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Local teaching star and rap sensation Zach Lehner (aka Zigzilla) is
back with more catchy educational content. The lesson: How to read
art.
“It’s
so easy just to glance at something and then move on,” Lehner told
the Outpost recently. Reading art is a multi-step thinking
process — one that Bill Funkhouser, an arts learning specialist at
the Humboldt County Office of Education, says should be utilized
across the curriculum.
“A
lot of people think that only creating art is the only aspect of art
education,” said Funkhouser, who is a coordinator of the Arts
and Creativity Initiative, a federally-funded program
that commissioned the videos. “It’s equally important to read art
and respond to art. They’re like the three legs of the art
education tripod.”
Art,
like written text, can be read. How? Through a series of five hip-hop
videos, Lehner, who teaches sixth grade at Pacific Union Elementary
School in Arcata, models the process. He layered works of art with
his own lyrics, all to beats created by his brother, also a musician
who goes by 9 Theory. To appeal to a more elementary audience, Lehner
rewrote the lyrics and passed them along to his friend, Lauren
Nicole, to create a slower version. One other artist, Jesse Wheeler,
created a related video independently of Lehner and Nicole.
The
series takes viewers on a magical musical adventure outlining the
three steps to reading art. Through the first four videos, you’ll
learn the nine elements to look for when deciphering art, which is
step one. After identifying those details, you’ll be invited to
think about what’s going on in the scene, what it’s about, or
what messages the artist may have intended to communicate in the
fifth and final music video (step 2). The fifth song also includes
the third step, which is discussing art. For a more engaging
explanation of this process that rhymes, go ahead and click on a
video or two already.
To
create the videos, Lehner decided it would be strongest to actually
demonstrate the process rather than just explain it. “I was really
kind of blown away with just how well it works, and how much fun it
was for me to look at the art myself,” he said. “I experienced
what I really want my students to experience.”
Though
it seems simple, the reading art process is very intentional, and
drives learning immediately and down the road. Reading art isn’t an
art lesson in the traditional sense; it can and should be used simply
as a way to introduce students to new concepts in any subject area,
Funkhouser says. By looking at a painting and wondering about the
backstory, students develop an interest in the topic before the
lesson has begun, which serves them well throughout learning the
material. As important as the art itself is the thinking process
students learn to use when reading it.
“Where
we’re trying to get [teachers] to is the ability to use art to teach
any subject. So whether it’s, you know, science, social studies, it
doesn’t matter. It all uses the same thinking,” Funkhouser said.
Once students have mastered the thinking process used to read art,
they’re better prepared to handle projects that might be more
difficult, like a writing assignment.
The
practice is tried and true by Lehner himself, who has integrated
reading art across the curriculum for his sixth-graders. At first the
process was confusing for them, Lehner said. The students weren’t
sure how to talk about the art. But after some practice, they’re
accustomed to it. “The songs got them hooked too, they love the
songs,” he said.
Lehner
recently introduced a lesson about Ashoka, an ancient emperor of
India, by showing a few portraits of the figure to his class. “It
was just amazing — they hadn’t read a single word. I hadn’t told
them who this person was, I hadn’t told him what he did, yet they’re
looking at the art and they are just putting together the whole
story,” Lehner said. In his experience, leading with art rather
than a reading or lecture leads to richer class conversation, and
once it is time to read about the topic, students are already
invested. “That’s what I love about it the most. They want to
learn, they’re hungry. They’re like, ‘Give me the article! What
is this about?’”
Lehner
has noticed an increase in student engagement with the implementation
of reading art, even over distance learning. As a result, the quality
of their work has improved. His class recently turned in a batch of
essays, which were “the best essays I’ve ever had on this
particular lesson, across the board,” Lehner said. It’s “because
they already really connected with it.”
Funkhouser
and Lehner both stressed that reading art is a way to balance the
learning experience for all students. Based on visuals rather than
written text, the material becomes more accessible for English
learners or students with different reading abilities. Those students
“may see an article and kind of freeze up and shut down. But when
they see the art they can join the conversation, and they can think
about it, and talk about it,” Lehner said.
Though
the videos are targeted at students, they’ve helped other teachers
grasp reading art as well. The videos have been out for a couple
months now, and Lehner said he’s heard a lot of positive feedback.
One teacher in particular, who teaches music, didn’t see how
reading art could apply to her class and thought the process was a
waste of her time. But the final video in Lehner’s series, which is
about the second and third steps in reading art — thinking and
talking — helped her get it. “Something about hearing it through
music in seeing it rhythmically, it just clicked for her, and this
teacher now uses images almost like every day,” Lehner said.
“Something about music, you know, it speaks to us in a different
way.”
“Reading Art Across the Curriculum” is a series of lessons originally produced by Focus 5, Inc, an arts integration consulting group. Funkhouser said he and his team collaborated with Focus 5 to adapt the lessons for the Arts and Creativity Initiative, which is a four-year federally funded grant training about 100 teachers in four counties how to integrate arts into their curriculum. “Reading Art Across the Curriculum” is the project’s main focus this school year, Funkhouser said. The videos, resources, and lesson plans distributed to this group are accessible and free to the public at ArtsIntegration.net.