Liv Ames for EdSource

Transitional kindergarten students discuss 19th century French artist Gustave Caillebotte's painting "Fruit Displayed on a Stand" at Figarden Uncomplicated School in Fresno.

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

Teachers in a number of districts in California are using archetype works of fine art to inspire some of the youngest students to find closely, call up critically and hash out respectfully – all key elements of the Common Cadre approach to learning.

By looking closely together as a class at a Picasso or a Cezanne, 4- and 5-twelvemonth-olds are learning how to observe and interpret their thoughts into language and mind and reply to multiple perspectives.

This approach for K-12 students was developed about 20 years ago by 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-K 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 indicate out what he wants to discuss nigh the painting.

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

Research studies on the method have shown that students in classes where the visual thinking program was used had a better understanding of visual images, exhibited stronger growth in math and reading, and showed ameliorate social-emotional growth than students in classes that did not utilise the plan. The approach was particularly constructive for English language learners.

The visual thinking method asks three questions of young students: What's going on in this picture? What practice yous encounter that makes y'all say that? What more tin nosotros observe?

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

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

"Information technology kind of came in with the Common Core – a more holistic approach," Morin said. "Every bit gild becomes more digital, it's not enough to just exist able to read words; nosotros have to exist able to read images."

"We have to exist able to await at an epitome and empathize information technology, not but react to it," she said.

Some districts, such as San Francisco Unified, were applying this method long earlier Common Core standards were adopted. When Elizabeth Levett, who teaches kindergarten at George Peabody Elementary in San Francisco, introduced the Visual Thinking Strategies program into her classroom about 8 years ago, 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. "Subsequently that it snowballs. It's amazing."

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

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

"Nosotros're giving them language they wouldn't usually have in a context that is meaningful to them right 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 form in Fresno.

It is of import for the teacher to paraphrase the student's comment in such a way that the pupil feels understood and the residuum of the group tin can grasp what the student has said, Gulden said. Teachers have to allow get of their agendas and ideas and follow the kid, she said, another Common Core approach to learning.

Sometimes the pupil may exist searching for a word and the teacher can restate the student's idea using the give-and-take, she said.

The approach "builds vocabulary and fluency," Gulden said. The method is specially constructive with recent immigrants, she said.

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

"Kids act every bit language models for other kids," Montali said. "Often some other child is the best teacher."

The open-ended approach to discussing the painting also equalizes the experience, she said. The art is new for everyone, sometimes including the teacher. The word of the ideas inspired past the art does non require prior knowledge, and in that location are no wrong answers. That makes information technology easier for shy students or those learning English language to participate, she said.

Children also respond to the ideas of other students and learn to expect at things from another person's perspective, Montali said. They continue the discussion moving with minimal intervention from the instructor, the kind of self-directed learning emphasized by the Mutual Core.

In the process of discussing the paintings, the children acquire how to have different opinions without rancor, Levett said. They apply terms such as "I'm noticing" or "I desire to build on what he said."

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

Using high-quality artwork is likewise important, Morin said, peculiarly in terms of stimulating observations by the children.

"You tin can continue going back to a masterwork and see something unlike every time," she said. "If it'due south not a high-quality piece of work, information technology doesn't have 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 amid themselves about the work of art they just discussed every bit a class.

On a recent day, the transitional kindergarten students in Yvonne Stout-Barrett's form at Figarden Elementary School in Fresno eagerly gathered around a print called "Fruit Displayed on a Stand up" by the 19th century French creative person Gustave Caillebotte. They began talking about what they saw, including shapes and colors. Building vocabulary by discussing shades such as magenta, blood-red or chartreuse is one way talking about fine art builds more sophisticated language.

Teachers say they meet the event 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 difference when he is reading a story to the children.

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

Such close observations of art help children learn to visualize, which helps them when they begin to read, Morin said. "If you can visualize what you are reading, you are a stronger reader rather than but reading give-and-take-to-word," she said.

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

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

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

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

Fresno has decided to implement the curriculum by adding it to a course each yr, kickoff with preschool children final year and transitional kindergartners this year. The integrated arroyo will follow the children as they motility through the M-12 organisation.

Starting young has its advantages, Morin said. "Very often immature children have an well-nigh deeper perception of what they're seeing," she said. "They don't have preconceptions. They don't think: 'I don't get it.'"

In a research paper on talking about fine art with young people, David Bell, an acquaintance professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, says that "children are less inhibited than many adults in their date with artworks."

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

Teachers laud the method for slowing things down in a fast-paced earth and building on immature children'southward natural ability to learn through observing.

"Everyone is worried near kids having access to engineering science," Levett said. "They're too piddling. They need to learn how to expect slowly, really detect. Everything in engineering science is click, click, click. This method hones the craft of looking securely and really listening to each other."

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