Throughout the school year I invited children in a Grade Two/Three learning strategies classroom to participate in a visual narrative inquiry. The intention was to explore children's knowledge of community in artful ways; the children photographed and wrote in what was often an iterative process, where writing/talking and photographing…

What is happening in arts teaching and learning in our classrooms? Recent NEMP reports tell us that Year 4 students are not performing well but that there is an increase in scores at Year 8. This new professional development resource builds on research into teacher practice in Years 0-6 classrooms in New Zealand primary schools. It offers new…

From a series on teaching Afro-American history and culture in the elementary school.

Discusses five guiding principles (from scholars' work in semiotics) for helping teachers explore the arts and literacy instruction, intended as a framework for understanding representation of meaning, in whatever sign system or art form. Discusses why understanding semiotic systems is important to language arts instruction that represents meaning…

Offers an essay by children's author and artist Peter Catalanotto. Argues that contests and competitions stunt creative growth. Maintains that there is no "best" in art; all children should feel confident to add artistic adventuring to their lives; and the joy and lasting value of creativity is in the discovery of process, and in creating from the…

The results of the study indicate that the art counseling approach was more effective in bringing about self concept changes among preadolescent boys than was the traditional nondirective counseling program. The changes in self concept observed in this experimental art counseling group remained stable during the transition into adolescence.…

A unit on Afro-American art was developed as part of the Reading Enrichment Art Development program. Elementary students from the program were concentrating on the concept of pattern in language. The unit was designed to reinforce this understanding via the reverse-fold pleating process used in a Nigerian tie-dye project. (AM)

This booklet stresses the value of science and mathematical studies as a prerequisite for a career in architecture by depicting real women whose careers provide inspirational role models. The first section is a text designed for use by elementary students and presents the career of Architect from a woman's point of view. Both female and male…

Presents interviews with active and prominent professionals in the arts. Attempts to show how practitioners view the role of the arts in education. (Author/IRT)

GRADES OR AGES: Grades 1-12. SUBJECT MATTER: Art. ORGANIZATION AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: The presentation gives broad outlines and suggestions on how to teach a variety of art forms. The pages are lithographed in loose-leaf form and are bound in a plastic cover. OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES: As a guide it aims at being a starting point from which a…

Four packets comprise the art component of an enrichment program for gifted elementary students. The introduction packet reviews identification of children gifted in art through pre and post measures. A drawing packet reviews techniques for such activities as human figure drawing, shading, crayon rubbinqs, experimenting with perspective, and…

This interdisciplinary unit is intended for use in grades K-1 and can be modified for use through grade 3. The unit encourages students to express themselves through art, using materials found at the beach and brought into the classroom. The activities can be used separately whenever art is called for in the curriculum or can be integrated into…

Discusses an exploration of depth in landscape painting using Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" as an example. Used computer drawing software for children to allow students to create their own interpretations of "Starry Night" while exploring means of portraying depth in two-dimensional art. (DSK)

Challenges educators to consider the meaning-making potential of art. Explores how this was done in a middle school art classroom by examining the role of the teacher, students' enculturation in art, art as process, and reflection in art. Notes the risks involved when students sometimes create visual meanings that are racist, homophobic, or…