Teaching English through Art - any ideas?

[mortonmarg]

Any ideas for teaching English to 6-16yr olds through art and creative practice?
Just recently qualified and have a mental block, ANY ideas would be welcome. Thanks.

[mrBen]

What are the levels? Could be anything from describe what you see in a big picture (colours, actions, clothes, landscape features) to what are the 5 most important works of art from your country/in the world to big questions like what is art/is this art/why is it not art if you or I do it but it is when Andy Warhol does it? These last questions sound fun but in my experience the discussions are hard to get going as there are usually only a couple of students interested and the rest switch off and let them dominate.

I've used Seurat's La Grand Jatte to help demonstrate the importance of looking at the complete text rather than each individual word when reading. There are lots of things you can do!

[cerij]

with the younger students you could try colourful abstract paintings - Miró's a great artist to start out with - good for reviewing colours and shapes - get the kids to look at some and decide what they are (lots come with animal names as labels) - then get them to draw some Miro-esque "paintings" of their own - they can present them to the class or get the class to offer possible labels/titles/captions - these can then be displayed in an "art gallery" somewhere in your classroom (this idea comes from the Reina Sofia art gallery in Madrid where I saw pre-school age kids being taught a class lying on the bellies on the floor in front of these enormous, primary colour canvasses)

for older students how about kicking off with some of Banksy's graffiti - or his art hallery pranks from a couple of years back - he's really in vogue at the moment so a quick google - or google images - search should offer up a lot of potential lesson material - good for exploring messages and discussing the question of what art is - and when is graffiti street art and when is it vandalism

good luck whatever you do - art and images are always fun and rewarding in the classroom

here are two names to look out for - visit their blogs or see their books on using images in the classroom : Ben Goldstein, Jamie Keddie - a quick google search should show up their blogs and websites

[Alex Case]

If you get the chance, I'd highly recommend this book, Arts and Crafts with Children by Andrew Wright

http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/genera ... 0194378253

[mortonmarg]

Thanks so much for those tips and great advice it's really helpful having a place to start, will follow it all up.
Kind regards

[Avocado]

Art lends itself to a number of uses in the classroom, without even having the students make any art. One can read/write biographies of the artists; perfect the art of describing the pictures; use the pictures as abstract writing prompts (When I look at this picture I feel..); listen to or watch interviews with famous artists; RP discussions someone might have when standing next to someone else at an art gallery, etc. One thing that's worked really well for me is finding out about the artists from your students' culture. They're usually proud to talk about them (here in Thailand).

[philip]

It si important information..because the teachers can find the best talents and art of the students..if you find them then try to encourage their activities..your each compliments will encourage the students to chalenge the best competition fields..:)

[carolk2312]

If you belong to OneStopEnglish, there is a series of 6 articles - just type Using art in the classroom by Jamie Keddie into the search box in http://www.onestopenglish.com