Liv Ames for EdSource

Transitional kindergarten students discuss 19th century French creative person Gustave Caillebotte'due south painting "Fruit Displayed on a Stand" at Figarden Elementary School in Fresno.

Art lessons for pre-kindergarten students are moving beyond finger paints and into the worlds of van Gogh, da Vinci and Rivera.

Teachers in a number of districts in California are using classic works of art to inspire some of the youngest students to observe closely, think critically and discuss respectfully – all key elements of the Mutual Core arroyo to learning.

By looking closely together as a class at a Picasso or a Cezanne, 4- and v-twelvemonth-olds are learning how to observe and translate their thoughts into linguistic communication and listen and reply to multiple perspectives.

This approach for K-12 students was adult about 20 years ago past the co-founders of Visual Thinking Strategies, a nonprofit based in New York that provides training in the method to schools and art museums. More recently, the nonprofit has introduced the concept to pre-Thou classes.

Alexander Chitay, a transitional kindergartner, uses a laser light to point out what he wants to discuss about the painting.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Alexander Chitay, a transitional kindergartner, uses a laser light to point out what he wants to discuss well-nigh the painting.

It appears to be growing in its appeal since the introduction of the Common Core standards adopted past California and 42 other states. During the past two years, the nonprofit'southward national trainings of educators have doubled, said Amy Chase Gulden, national program manager. The nonprofit has trained teachers in more than 70 schools in the Bay Expanse, Northern California and Los Angeles.

Research studies on the method have shown that students in classes where the visual thinking programme was used had a ameliorate agreement of visual images, exhibited stronger growth in math and reading, and showed better social-emotional growth than students in classes that did not employ the program. The arroyo was particularly effective for English learners.

The visual thinking method asks three questions of young students: What'south going on in this picture? What exercise y'all see that makes you lot say that? What more can nosotros discover?

This arroyo teaches students how to take the fourth dimension to observe closely, describe what they see in detail and provide evidence for their observations, Gulden said, "the kinds of skills that the Common Core asks for."

Such programs are part of a new motility in English language arts to develop visual literacy, said Kim Morin, a professor who teaches integrated fine art at Fresno State University.

"Information technology kind of came in with the Common Core – a more holistic arroyo," Morin said. "As society becomes more digital, information technology'southward not enough to just exist able to read words; we have to exist able to read images."

"We have to be able to look at an prototype and empathize it, not simply react to it," she said.

Some districts, such equally San Francisco Unified, were applying this method long before Common Cadre standards were adopted. When Elizabeth Levett, who teaches kindergarten at George Peabody Unproblematic in San Francisco, introduced the Visual Thinking Strategies program into her classroom nigh eight years agone, she said she saw the growth in her students' language "right away from one lesson to the next."

"They'll outset the year with 'I see a ball,'" she said. "After that it snowballs. It'southward amazing."

"Nosotros're giving them linguistic communication they wouldn't usually have in a context that is meaningful to them right in the moment," said Elizabeth Levett, a kindergarten teacher at George Peabody Elementary in San Francisco.

Teachers respond to a student'due south comment on a painting past paraphrasing the comment and taking it to the next level, Levett said. Perhaps a student volition notice a figure. The instructor will then say, "so you are noticing this figure in the left-hand foreground of the painting?"

"We're giving them language they wouldn't unremarkably have in a context that is meaningful to them correct in the moment," she said.

Donavon Quezada, 4, is looking closely at a painting in Peggy Allsman transitional kindergarten class in Fresno.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Donavon Quezada, 4, is looking closely at a painting in his transitional kindergarten course in Fresno.

It is of import for the teacher to paraphrase the educatee's comment in such a way that the student feels understood and the remainder of the group can grasp what the student has said, Gulden said. Teachers have to allow get of their agendas and ideas and follow the child, she said, another Mutual Core arroyo to learning.

Sometimes the student may be searching for a discussion and the teacher can restate the pupil'southward thought using the word, she said.

The arroyo "builds vocabulary and fluency," Gulden said. The method is particularly effective with recent immigrants, she said.

School psychologist Julie Montali also finds the method works well with English learners. Montali has an art degree and has been trained in the visual thinking method. She developed a similar curriculum for pre-K students at Fresno Unified with English language linguistic communication arts instructional omnibus Claudia Readwright.

"Kids human activity as linguistic communication models for other kids," Montali said. "Ofttimes some other kid is the best teacher."

The open-ended arroyo to discussing the painting as well equalizes the experience, she said. The fine art is new for everyone, sometimes including the teacher. The discussion of the ideas inspired by the art does not require prior noesis, and at that place are no wrong answers. That makes it easier for shy students or those learning English to participate, she said.

Children also reply to the ideas of other students and learn to look at things from another person'southward perspective, Montali said. They continue the discussion moving with minimal intervention from the teacher, the kind of self-directed learning emphasized by the Common Core.

In the procedure of discussing the paintings, the children learn how to have different opinions without rancor, Levett said. They employ terms such as "I'm noticing" or "I want to build on what he said."

Juliet James, who has been using the method to teach 2nd-graders at Quondam Adobe Elementary School in Petaluma for the past 5 years, said students are polite. "They'll say, 'I disagree with Karen because of this reason.' They have to requite the evidence," she said.

Using loftier-quality artwork is also important, Morin said, particularly in terms of stimulating observations past the children.

"You can keep going back to a masterwork and run into something different every time," she said. "If it'southward not a high-quality work, it doesn't accept that depth."

Students in a transitional kindergarten class in Fresno discuss amongst themselves the work of art they just discussed as a class.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Students in a transitional kindergarten class in Fresno talk amidst themselves about the work of art they just discussed as a form.

On a contempo twenty-four hour period, the transitional kindergarten students in Yvonne Stout-Barrett'southward form at Figarden Unproblematic Schoolhouse in Fresno eagerly gathered around a print called "Fruit Displayed on a Stand" past the 19th century French artist Gustave Caillebotte. They began talking about what they saw, including shapes and colors. Edifice vocabulary by discussing shades such as magenta, carmine or chartreuse is one way talking about art builds more sophisticated language.

Teachers say they see the effect of the method in other subject areas.

Brian Harrigan, who teaches preschool students at San Francisco Unified, said that since he has used the visual thinking method, he notices the divergence when he is reading a story to the children.

"They start describing things in the pic more fully," he said.

Such close observations of art aid children learn to visualize, which helps them when they begin to read, Morin said. "If you can visualize what y'all are reading, you are a stronger reader rather than merely reading word-to-word," she said.

The same methods of showing evidence for what you are thinking or saying can piece of work with deconstructing a story or a mathematical graph, Gulden said.

James uses the method in teaching all subjects to her 2nd-graders, such as when she introduces the 100s number chart to discuss place value.

"They will talk nearly it being a grid, how each space is equal," she said. "They will notice the numbers going across are ane to 10. I then come in and say that the horizontal numbers are 1 to 10. Then they will observe the vertical numbers are counting by 10s."

"Very frequently young children have an almost deeper perception of what they're seeing," said Fresno State professor Kim Morin. "They don't have preconceptions. They don't remember: 'I don't get it.'"

Fresno has decided to implement the curriculum by adding it to a class each year, beginning with preschool children last yr and transitional kindergartners this year. The integrated arroyo will follow the children as they movement through the K-12 arrangement.

Starting young has its advantages, Morin said. "Very often young children have an almost deeper perception of what they're seeing," she said. "They don't have preconceptions. They don't remember: 'I don't go it.'"

In a research paper on talking virtually art with young people, David Bell, an associate professor at the Academy of Otago in New Zealand, says that "children are less inhibited than many adults in their engagement with artworks."

"They may be surprised, entertained, puzzled or challenged by what they meet," he said. "They are also likely to limited their various responses to the works in exclamations, comments or conversations."

Teachers laud the method for slowing things downwards in a fast-paced world and building on young children'due south natural ability to larn through observing.

"Everyone is worried nigh kids having access to technology," Levett said. "They're too piddling. They need to acquire how to await slowly, really find. Everything in engineering is click, click, click. This method hones the craft of looking securely and really listening to each other."

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