Simple Ideas to Fuse Art and Writing at the Intermediate Level

by Amy Shultz

• Kindle new ideas for stories. Provide paintings and photographs for students and ask them to imagine what happened before and after the scenes depicted. Instruct students to use the visual image as the climactic moment of a story, the moment after the climax, or the moment before (Smutny, 2002).
• Launch investigative research. Give each student a name of a famous masterpiece. They are to imagine that their piece has disappeared from the museum. As the museum curator, it is their job to write a description of the artwork, including who created it, when it was created, and why they think someone would want to steal it. Or they can write a fictional piece about how they discovered a painting and exposed forgeries. What gave it away? (Smutny, 2002).
• Combine different sources for a news story. After collecting a variety of sources (photographs, paintings, music, and written material), students write a sketch, poem, script, or essay about a current event. They then write their news stories from a variety of viewpoints: a friend, teacher, mother or father, sister or brother, or the family pet (Smutny, 2002).
• Create an art and writing sketchbook. Entries could include: sketching scenes from books, writing descriptions of photos/artwork, on-the-spot sketching and writing on field trips, etc.
• Collect a series of old photographs either from students or from primary source websites. Ask students to analyze the photographs:
  • Describe the setting. Consider landscape, weather, buildings, etc.
  • Use words to portray the people in the picture. Thoroughly describe their expressions, dress, mannerisms, and apparent connections to other people or objects in the picture.
  • Make a list of every detail in the picture.
  • Find out the time period in which the picture took place, and make predictions about what the people are doing, what use the objects had in the picture, and how any other details are significant.
• Encourage a focus on detail. Show a photograph or film frame to your classroom for three minutes and then remove it. Have students draw the contents of the image on a piece of paper divided into a grid of nine sections. Repeat this exercise with new images and call students’ attention to their new ability to recall detail. For their last image, ask students to write a detailed description (National Digital Library's Educators' Forum, 1995).
• Use art as a means for revising descriptive writing. After students have written a descriptive piece, have them draw an image matching their descriptions. Students should discuss the drawing with a partner and revise the original description after thoughtful comparison (Olson,1992).
• Take your kids on an art adventure. Pull together an image collection of famous works of art from the internet. Each day present one new picture, looking for action and describing words. Post an on-going list of these words, and ask children to use these words in their daily journals.

References:

National Digital Library's Educators' Forum,

"Using Primary Sources in the Classroom." The Learning Page. July 1995. 28 Aug 2007 http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/primary.html

Olson, J. L. (1992).

Envisioning writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Smutny, Joan.

"Integrating the Arts into the Curriculum for Gifted Students." The ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education ERIC EC Digest #E631Sep 2002 28 Aug 2007 .http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e631.html

Amy Shultz

Amy Shultz, former fourth grade teacher, works as a facilitator for the Buddy Teaching and Learning Center. She also writes for The Write Connection newsletter and The Writing Site,

under the Buddy System Project.

This featured article appeared in Volume 3, Number 1 issue of the Write Connections quarterly newsletter. View other archived newsletters , a topical organization of all newsletters, or sign-up to receive notification when the next newsletters are ready to download.