Teachers Get VIP Treatment at the Getty Center
August 2nd, 2012
Most Getty Museum staff members have never been to our paintings storage area, but today the participants of the Art & Language Arts (ALA) program got a special behind-the-scenes tour. What a special treat after four intensive days of workshops, tours, art-making, lesson planning, and reading discussions!
Speaking of readings…ALA teachers, please leave a comment that describes a concrete way that you can develop your students’ artistic and perceptual growth (see the list on p. 19 of your reading).
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- Every day should begin with art! We kick off the fourth day of the Art & Language Arts seminar with printmaking.
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- Teachers were challenged to create blind contour drawings by etching into scratch foam.
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- Teacher Diana Bosworth views the colorful results of her print.
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- Teacher Bill Steffes looks pleased with the results—as he should be!
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- 42nd Street Elementary School teachers Judy Matsumoto and Donna Massenburg are enjoying the printing process.
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- Tan Pratontep created a beautiful scene using a variety of lines.
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- Love the experimentation with color!
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- Museum educator Kelly WIlliams leads a discussion about four components of a quality art curriculum—artistic and perceptual skills, artistic production, art history, and art analysis.
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- Teachers from Kennedy Elementary School share ideas for their lesson plans.
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- Museum educator Theresa Sotto discusses the benefits of open-ended questions to elicit meaningful responses from students.
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- After making art, exploring strategies for teaching art, participating in curator tours, and eating delicious breakfasts, teachers are now challenged to develop a lesson plan in just a few hours.
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- Teachers are hard at work planning their arts-integrated lesson plan.
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- And now for the reward! Teachers get to see our paintings storage area, where they can see works of art that are not on view in the galleries.
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- On the way to the paintings storage, where curator Peter Bjorn Kerber regales us with fascinating stories about paintings that the general public is not currently able to see.
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Engaging students in the dialogue about art, any form of art, can be a safe, open ended activity that not only supports students’ artistic and perceptual abilities, but also their vocabulary development and oral language skills. It’s a win, win!
To build the students’ artistic and perceptual skills, I would take them on a nature walk to collect leaves of a variety of shapes and sizes. The student’s could discuss in their groups the words they would use to describe their leaves. (Eg. shape, size, color) The teacher could then model how they could use their leaves to make crayon rubbings on a white paper. The students could learn how to make separate and overlapping shapes. They could choose any color they like since leaves change colors, or they could make colorful leaves from their imagination.
An activity that would assist my kindergarten students on visual perception would be to make a scrap book on various colors. They could use pictures from old magazines, print outs and their own drawing to paste on the appropriate color pages. The students would then be encouraged to share their books in a small group setting.
The majority of students in my classroom cannot write by themselves. I use drawing as one of the ways for the students to express themselves. For example, when the students finish their work early, they have two options, to read or to draw. Even though they still struggle with fine motor skills, many of them choose to draw!
Also, our class participates in the Very Special Arts Festival at the Music Center where we perform singing and showcase our artwork. This year we were inspired by the drip and splash style of Jackson Pollock and created paintings to accompany the performance.