A conversation with another participant concerned my presence in the institute as an art teacher. it inspires the following as explanation for the participation of any educator who teaches outside the disciplines of history and literature.
As I mentioned after the movie last night, I have some rudimentary understanding of the odissi dance style; I was thrilled to have the name of another style of dance from another part of India. This is not knowledge obtained out of pure curiosity but for the benefit of my art students. As my students have acquired some knowledge about India, I concerned myself with exploring another art form that provides the viewer with communicated insights. Yogic mudras were also explored. The mudras were of particular interest; each hand movement/placement conveys meaning to be 'read' by the viewer. My students viewed performances, identified mudras, sketched them, and selected one/some for their art projects. One project was a clay sculpture then glazed in metallics after the massive mudras sculptures found as public art in the New Delhi airport; the other was a watercolor assemblage of mudras selected to act as personal identifiers, I.e., self-portraits.
Teaching art is integral to a student's knowledge base of the history, anthropology and sociology of a people. Art teachers impart information that is multi-fold; we teach our own discipline and we enhance other learning in other disciplines.
I would like to know that history and literature/ELA teachers are using the visuals of a culture to enhance the teaching in their discipline areas.
Any thoughts?
I would love to chat with you about your ideas for India and China. One of the essential questions we have developed for this unit (where we discuss both ancient histories) is
ReplyDeleteHow does art reflect identity and loyalty?
[with the issue of the ways art does *not* necessarily do this as part of our inevitable conversation- I mean, seriously, do we want Justin Bieber to define our times?]
"Art" is defined very broadly to include dance, music, drama, architecture, sculpture, writing...
I would like, in this upcoming year, to develop an independent research project with this question as its initial exploration point. I'm a bit worried about resource access and the teenage-tendency to simplify a culture to stereotypical elements. Any suggestions you may have would be much appreciated.
If anyone else is interested in this topic, maybe we can plan a brainstorm session over lunch or in an evening break?
In my World History classes, I create unit intro videos (iMovie format, 5-7 minutes) that use high-res images of art, architecture, tech developments, writing, etc. to get the kids thinking about various aspects of culture. I think it's also important to use specific music of the time period/region being addressed. As we move through the unit, I re-use these images in lectures & activities to help the concepts set in with my students. Their feedback was very positive this year, and many have offered suggestions to make the videos even better!
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