year: 2
Studio Practice 3

Title of session/ topic: Student/Group Critiques

Length of session: 4 hours (240 mins) 17 students.
Mark the type of session : Critique

Lecture ☐ Tutorial ☐ Lab ☐ Studio ☐ Workshop ☐

Module Outcome (What module outcome(s) is the class/session aligned to):
3. Indicate an ability to articulate ideas, concepts and critical awareness verbally to lecturers and within the
peer group.

4. Demonstrate an awareness of the relationship of their creative output to the wider field of contemporary
art practice.

5. Display an ability to gather and process research material in the development of project work.

Class/Session Outcomes: Upon completion of this session, you should be able to: (Share
with students e.g. Write on board /slide/ project image at beginning of lecture for students)
1- Articulate your thoughts when viewing an artwork – by clearly examining an artwork via ‘deep
looking’.

‘Deep Looking’ spending the time and cognitive energy required for critical thinking.

2- Consider your own objective reading and a subjective reading of the artwork under critique.
3- Consider the groups ‘inter-objective’ and ‘inter-subjective’ readings.
4- Test and develop various methologies of looking, deciphering and interpretation, as an individual
and as part of a group.
5- Understand the context and possible contexts of an artwork and how that affects the reading for
an audience separate from the group.
6- Discuss and share constructive dialogue between peers, by practicing ‘respectful conversational
difference’.

‘Respectful Conversational Difference’ allowing and honoring differences of opinion and ideology by verbally
framing language in an objective tone and grammar .
Select & Prioritise Your Content:
For the session, decide what material is used in class and what material the students should study
independently and/or online. To do this, think about the material and its relative importance and
prioritise and list in the appropriate quadrant.
In Class or in a Live Online Class Independent Learning
(Support Learning) (student completes on their own)

From the dialogues with both the

How to practice ‘deep looking’
artworks and peers, students are
Priority and critical thinking both
asked to further research artists
individually and within a peer
(Need to and subjects that have sparked their
group.
know) interest.
How to articulate critical
Students are requested to respond to
thinking to one’s self and amongst
the critiquing of their own work by further
peers.
developing their own artistic works.

Suppleme
ntary How to ‘work effectively’ in groups Students are asked to reflection on the summary
to examine and decipher artworks. questions at the end of the class and review the
Learning
text provided.
(Nice to
know)

Think about how you might incorporate Technology Enhanced Learning Tools and Blended
Online/Digital Learning Objects, that will develop students learning and engagement with the
module.

Although I didn’t incorporate any TEL or blended learning objects in the lesson plan, in retrospect
there are two opportunities to make use of TEL for this class.

The first, is during the tasks – Microsoft Teams could be used as a digital notice board for students
to pin/post their observations/critical thinking for each critique. A time allowance must be
considered, as it takes time to translate critical thinking into words for a post. This would have to
be intergrated into the time management of the class.

The second opportunity for TEL would be instead of distributing a photocopy of a related text –
the text could be uploaded as a PDF for the class on either Moodle or Teams.
Teacher Activity Student Activity
(what you will do during the class): (what students will do during the class session):

Stage 1 : Stage 1 (10mins):

Introduction to this weeks critique. Listening and answering questions raised along
with developing the conversation by
Recap from last week
contribution
Student centered crit where the conversation
revolved around the dynamics created by the
group.

3 questions is order to open debate on the

possible issues relating to the critique.

Lecturer to be Chairperson – to involve, invite

and include everyone.

Stage 2 (90 mins):

Stage 2
Students in active conversation, working
Critique each students work for 15 mins.
through each students work in a clockwise
Time keeper, prompting and modeling various fashion.
strategies of ‘deep looking’ to be considered by
the group.
Stage 3 (30 mins):
Stage 3
Break
Break at 11 am for 30 mins
Stage 4 (90 mins)
Stage 4
Students in active conversation, working
Critique each students work for 15 mins.
through each students work in a clockwise
Time keeper, prompting and modeling various fashion.
strategies of ‘deep looking’ to be considered by
the group.
Stage 5 (10 mins)
Stage 5
Listening – taking notes and receiving the
Give an A4 text on ‘critique’ for reflection and
photocopied text.
set up for the intro conversation for the next
session. Set brief for this weeks work to be
critiqued on the following Monday.

Note digital student engagement tools required for this session/lesson:

There was no digital tools of engagement for this class.

Teacher Reflection:

What worked well?

Very good initial conversation which lead to an unexpected turn with respect to the lesson plan.
The introductory discussion threw up the problem of contributions not gaven by everyone. This
was flagged by a student after I asked if there was anything that annoyed them from the critique
last week. I then asked if the students had a solution to this issue. One student suggested we
break into small groups and then feed back as groups as to what they have discussed. I agreed to
this structure and three groups where formed.

The small groups worked very well. Lots of talking laughing and interaction. Good movement with
students standing as opposed to the usual sitting.

What did not work well?

The last stage of the class was pretty poor. As the positive dynamics created by the smaller groups
broke down when the group gathered back as one.

On the hoof I designed a ‘group discussion’ for stage 5. By managing the time allowed for smaller
critiques I created 40 mins for an open dialogue. In th heat of the moment I decided to structure
the discussion, it was to follow the various subject matters that arose through the critiques with
references to individual works presented, and artworks within a contemporary art context. I
thought this would be a good way to structure the conversation. In retrospect it may have been a
bit over complicated. The students instead wanted to reflect on the nature of smaller group
critiques. I pushed on - defining a conversation foucesed around the critique’s that generated new
observations on the works presented. This may have been a bit forced and didn’t allow for
conversation to flow. From this awkward dialogue the group thought it best to change the format
further. Suggesting that next week we have smaller group critiques which are shorter in time (5
mins) for each work and then we go around again as one large group to view the artworks. The
wisdom of the group had spoken and I agreed to this structure for next week. I believe this is
enpowering to the group and allows for more active interaction between peers.

To what extent did you address different domains of learning?

Two areas are addressed as part of this lesson plan – to a lesser degree the Cognitive Domain –
covering comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation - and the main focus of
the class plan is placed on the Affective Domain – covering receiving phenomena, responding to
phenomena, valuing, organization of these values and characterization.

What would I do differently next time?

Listen more closely to the answers the students are giving to questions which arise. Practice
improvising to those answers.

Include digital resources as mentioned above and a list of various keywords to describe –
adjectives – image/resource from 1st year wall or I could have asked the students to find/research
a list of adjectives on their devices to use to help them describe the artworks, their objective and
subjective interpretations.

As part of the introduction - show the interpretive dance video with respect to Terry Barrett’s text
on – looking at images – video + upload of photocopied of text to Moodle/Teams.