Norman Rockwell - Activity 3 Storytelling

This is part of the Norman Rockwell integration blog series. To gain access to all the blogs in this series, click the tag “Norman Rockwell”.

You are encouraged to try out these activities and to comment on the blogs, activities and ideas. You might even find that you can share other ways to integrate Rockwell into what you do! Your voice and ideas matter!

Muse Away!

ACTIVITY – Storytelling

Each of Rockwell’s paintings, undoubtedly tell a story. The characters, setting and plot are all there. Often the story blows through our mind in a moment and we move on to the next thing. But what might come of it if we stayed with a painting for longer and thought about the details of the picture, the expressions on the characters’ faces, the action in the scene? Well, a lot!

Use the NR Storytelling worksheet to help your students (and you) focus in on a painting and find the elements of a story. Fill it in and use it for a discussion or do one of the extension ideas.

Procedure: (review/short version)

1. Have students look closely at the painting and allow for some time for first impressions and conversations about the characters and the situation.
2. Ask students to take a closer look at the painting and state the prompt that allows them to find the elements of the story. For example:

• What is going on in the painting?
• Where is this taking place?
• Who is present in the picture?
• What are the characters thinking?
• What might they be saying?
• Is there a problem here?
• What happened before this scene?
• What is going to happen next?

3. After a short introduction to the activity, invite students to work in small groups or on their own with a new painting. You may want students to complete the WORKSHEET.

Worksheet link: http://theinspiredclassroom.com/Rockwell%20storytelling.pdf

Implementation Ideas: (review)

• Have a copy of a painting for each student. (They do not have to be the same.)
• Give students a copy to use in small groups.
• Place copies of paintings around the room and have students do the activity while traveling from piece to piece in an “around the world” format.
• Do a shared lesson or activity with your whole class or with a small group.
• Create a center in your room where students can visit and complete the activity.

Extensions and Variations:

• Have students use their worksheets to help them tell the story orally to a peer, a small group or to the class.
• Display all the paintings used. Ask students to tell their story and have the other students figure out which painting was the inspiration.
• Use the worksheet as a story plan and have students write out the story according to your directions.
• Pick paintings that relate to a particular season, event or holiday. For example, choose a Christmas themed painting in December, a patriotic painting in time for Memorial Day, a family centered one for around Thanksgiving such as Freedom from Want, or for this month, use School Girl with U.S. Marshals as we observe Martin Luther King Day.

Other painting suggestions for kids: A Day in the Life of a Girl http://img.allposters.com/6/LRG/7/789/LJEI000Z.jpg and A Day in the Life of a Boy. http://img.allposters.com/6/LRG/7/789/VJEI000Z.jpg These two paintings tell a story in mini pictures.

Next Blog (due out on Saturday, January 16, 2010) – Why Practice Reading Skills Away from Reading?

Make a Comment - We want to hear from you. What do you think of this activity? Any extension or variation ideas? Comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Norman Rockwell - Activity 2 Fact & Opinion

This is part of the Norman Rockwell integration blog series. To gain access to all the blogs in this series, click the tag “Norman Rockwell”.

You are encouraged to try out these activities and to comment on the blogs, activities and ideas. You might even find that you can share other ways to integrate Rockwell into what you do! Your voice and ideas matter!

Muse Away!

ACTIVITY – Fact and Opinion

In this activity, students will need to search for details in the paintings that can be stated as facts and opinions. You can be as simplistic or complex as you want with this activity. Here are some examples:

For facts, students may make simple statements such as, “Her shirt is red,” or, “The dog is barking.” In time, you may challenge students to search for statements that would need to be proven or disproven with more research. For example, using Rockwell’s painting Mysterious Malady, a statement might be, “The boy is pouring water into the spoon,”or, “The boy is pouring medicine into the spoon.” In either case, you are stating a fact, but the type of liquid the boy is pouring would need to be researched and the statement determined true or false.

Opinions may be found within the painting (from a character's point of view) or you may find that you are making opinions about the painting. Taking the painting Mysterious Malady again, an opinion may be, "The dog needs my help," or "The boy is acting rediculous." Opinions the viewer may have about the painting could be, “The boy is a caring person,” “Caring for your dog is important,” “Dogs should have a box to sleep in when they are tired,” “Stools are not comfortable to sit on,” or, “Suspenders make you look cool!”

You can get into more complexity with opinions when talking about valid and invalid opinions. For example, the statement, “The boy is a good caregiver,” could be supported with evidence in the painting that would make it a valid opinion. An opinion such as, “The fierce dog is waiting to make his move on the boy,” is invalid since there is little in the painting that would support the idea that the dog is fierce.

Procedure: (review/short version)

1. Have students look closely at the painting and allow for some time for first impressions and conversations about the characters and the situation.
2. Ask students to take a closer look at the painting and state the prompt depending on what activity you are doing.
3. After a short introduction to the activity, invite students to work in small groups or on their own with a new painting. You may want students to complete the WORKSHEET.

Worksheet link: http://theinspiredclassroom.com/Rockwell%20fact%20opinion.pdf

Implementation Ideas: (review from last activity)

• Have a copy of a painting for each student. (They do not have to be the same.)
• Give students a copy to use in small groups.
• Place copies of paintings around the room and have students do the activity while traveling from piece to piece in an “around the world” format.
• Do a shared lesson or activity with your whole class or with a small group.
• Create a center in your room where students can visit and complete the activity.

Extensions and Variations:

• Have students write statements (facts and opinions) on one side of the t-chart, give it to a peer and have that person write in the second column whether the statement is a fact or opinion.
• Have students write their statements on separate strips of paper. Students hand their pile to a peer and have them sort the statements into facts and opinions.
• If individual or small groups of students are writing facts and opinions for the same painting, have them compare papers or piles of statements.
• If individuals or small groups of students are writing facts and opinions for different paintings, try having students match the statements to the painting. Display all the paintings used. Put all the statements from all the groups into a pile, pull a statement and have students guess which painting the statement is referring to as well as if it is a fact or opinion.
• If all students’ or groups’ statements are in a pile, redistribute the statements randomly and have groups of students sort the statements into two piles or columns: facts and opinions.

Next Blog (due out on Thursday, January 14, 2010) – Next activity and worksheet to use – Storytelling

Make a Comment - We want to hear from you. What do you think of this activity? Any extension or variation ideas? Comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Norman Rockwell - Introducing Rockwell into Your Classroom

This is part of the Norman Rockwell integration blog series. To gain access to all the blogs in this series, click the tag “Norman Rockwell”.

Norman Rockwell is one of my personal favorites. I love the way he can capture facial expressions, tell a story in one scene and make me stop and think about the human spirit in all of us. And he seems to do this with every painting: young subjects and old, busy paintings with a lot of detail and simpler ones lain across a blank background. His works also seem to captivate all generations. They are timeless because of the way they tell stories about the joys and dilemmas of every age group, which is one reason why they are great studies for in the classroom.

So who is Norman Rockwell? Just as we may take a moment to read the short biography of an author whose book we enjoy, it is worth our time to do the same with the man who reaches us with his paintings. Here are a few interesting tid bits to share with your students about how he began his career as an artist.

• He was born in New York City in 1894.
• He always wanted to be an artist.
• He started art classes at age 14
• At age 16, he was commissioned to paint four Christmas cards.
• Not long after, Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, hired Rockwell as art director.
• At age 21, his family moved to New Rochelle, NY.
• There he set up a studio and submitted work for a variety of magazines, including Life, Literary Digest, and Country Gentleman.
• A year later, he painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post
• He continued working for the Post for 47 years and created 321 covers!

Visit this source for more biographical information: http://www.nrm.org/about-2/about-norman-rockwell/

Now, let's look at some steps you can take to introduce Rockwell into your classroom:

1. Place a few paintings around the room, in a spot on your wall, in a center or as a screen saver or slide show on a computer. Your students will naturally be drawn in to a few select paintings of kids (Marble Champion), dogs (A Boy and His Dog) and interesting situations (Swatter's Rights). Just search Google images using the key words “Norman Rockwell” and anything to see what you can find. For example: Norman Rockwell, kids
2. Once you have some students’ attention, gather them together for 5-10 minutes to look at a painting as a class. You can even do this during morning meeting or snack time.
3. Show the painting to your class (hard copy or on a computer screen) and ask them to talk about it by either sharing one person at a time or with an elbow buddy sitting next to them.
4. Here are some questions you might ask:
   • What do you see?
   • What is going on?
   • What is the setting?
   • Who are the characters?
   • What do they feel?
   • What do you think of when you look at this?
   • What are some details you notice?
   • What are some surprises you see?
5. After a short time, let the students know that they will be looking at other paintings by the painter who did this one, Norman Rockwell.
6. Take a moment to tell them a little bit about Rockwell and preview other paintings you have.

Even if you only use his paintings once or twice throughout the year in your classroom, think about how this 5-10 minutes will make a lasting impression, especially if you keep Rockwell paintings available for your students to look at.

Exposing your students to this piece of Americana is a great way to promote the arts in your classroom.

Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.
—Norman Rockwell

Next Blog (due out on Tues, January 12, 2010) – Next Activity and worksheet to use - Fact and Opinion

Make a Comment - We want to hear from you. What do you think of this activity? Any extension or variation ideas? Comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Norman Rockwell - Activity 1 Parts of Speech

This is part of the Norman Rockwell integration blog series. To gain access to all the blogs in this series, click the tag “Norman Rockwell”.

You are encouraged to try out these activities and to comment on the blogs, activities and ideas. You might even find that you can share other ways to integrate Rockwell into what you do! Your voice and ideas matter!

Muse Away!

ACTIVITY Parts of speech –

Practicing the parts of speech can become a chore with traditional worksheets. And it’s important for students to understand that parts of speech are everywhere, not just on weekly papers. Using some of Rockwell’s beloved paintings to help students develop and review their knowledge of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs can be an entertaining and interesting twist to a traditional task.

Materials:

• Worksheet http://theinspiredclassroom.com/articles/Rockwell%20parts%20of%20speech.pdf
• Norman Rockwell paintings

Procedure:

1. Have students look closely at the painting and allow for some time for first impressions and conversations about the characters and the situation.

2. Ask students to take a closer look at the painting and state the prompt depending on what part(s) of speech you are studying or reviewing.

a. “We know a lot about what a noun is – a person, place or thing – now, let’s see if you can locate nouns in this painting.”

b. “We have been studying both nouns and verbs. There are many examples of nouns and verbs in this painting. Look closely and see if you can locate some nouns and verbs.”

c. “You have begun study on adjectives. Now I want to see how many adjectives you can notice in this painting.” Students offer suggestions and then halt. “Look carefully, there are more adjectives in the painting than meets the eye. Take your time and you will see more.”

3. After a short introduction to the activity, invite students to work in small groups or on their own with a new painting. You may want students to complete the WORKSHEET.

Worksheet link: http://theinspiredclassroom.com/articles/Rockwell%20parts%20of%20speech.pdf

Implementation Ideas:

• Have a copy of a painting for each student. (They do not have to be the same.)
• Give students a copy to use in small groups.
• Place copies of paintings around the room and have students do the activity while traveling from piece to piece in an “around the world” format.
• Do a shared lesson or activity with your whole class or with a small group.
• Create a center in your room where students can visit and complete the activity.

Extensions and Variations

• In the t-chart, have students locate common and proper nouns.
• In the t-chart, have students come up with a relate subject and verb to later use in a sentence.
• Have students write a sentence about what they see in the painting and underline the nouns, circle the verbs, etc.
• Students can then expand their sentences by adding in adjectives and adverbs.
  

Next Blog (due out on Tues, January 12, 2010) – A little bit about Norman Rockwell and how to bring his paintings into your classroom effectively. Plus more activities coming in future blogs this month!

Make a Comment - We want to hear from you. What do you think of this activity? Any extension or variation ideas? Comments are welcomed and encouraged.

Norman Rockwell - Inspiring in the Classroom

Norman Rockwell, an all-American painter, captures the hearts of so many of us: young and old. He has a realistic sense of humor, a poignant grasp of the human spirit, and an ability to express so much in the expressions of his characters’ faces.

In the classroom, his painting can be used to grab students’ attention. Students love to watch the boys in a pig pile grasping for the pigskin in First Down, http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/20/2010/H2S6D00Z/norman-rockwell-first-down.jpg wonder what happened to the girl outside the principal’s office in Girl with a Blackeye, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3zneWOoVsNTBWOvtXGjE7zhbqHTK8yIRhiJB1-DqVsZweAgJpbN4xAzL0IdN60_3rzInLj_o2f0ze3xTQkTSWbC0CdcRP6PAPS3tAd0qwGOQfG5AU9fqz-YzN_HQ8Rq4LyMPgcL5Q50Q/s400/Girl+with+Black+Eye.jpg and are curious as to why the boy is giving medicine to his dog in Mysterious Malady. http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/20/2044/IFL4D00Z/norman-rockwell-mysterious-malady.jpg

There is so much going on in each of Rockwell’s paintings, both action and emotion; and in them is much potential for art integration including ways to develop grammar skills and reading strategies. Over the next few weeks, we will be going over a few ways to do just that!

Collecting Rockwell paintings can be easy. Maybe you have old calendars of his work or a few prints in your home. If not, you can display some of his works on your classroom computer after finding a few examples on the internet. A great resource is the Norman Rockwell Museum website http://www.nrm.org/. Here, along with finding images, you can explore Rockwell’s biography and view his home and studio. Another wonderful website to visit is http://www.rockwelllicensing.com/index.html. Click the gallery tab and view full screen images of Rockwell’s paintings.

If you have hard copies of his paintings (like outdated calendars), consider laminating them to preserve them in the classroom. Maybe you have enough for students to use in small groups or even individually. If so, you can pass out examples or place the artwork around your room and have students do the activity while traveling from piece to piece in an “around the world” format. If not, consider doing a shared lesson or activity with your whole class or with a small group. Another possibility is to create a center in your room where students can visit and follow simple directions to complete an activity while enjoying and studying a great piece of Americana.

Each week this month, I will be blogging about Norman Rockwell and how to integrate his artwork into your language curriculum. Each blog will have a link to a worksheet you can print and use right away in your classroom.

We encourage you to try out these activities this month and to comment on the blogs, activities and ideas. You might even find that you can share other ways to integrate Rockwell into what you do! Your voice and ideas matter! Muse Away!

Beethoven's Birthday - a December Holiday

Yes, in my family, it seems that Beethoven's birthday is its own little holiday. No, we do not have a party or exchange gifts, but we do remember that on December 16th a most magnificent man, one who changed music forever, was born.

My grandfather was, to say the least, a fan of Beethoven's music and life. He celebrated the man's life and found in him a genius with such a life's story. It is this love and appreciation for music that was passed down to my mother, uncle and, of course to me!

Now, as a teacher, I use Beethoven's birthday to celebrate the holiday season in a new way. All month we learn about the man and listen to his music. On his birth week, I do a thematic learning approach and try to fit in all things Beethoven in our lessons: from penmanship practice using Beethoven quotes and developing our understanding about fact and opinion using short articles about his life in reading groups to practicing our math using Beethoven-based word problems.

Each year, my classes enjoy this extra attention to a man whose music they know and love. This year I have a class of very interested students who even want to have a mini recital of Beethoven's music. A handful of students will play excerpts of pieces they know on a variety of instruments. What a fun way to end our 2009 year! I can't wait.

I never would have imagined that a long, forgotten birthday would have had such potential to keep my students focused and excited all the way to the holiday break. But that seems to be what is happening. I love it!

Results of the Teacher Survey in Arts Integration

I have conducted a survey in my school district on arts integration and have discovered that there is a real interest in it! I invited all elementary teachers to participate and as of this blog date, 31 have completed the survey. At this point, I can account for the results as only a "dipstick" of the attitudes and practices of the arts in our district.

There are some roadblocks, however... the top two being time (71%) and curriculum demands (61%), followed by money (45%).

My colleagues, I am proud to say, see and understand the importance of the arts. The vast majority of the participants considering the arts, in general important (85%) and each individual art form questioned (visual, movement/dance, music, poetry, drama, storytelling, technology/media), was also seen as important by the majority. At the top of the list was music (79%), visual arts (72%) and poetry (76%). No art form was seen as unimportant and the only ones that were even considered as "somewhat unimportant" were movement/dance, drama and technology/media all ranging at a mere 3-4% in that category. All other percentages to be accounted for were in the "somewhat important" category.

As for integration, my colleagues who participated in the survey again showed their belief in at least some arts integration by reporting that a majority conduct all of the arts (except drama) on a weekly or daily basis. However, the percentages are not astounding: Visual Arts (48% weekly), movement/dance (27% weekly), music (45% daily), poetry (31% weekly), drama (24% monthly), storytelling (35% weekly), technology/media (41% weekly).

My colleagues are also interested in professional development opportunities in the arts! The majority were interested in opportunities in all art forms, but the highest percentages were for visual arts and music (76%) and poetry (72%). The other options were "no interest" or "not sure". A couple of participants took the time to comment that the reason for indicating that they were disinterested in these opportunities was TIME - either because of other curriculum demands or personal obligations outside of school.

When asked, "If you were given time to collaborate more this other teachers in the area of arts integration, would you?" The majority replied YES (72%), the rest said Maybe and no one said no! (There is opportunity here!!!)

Please note that this survey time frame is not over and once I have more completed surveys, I will update the information.

Also,along with surveying classroom, special ed, and reading teachers, I conducted a separate survey for arts teachers and specialists. These results will be reported in a separate blog...