Liv Ames for EdSource

Transitional kindergarten students talk over 19th century French creative person Gustave Caillebotte's painting "Fruit Displayed on a Stand up" at Figarden Elementary School in Fresno.

Art lessons for pre-kindergarten students are moving beyond finger paints and into the worlds of van Gogh, da Vinci and Rivera.

Teachers in a number of districts in California are using classic works of fine art to inspire some of the youngest students to observe closely, think critically and discuss respectfully – all key elements of the Common Core approach to learning.

By looking closely together as a course at a Picasso or a Cezanne, 4- and 5-year-olds are learning how to observe and translate their thoughts into linguistic communication and heed and answer to multiple perspectives.

This approach for K-12 students was developed about 20 years ago by the co-founders of Visual Thinking Strategies, a nonprofit based in New York that provides training in the method to schools and art museums. More recently, the nonprofit has introduced the concept to pre-Yard classes.

Alexander Chitay, a transitional kindergartner, uses a laser light to point out what he wants to discuss about the painting.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Alexander Chitay, a transitional kindergartner, uses a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation light to point out what he wants to hash out about the painting.

It appears to be growing in its appeal since the introduction of the Common Cadre standards adopted by California and 42 other states. During the by two years, the nonprofit's national trainings of educators have doubled, said Amy Chase Gulden, national program director. The nonprofit has trained teachers in more than seventy schools in the Bay Surface area, Northern California and Los Angeles.

Research studies on the method have shown that students in classes where the visual thinking program was used had a amend agreement of visual images, exhibited stronger growth in math and reading, and showed better social-emotional growth than students in classes that did non use the programme. The approach was especially effective for English language learners.

The visual thinking method asks iii questions of young students: What'southward going on in this picture? What exercise you encounter that makes yous say that? What more can nosotros detect?

This arroyo teaches students how to take the fourth dimension to find closely, describe what they see in particular and provide evidence for their observations, Gulden said, "the kinds of skills that the Common Core asks for."

Such programs are part of a new movement in English linguistic communication arts to develop visual literacy, said Kim Morin, a professor who teaches integrated fine art at Fresno Land University.

"It kind of came in with the Common Core – a more holistic approach," Morin said. "As society becomes more digital, information technology's non enough to just be able to read words; nosotros have to be able to read images."

"We take to be able to look at an prototype and understand information technology, not just react to information technology," she said.

Some districts, such as San Francisco Unified, were applying this method long before Common Cadre standards were adopted. When Elizabeth Levett, who teaches kindergarten at George Peabody Elementary in San Francisco, introduced the Visual Thinking Strategies programme into her classroom about eight years agone, she said she saw the growth in her students' language "correct away from ane lesson to the side by side."

"They'll offset the year with 'I see a ball,'" she said. "After that it snowballs. It'due south amazing."

"We're giving them linguistic communication they wouldn't normally have in a context that is meaningful to them right in the moment," said Elizabeth Levett, a kindergarten teacher at George Peabody Elementary in San Francisco.

Teachers respond to a student'southward comment on a painting past paraphrasing the annotate and taking information technology to the next level, Levett said. Perhaps a student will notice a figure. The teacher will then say, "then y'all are noticing this figure in the left-paw foreground of the painting?"

"We're giving them linguistic communication they wouldn't normally have in a context that is meaningful to them right in the moment," she said.

Donavon Quezada, 4, is looking closely at a painting in Peggy Allsman transitional kindergarten class in Fresno.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Donavon Quezada, 4, is looking closely at a painting in his transitional kindergarten class in Fresno.

Information technology is important for the teacher to paraphrase the pupil's comment in such a way that the student feels understood and the rest of the grouping can grasp what the student has said, Gulden said. Teachers have to permit go of their agendas and ideas and follow the kid, she said, another Common Core approach to learning.

Sometimes the student may exist searching for a word and the instructor can restate the student'due south idea using the give-and-take, she said.

The approach "builds vocabulary and fluency," Gulden said. The method is particularly effective with recent immigrants, she said.

School psychologist Julie Montali as well finds the method works well with English learners. Montali has an art degree and has been trained in the visual thinking method. She developed a similar curriculum for pre-K students at Fresno Unified with English language arts instructional jitney Claudia Readwright.

"Kids act as linguistic communication models for other kids," Montali said. "Often another child is the all-time teacher."

The open-concluded arroyo to discussing the painting too equalizes the experience, she said. The art is new for anybody, sometimes including the teacher. The discussion of the ideas inspired by the art does not crave prior knowledge, and there are no wrong answers. That makes information technology easier for shy students or those learning English to participate, she said.

Children also respond to the ideas of other students and learn to look at things from another person'south perspective, Montali said. They keep the word moving with minimal intervention from the teacher, the kind of cocky-directed learning emphasized by the Common Cadre.

In the process of discussing the paintings, the children learn how to have different opinions without rancor, Levett said. They use terms such every bit "I'1000 noticing" or "I want to build on what he said."

Juliet James, who has been using the method to teach second-graders at One-time Adobe Unproblematic School in Petaluma for the past five years, said students are polite. "They'll say, 'I disagree with Karen because of this reason.' They have to give the show," she said.

Using loftier-quality artwork is also important, Morin said, particularly in terms of stimulating observations by the children.

"You tin can go along going back to a masterwork and see something unlike every fourth dimension," she said. "If it'due south not a high-quality piece of work, it doesn't have that depth."

Students in a transitional kindergarten class in Fresno discuss amongst themselves the work of art they just discussed as a class.

Liv Ames for EdSource

Students in a transitional kindergarten class in Fresno talk among themselves almost the work of art they just discussed as a class.

On a recent day, the transitional kindergarten students in Yvonne Stout-Barrett's class at Figarden Uncomplicated School in Fresno eagerly gathered around a print called "Fruit Displayed on a Stand" by the 19th century French artist Gustave Caillebotte. They began talking about what they saw, including shapes and colors. Building vocabulary past discussing shades such as magenta, carmine or chartreuse is one way talking about fine art builds more than sophisticated linguistic communication.

Teachers say they encounter the effect of the method in other subject areas.

Brian Harrigan, who teaches preschool students at San Francisco Unified, said that since he has used the visual thinking method, he notices the difference when he is reading a story to the children.

"They start describing things in the motion picture more than fully," he said.

Such close observations of art help children acquire to visualize, which helps them when they brainstorm to read, Morin said. "If you lot can visualize what y'all are reading, you are a stronger reader rather than just reading give-and-take-to-discussion," she said.

The aforementioned methods of showing evidence for what you are thinking or proverb can work with deconstructing a story or a mathematical graph, Gulden said.

James uses the method in didactics all subjects to her 2nd-graders, such as when she introduces the 100s number chart to hash out identify value.

"They will talk about it being a grid, how each space is equal," she said. "They will find the numbers going across are 1 to x. I then come in and say that the horizontal numbers are 1 to 10. And then they will notice the vertical numbers are counting past 10s."

"Very often young children take an virtually deeper perception of what they're seeing," said Fresno State professor Kim Morin. "They don't take preconceptions. They don't think: 'I don't get information technology.'"

Fresno has decided to implement the curriculum by adding it to a course each year, beginning with preschool children final year and transitional kindergartners this yr. The integrated approach will follow the children equally they motion through the Thou-12 system.

Starting young has its advantages, Morin said. "Very ofttimes young children have an about deeper perception of what they're seeing," she said. "They don't have preconceptions. They don't think: 'I don't get it.'"

In a research paper on talking well-nigh art with immature people, David Bell, an associate professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, says that "children are less inhibited than many adults in their engagement with artworks."

"They may be surprised, entertained, puzzled or challenged past what they see," he said. "They are as well likely to express their various responses to the works in exclamations, comments or conversations."

Teachers laud the method for slowing things down in a fast-paced world and edifice on young children'south natural ability to larn through observing.

"Everyone is worried most kids having access to applied science," Levett said. "They're too little. They demand to acquire how to await slowly, really notice. Everything in engineering is click, click, click. This method hones the arts and crafts of looking deeply and really listening to each other."

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