This week the boys looked at another Yeti image, again, with much enthusiasm.  Many of them made links to elements we saw in last week's image, and began to see a possible narrative emerging.  This train of thought was particularly useful because we later asked the boys to create a movie poster about a Yeti that included a one sentence story line.  Viewing the two related images in sequence definitely helped get the juices flowing and the posters are looking really exciting.

Taking a moment to review what VTS is all about and what kind of observations we're looking for seemed to help alleviate the "looking for pictures in the clouds" problem.  I don't think we had any comments of that sort today.  Everyone pretty much stuck to the content and the narrative of the image or series of images.

The student who I pinpointed in a previous blog as being particularly likely to benefit from VTS had a really difficult time last week.  Tasks that require a bit more technical skill seem to stump him, but once he gets going, creativity is not a problem.  For example, the last couple of weeks bookmaking activities, which involved a multi-step process of folding, cutting, and gluing according to certain specifications, presented a good deal of difficulty for him.  However, when he is given the chance to draw more freely, I find that ideas are not in short supply and he is often capable of presenting them in unique and interesting ways.  (His movie poster, for example,  is looking fierce, and he didn't even get the one on one attention today that he sometimes seems to need.) The challenge is mostly in getting him going and keeping him focused, which is easier when he is feeling confident about his work.  So, again, I think that the confidence and self efficacy that VTS can provide will be the most important and tangible benefit for him, and probably some of the other boys as well who have similar difficulties.