Art in the Classroom

If you take the time to hop on over to my resume page on this blog, you will notice that I did not go to college for education but instead went to a post-graduate program. The years I spent as an undergraduate were filled with dreams of teaching something other than language arts and math; I wanted to work in a museum and teach about art. Of course, it sounded way more glamorous than it really was and after a summer of working long museum hours with only getting to plan and host two programs for kids, I realized that I was much better suited for the classroom life.

Though I am not spending my days in front of pretty paintings, I still love and appreciate everything that art has to offer. Art can engage us on multiple levels from physical experiences with sculptures to triggering memories and learning new things. Art is a part of almost every school's curriculum but I don't think it has to be confined to the art room. If you're in a school with limited art opportunities, what better way to keep the arts alive than in your classroom? Here are a few of the ways I hope to be a more artistic and art-oriented classroom this coming year:

- In a writer's workshop lesson focusing on personal narratives, autobiographies, and biographies, introduce famous artists. We usually go with the old standbys of presidents or sports figures but artists have pretty interesting lives too. For our younger students, a great read aloud is Tomie dePaola's semi-autobiographical book The Art Lesson. It's great book about being creative and following your dreams as well as telling the world your story.

- Take the time to discuss the illustrations in your stories: why is it important to include illustrations with our writing? Why did the illustrator draw this scene? If you were the illustrator, what would you draw?

- There are many powerful images from artists documenting historical events from the perspective of someone who lived it. I still remember when we talked about the French Revolution in my high school history class but the discussion was motivated by Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People. All learners will become engaged in a lesson where they have to think rather than being told.

- I'm thinking about creating a comic book writing unit. My students have always loved graphic novels and I think this would be the perfect way for us to get excited about writing, maybe early in the year. It would be a perfect unit to include mini lessons on sequence and onomatopoeia.

I can't wait to integrate art into my classroom culture and curriculum this year. There are plenty of resources out there to make art a part of your classroom. One of my favorite finds so far is Patty Palmer's Deep Sea Sparkle site which has lessons for every grade level with literature resources too.

If you have any recommendations about getting art into the classroom, please let me know!