online collection – A Closer Look

Seeing Perspective

Here’s a classroom activity using Reg Bulter’s Man (early 1960s) from the online collection.

Lesson: Explore the value of location, view-point, and narration.

Activity: class drawing, reading, and writing

Process: Use all three images from the online collection

Draw image (10 min) whole or detail. Respond in writing to the following questions (5 min). What is the mood? What is the story?

B1993.37.3

Draw second image (10 min) whole or detail. Respond in writing to the following questions (5 min): What is the mood from this perspective? What is the story?

Draw third image (10 min) whole or detail. Respond in writing to the following questions (5 min): What is the mood from this perspective? What is the story?

Reflection and follow up: If you had only seen one of these images what would you know in terms of mood and story?

In what ways might we use our classwork today towards understanding the effect of location, view-point, and mood when we read literature? When viewing works online? When reading a news story?

Example: Although I generated the lesson for the students and their needs, I too benefit from ‘seeing perspective’ and participating with them. Here’s a clip from my journal covering two of the steps.

seeing perspective example1

Place in the Classroom

The activity generated quite a bit of conversation in the classroom the following day. Students gained perspective on a range of skills and frameworks — from seeing perspective to the role of location in story telling.

–James Shivers

But I Hate Reading & Writing

After many years in education, it has finally occurred to me that I really need to market the idea of reading and writing to my remedial reading 
students. Reading and writing has always been difficult for them and at the ripe old age of 9, they don't choose either as  free time activities.

Despite my encouragement of, “practice will make you better” or my pleas:“you’d never say this to your football (basketball/soccer/dance etc) coach," reading and writing remain on the NOT TO DO list for these children.

So, I decided that I would bring sketch books back to the reading room this year. My goal: Let the kids discover for themselves that they ARE creative and DO have great powers of observation and ideas. For the first 15 minutes of each reading class, the students sketch, write and share ideas.

Guess what??? They LIKE it! They are beginning to buy into the idea that they are smart…just in a different way from some of their peers.

Very quickly, after the first 3 sessions, I had students requesting sketching/writing time. In the beginning, I collected images from the YCBA collection, book illustrations, and online images from various art museums. I am storing them in what is becoming a rather large power point. Each slide is an image with several writing invitations.

Van Gogh: Shoes 1888

Students sketch and write for equal amounts of time.

JWMTurner; The Morning After Deluge 1843

Two important observations over the past month:

1) Kids get right to the writing. Not one student (grade 3-5) has uttered the dreaded words, “I don’t know what to write.” Or better yet, “How many sentences does this have to be?”

2) The kids are starting to notice that their writing is getting longer and more detailed. There is pride in their voices when they share. They are excited with the language they are using and making links to literature. They are applying figurative language and making inferences (and actually know what both of those terms mean now!)

Teacher note:

This takes very little planning. Just give students time and opportunity and they will amaze you and, more importantly, amaze themselves.

I sketch and write with my students to model and practice what I preach.

Clouds and Skies

“Blue needs sun,

Without it,

Blue hides.

Then,

suddenly,

sparkling spring sky!”

-Joyce Sidman, Excerpt from Red Sings from Treetops, A Year in Colors

Check out our newest Pinterest post about Clouds and Skies here! This is just a small sample of the many works that showcase the natural world around us. Check out the clouds and skies using our online collection here and here. There are various options for using these works in the classroom; stay tuned to our blog to see how other teachers have used our collection of clouds and skies at the YCBA in their classrooms. How will you use these artistic expressions of nature? Share with us your own ideas about Clouds and Skies in the classroom.

Here are some books for all ages that can easily accompany one of the Pinterest posts:

Birds, Kevin Henkes. Illustrated by Laura Dronzek.

Little Cloud, Eric Carle.

Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors, Joyce Sidman. Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.

Once Upon a Cloud, Rob D. Walker. Illustrated by Matt Mahurin.

It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Charles G. Shaw.

Animals in Art

The Yale Center for British Art has a vast collection of animal paintings, which you can easily access from the YCBA “animal art” collection search or view highlights here on our new “Animals in Art” Pinterest board. The YCBA also offers a guided tour with an “Animals in Art” theme where students will explore the many different ways and reasons animals are portrayed in art. By identifying and evaluating facial expressions, gestures, and other details, students practice observing details, describing what they see, and drawing conclusions. Look for more posts as we continue to share our vast collection with the Pinterest world!

Through a lens

A camera is a great tool to help see closer, see more, see different. When you slow down and really focus on what you see, even the everyday and the familiar look new. For me, looking through a lens and within a frame helps make that happen. This column, “through the lens” will focus on what new things emerge to look at through my camera. I hope it becomes a jumping off point for you to take out your camera and do the same.

Today, I got to thinking about frames, borders, edges.

The places we don’t usually look first. What treasure are there, waiting to be seen?

Continue reading Through a lens

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