Lesson Reflection (Kris, Opie portraits)

The principle aim of the lesson was to introduce the Illustrator program to students who had little or no experience of it, and to refresh the memories of students who already had some experience of using the program. The principle aim was therefore technical and skills-based.
Other aims were to introduce the work of the artist Julian Opie and try to put in a context (so, a knowledge/context aim), and encourage students to take part in a fun and creative exercise which would have a very personal end result: students would finish with a self-portrait in the style of the artist (so, a creative aim).

The lesson plan was made up of four parts: firstly, students would enter into a "gallery" (the classroom layout changed, classical music playing, props, and a number of printed Opie portraits blue-tacked to the walls). This would introduce the artist in an original and, hopefully, interesting way. Secondly, students would be given a video presentation on how to make their own portrait using the Illustrator program (in fact, a Youtube video which already existed, which we muted), with real-time instructions given by us on screen, pausing and answering questions from time to time. Thirdly, the students would attempt in pairs to create their own portraits, and lastly, we planned to show the portraits and discuss them at the end of the lesson (which, due to bad planning of time allocation, we did not finally have to do).

In terms of judging what went well, the main aim was satisfied: students were introduced to the program and in most cases did finish with a self-portrait in the style of Opie, and did, in the process, gain a new technical skill or refresh an existing technical skill. I also thought that we did well with the "gallery" introduction: although this was a little played-out, I was pleased with the originality of this and thought that, if nothing else, it made for a memorable lesson experience. I was also pleased that the video presentation generally went well, and that students did indeed understand our instructions and could carry them out. Some students after the lesson told me that the presentation was clear and calming, which really gave me some extra confidence (I had thought that perhaps it was a little slow and that my style would not be suited to a more demanding/impatient class of students).

The main failure of the lesson was in the problems of (1) time planning, and (2) a lack of sufficient technical knowledge on my part. We did not get on to the 4th stage of the lesson plan, due to lack of time, and had to adapt the lesson as it was going on (by chopping off part 4 and extending part 3 of the plan) so that some students could have chance to finish their work. I was also surprised that, when it came down to it, I actually knew very little about the program and could not answer quite a few of the student's technical questions. Both of these failures were due to lack of sufficient planning and practice before the lesson.

If we were to teach the lesson again, we would probably think about shortening the introduction to the lesson, extending the time given to actual practice, give clear time limits to students (which we did not do). and practice using the program more before the lesson.

Hopefully students learnt some new technical skills, and feel more confident using Illustrator. If the lesson achieved this, then our main aim of the lesson was satisfied. If the students had a bit of fun along the way, and enjoyed creating something personal in the style of Julian Opie, then that was a bonus!