LEARNING AND THE ARTISTIC BRAIN Winter 2009 - MIT: Widening the CircleRATIONALEMany people agree that the arts (music, visual arts, dance, and theater) play an important role in learning. What some people disagree about, however, is what makes the arts important. Are they important as language of thought and expression in and of themselves? Are they primarily useful as pedagogical tools for potentially improving the students’ capacities in the 3R’s? Or are the arts important in both these aspects?According to Rod Paige, US Education Secretary, the arts are a core subject under the “No Child Left Behind” Act. Guided and shaped by both artists in the community an research, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Washington has taken a position on the role of art in education. A few years ago they stated the goal to have “all 296 school districts in Washington State…offer, support, and provide comprehensive, sequential standards based K-12 arts programs to all learners in dance, music, theater, and the visual arts.” The Arts are currently part of the graduation requirement for Washington high-schoolers. You will find the Washington State visual art assessments and scoring rubric at http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/Arts/CBPAentireset.aspx . As you will see from perusing thissite, the emphases are on creating art and identifying and describing how visual art elements and principles are used andfor what purposes. OUR GOALS FOR YOUEach quarter we will work with you to consider how and why you might bring the Arts into your classrooms as pedagogical tools. We want each of you - regardless of whether you would call yourself a musician, artist, dancer, or actor - to consider the functions and possibilities of these diverse forms of thought and expression for your teaching. Specifically, our goals for the Winter quarter are for you to:- Explore what role visual art may have in public education- Find intentional, purposeful, and relevant ways to bring the visual arts and art history into the classroom- Begin to learn about a few principles and elements of visual art- Begin to learn how the elements and principles of visual art can be used as pedagogical tools for exploring and making meaning of concepts in a range of disciplines (visual literacy and linguistic literacy working hand in hand and complementing each other)- Become more inclusive in the way you consider visual art texts and perspectives so that what is normalized in the classroom are not just the visions and perspectives of the dominant culture aka “multiculturalize” the strategy.- Develop a resource book to jumpstart and support your efforts to integrate arts into your classroom.VISUAL ART WORKSHOPSOver the course of the quarter we will be introducing you to the elements of art, the principles of design, art history, contemporary art, and some of the various mediums and materials used to create art, under an over-arching theme of building visual literacy. The first class this quarter will address and build visual literacy, expanding our familiarization with visual art language. You will also be given information that will briefly define and describe the elements and principles of art, to be used as a reference later.The elements of art are line, shape, texture, color, space, value, and form. These elements are the tools used to create theprinciples: balance, proportion, movement, rhythm, variety, emphasis, and unity. While the elements and principles cannot be separated from one another, that is they are synched together in each art piece and do not stand alone, we will have three workshops focusing on individual elements and principles in class. These three will be color, rhythm along with pattern, and movement. Unfortunately we do not have time to devote an entire workshop to all of the principles and elements, however they will all be introduced and addressed over the course of the quarter. During the three workshops you will be sampling various art materials and mediums. Each workshop will begin with a brief slideshow continuing to build our visual literacy through contemporary art and art history. During this slide show we will look at the application of the element or principle. Following that we will have two sessions of creating art. In the first we will simply test the materials at hand, and see what they can do. Following break we will apply thematerials toward working on a self-portrait. (See assignment below.) Be sure to wear clothes that can get messy. Elements of ArtLine Shape Texture Color Space Value Form Principles of Design BalanceProportionMovement RhythmVarietyEmphasisUnity*Note: The exact vocabulary used as the principles of design can change depending on the source. For our purposes we will use the noted list.WINTER 2009 ROUGH SCHEDULEWeek 1; Jan 9 Building Visual Literacy, The elements of art, The principles of design;What is visual art? What do visual representations do for us? Who says what art is about? What is good art?How do the elements of art work together to create the principles of design?What place does visual art have in teaching for you?Week 2; Jan16 Color; We will be painting this week, come dressed for mess.How does color work in visual art? How can you control it?Week 3; Jan 23 Try Out Teaching Groups 1 & 2 (Check ELM for group assignments)Week 4; Jan 30 Rhythm and Pattern; We will be creating art this week, come dressed for mess.What is rhythm? What is pattern? What do they do in visual art? How are they applied?How can you use them to create representation?Week 5; Feb 6 Day of Absence – Attend workshops on campusWeek 6; Feb 13 Try Out Teaching Groups 3 & 4Week 7; Feb 20 Movement; We will be creating art this week, come dressed for mess.What is movement in visual art?How is movement represented in art?Does movement involve moving?Week 8; Feb 27 Trip to Tacoma Art Museum – Yea, field trip!!! More details to come.Week 9; Mar 6 Try Out Teaching Groups 5 & 6Week 10; Mar 13 Try Out Teaching Groups 7 & 8ASSIGNMENTS GROUP TASK; TRY OUT TEACHINGDUE: the day of your group’s presentationWorking in content area groups (gradeband) you will:1. Prepare individually:To help your group envision and imagine how to integrate art into your endorsement area, each person needs to do a little spying on how other teachers do this. Do research through the web, books, or experts in the field to identify two useful ways in which other teachers