More than Meets the Eye: Art Observation in Arts-Integration
Throughout my years in the classroom, I have found some of the most engaging conversations involved looking at and discussing art with students. Brief conversations about an image or work of art can serve as engaging ways to access prior knowledge. Such can also present new information, acting as a springboard for creating student art and writing. When I was a classroom teacher, I saw some of my kindergarten students who were typically wary of class discussions come to life when we discussed a painting by Diego Rivera. Discussing art with students in Arts-Integrated lessons bridges the community of artists throughout the world with the work students do in the classroom.
A teaching moment I’ll never forget happened in a fifth grade math class in which we discussed the work of Louisiana artist, Welmon Sharlhorne. Students immediately made connections between his artwork and the concepts of lines, shape, and area they were learning about in math class. They then went on to incorporate drawing techniques we discussed in Sharlhorne’s work into their own math drawings.
Here are some other reasons why discussing artwork can be a powerful strategy in your teaching practice:
Artwork can be “read”, similarly to that of a book, for the main idea, setting, characters, theme and mood.
Scientific drawings, landscape paintings and documentary photography can bring concepts and key details in Science and Social Studies to life!
Carefully selected art can reflect the diversity of our students’ culture and communities while also providing a window into other worlds.
Visual art creates access points into content for all students-especially emergent bilingual students- as well as those struggling with decoding, fluency, and other literacy skills.
Looking carefully at and discussing images can inspire student-created visual art and deepen their understanding of concepts and content across different subject areas.
