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How to Talk to Children About Art

How to Use Corn Dog Art in the Classroom

Illicit Creative Writing from Your Students
 
 

Corn Dog Art Resources for Teachers

Simply use the Corn Dog Art images in your classroom to motivate lively discussions and translate those conversations into creative writing.  Here are some ideas.

How to Use Corn Dog Art Images to Illicit Creative Writing

How to Use  Corn Dog Art Images to Teach Higher Level Thinking Skills

How to use Corn Dog Art Images to Illicit Creative Writing:

1. Ask questions about the Corn Dog Art image that encourage interesting classroom conversations.

When students get excited about art, they will be more likely to speak about it, discuss it with others, and then ultimately write about it. Engaging in lively debate about the image, for example, discussing what it can possible mean- will help students use rich language in their writing.

 

Questions that encourage interesting conversations:

• What’s going on in the picture? How can you tell?
• Who or what is missing from the picture?
• Does anything look wrong or our of place?
• What just happened five minutes before? Five minutes after?
• If you could change part of the picture, what would it be and why?
• Where does the scene take place? What are the details that support your idea?
• What time is it? What is the season? Weather? What are the details that support your idea?
• What part do you not understand? Take a guess as to what it is.
• If you had to title the image, what would it be? Explain why?
• How do the colors make you feel?
• What is happening just outside of the image?

 

2. Think about and vary your questioning techniques.

Remember… How you ask questions- and what your responses are - greatly affect the outcome of the student conversation.   The whole point of this is to open the conversation to new and different ideas.  Keep that in mind.

 

Notice the difference between these two questions:

 

“What is going on?”

“What do you see?”

 

If you ask, “What do you see?” students will most likely only parrot what they see (a red car, a full moon, a clock). That may be a place to start, but what we should be aiming for is higher level thinking.

 

If you ask,  “What is going on?” it encourages them to infer from what they see.

They must think about how the elements in the image work together, and what that means.

 

3. Ask open ended questions.

Try asking open-ended questions to encourage your students to look more deeply. The more specific the question, the more specific the answer will be.  Think about the direction you want to take the conversation and build your questions to that end.

4. Require students to think critically and defend their answers.

Remember to not pass judgment on what the answers are.  All responses are legitimate, because there are no right or wrong answers.  However, students must back up what they are saying with examples and details from the picture.  For example, if a student says, “She’s locked in the clock and the cat is trying to get her out,”  she must then explain why she feels that way, using details from the picture.  This teaches students to look deeply at details, make inferences, and support their ideas. These are all characteristics of critical thinking as well as good writing.

 

5. Record all student responses.

When students are generating these ideas and sharing their thoughts, make sure you record what they are saying.  Have a running list either on the board or on chart paper.  These will become themes they can later refer to for either image making or writing of stories.

 

6. Propose that they be detectives.

Their job is to look for clues in the image to tell them what is happening. Like any detective, if they have a hypothesis, they must support it with details from the image.  Play devil's advocate and question their ideas.  Point out images that may contrast with their interpretation and ask them to look at it from a different point of view.  Do they agree with your interpretation or do they stick to their original idea?

 

How to Use Corn Dog Art Images to Teach Higher Level Thinking Skills

Speaking and writing about art teaches students how to analyze and judge not only the work, but what they think the work means.  There is nothing better than a spirited debate over the what the image represents.  For example, two students look at the same image, and based on their interpretation of color, light, characters, and setting, they develop two completely different meanings. This is when students must evaluate what they are experiencing.
If you look at the revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy, you'll see that the top three intellectual behaviors important in learning are Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating. That is exactly what we do when we look at art and define the meaning of art. Using Corn Dog Art Images, students will:

• Analyze: after close observation, students analyze the symbols, characters and scene
• Evaluate: after discussion and debate, students judge what meaning makes sense to them
• Create: after thoughtful consideration, students create stories and art based on what they have seen and heard. These activities are a culmination of everything the student has seen, heard and thought.