On February 18, 2016, I had the privilege of interviewing Professor Pomfrey at Hogwarts Elementary School. Professor Pomfrey has been the art teacher at the school for about seventeen years. She has seen my three focus students grow as children and as students, which is beneficial for me to develop a full understanding of these students. Additionally, I thought that since my three focus students are mostly visual and tactile learners, having knowledge of the students’ engagement and enjoyment in an art class would benefit my inquiry data.

 

Interview:
1. Describe the level of engagement and enjoyment in class for: (level 1-10, 10 being most)

Harry: 8
Neville: 10
Cho: 7

2. Have you noticed any particular thing that interested each student? What about didn’t like at all?
Liked                                                                      Didn’t like
Harry:       Using Clay                                              finding objects in bubble painting
Neville:     Everything                                                                        X
Cho:  Tracing, organization                                coming up with own creations

3. When are each of the students enjoying your class the most? (getting to talk, being alone, playing, drawing, etc.)

Harry: Quiet, independent, Doesn’t ask for much help
Neville: When he’s working, he doesn’t car who he’s with, focused
Cho: Quiet, Works alone

4. If you could recommend anything that would be beneficial for the students what would it be?

Harry: Social Skills
Neville: Writing more stories about visual creations, creativity in class
Cho: Loosen up, Social skills

5. Have you noticed any difference in each child throughout each year?

Harry: Not to much, He’s matured, may be overwhelmed by middle school
Neville: Always liked him, More confident in himself
Cho: Slowly becoming more confident but is still extremely shy

6. Extra Commentary:

Harry: Didn’t follow directions when creating collage and story, Colors sloppy, Made ceramic tile and hand crafted a camel from own design, Quiet, Does work
Neville: “Must be above level”, Didn’t write as much, Partially used part of painting for collage and it was ‘thought out’, Has fun doing drawings, Found things in paintings very easily
Cho: Not very creative, Wants to copy things more, She is very neat and organized, Needs to Loosen up a little, Quiet, Looks more at negative space when finding objects in paintings.

 

Insight:

When I began my interview, Professor Pomfrey asked my reasoning behind choosing the three students I had. After telling her that I had to chose one above level, on level and below level, she immediately responded with, Neville must be you above level. I found that extremely enlightening and informative for my inquiry because I am focusing on enjoyment, engagement, learning styles, and interest. Clearly, Neville shows above level qualities and characteristics in the art class which could be directly incorporated into the mainstream classroom. As for Harry, I found that although coloring type of art isn’t appealing to him, art that can be formed with hand does interest him. The creativity and detail that was shown in the ceramic camel compared to the rest of his art projects illustrates that Harry prefers visual representations done by hand. This information is useful when creating lessons and activities for Harry. Manipulative and interactive imagination based activities would benefit Harry more than creating simply a visual drawing. Throughout my data collection, Cho has been the most difficult to understand. I’m not sure if it’s because she is quiet that it is hard to gain beneficial data to support my inquiry. This interview articulated that although Cho does not necessarily like to come up with her own creations, she prefers to be neat, organized, and almost perfectionist like. Although it is important for students to have the ability to be creative, asking Cho to develop her own visual representation of something could cause anxiety; thus not assisting in Cho’s learning at all. Her visual learning may come from having visual aid in correlation with auditory teaching.

Actions:

The insights that this interview has given will guide my actions more appropriately in my inquiry. They will allow me to design lessons that have a variety of assessments that will depict each students understanding through their learning style. Additionally, it will aid my below level (Neville) I think the most because, there seems to be some correlation between his engagement and motivation while in art. I think that having this information will guide my students to academic success in a much more enjoyable way because things in the classroom will become more differentiation based on their type of learning. Some of the more specific actions that I will take are having more art based activities, more manipulative and hands on activities, and more social skills building (turn and talks). I think that in order to guide Cho to a higher level of success I will need to do more observations while in the class. As of this point, I know that she does seem to find enjoyment in sports, basketball, and being outside. So I am going to try and incorporate these types of things as I get farther into my inquiry lessons.

Photo of Interview: