It begins with a piece of art. And a great video from the Teaching Channel: Arts Integration: Professional Development –Developing Common Core Habits
Yes, you can develop College and Career habits using art.
The trainer, Jill Jackson, stresses the importance of independence in the video. Students learn to become independent thinkers when analyzing art or a text. While Jill trains teachers to transfer close reading skills and text-dependent questioning from language arts classes to art, adult education teachers can use art as a starting point. Adult education students can learn to discuss art and then transfer those skills to complex texts in the language arts classroom or examining charts and graphs in the math classroom.
Jill describes a three-step reading approach by asking the following questions, "what it says, how it says it, and what it means." The first read is what the text says, the second read tackles how it says it, and the third read examines what it means. When looking at art, Jill suggests, we can take a similar approach. During the first 'read' ask, "what is it?" The second read, investigate "how it was created" and the third read, inquire "what does it mean?"
The former GED test asked students how they felt about x, describe their favorite y, or what is their interpretation of z. Asking how a student feels about Picasso or To Kill a Mockingbird is similar. Oftentimes, students may not have the words to describe how they 'feel.' The CCRS remove the ambiguity, so now we can just jump right into the art and/or text without the personal anecdotes. You may find that students prefer this approach.
Let's choose art pieces that our students may find interesting. Although I love Monet and Matisse, I'm going to select pieces that could be a little more controversial and related to a topic that I will discuss in subsequent language arts lessons.
Now keep in mind that text-dependent questions cannot be answered without reading, or in this case, viewing the text. Any time the word 'feel' forms in your mouth, I want to you pause and substitute that word for something that addresses the specifics of the piece.
"How do you feel……" pause, reflect, change course….
"What do you see?" What [can we infer] is going on here? How are people in the piece feeling? How do you know that? Who do you think the man in the middle is? What makes you think that? What images are in the border?
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We can then examine how it was created. Is this a painting? Are there visible brush strokes and how does it impact the message? Is it a collage? Where did the images come from? Who created the piece and for what purpose? How does the choice of colors give you insight into the meaning?
Lastly, we ask, "What does it mean?" Who is protesting and why? If someone knows about Cesar Chavez, ask if they can explain additional images in the piece. Why are agricultural fields, the White House, and factories included in this piece? Based on this piece, what do you think led up to this moment? Based on the evidence, what do you think happened after?
Jackson espouses teaching our students the 'flow of questioning' rather than specific questions to ask. This process will teach students to analyze independently when you're not present. We want our students to independently and critically examine a cell phone plan or a letter from their child's principal about new school policies. If our students learn to ask and answer, "what it says, how it says it, and what it means" on their own, we will have taught them a very valuable life and standards-based skill.
Now, let's extend the lesson further.
After a thorough discussion of the first piece followed by some type of writing (a sentence, summary, evidence-based reflection etc.), you can introduce a second piece to compare/contrast.
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How does this piece differ in tone? Color? Message? How is it similar? How does it add to the story? etc.
I realize that we are encouraged to begin a text-based lesson with a cold read (no background knowledge), but for lower-level ESL and ABE students (or any teacher who would prefer to ease into the CCRS), I would argue that you could segue from art to language arts using the same theme. I'd introduce a brief text on Cesar Chavez, continue with close reading strategies and text-dependent questioning while explicitly connecting the strategies for analyzing art to strategies for analyzing text.
Implementing the CCRS in your classroom doesn't have to hurt. Choose your favorite piece of art and begin there. When you teach close reading, you are teaching the standards. Take a deep breath, examine the piece you chose, write a number of text-dependent questions, include an evidence-based writing activity (creating a title for the piece, summarizing in one sentence/paragraph, or composing an essay) and voila! You took your first step towards College and Career Readiness.
