Contact: Kristan Tetens, University Relations, (517) 355-5633, tetenskr@msu.edu
10/11/2004
EAST LANSING, Mich. � A large mural celebrating the arts, created by third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at Lansing�s Pleasant View Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts, under the guidance of pre-service teachers from the Department of Art and Art History at Michigan State University, will be dedicated at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, at the school, located at 4501 Pleasant Grove, Lansing.
The mural, made of ceramic tile and measuring 64 square feet, was mounted recently on the front of the school.
It is the culmination of the first year of an ongoing collaboration between MSU�s Art Education Program and Pleasant View. The �Enhancing Learning through the Arts� program is funded by a federal �No Child Left Behind� grant. The collaboration began in the fall of 2003 with teacher training in the use of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a research-based approach to learning and reasoning that uses visual art to enhance students� thinking and writing skills.
With VTS, teachers lead classroom discussions of various works of art. Students talk about the features of a specific painting or sculpture, create narratives, and learn how to support their opinions. A VTS Web site provides additional opportunities for student learning and individual Web-based writing exercises. This site also provides teachers with opportunities to practice their presentation techniques, exchange questions and comments with peers across the country, and receive feedback from the program developers and other experts.
As part of their training, MSU students preparing to become art teachers develop and deliver lessons that incorporate VTS. At Pleasant View, that involved leading the elementary school students through a series of after-school lessons in a studio setting that resulted in the creation of the mural. The university�s Art Education Program is part of the Department of Art and Art History, which has a strong community outreach focus.
Based on its successful first year, the �Enhancing Learning through the Arts� program was recently awarded a second grant from �No Child Left Behind.� In phase two, MSU pre-service teachers will help Pleasant View students create other large-scale public art works and Pleasant View teachers will explore how VTS can be incorporated into the school�s newly developed standards-based curriculum. Additional training in VTS techniques will be provided and program participants will develop new grade-level curricula that use the techniques.
The benefits of the VTS approach have become apparent during the collaboration.
�Often, kids � and even adults � are reluctant to discuss art because they believe that they have insufficient knowledge of the subject,� said William Charland, assistant professor of art at MSU and a specialist in arts education. �With VTS, background knowledge of art or art history is not necessary. The process is very open-ended, and allows a group of viewers to 'read' a painting or sculpture on their own terms.
�Because the threat of making a 'wrong' statement is removed, students really get into offering their own interpretations. The kids we've worked with not only enjoy the process, but express disappointment when a session ends, and ask the teacher when they'll get to do it again. For this reason, VTS can be incorporated into a writing assignment, for instance, and keep the kids' interest and enthusiasm � even for those who are reticent to write.
�Of course � and this is the real reason we do VTS � there�s a lot of higher-level cognitive activity going on beneath the surface during a VTS session, which calls on students to employ evidential reasoning skills that have been shown to transfer to their work in other subject areas, such as science and social studies.�
MSU contacts: William Charland, Department of Art and Art History, (517) 355-7610 or charlan3@msu.edu; Kristan Tetens, University Relations, (517) 355-5633 or tetenskr@msu.edu.
MSU students (art education pre-service teachers) involved with the project: Molly Doane (mollydoane@yahoo.com), Jackie Dillinger (jackiedillinger@sbcglobal.net) and Lisa Lam (lamlisa@msu.edu).
Pleasant View contacts: Madeline Shanahan, principal; Kelly Parsons, magnet focus teacher and art teacher, (517) 325-6859.