Reading Supports in Art Classrooms
3. What sorts of reading support can you build into your own classroom, and how/when will students be able to use these supports? Will you make a word wall? How can these kinds of spaces/resources be interactive?
There is not a lot of heavy reading in art class, and while I think this should remain at a minimum I think there is some opportunity to build in reading supports as well. Some text students may be asked to read might be about background information about an artist, their artist statement, their own research material, drawing prompts, power point presentations and so on. A few ways I have thought about incorporating more academic language building are as follows:
-Student handouts during power point presentations highlighting key words and definitions
-“Word of the day”-One word each class where students have to try to use it as many times as possible in their speech and visual journals
-Descriptive word lists as reference during critiques
-Sample critique statements with “fill in the blanks” distributed to each student so each has a chance to try a new phrase
-Play videos of artists talking about their work with subtitles on
-Artist statements with brick words bolded so they can be discussed and their meaning deconstructed
-Art projects centred around the meaning of one word, where students are required to read a variety of sources as inspiration for their artwork
-Daily visual journal prompts with academic language built in
Art class is a place where students are often enjoying the escape of the academic nature of other courses. I will be cautious when providing reading and writing assignments so encourage student creativity to be fuelled into their artwork. Art class can be a class where language learning can be incorporated in creative and fun ways. In well placed, small doses reading can enrich the creative experience and depth of art knowledge for students.