Kiana Harriel hoped to incorporate her love of art and background as a visual artist into her social studies lessons while student-teaching at East Providence High School. She discovered that using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) would allow her to emphasize arts education and improve her students’ analytical skills.

“Using VTS helped my students make their own meaning of what we learned,” Kiana said. “By the end of my time student-teaching, my students could confidently express their thoughts and reasoning.”

When teaching a lesson with VTS, the teacher typically presents students with a visual to interpret such as an art piece or photograph. Students then discuss what they see to reach potential conclusions, helping them to build evidence-based arguments. VTS provides a natural scaffold for students to engage with difficult subject matter.

“Using VTS helps students find greater depth in historical content, improves answering higher-order thinking questions and creativity, and promotes confidence and engagement in the classroom.”

VTS was essential to Kiana’s capstone project, “Visualizing Women in History: Improving Student Visual Text Analysis through Visual Thinking Strategies.” She taught three units in a Women’s History course: "Native American Women and European Encounters," "Women in the New Nation," and "Dangerous Women," a unit she created in her MAT Education and Theory course taught by Professor John Palella. Her students did not just analyze art but made it, such as their final project where they redesigned the $20 bill based on the unit and justified their design choices.

“I wanted my students to interpret and analyze art so they could actively engage in doing history, rather than passively listening to lectures.”

This active learning style encouraged Kiana to bring VTS and other lessons from her MAT experience beyond the traditional classroom setting. She plans to pursue a career in the museum and library world as a K-12 and programs educator. She felt that the MAT program gave her the confidence to pursue that path.

“I was unsure if I was going to be able to experiment and be creative in my teaching but the MAT program and my residency site encouraged me to pursue teaching practices that will serve me well in my professional goals,” Kiana said. “The MAT community has greatly enriched my graduate school experience by providing a supportive network of peers who share a passion for education.”
 

Favorites:

Memory: "Katie Rieser’s 'Foundations of Teaching and Learning' course in the summer!"

Event: "The Gloria Ladson Billings campus event and her surprise visit to Professor Thomas’ class in the fall."

Place to study: "I often found myself at the Ed Department studying or chatting with other MATs before our classes started."

Place to eat near campus: "This is not a place to eat but I loved to get a Chai Masala at Ceremony in the winter."