Burning Question: Can art and writing affect overall student performance across cultures?
DIVERSITY AND TEACHING
Art and writing enhances student creativity, creates motivation, and provides ownership for their endeavor. Giving students the freedom to express themselves through art and writing opens new venues to establish different genres. Drawing, sketches, photographs, statues, and other forms of art all attribute to student achievement. Using these multiple forms of artwork in the classroom will create outstanding pieces of literature that have been constructed from these mediums.
In our global society, classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of students’ cultures, languages, and socio-economic status (David, 2001). The relationship between achievement and cultural, ethnic/racial, and linguistic diversity cannot be ignored. Teachers must affirm students for the dynamic abilities, cultures, languages, and backgrounds they bring to the classroom (Sobel, 2006). By building a classroom community, teachers increase the effectiveness of their teaching and efficient workings of a classroom. Teachers who fail in the attempt to build a classroom community will in turn classify students by their ability and will often negatively influence the achievement of those students (David, 2001). Therefore, teachers need to create a classroom full of options that allow students from diverse backgrounds to develop learning skills. When working with these students from diverse populations, teachers need a variety of ideas to choose from for all learners (David, 2001). Integrating art and writing into the curriculum will provide diversity and choices to students and create this classroom community.
TALK, WRITE, REFLECT, RESPOND
Talk plays a significant role in students’ interpretations of literature; they need many ways of thinking and responding available to them. They talk, and write, but they also sketch, sing, play, solve problems, and dance their way into new insights (Short, 2000). Allowing and encouraging students to write about their own experiences can enhance their reading, writing, communication, and comprehension skills by portraying their personal experiences in their work (David, 2001). For example, literature logs help children respond through writing, but they also need to incorporate sketching and diagramming into their responses (Short, 2000). Using talk gives the students experience to think more broadly and consider the story from different perspectives (Short, 2000). Several weeks after using this response the students felt it allowed them to express their feelings, to try out ideas, to learn more about the book, to understand feelings, to make connections, and to experience emotions of characters from the book (Short, 2000). Integrating talk, reflection, and responding lets the children see or hear the story or literature from another perspective, which increases diversity and builds the classroom community.
In addition, art is another important tool for thinking. Sketch to Stretch (Short & Harste, with Burke, 1996) encourages children to move their responses from language into art by inviting them to sketch what the story means to them (Short, 2000). Creating and talking through their drawings gives them a chance to explore connections to their lives and the world in interpreting the book (Short, 2000). Students can take the meanings they are constructing through reading, writing, or talk and think about them through art, music, drama, or math to create new meanings (Short, 2000). Using authentic responses gives the product a personal vision. Students take ownership and responsibility when the product is their own creation. When students are emotionally stimulated, their desire for technical success is greater because each student has an important object or idea to discuss (McKenna, 2003). By making art, it provides experience for the students and their emotional life is involved (McKenna, 2003). Reflecting and responding allows children to think through feelings, consider other ideas, connect to memories, and think more broadly. This creates ideas and connections from which they can pull in thinking, solving problems, gaining new insights, and responding to literature (Short, 2000). Using the talking, reflection, and art as a means of stimulating writing helps the learner feel safe and comfortable in the classroom community.
DRAWING, PAINTING, SKETCHES
Drawing can move children from the visual to the spoken and then to the written word (Sidelnick, 2000). The relationship between seeing, telling, drawing, and writing are an essential and significant aspect of teaching the writing act. Drawing can create a bridge between the ideas in a child’s head and the blank piece of paper on the desk (Sidelnick, 2000). Olshansky (1995) stated that when children’s stories are driven by visual images, their writing is transformed in many powerful ways, enriching the story making and enhancing the finished product. Drawing is one way young children can get ideas for writing (Sidelnick, 2000). Another form of drawing, called sketchbooks, can be used to record new ideas, techniques, visualize vocabulary, and initiate processes for writing (Silverman, 2003). Drawing can be used to help children with disabilities learn to read and write, used for communication purposes, and motivate them to read and write (Sidelnick, 2000). Students can be taught how to interpret literature through drawing (Richardson, 1990). Seeing the drawings reminds the students of things that are missing. The picture can help the students move to the next level of interpretation because they can actually see the answer to the question (Richardson, 1990). Using this technique, the student can refer the drawings back to a text for validating interpretations (Richardson, 1990). Additionally, art projects are intrinsically interesting to students, making learning exciting. With this inclusion of art, academic assignments no longer hold the threat of potential failure. This creates an environment that reaches beyond traditional classroom approaches that only address linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities (Sidelnick, 2000). Using pictures can also ignite the imagination. That picture can lead to story ideas and then to writing pieces (Cushman, 2002). Another form of art, called painting, can be a vehicle for developing empathetic engagement (Ehrenworth, p.23). Painting stimulates children to imagine visual and emotional landscapes. It shows that writing through the visual arts can help children write in evocative ways (Ehrenworth, p.41). Drawing, painting, and incorporating art projects into the classroom are highly motivating, can help interpret literature and stories, and create ideas for writing.
VISUAL TOOLS, IMAGERY, ARTISTS
A variety of visual and kinesthetic tools help children process and digest information to express their ideas both in art and writing (Olshansky, 2003). Visual and kinesthetic learners have a concrete visual record of their thoughts in full color by painting and pictures. The reluctant or struggling writer has a construction of ideas, which can mean the difference between success and failure (Olshansky, 2003). Art develops imagination because artists create powerful images, they stimulate us to think about and see things in new ways (Walsh-Piper, p.60). Exposure to visual imagery literally builds the imagination (Walsh-Piper, p.75). Art and writing merge in works of art that contain written language. Written language is a visual symbol system and as such has rich potential for artists (Walsh-Piper, p.84). Using visual and kinesthetic tools helps all learners, including struggling or limited English. The classroom encompasses a variety of students and integrating art and writing across cultures bridges this achievement gap. This study focuses on three issues: talking and reflecting through writing and art, drawing and painting leading to writing, and the use of visual tools and expression. This study examines the question: Can art and writing affect overall student performance across cultures?
METHODOLOGY
This study will be conducted in a large Intermediate School in an urban setting. One classroom of sixth grade students will be observed throughout the year and assessed on the use of art and writing and overall student performance. The class size will be 28 students ranging from different cultural backgrounds. The teacher will collect student products throughout the year on art and writing, including art projects. The student products will be collected and comments written by the students in the class comment folder will be combined for the data collection. The class comment folder will have a section for each student to reflect on their writing and art during the school year.
Four writing benchmarks will be administered during the year for data collection. The writing benchmarks will include an art piece to connect to the writing. The benchmark dates will be in August, December, January, and May.
Lastly, quick surveys of student thinking on art and writing will be administered with open-ended answers and teacher response in the student comment folder for data collection. The teacher will keep a journal research reflection log including descriptions of events and interactions in the classroom, bits of conversations or phrases from students, reflections on what is happening, thoughts and reactions to the research process, and teaching ideas and descriptions that come out of the research.
