USING ART REPRODUCTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM: RESPONSES FROM THE INTERNET Working with a wide range of teachers and schools over a number of years, NTIEVA's staff has experienced firsthand the benefits of using art reproductions in the classroom. Though we certainly recognize that there is no substitute for the original work of art, reproductions offer opportunities for all students to learn about art, especially if they have little or no access to art museums. We applaud the efforts of the many art education publishers who continue to produce and make available affordable, quality art reproductions. In an effort to compile a collection of useful strategies for using art reproductions in the classroom, we asked this question over the Internet: "Do you use art reproductions in the classroom? If so, in what ways? If not, why not?" Here are some of the great responses we received: From Marcia Thompson, West Salem, Wisconsin, Mcracker@aol.com I use large reproductions for introducing a new concept, teaching about a specific artist, talking about a specific theme in art, enriching the classroom environment, introducing vocabulary, doing activities in art criticism, connecting student work to established artists' work, sharing with classroom teachers, and introducing the idea of a museum. I keep files of medium-sized reproductions on artists, cultures, and topics such as architecture and ceramics in my classroom. These are used by me in some of the same ways as listed above and are also used by students for doing research, reports, etc. These are primarily prints that I have collected from magazines, visits to museums, etc. I have them laminated and use them also in displays. They are organized alphabetically and are always accessible to student. I use small reproductions (postcard size and smaller) for same uses as above but also in games and group activities in art criticism, aesthetics, and art history. I also have them use some of the smaller in their sketchbooks or in creating mini museums out of clay or cardboard. From Diane Jaquith, Didij@aol.com I use art reproductions in my K-5 art classes for a variety of purposes. Most often, I bring in large reproductions as motivators in beginning a new unit. For example, first grade does an architecture project which begins with Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater" as an example of an unusual house; we can learn about architects, sites, and architectural features. When fourth graders explore their community in group collage, we look at Romare Bearden's "Block" and compare his neighborhood with our own. Sometimes I bring in culturally diverse reproductions on a particular theme and show them after students have been working for a few weeks on a unit such as portraits. Groups try to guess as much as they can about the subject, culture, and artist from clues within the artwork, and then we share our information. It's also really fun to work with kindergarten students, because they are great observers. We often begin art class by looking at a work of art to make the transitions into art. From Carol Wyrick, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., si.wp.06.nmaa.carol2@ic.si.edu Using postcards in group sorting activities and follow-up discussion is one way to create an effective anticipatory set for students prior to introduction of new classroom material. Students sort the images into categories selected and agreed upon by the group and defend their choices with the rest of the class in the discussion that follows. Responses typically included classifications such as subject, new vs. Old, masculine vs. Feminine, chronological order, media, and emotional vs. Intellectual appeal. From Kay Alexander, donkay@earthlink.net Here's a use for large art reproductions that is interdisciplinary and also a good lead-in to using them for criticism activities. I call it "Students Have a Write to Art." The procedure is similar to "webbing," or "clustering," a method familiar to elementary/middle school teacher. Demonstrate the procedure to the entire class by placing a selected artwork on the chalkboard and asking a student to give it a one-word or brief title; write it on the board. Ask another to elaborate that title with a further word or short phrase. As students volunteer more words, attach them to the key word, or, when they open a new idea, begin a new cluster. After half a dozen related clusters have been formed, ask a student to build a sentence using the words in one group, then another and another, as in topic and support sentences in a paragraph. Encourage vivid adjectives and action verbs. As you can see, this process leads into descriptive and imaginative paragraphs that can become a story or "composition about a composition." As students become familiar with this procedure they can build their own individual clusters from small reproductions, independently, or they can work in pairs or small groups, cooperatively. They can read their rough drafts to the class and then write them up in polished form to post next to their reproductions on the bulletin board. Some pictures that work especially well are paintings by Henri Rousseau, Marc Chagall, Jacob Lawrence, and Winslow Homer, but don't overlook works by lesser known artists in your collection. Incidentally, any lesson that invites students to talk about art is helpful with ESL kids as they apply the new vocabulary directly to the image being discussed. From Michael Delahunt At each of two K6 schools I've used small rooms as galleries apart from the art classrooms. I could annex these spaces only by making alliances with music and literature people so we could combine our efforts in putting together exhibits in which ALL teachers could teach interdisciplinary lessons. So the gallery is for studying visual art, listening to music, and reading and writing, too. We each saw that by combining our efforts we could do much more than any of us could do alone. With the support of our principal, PTO, and business partners, we completely transformed the interior of these rooms: building in a bank of storage closets, resurfacing walls, adding carpeting and track-lighting, etc. At one of these schools we called our gallery "The Humanities Forum." Each has contained as many pieces of original work as I could beg, borrow, or create myself, but most pieces were either reproductions or mass-produced. Beyond using this resource with my own students, however, I take it as a major goal preparing other teachers to use it with their classes. Each of the gallery committee members shares his expertise by writing and publishing lessons which classroom teachers can use with their kids. From Teri Brudnak, Corona del Mar High School, Newport Beach, California, Kandrbrt@aol.com I first gave my 3-D design students postcard reproductions from the Koon's series of sculptures "Ushering in Banality" (Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Three Puppies, Bear and Policeman and the famous Puppy made from flowering plants). I asked them as groups to write about their reproductions in the manner suggested by Terry Barrett: "What are you looking at? What do you see?" Then I asked them to describe what the work was about and how did they know? The last question (before I showed the video) was: "Do you think this is a work of art? Where would you see this - in a major museum, in a gift shop, or an interior design store or maybe even in a swap meet? (Many students thought the work was from a gift shop)." We then watched a video of a 60 Minutes program about the contemporary art market that included the artist Jeff Koons. I asked the groups to again write about the work with the new information they saw in the tape. Many students were indignant that the artist has others make his work, many were surprised that this is the work of a very well known contemporary artist. Many didn't think his work was art - especially the series of vacuum cleaners! We had a lot of fun with this exercise and I hope it gave students something to ponder the next time they see contemporary art that is difficult to understand. From Tina Arndt, carndt@sylvania.sev.org I use art reproductions in many ways, but I also use them in ways which are not related to the project at hand, but serve as a means of art appreciation through what I like to call "osmosis." The students are surrounded by art on a constant basis. Each table in my room has a postcard reproduction by artist; the artist's name becomes the name for that table. The students must know the name to be dismissed, to know if they are the helper table, to know if they are the table I am complimenting, etc. Also each week interested students may try to guess the"Mystery Artist," who is featured through a different reproduction every Monday on the art room door. Students come in before school starts and whisper their guess in my ear. The librarian and I have books they can use to research if needed. The first ten right get their names added to the school announcements, the first five also get a small treat, and everyone who gives the correct answer gets certificate. I have students as young as second grade who participate and this year I had two students in the sixth grade who only missed one week. They are allowed to give me an answer once each day up until announcements on Tuesday morning. I have has up to 68 students correct ("Mona Lisa") to only one or two correct with artists such as Red Grooms. I have been doing this program for six years and it has continued to grow in popularity. Another program that works quite well is my art pins. Every day I wear a different pin by an artist or culture. As my students are waiting in line for their teacher, I accept guesses (this also gives them incentive to clean up quickly and quietly get in line). I go down the line until someone gets it right then that student gets a treat. As the students suggest answers, I try to reinforce their efforts with clues. For example, if the pin is Monet and someone guesses Renoir I tell them, "You are close, it is an Impressionist." Some students come to check out the pin that morning to research it before class. In March for Youth Art Month I have a contest in which I wear all my art pins. My first year I had 60; this past year I wore 250 (for three days). Students are able to give answers before school, at lunch, during my planning period, and after school. They can also bring in books or other resources to help them. This year I was amazed - I had a second grader that got 37 right and several sixth graders who got over 100 right. Each student that participates gets a certificate with the amount they got correct, each student who gets a certain amount right gets a small prize, and the top student in each grade and in the school also gets a prize. This program has led to a general interest in the pin I am wearing. It makes the students, teachers, and parents curious. They ask or guess and then I throw in any information I can, adjusted for the student's grade level or for an adult. Often this leads to a discussion on the price of art. From Marilyn Juda-Orlandi, Scuola Elementare, Monte Porzio Catone, (RM) Italy I have quite a large collection of art reproductions, poster size, that I have collected over the years. It seemed such a waste to keep them rolled up in my studio for lack of space so I suggested to the elementary school principal that we choose one each month to hang in the school entrance and make it a theme study in all the classes. The first one we chose was a reproduction of a Chagall, but with no written indication of who the artist was or a title. We decided to put it up with no further explanation and then after a week see how observant the children had been. The reproduction was a female figure with long black hair, a red dress, and a bouquet of flowers in her hand, floating on a deep blue background with four yellow moons, two green horses in the right-hand corner and a very large red and yellow chicken (or duck?) In the lower left corner. The fourth grade class wrote a theme on their impressions. The teacher gathered them all together and gave me a copy and I would like to share parts of them with you. They are priceless! (This is a translation from Italian so it may not come across as well as it does in the original language. The school is an elementary school near Rome, Italy). "Out there in the entrance hall there is something new. I ask myself why did they put it there? I think it represents the Madonna. In my opinion they put it there to protect the school. I think one of the classes did it cause there are paint splashes in it." "The painting reminds me of a woman on a pilgrimage walking at night. The painting is abstract and the artist was inspired buy a pilgrim who didn't know what road to take: the one with the horses or the one with the ducks. The painting gives an artistic touch to the entrance hall of the school." "I think they hung it in the hall because otherwise the entrance would be very poor, not in the economic sense, but in the artistic sense. It was put there for another reason, too: to allow us to enter the world of culture. In the future we can tell our children how beautiful culture is." When we then went on to study Chagall I made photocopies of Chagall's autobiography "My Life" to read in class. For example, he writes about being so poor he couldn't buy canvas and so painted on sheets, tablecloths, and nightshirt. He would buy a herring and eat the head one day and the tail the next. The students then saw other reproductions of his work and noticed that in his paintings anything could happen, just like in dreams . . . people floating in the air, blue horse, etc. . . . So we then had a project to remember a dream and paint it. It was a very freeing experience for them to realize they could let their imaginations run wild and anything could happen in the paintings they created. We got some wonderful results. After that we changed the poster in the entrance hall once a month and did Van Gogh (his letters to his brother make good reading material), Picasso, Miro, and others. It was quite successful."