What Questions Do You Have About Teaching Social Studies and the Arts?

In No More Telling as Instruction, Cris Tovani and Elizabeth Birr Moje suggest that students ofttimes expect teachers to practise about of the thinking for them in form. A comfort level exists for both parties when a single narrative removes the messiness of agreement topics across the surface level. All the same new content-area standards, such as those informed by the College, Career, and Borough Life Framework, require that students be the ones asking questions, grappling with texts, and drawing their own conclusions about form concepts.

Repurposing instruction to elicit or incorporate students' ideas tin seem daunting, especially when teachers must address specific content in their courses. Inquiry and construction do not need to be mutually exclusive, though. In my classes, I oft enquire students to examine mutual sources using a specific lesson progression, with the understanding that no 2 individuals volition emerge with the aforementioned conclusions from that work.

Using Art to Foster Disquisitional Thinking

To that end, I sometimes use works of art as launching points for my lessons. Viewing art tin be powerful considering each piece reflects the artist's estimation of his or her world. Too, students' interpretations of the art will vary depending on their prior noesis, observational skills, and interests.

Museum educators use iii guiding questions from Visual Thinking Strategies to arm-twist discussions, and they tin can help students focus when they view an artwork in the classroom for the outset time as well:

1. What's going on in this picture?
2. What do you see that makes y'all say that?
3. What more can y'all find?

When I design a lesson around an art piece, I don't simply leap into a discussion using these questions, though—I ask students to spend the first several minutes of the form observing the image independently and writing down their reflections to answer the questions. I write out my reflections with them every time, likewise, fifty-fifty though I'm familiar with the prototype, to model that my understanding evolves over time.

In their book 180 Days, Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle share that such extended periods of freewriting assist students generate new ideas and communicate kickoff-draft thinking. To farther that kind of thinking, I later ask students to revisit and confirm or revise their responses as they encounter boosted texts that, in some mode, connect to the initial image.

For example, I focus a ninth-class Mod World History lesson related to the French Wars of Religion around a painting of the Saint Bartholomew'southward 24-hour interval Massacre by François Dubois. Then much is happening in the painting, and students near e'er ask questions about why people are being thrown from windows, who the different groups stand for, and what caused the conflict in the start place. Students write down their initial thoughts using the freewriting technique described above, and volunteers then share their comments through whole-form give-and-take.

The "investigation" part of the lesson comes when I enquire students to work in pairs to read a curt textbook segment related to the subject of the painting. I typically utilise an interactive reading guide inspired by Doug Buehl's Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning that prompts students to read chunks of text, summarize the master ideas, and make connections to their written responses to the painting. Students first discuss this content with their partners and later have the opportunity to share any new insights with other classmates earlier moving to the next short segment. With this approach, students are non reading the textbook but to learn content—they're reading to construct pregnant around the questions that they found important as they initially attempted to empathise the painting.

George Gower

"Armada Portrait" of Elizabeth I, artist unkown

In another lesson from the aforementioned unit, I use a variety of sources in addition to the textbook to assist students draw conclusions virtually the reign of Elizabeth I of England. The lesson is framed around her Armada Portrait, which generates many interesting questions from students: Why are there two different views out the windows? Why is her hand on the world? Does the crown that'due south ready on the table in the background 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 speech to her troops concerning the Spanish Armada, and a brusk video that highlights her accomplishments as queen. Students talk over each source in small groups and and then individually write out brusque reflections that help them process ideas related to their before questions.

At the conclusion of both of these lessons, I ask students to revise their freewrites with specific prove from their learning. Ideally, they'll exist able to reply their initial questions, back up their inferences, and fill in any knowledge gaps that they identified at the beginning of class. Posing new questions is fine, likewise, since the inquiry process is cyclical.

The artist Frida Kahlo one time said, "I paint flowers so they will not die." Building on that idea, art allows students to visually admission historical content that might otherwise seem foreign or irrelevant. Retrieve nigh one of your upcoming lessons and how a work of art might serve every bit an entry signal. You will be amazed past the questions your students develop and the deep learning that happens equally a result.

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Source: https://www.edutopia.org/article/framing-social-studies-lessons-around-works-art

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