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    Art in The Classroom

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    TESL3062217 Nur Irsha Binti Shahidan Suresh
    This document discusses using art in the language classroom. It notes that art provides opportunities for discussion, language work, and skills-based activities. While art is underused, it can benefit both teachers and students. Responding to art can stimulate students and lead to varied activities. Using art provides a change of pace and can encourage students to use language skills outside the classroom. Thinking about and creating art can motivate students and develop creative and critical thinking. The document outlines potential problems like subjectivity and solutions like choosing relevant art. It provides examples of activities like looking at, sharing, and creating art.

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    Art in The Classroom

    Uploaded by

    TESL3062217 Nur Irsha Binti Shahidan Suresh
    77 views4 pages
    This document discusses using art in the language classroom. It notes that art provides opportunities for discussion, language work, and skills-based activities. While art is underused, it can benefit both teachers and students. Responding to art can stimulate students and lead to varied activities. Using art provides a change of pace and can encourage students to use language skills outside the classroom. Thinking about and creating art can motivate students and develop creative and critical thinking. The document outlines potential problems like subjectivity and solutions like choosing relevant art. It provides examples of activities like looking at, sharing, and creating art.

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    Art in the Classroom

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    This document discusses using art in the language classroom. It notes that art provides opportunities for discussion, language work, and skills-based activities. While art is underused, it can benefit both teachers and students. Responding to art can stimulate students and lead to varied activities. Using art provides a change of pace and can encourage students to use language skills outside the classroom. Thinking about and creating art can motivate students and develop creative and critical thinking. The document outlines potential problems like subjectivity and solutions like choosing relevant art. It provides examples of activities like looking at, sharing, and creating art.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    77 views4 pages

    Art in The Classroom

    Uploaded by

    TESL3062217 Nur Irsha Binti Shahidan Suresh
    This document discusses using art in the language classroom. It notes that art provides opportunities for discussion, language work, and skills-based activities. While art is underused, it can benefit both teachers and students. Responding to art can stimulate students and lead to varied activities. Using art provides a change of pace and can encourage students to use language skills outside the classroom. Thinking about and creating art can motivate students and develop creative and critical thinking. The document outlines potential problems like subjectivity and solutions like choosing relevant art. It provides examples of activities like looking at, sharing, and creating art.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    Art in the classroom

    As the saying goes, ‘Art is all around us’. In its many forms it presents
    fantastic opportunities for discussion, focused language work and skills-
    based activities.

    However, this bottomless cultural resource is largely underused by many language


    teachers. In this article I will describe its place in the classroom by exploring the
    following areas and discussing some practical ideas

     Why use art?

     Potential problems and solutions

     Three ways of using art

     Conclusion

    Why use art?


    Lessons based around works of art have many benefits for both the teacher and the
    students.

    1. Responding to art can be very stimulating and can lead onto a great
    variety of activities. In its simplest form this might be describing a painting, but
    with a little creativity all sorts of things are possible. For example, the well-known
    ‘grammar auction’ activity can be redesigned as an art auction, where the students
    have to say a sentence about the piece of art – anything they like – and then the
    rest of the students bid according to how accurate they feel the sentence is.
    2. Using art provides a useful change of pace. While many teachers use visual
    images to introduce a topic or language item, actually asking the students to engage
    with and respond to the piece of art can encourage students to become involved on
    quite a different level.

    3. Incorporating art into the class or syllabus can take the students out of
    the classroom and encourage them to use their language skills in the real
    world. A visit to an art exhibition or an assignment that involves research on the
    internet can generate all sorts of language.

    4. Thinking about or even creating art can be very motivating. It can take the
    emphasis off of accuracy and put it onto fluency and the ability to clearly express
    thoughts and ideas. This is great for students whose progress in speaking is
    hindered by a fear of making mistakes.

    5. Responding to art has the potential to develop students’ creative and


    critical thinking skills. Students as low as pre-intermediate level will be able to
    read a short biography of an artist and discuss how their art depicts different
    aspects of their lives.

    These are just some of the reasons why art can be successfully used in the language
    classroom. Now let’s have a look at some of the common problem areas and try to
    identify some solutions for these.

    Potential problems and solutions


    Problem: As we all know, art is very subjective and therefore we may be faced with
    students who are reluctant to engage with the chosen examples of art.

    Solution: Encourage students to either choose which works of art are explored, or


    alternatively ensure that a variety of styles are represented. Choosing art that has
    some relevance to the students is always a good idea, either from its subject matter
    or the background of the artist.

    Problem: Students (and teachers!) may not perceive some art-related activities to


    be useful for language learning.

    Solution: As this is our primary goal, it is therefore very important to structure


    activities carefully so that there is a clear outcome and learning point. For example,
    a simple discussion about the meaning behind a piece of modern art can be
    combined with input on functional language for giving opinions and agreeing and
    disagreeing. Meanwhile, other activities can be language-led. For example, using a
    piece of art to generate wh- questions which are then given to another pair of
    students to answer. Considering structure will also help to control the direction of
    discussion/lessons based around responding to art. This can otherwise sometimes be
    difficult.
    Three ways of using art
    1. Looking at art
    There are lots of different activities that involve students looking at and responding
    to pieces of art. For example:

     A ranking discussion where students choose a famous work of art for the
    school to hang in its lobby or voting for the winner from the Turner Prize
    shortlist

     Ask the students to choose a character from a painting or sculpture and write
    a mini-biography or story about that character

     Compare two pieces of art with similar subjects, practising comparative


    language and adjectives

     Ask the students to look at the website of a famous gallery (see some links
    below) and write a quiz about the works of art to swap with the other
    students to answer

     Write questions to ask an artist or a character in a painting. Then role play


    the interview in pairs, followed by writing up a news article about the
    interview (using reported speech).

    2. Sharing art

     Ask the students to identify and bring in a copy of a piece of art by an artist
    from their country. Make a gallery in the classroom and ask the students to
    decide on a title for each piece of work in groups.

     Ask the students to bring in a photograph they have taken and ask the other
    students to write a short story about the events leading up to the moment
    the photograph was taken (practising past tenses) and/or what happened
    after the photograph was taken. Then check whether their guess was right
    with the owner.

     Get the students to bring in a piece of art that represents their childhood and
    ask the other students to form sentences about what they ‘used to do’ and/or
    write questions to ask the owner who brought it in

    3. Creating art

     Put the students into groups and ask them to create a piece of art using a
    variety of easily found materials – plastic bags, string, tissues, cardboard
    boxes – whatever you have to hand! Get them to title their piece of work and
    judge them according to originality, teamwork and use of materials
     Do a visualisation exercise where you get the students to imagine painting
    the most beautiful picture they have ever seen. Then ask them to describe
    the picture to a partner who tries to draw it

     Get the students to record vocabulary by writing the letters in a way that
    depicts the meaning of a word – this works best with adjectives. For example,
    ‘happy’ can be written in the form of a smile.

     To get feedback on a course, ask the students to draw a picture in groups to


    represent how they felt about the course and then describe/explain it to you
    and the other students.

    Conclusion
    As I hope I have demonstrated in this article, art definitely has a place in the
    language classroom and can be used in many different ways. It is a great resource
    for discussions as well as practising a variety of language. Activities incorporating art
    are motivating for students, provide an often welcome change of pace and can
    stimulate and develop creative and critical thinking skills.

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