Teaching Strategies:
In my classroom, I have found integrated, thematic instruction, cooperative grouping, and inquiry–based learning to be the most effective teaching strategies.
Thematic Teaching has two or more subjects based on the same theme, using similar vocabulary and allowing the student to make connections between subjects. I have found that integrating two or more subjects allows students more practice in subject specific vocabulary, and deeper immersion into the topics. Students become authorities on the subjects. It is also helpful for children to see that their academic subjects aren't isolated – each subject is a part of the whole we call life.
Cooperative Learning requires students to work together in order to complete a task. Each student has a predetermined role that has been practiced and has been chosen based on student strength. This is a useful strategy since it increases the participation of the students and allows them to feel supported by being part of a small group. Cooperative grouping helps keep the students actively participating, since they have more opportunity to share and express themselves. Active Participation means that student plays a consistent, active role in the lesson. Students learn better because they are engaged and focused on the material. Allowing the students to choose their own role in completing the task gives them ownership of their work and increases their level of concern.
To begin a lesson, I would ask the student groups to discuss critical thinking questions about the art or poem. In Guided Inquiry small group discussions are guided by teacher questioning. This increases the frequency of student participation and gives students authentic reasons for further learning by activating their curiosity. Research has found that "questioning is a far more powerful way to encourage neural branching than is explication or narration." 5 Questioning is a part of active processing "which allows learners to take charge of consolidation and internalization of learning in a way that is personally meaningful." 6
Sometimes I choose to start a lesson with a brainstorming session, in which students share their ideas freely and without judgment. Brainstorming can serve as a motivating introduction in a number of ways. It sparks discussion, students build ideas from the thoughts of others, students feel secure in that their responses will not be evaluated as correct or incorrect, and it prepares the brain for the information to come. Personally, I find it difficult not to evaluate the students' responses. My concern is that some students will commit to memory an incorrect idea because they have seen it in writing. For this reason I use brainstorming sparingly, and when I do use it I wait until the end of the session before making some corrective remarks so that students won't feel that they have been singled out on the spot. Regardless, if brainstorming is used I always make sure to revisit the brainstorming list at the end of the lesson and verify or revise each item.
Another activity I might assign small cooperative groups is to complete a graphic organizer. Graphic Organizers are visual displays for organizing information into meaningful categories. Since research has shown that the human brain seeks meaning and organization, this visual organization improves comprehension of the new concepts. In the case of comparing and contrasting a poem with art, the students would either use a T–chart labeled with titles at the top, or a Venn Diagram which is two or more overlapping circles. Where the circles overlap the similarities are written, differences are listed in the non–overlapping area of the circle. I have found that the Venn Diagram is often difficult for students to use. They have difficulty writing without lines to guide the size and alignment of the words. For this reason, I usually prefer to use a two–columned chart for comparing or contrasting.
To demonstrate my expectations to the students for any type of classroom activity including cooperative group behavior, I use the strategy of modeling. Modeling provides students with a model, or example of the new concept, method, strategy, behavior, or output expected from the students. Students then mimic the task in their own work, thinking, or behavior. Modeling can be effective for visual and auditory learners, as long as the teacher thinks aloud as she demonstrates visually.
At the close of the lesson, the small groups come together for a whole–group share. If the students completed a project or organizer they will show and explain it, answering any questions that come up. One of the tasks in the cooperative group work is to rehearse and prepare for presentation and possible questions. However, the students need to see an appropriate model of this several times before they begin to prepare correctly. If there was no written assignment, the group's reporter shares the ideas generated during small group discussion. In this manner, any misconceptions can be clarified and good ideas can be shared and validated.
Background Information:
Guiding students through this unit of study requires the teacher to be familiar with the languages of art and poetry. As an artist uses certain elements to convey a mood, so does a poet. Through a series of mini–lessons (short direct lessons followed by guided practice and application), modeling, and critical questioning, students will be able to identify the elements in art and poetry. Students will respond to questions in small group and whole group discussions. Students must give evidence from the work being examined or from their own prior knowledge for any inferences they make.
For art, the discussion would probably begin with questions about color. My students by third grade are aware of the ideas of warm and cool colors and can understand how colors can create a mood. Color can be used to communicate meaning and emotion to the viewer since it is attached to the background experience of humans (i.e. blue can be a calm lake or clear sky). Have the students brainstorm how color is used to convey meaning in the work. How do the colors make us feel?
Next, the discussion might center around movement. I would ask the students to draw conclusions about the events taking place in the work, and how the characters feel about the events. Movement includes the arrangement of art elements to move the eye around the piece, create the perception of action, or suggest motion. How does the artist use movement to create a mood? What type of mood or rhythm is conveyed by the movement?
The element of shape is the outside boundaries of a form, an enclosed space. It can be two–dimensional or three–dimensional, organic, or geometric. Are the forms natural or abstract? How does the form change the mood of the piece? Why do you think the artist chose this form? Does the viewer's eye move around the piece smoothly, bouncily, insanely? How does the eye's movement effect the mood? Space is the area between, around, or within shapes. Has the artist used space to create a feeling? Does the use of space make you feel lonely, crowded, safe, confused, or angry?
Balance may have been used by the artist to create a mood. Balance is the state of distribution where elements of shape, weight, color, and location are evenly distributed. Does the artist use a balanced composition or unbalanced? How does balance affect the overall perception of the work? Does the balance create a feeling of tension, anxiety, excitement, or calm?
Whether in painting, sketching, or photography, lighting is used to create a mood, or to highlight an aspect of the work. How is lighting used to create a mood or to highlight a part of the work? Why might the artist have used lighting in this way?
The style (sometimes also called a "movement") chosen for the work plays a part in the mood of the piece. I believe my students can grasp the basic differences between some art movements. For example, students will be able to see that abstract art looks very primitive, and can infer why the artist chooses to use this style. It would give the viewer a very different feeling than would impressionism. Impressionism has an airy, light, happy feel to it. With practice students will be able to identify why an artist would paint in a light, happy, free style versus a primitive style, or even a realistic style. Ask students how the style of art affects the mood of the subject matter. Would the art be perceived differently if a different style had been used?
Because it is similar to solving a puzzle, students are interested in symbolism, and can identify it to some extent with guidance and repetition. Symbolism is an art movement in which images represent ideas rather than a realistic setting. Are the images actual representations or do they hold secret meaning? What meaning might the artist have intended by use of images?
In teaching poetic devices I have found mini–lessons to be very effective. The mini–lesson includes introducing the vocabulary, identifying the device in sample poetry, discussing its effect, modeling use of the device, followed by practice. For example, if I were teaching a mini–lesson on simile, I would start the lesson by telling the students that a simile is a phrase in which two ideas are compared using the words like or as. Next I would give an example, "Her eyes were as green as emeralds," and discuss how it helps the reader create a mental image and the feelings or mood it might evoke. For practice in identifying a simile, we would read "Picnic Boat" by Carl Sandburg. Small student groups would analyze the poem to find the simile, '... it is dark as a stack of black cats on Lake Michigan." First, in small groups they would discuss the images, moods, and feelings evoked by the simile, then we would discuss as a class. We analyze the steps in writing a simile as we write one together. Then the students write their own simile, sharing and discussing in small groups. Last, students volunteer to share their writing with the whole class and discuss it.
Other poetic devices appropriate for third grade writing are sensory details (describing words which speak to the five senses and emotion, creating sensory images for the reader), onomatopoeia (words that imitate sounds, like buzz, hiss, and pop), alliteration (the repetition of words having the same beginning sounds, "silent as they scampered across the smoky room"). Alliteration gives poetry a rhythmic, musical sound. My students love using personification (a figure of speech where ideas or things are given human attributes, "The fire roared"). Metaphors (a figure of speech in which two things are compared simply by stating that one thing IS another, "Her eyes were sparkling emeralds") are a bit more difficult for the students to write. They tend toward writing similes, but with guidance are able to write a metaphor successfully.
Later in the unit students will learn about rhythm, meter, symbols, and other poetic devices. These elements help to create a mood, but are usually above the capabilities of third grade writing. Rhythm is the musical quality created by repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables. Meter is the arrangement of a line of poetry by the number of syllables and the rhythm of accented syllables. For example in Haiku, the meter mimics the rhythm of human breathing. The human heartbeat is reflected by the rhythm of the iambic pentameter which uses ten syllables in each line with five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables (i.e.. ba–BUM, ba–BUM, ba–BUM, ba–BUM, ba–BUM!). A line of words in a poem should suggest a single image. Line length can also give a feeling to poetry. Ralph Fletcher refers to a line as a "unit of thought" in a poem, much like a sentence in a story or report. "Poems with longer lines build up momentum and velocity... [whereas] "poems with shorter lines ... tend to be read slowly." 7 As in art, a symbol is a thing or object which stands for something else. To keep important lines from getting buried in the poem, the poet will use white space before and after the line to highlight it. Students should identify these important lines and explain why the poet might have highlighted them.
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