Examples of Research That Integrates the Arts With Social Sciences
In No More Telling as Teaching, Cris Tovani and Elizabeth Birr Moje propose that students often wait teachers to exercise near of the thinking for them in class. A comfort level exists for both parties when a unmarried narrative removes the messiness of understanding topics beyond the surface level. Yet new content-expanse standards, such as those informed past the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework, require that students be the ones request questions, grappling with texts, and drawing their ain conclusions virtually course concepts.
Repurposing instruction to elicit or incorporate students' ideas tin can seem daunting, particularly when teachers must accost specific content in their courses. Inquiry and structure exercise not need to be mutually exclusive, though. In my classes, I frequently enquire students to examine common sources using a specific lesson progression, with the understanding that no two individuals will emerge with the same conclusions from that work.
Using Art to Foster Critical Thinking
To that terminate, I sometimes use works of fine art as launching points for my lessons. Viewing art can be powerful considering each piece reflects the artist'due south estimation of his or her world. Likewise, students' interpretations of the art will vary depending on their prior knowledge, observational skills, and interests.
Museum educators employ three guiding questions from Visual Thinking Strategies to elicit discussions, and they can help students focus when they view an artwork in the classroom for the outset time likewise:
- What's going on in this movie?
- What do y'all run into that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
When I pattern a lesson around an art piece, I don't merely jump into a give-and-take using these questions, though—I inquire students to spend the showtime several minutes of the grade observing the image independently and writing downward their reflections to answer the questions. I write out my reflections with them every fourth dimension, besides, even though I'yard familiar with the prototype, to model that my understanding evolves over time.
In their volume 180 Days, Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle share that such extended periods of freewriting aid students generate new ideas and communicate first-draft thinking. To further that kind of thinking, I later enquire students to revisit and confirm or revise their responses every bit they encounter additional texts that, in some way, connect to the initial image.
For example, I focus a ninth-course Modern Globe History lesson related to the French Wars of Organized religion around a painting of the Saint Bartholomew'south 24-hour interval Massacre by François Dubois. So much is happening in the painting, and students most always ask questions almost why people are being thrown from windows, who the dissimilar groups represent, and what caused the conflict in the first place. Students write down their initial thoughts using the freewriting technique described above, and volunteers then share their comments through whole-class word.
The "investigation" part of the lesson comes when I inquire students to piece of work in pairs to read a short textbook segment related to the subject of the painting. I typically use an interactive reading guide inspired by Doug Buehl's Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning that prompts students to read chunks of text, summarize the main ideas, and make connections to their written responses to the painting. Students first discuss this content with their partners and subsequently accept the opportunity to share whatever new insights with other classmates before moving to the adjacent brusk segment. With this approach, students are not reading the textbook simply to acquire content—they're reading to construct meaning around the questions that they constitute important as they initially attempted to sympathise the painting.
George Gower
"Fleet Portrait" of Elizabeth I, artist unkown
In another lesson from the same unit, I employ a variety of sources in addition to the textbook to assist students draw conclusions nigh the reign of Elizabeth I of England. The lesson is framed around her Fleet Portrait, which generates many interesting questions from students: Why are there two different views out the windows? Why is her mitt on the earth? Does the crown that's prepare on the tabular array in the groundwork symbolize anything?
For this lesson, students travel around the classroom to three centers, each of which includes a source that provides some context for the painting: a brief biography of Elizabeth I, the text of her oral communication to her troops concerning the Spanish Fleet, and a short video that highlights her accomplishments as queen. Students discuss each source in small groups then individually write out brusk reflections that assistance them process ideas related to their earlier questions.
At the decision of both of these lessons, I ask students to revise their freewrites with specific bear witness from their learning. Ideally, they'll be able to answer their initial questions, support their inferences, and fill up in any cognition gaps that they identified at the outset of course. Posing new questions is fine, besides, since the enquiry process is cyclical.
The artist Frida Kahlo once said, "I paint flowers so they will non dice." Building on that thought, art allows students to visually admission historical content that might otherwise seem foreign or irrelevant. Think about one of your upcoming lessons and how a work of art might serve as an entry betoken. Yous volition be amazed by the questions your students develop and the deep learning that happens every bit a issue.
Source: https://www.edutopia.org/article/framing-social-studies-lessons-around-works-art
0 Response to "Examples of Research That Integrates the Arts With Social Sciences"
Post a Comment