What speaks to you?
Today, most schools are emphasizing critical thinking skills. Teaching a student critical thinking skills is not always an easy task. Asking a student to memorize something and then answer questions about what they just memorized is a much more straightforward task than asking a student to think about what they are thinking or what they think other people might be thinking. I love the idea of using Art to develop critical thinking skills through the use of Visual Thinking Strategies. I really thought it was impressive the way the students engaged in the lesson and were able to demonstrate, without even being prompted, critical thinking.
Does it give you any ideas?
As a special education teacher, I often work with students on developing critical thinking skills. I have found this to be a difficult task, especially when working with students who are on the Autism Spectrum. I think in the upcoming school year I would like to try applying some of the Visual Thinking Strategies during my methods classes… having students analyze pieces of art and having them describe what they notice, what their thoughts are, and why they think that.
How do you integrate art into your current curriculum?
As a high school special education teacher, I have never thought to integrate art into my curriculum. However, as I mentioned in the previous response, I would like to start to integrate art this school year.
I did not see much information about using Visual Thinking Strategies at the highschool level. I wonder if it would be difficult to teach this concept to HS students? Would different teaching methods need to be applied?