Some essential questions from and for teachers

  • How can I help students perceive more?
  • How can I help students build meaning instead of just "receiving" it?
  • How can I help students to create work that is meaningful to them?
  • What does literacy look like?

These are just a few questions raised by collaborating teachers from all disciplines when reflecting upon their teaching strategies and ways of addressing gaps they've identified in their students' learning. They may help you work with this and other resources, selecting and designing the sequence of activities and projects that meet your identified learning goals and demonstrates your students' learning.

How do I use these Classroom Resources? Both this web-based resource and the printed Artful Writing Classroom Resource Kit include a range of art images and writing activities for students and teachers to choose from. Most activities work well with more than one of the reproductions, or images you may already have. All of the writing and creative activities follow the following process:

(1) Perceive, (2) Consider, (3) Create, and (4) Reflect.

Students are challenged to practice careful observation, connect with prior knowledge and personal experience, express ideas, and reflect upon the quality of their work.

What is in the Classroom Resource Kit?

Pieces of the Classroom Resource Kit may be used to design class lessons or as individual
activities. Most activities work well with more than one of the reproductions and offer students
choices. The kit includes:

  • 20 ART IMAGE cards
    There are twenty color reproductions from the Weisman Art Museum's collection. On the reverse of each image is brief information about the art and about the artist.

  • 4 EXPLORE MORE cards
    The understanding of any work of art is greatly enhanced by learning more about the historical and cultural context in which it was created. In this kit, extended information is provided for four art images, providing key contextual references. The EXPLORE MORE cards will encourage students to seek out this information after their initial looking and questioning.

  • 18 ARTFUL WRITING cards
    The ARTFUL WRITING activities each follow the process of:

    (1) Perceive, (2) Consider, (3) Create, and (4) Reflect.

    Students are challenged to practice careful observation, connect with prior knowledge and personal experience, express ideas, and reflect upon the quality of their work.

  • 5 PERCEIVE cards
    The PERCEIVE cards guide the essential underlying process of careful observation or perception. The cards are intended for use with the accompanying visual art images, but this process may be useful with other forms of text as well.