Building Language Skills by Talking About Art Transcript
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
00:00:03 I want you to look at the painting and I want you to see what items are in this painting.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:00:08 The professional development workshop that we ran here at the Getty Museum was targeted towards English Language Learners. And it focused on building vocabulary and prepositional phrases. We went through the lesson as if we were teaching the lesson to our students.
00:00:25 [TITLE: Arts Integration: Building Language Skills by Talking About Art]
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:00:29 This lesson really focused on teaching prepositional phrases through art. It was targeted towards EL students because that is an area that EL students have a lot of difficulty with. Rather than saying, “I’m standing on the rug,” they would say, “I’m standing in the rug.”
00:00:47 This was a lesson that really leant itself beautifully to teaching prepositions.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
00:00:54 I want you to look at the painting, okay, then tell me what you see. Yes.
TEACHER
Teapot.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
00:01:00 Teapot. Good.
TEACHER
Teaspoons.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
Teaspoons. Very good.
LORENZA ARENGO-YARNES
00:01:05 There’s one piece of food all by itself.
TEACHER
It’s not even on the tray.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
Right here?
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:01:13 I think it’s important for the teachers to experience the professional development as if they were the students. Because when you’re teaching the lesson, you remember, “Oh, I didn’t quite understand that. So, let me break it down a little bit more.” Or, “I think I could add on to this part, here.”
00:01:30 And you’re able to put a little bit more of whatever your students need into the lesson.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
00:01:35 Now, this would be a good time, I think, to introduce some of the pieces that the children didn’t mention. So, like, the creamer and…
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:01:44 From there we started using the worksheet that went along with the lesson. Looking at the prepositions that they can use in describing what they saw in the artwork.
00:01:55 First, we had the participants actually use each other to see what a preposition was.
BEARD
00:02:03 In your partners, I want you to stand beside your partner. Beside is one of our prepositions. Now, have somebody stand behind.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:02:13 We were wanting them to see, “Well, oh, if I’m behind someone I have something in front of me,” you know. So, then after we had them actually move around, we had them look at the sheet and there were a couple of sentence frames on that sheet.
00:02:29 A sentence frame is a guide for the students in order to form a sentence. You now, depending on the level of- of English that the children come in with, they may need that. Once they feel more confident, they don’t need to use it anymore.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
00:02:44 See if you can complete the sentence frames that are there. For example, the teapot is next to the bread. So, I would like for you all to take turns just sharing.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:02:56 Next, all we wanted them to do was talk to their partners about the artwork.
VERONICA ALVAREZ (?)
00:03:02 The teacup is on top of the saucer.
LORENZA ARENGO-YARNES
The food is in front of- the lone little food is in front of the tray.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:03:13 You know, learners, they need to talk. And- and hear the models, as well. Other children may teach them, “Oh, this is how you say it.” So, it’s important to have that talking going on in class.
00:03:26 The next step after that would be writing it out, but in the PD we really didn’t get into that. We had the participants share what their partner came up with.
GLASSES
00:03:37 The creamer is next to the teaspoon and sugar cubes.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ [sync]
Anyone else?
LORENZA ARENGO-YARNES
The piece of food is outside of the tray.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:03:45 After that, there were some other ideas that were formulating. Oh, I would do this in my classroom. Oh, I would do that.
GLASSES
00:03:52 I think I’d actually have the prepositions on cards. They could place them. See what “next to” looks like and “behind” because this is really tough for my students.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:04:03 It was great listening to the ideas that the teachers gave. One little lesson about prepositions, how they would expand on it. Just hearing a couple of teachers talking about it, I thought, “Oh, wow. I’m going to do this when I get back to school.”
LEO POLITI SHIRT
00:04:17 Pamela and I were saying for our older students as an extension, you can get into Social Studies and how the tea sets seem to have an Asian influence, but the food seems European. So, expansionism and trade and what was popular during that time.
BEARD
00:04:33 Yeah. And on this sheet, it actually talks about that. Tea sets were very fashionable. And it mentions exactly what you were saying about china – how these things were interrelated.
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:04:43 I had never taught this lesson before. Seeing it on paper is one thing, but experiencing it, it was awesome. This is definitely a lesson that teachers can take back to their classrooms and make it successful. We can teach a Social Studies lesson looking at art, or a math lesson or a science lesson, et cetera, using the art. And you don’t have to be at the Getty.
00:05:08 [TITLE: Search Lesson & Activities on www.Getty.edu]
MARIA VALLE-DIAZ
00:05:09 You could always go to their website. They have hundreds of lessons. But having that opportunity to be here at the Getty, to see it up close, it’s just something that stays with you.
00:05:30 ***FILE END***
18 Comments
Makenzie Vargas Sep 15, 2022 9:59am
This process is a great way for the students to determine who SEL coexists within the lesson. This was directed towards English learning students, giving it a fantastic way to work with how to socialize in class. Giving the models from the video gives the teachers the ability to put themselves into their students' shoes. Having the ability to breakdown the lesson and what needs to be broken down more or determining what parts the grade level of students they have will grasp in the art. In the art aspect, it gives them a look at social cultural aspects and how they differentiate from our own culture and ways of life. SEL allows the teachers to work on parts of the lesson and improve the specific areas where students work together in social settings, as well as social speaking skills for this directed group of children for the class lesson.
~Makenzie Vargas Toledo (EDU250)
Alexander Thompson Mar 17, 2020 11:47pm
1. How do these teachers use art to teach about prepositional phrases?
The teachers use art to teach about prepositional phrases by going through lessons as if it was taught to the students. Using words common phrases and words like above, behind, below, or on top of are examples of how students can practice describing art and practice creating strong complex sentences.
2. What do the teachers learn by taking on the roles of students?
Teachers can learn how to choose elements or items in a work of art and piece together a phrase that describes multiple parts of artwork. This task takes on the role of a student in a classroom because students have to complete worksheets and assignments which enable them to learn. When students can create a story about artwork they can then teach others about art.
3. How does this lesson support English Language Learners?
This lesson supports English Language Learners because students can ask questions about how to say something in English simply by pointing to a part of the artwork. This gives the students the courage to highlight specific parts of a lesson without feeling discouraged about being able to say something correctly the first time.
Shawn Beecher Oct 2, 2018 6:56am
Loved the hands on approach. This activity encouraged speaking.
Chris Cavil Sep 11, 2018 11:24am
Chris Cavil September 11, 2018
I was so excited to see this video and the support resources available to instructors. I used a similiar techniques in the past and enjoyed knowing that others would benefit from this resource. I serve as an instructional coordinator, and I am eager share with our instructors (ELL) in our Adult Education Program.
Kelly Gore Jun 22, 2018 12:24pm