Critical Thinking Through Visual Art
Many teachers don’t realize the power of visual art when teaching critical thinking. A painting is a poem with no words. It means that the written word and visual art are two distinct forms of expression.
Children are surrounded by books when they’re at school. Therefore, visual art offers them a break from words and help them develop similar skills via non-written modes. It challenges the children to pick on non-verbal cues and critically analyze and discuss them with their peers.
Incorporating art in after-school enrichment programs for children can help them learn critical thinking skills through classic paintings. Here are a few examples.
1. Nighthawks by Edward Hopper
Nighthawks by Hopper is a simple rendition of a late-night scene at a diner at the corner of the street. You can give your students some time to look at the painting, observe its details and study it by analyzing its lines, color, and shapes.
After that, they can use their analysis to set a tone and mood for the painting by providing valid reasons for their analysis.
You can also ask them to write a short dialogue between the figures in the painting and contextualize the conversation to their initial analysis of the colors, mood, and tone. This practice will help kids look at the bigger picture by analyzing its small bits.
2. Marriage a la Mode: 1, The Marriage Settlement by William Hogarth
Marriage a la Mode: 1, The Marriage Settlement is a challenging painting to understand, but it involves a fun satirical element that students can enjoy exploring.
You can separate students into different groups and help them identify satire and how it relates to the time the painting was made compared to the present. You will be amazed by how your students read this painting by identifying strange things like chained dogs, groom and bride looking indifferent, and the groom involved in self-love.
3. The Scream by Edvard Munch
Art is the best tool to inspire students’ writings.
Demonstrate a painting and prompt your students to write a sentence about it with an adjective clause, participle phrase, an adverb clause, etc. You can even ask the students to peer-review the sentence and see how differently their peers read the painting.
The best painting to analyze and teach sentence structure and grammar is The Scream by Edvard Munch. The painting uses simple hues of primary colors and shows an other-worldly creature in a bizarre pose. This compels students to read this absurd piece of visual art in the most creative ways.
Low-Cost High-Profit Children’s Education Franchise Opportunity
COMPUCHILD’s Entrepreneurial STEAM™ education franchise offers a curriculum that fosters critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration in a prosperous multi-sensory learning atmosphere.
Their unique after-school enrichment programs are formulated to stimulate curiosity and spark creativity in young children’s minds, allowing them to explore the possibilities of the tech world.
COMPUCHILD is one of the least expensive educational franchise in the US and Canada that doesn’t need a physical center to operate. As a franchisee, you can run it through your home or office space. Get in touch with COMPUCHILD to start a profitable franchise under 15k.
