Home and School

My Mom is visiting from Israel this week. I our conversations we turned to the importance of home environment to the development of visual art. The discussion started from my comment that Itai my youngest (2) seems to enjoys visual art activities (sometime on inappropriate surfaces such as counters, tables and the inside of my car). Art was never emphasizd in our house (though my sister became a musician) we visited museums but were not really encouraged to be actively engaged in any art form. In her comment I am not sure if my Mom meant that Itai will not really ever be an artist because we at home are not ourselves very artistic... This got me thinking about breaking the cycle of non-engagement. Since the home is so important in determining the disposition and capabilities of students, can school change any of that? This is true with language, literacy, and of course art.
As parents I can encourage Itai (and the rest) to be engaged with art, to feel safe trying new forms of expression and seeking out art. As educators our role is to provide the same experiences, environment, attitudes, and expectations that will support a relationship with art and literacy regardless of the home environment. We do need to understand though that our actions cannot erase all differences between home environments... there is too much to overcome.
And in reality exposure to rich experiences in different domains in our home and community is what makes us diverse and different contributing to the rich tapestry of society.

The Language of Art

I am continuing in an Eisnerian angle. Monique and I have been talking about the idea of using the language of the artistic process in Arts LINC. Right now we aren't emphasizing this element. Should we? Te students we're working with may be too young to understand how artistic language can be used beyond the art lesson. I think we are afraid of mechanical application without a depth of understanding.
At the same time I have gone back to something we did in the past, have students discuss colors with precision. In Project RAISE we had such emphasis that led to writing about color for example "the tortilla brown smoke". Most color metaphors used by students, however, were not based on actual observation and were used indiscriminately. I think though that this can be a great opportunity to discuss metaphoric language with a concrete referent.
The progression starts with reading and speaking about colors, the art work focusing on observing the color of the object you are painting. In oral rehearsal students describe the work in terms of colors (not exclusively). The teacher models and help students come up with color metaphors that are highly descriptive of the art. In following sessions the focus shifts from description of the art to using the metaphor to create an emotion and disposition in the written pieces. Finally the discussion can turn into observing the use of color in the work of artists and the use of figurative language in text and how both are very intentionally and consistently used to create a cohesive piece.
We must be ready, though, to adjust this process to developmental level. We also must be OK with students applying these concepts at varying degrees of accuracy and proficiency- students must be allowed to be playful here before they become proficient.
Joy in language and art y'all.

Nancy & I were asked to participate in the Arts Integration Forum at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. So… in early May we presented our model of arts integration for professional development. In preparing, we refined and solidified our views and practice of delivering professional development in arts integration. These have developed over the years using our experiences with previous grants and currently with Arts LINC. In Chattanooga, we were surrounded by many experts in the field of arts integration in all arts disciplines. We were honored to be part of the conversation and collaboration in this work as well as inspired to keep on track with the research… and the writing!

http://www.utc.edu/Outreach/SCEA/forum.php
http://www.utc.edu/Administration/UniversityRelations/news/2008/05/09/national-arts-and-education-forum-hosted-by-southeast-center/

Walking is always a part of travel that I do, it at least gives me an “overview” of the area. I took the photo on one of my morning walks before we gathered each day. The Tennessee River is in the foreground, downtown Chattanooga in the middle and Lookout Mountain in the distance.

Art Cognition and Meta Cognition

Monique and I have been thinking about our theoretical foundations as we explore the benefits of arts integration (we are writing a paper really). We came up with two distinct categories linked to learning. The first was cognitive. In this category we included the use of intertwined symbol systems in young children's' writing development as in Anne Dyson's work. The overlap between mental categories are also common to all academic domains e.g. careful observation unites science and visual art. Also the emphasis on motivation, engagement, and emotions as Burger and Winner claim. The work of social constructivists transfers us from the cognitive to higher order thinking and metacognition. Our claim that the process that Vygotsky identified as developmental carries over into mental operations in new domains- that is when we enter a domain we know very little about we have to rely on a semi-developmental progression from concrete to abstract ideas. Here enter Elliot Eisner and his emphasis on the mental operations connected to creativity, appreciation and complex processing. Efland and his focus on Metaphor as a key mental process fits the scheme here too.
I know this is a little heavy for a blog but these are the ideas we're exploring now.

Summer Promises

More than any other summer, this summer opens with the promise of great achievement. I (we really) have much data to go through- the goal is to send at least three papers for publications- we must take all that we've learned and gathered evidence on and share it with others. Monique has made it to Nebraska and we are going to set the bar high- but I hope reasonable. We will spend the next five weeks improving existing texts that we've been working on for a while. As I said high hopes but- then again it is much easier at the beginning of summer than at its end.
Nancy is staying in California finishing her dissertation that I hope she will share with us through this blog.
I've said it before but it is worth repeating- I see my role as moving the field from lore to evidence. I believe that we know and we've seen the impact of the arts in the curriculum but we must also provide evidence. The kind of evidence that decision makers would like to look at. In my case it is quantitative- the challenge is continuously look for valid measures that do not reduce a complex story to a single measure.
Jean and I have also promised to work with the Sheldon Museum of Art on their Statewide program, nothing is set yet but I hope we'll be able to contribute something to this great program serving communities across Nebraska.

Evidence Based Education and Patience

There is great pressure right now for educational research to focus on evidence based practice. At the same time there is pressure on students to teach using the same kind of evidence. I have no problem with the approach- but I would like to see space and time for activities that may not have immediate visible impact on students. For example, I am pretty sure that taking students to the Opera, museum, and theater will not produce much of a result on their achievement tests that year. The experience is just not enough. The cumulative effect of these experiences over time should make a great difference but I suspect we are not patient enough to wait.
The same seems to hold for vocabulary development. Not every word that students read or hear will become part of their working vocabulary immediately. A year or so ago I was talking to one of our kindergarten teachers about vocabulary growth in her students. We were both somewhat frustrated by what seemed to be the lack of use of target vocabulary by the students. The conversation really started me thinking about the patience. We want results now but need to recognize that in some areas we need patience and the understanding that the impacts are beyond one or even three years in school.

A Day with CA Teachers

I love coming to work with Arts LINC teachers in California. There is a charge in the air- they are here to work- as professionals. I shared our latest findings. Students starting the writing process with visual arts gain more in vocabulary and their writing is much improved in both quantity and quality. Furthermore, English language learners benefit greatly from the visual arts strategy.
We also found that creating the art was a lot more powerful than just observing it. The teachers reported that they can do without the arts but they find that they have to work much harder to motivate and scaffold their students. The art is a powerful scaffold and the personal investment with it as a motivator, memory bank, and resource should not be underestimated.
The teachers are a powerful group to interact with and I am energized to go back and start looking in more details at our data. It is going to be a great summer to look at the data and ponder how we can make this even better. All areas visual arts, writing and vocabulary seem to benefit. The works the teachers brought with them from spring units were fantastic sa sample of kindergarten art is at the top. Oops boarding the plane back to NE. Great Memorial Day weekend to all.