Museum education (1)

Multimodal Activities as Inquiry These activities include many types of learners that do not feel comfortable in group discussions, but welcome the chance to draw or write about a work of art.

They are just another way to foster close looking, introduce ideas and develop critical thinking skills.

They offer another chance for students to connect and contribute individually and also in groups, depending on how they are structured.

Activities are also fun and spark creativity and imagination which is just as important to students’ learning.

Writing activities as a tool allow students to be creative and at the same time practice a critical skill that they need in school and in life. For example, students brainstorm and generate a list of descriptive words, then choose and form sentences, write a review or a wall label for a work of art.

For younger kids, sensory activities spark their imagination and do not require advanced writing skills. They engage their senses by inviting them into the work of art. You can start with having them look closely and talk about what they see. Next, prompt them to imagine what it would be like to be physically in the environment depicted in the work of art. (They may hear voices, sounds etc).

You can add on to or, combine this type of activity with a writing extension by asking your students to write a first person narrative or dialogue from the perspective of a character in artwork, or write a postcard to a friend about the place depicted in the work of art.

A thought bubble exercise could help guide your students: What might the subject of the painting be thinking?

Another option is to combine a sensory experience with drawing by asking students to make a drawing of what happened before or after the events that are occurring in the work of art that they are looking at.

Drawing is a great way to get students engaged. There are many different types of drawing activities that teachers can use depending on what their goals are. They can design drawing activities that help students record details of an artwork: the goal of this type of activity is to gather visual information rather than create a perfect finished Σελίδα 7 από 22