Inquiry and Arts

A couple of weeks ago I attended an Arts Charter Group retreat with a group of approximately 15 other Art teachers in the board. We spent two days discussing inquiry-based learning of The Arts and how this can be done by all teachers in the board, elementary or secondary. Although I learned so much, I came out with many, many questions. For example:
- What if we continued "learning through play" throughout all grades?
- Is some of my teaching already inquiry?
- Is all of my teaching inquiry?
- Is there one definition of inquiry for everyone?
- In The Arts, there is technique, there are elements, as well as history for students to see and learn... How do I approach that through inquiry? Where do I find the balance between this content and learning through exploration?
- Should all of my teaching of The Arts be through exploration and play? Although I would love for it to be this way, what about the theory?

Ah! Although all of these questions - and I have more - may be overwhelming and may seem frustrating, I am very much enjoying all of this learning and the opportunity to learn more and facilitate others in learning about this as well.

After discussing inquiry and the HOW? with my fiancé/coworker (you must think work is all we talk about... Oh gosh, but it isn't!), we came to a conclusion that everyone's interpretation of inquiry will be somewhat different. We are also learning about inquiry through exploration. My next couple of blog posts, along with being about language structure and students engagement, will be about my exploration of inquiry-based learning in The Arts, as well as Social Studies (my favorite!...) and other subjects.

The big question that I want to address in this post is the one about balancing theory and learning through play and exploration. There was a discussion about this at the retreat. Some teachers believed that the teaching of theory and art history was a necessary part of student learning of The Arts. Others believed that in general, students will learn most things throng exploration, even theory and art history. To be honest, when I was listening to everyone's opinions, mine kept flip flopping back and forth!

Here's what I started this week in Visual Arts:

I wanted my students to learn about Gustav Klimt. However, I knew that I didn't want the students to just read about him, look at a couple of his pieces and move on. He is an amazing artist and I really want the students to appreciate his art, all the while feeling a personal connection to this content.

So, I gave my students a title: The Tree of Life. That's all. I didn't say where it came from. That's it! I then asked them to sketch what they see as the Tree of Life in preparation for creating a piece with that title. They were provided with all sorts of materials from the usual paints and pastels, to foam, string, paint chits, sticks, spoons, etc.

Here's what some students were saying while creating their pieces:

"Mon art a les elements. Feu, air, magie, lightning." - "My art has the elements. Fire, air, magic, lightning..." (I think the other elements are somewhere in there too!)

"Mon art a une swing 3D pour les personnes" - "Mine has a 3D swing for people"

"Mon art a le symbole médical!" - "My art has the medical symbol!"

Once the pieces are complete, the students will be asked to write, in French of course, to describe to me the story behind their Tree of Life.

Once all of this is complete, we will look at Gustav Klimt. We will learn about his life and his art, especially his piece The Tree of Life. In flipping the format of the art lesson (discuss history and theory, then "create"), they have explored the general idea of the piece without even realizing it exists. In a future post, I will discuss how this allows them to find comfortable footing in the content, giving every student an entry point.

All of this reflecting brings me to some other questions... Is all of this different for elementary students than for secondary students? Should it be? Oh my goodness!

I will have more questions, as well as the students' reflections posted very soon! I can't wait to see their explinations for their choices.

I the mean time, please take the time to look at this awesome artwork!

Here's a picture of just some of the materials that were available for the students to use. There were also rocks from the school yard, coffee grinds, foam, paint chits, etc.