Reading Artwork: Using Family Dialogue to Aid Meaning-Making for English Learners

Amy Green  

Monett Early Childhood Center and Monett Intermediate School 

Monett, MO 

Intro 

Visual literacy and peer conversations are critical components of early language learning.  This project creates new interactions for English Learners (ELs) between their peers and family.  First, by engaging in classroom conversations while “reading” art, followed by sending wordless picture books home for students to share with family in their home language.  The goal of this project is to facilitate student communication and language growth at home and school, while building confidence in sharing personal experiences and ideas. 

Using the strategies developed by Philip Yenawine and shared in his book Visual Thinking Strategies (Yenawine, 2013), students from different backgrounds are empowered to bridge their knowledge gap by discussing pictures as a whole group.  While viewing age-appropriate artwork, teachers can easily facilitate group discussions in the classroom. Students guide their own discussions and make connections with images.  New words are learned, background stories are shared, and endless discoveries are made. 

Visual Thinking Strategies is simply asking and reframing answers to these three questions: 

1.  “What’s going on in this picture?”  

2.  “What do you see that makes you say that?” 

3.  “What more can we find?” 

As students become comfortable with this process, they are encouraged to use these skills at home by sharing wordless picture books with their family and friends in their home language. These books, The Journey Trilogy (Becker, 2020), are richly detailed illustrations that tell an elaborate story in three parts.  As they peruse the books, more conversations, debates, and meaning-making evolve for the whole family.   

Step-by-Step Plan 

1. Familiarize yourself with the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) website (vtshome.org).  Learning about the research and philosophy behind this system will help you on your journey.  To see the process applied in an educational environment, search online videos. 

2. Select your images from the VTS curriculum (vtshome.org), Google Arts and Culture (artsandculture.google.com) or other online or printed resources.  Consider connecting these images with other topics in the school curriculum. 

3. Select and purchase age-appropriate picture books to send home. 

4. View images and model the VTS protocol in the classroom. 

5. Send books home to read. 

6. Gather feedback and reflections from the students. 

Timeline 

• Before leading class discussions: 

• Familiarize yourself with the VTS website. 

• Select your images. 

• First few months of in class discussions:   

• Introduce VTS to students. 

• Practice weekly and stay consistent. 

• Allow time for the students to become comfortable with the process. 

• Before sending books home: 

• Research age-appropriate picture books to send home. 

• Create a tracking system to log how students check out books. 

• Create letters to introduce the project to parents. 

• Translate letters in home languages. 

• Provide worksheets or paper for reflection. 

Materials 

3 year subscription to VTS - teacher use for all classes  Preview of VTS curriculum, resources and website 

Yenawine, Philip. (2018). Visual Thinking Strategies for Preschool. Harvard Education Press. 

Yenawine, Philip. (2013). Visual Thinking Strategies, Using Art to Deepen Learning Across School Disciplines. Harvard Education Press. 

Becker, Aaron. (2020). The Journey Trilogy 

Sustainability 

There are great age-appropriate images online that one can gather when the VTS subscription expires. Google Arts and Culture (https://artsandculture.google.com/) is a wonderful resource to browse and save images by subject matter, artist and art media.  Additionally, this website includes high resolution images which enable the user to zoom in to see the tiniest of details. The books used to take home for family reading are The Journey Trilogy (Becker, 2020). These paperback books are holding up well and easily fit into a folder to take home and return. 

Reflections  

Using the 3 questions to help facilitate conversations about art allows students to guide their own discussion as a group.  They connect with others’ comments and can practice friendly disagreements in a respectful manner.  When responding to the question “What do you see that makes you say that?,” students share background knowledge, their personal experiences, travels, family traditions, and unique perspectives.  ELs gain confidence to participate in or listen closely to the conversations and interact with the image.  Although each class has their regular contributors to the discussion, students do respond well when called upon if they are hesitant to volunteer.  Providing ELs with time to think before they are called upon is very helpful.  Some students really appreciate a heads up before they share. 

Some students love to share multiple times or feel left out if they don’t get a turn due to time constraints.  To ease this transition, we do a turn and talk where they can all share their final thoughts simultaneously to finish up the activity.  This gives me a chance to go ahead and set up other demonstrations without wasting any time and gives the students a sense of closure to the discussion. 

Posting target vocabulary near the image is also helpful to connect their statements to the curriculum.  For art, the Elements of Art and Principles of Design are posted clearly so students can use those words during discussion.  This is very effective and can be used in other settings for any instruction. 

For younger students in early childhood, they enjoyed reading The Journey Trilogy with me during class.  They looked forward to the story each week as they uncovered the exciting storyline together.  It also helped them transition from making artwork and cleaning up, to calm and focused again before they returned to their classroom.  Early childhood children did not take the books home.   

When sending books home with older students, a log is helpful to keep track of who has what book.  Manilla folders are great for keeping the book protected during transportation.  Providing a small reward when they return the book is also a good motivator.  Don’t send anything home too close to the end of the school year or it might not be returned. 

 Students took the books home to read and discuss with their families. Below is a brief summary of their experiences: 

• Student A read the book with his mother.  They read through the first part and made different interpretations of the pictures and storyline.  After more discussion, she saw things in his way. “I learned some more words from her because sometimes I struggle saying words in Spanish.”  This student often interprets for other students in his class that are learning English.  Using the books at home with his mother is keeping his Spanish vocabulary strong. 

• Student B read the books with her little brother (3 years old).  Her twin brothers aged 7 also read the books together. 

• Student C stated she read the books to herself.  “Usually, I read and think in multiple languages, so using pictures made me think abstractly about who I am myself, not in the languages that I use.  I used my imagination.” 

• Student D read with her little sister (18 months) and mother.  Her sister could also identify images in the books and participate even at her age.  Her mother said the book was like an adult version of picture books for kids.  

• Student E also read the books with his mother.  They both wrote at length about what they thought, and tried to figure out the story by looking and writing about it together. 

Copy of The Journey Trilogy Parent Letter w_SPANISH.pdf

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