Composing Culture: Latin American Art and Storytelling

Virginia Atkins

Introduction

“In every painting, as in any other work of art, there is always an IDEA, never a STORY. The idea is the point of departure, the first cause of the plastic construction, and it is always present all the time as energy creating matter. The stories and other literary associations exist only in the mind of the spectator, the painting acting as the stimulus.” –José Clemente Orozco1

Whether teaching an entry-level Spanish class or Spanish III, the fundamental objective of teaching is to foster learning. We all learn differently, and in my Spanish classroom, I strive to find the dominant learning style of each one my students. According to Salaberry and Lafford, “the key to the development of conceptual understanding of grammar is the construction of appropriate didactic models that learners can use to guide their performance and ultimately internalize as a means of regulating their meaning-making ability in second language acquisition.”2 To promote learning a new language amongst students, I endeavor to provide a safe environment for students to feel comfortable using new skills. My teaching methodology for this unit is two-fold: active and responsive. My instructional approach will not only focus on a student-centered classroom but also promote how students apply what they learn. Learning through social context is an essential component of my teaching methodology. It allows me to break down the information into subject matter students can relate to and embrace; something they can carry forward the rest of their lives.

The unit shows how implementing the arts in the foreign language classroom can be beneficial for both teachers and students. As Donohue and Stuart suggest, “the arts open access to multiple forms of expression and diverse avenues of inquiry that enable us to celebrate, critique, reimagine, and transform our world.”3 The activities included in this unit provide opportunities to understand and apply the lesson essential questions that focus on cultural connections to Latin American Art. Also, students can present their perspectives and context within the target language based on the curriculum standards. The focus of the unit is on the students’ ability to organize and interrelate information depicted in art, encompassing their cultural interpretations. Also, students will be able to understand simple questions about themselves and others, and specific knowledge when it comes to describing art.

In the process of acquiring a second language, one of the primary goals for students is to begin communicating with their classmates in the target language, which will lead to the social context of this unit. Within this social context, these interactions define the ‘classroom’ practices. As new language structures get introduced, learning will be active from what is modeled, and in turn, are reproduced with confidence and added intrinsic interest.

The unit provides opportunities for students to apply the vocabulary learned using real-world connections. The primary goal is central to demonstrate what can be produced with the context vocabulary. Burnham and Kai-Kee posit that “the pedagogical challenge is to use ‘facts’ to engage students with artwork.”4 The essential questions within this unit respond to this challenge with the use of authenticity, using activities that are derived from interest and time required for the tasks. The unit adheres to the curriculum standards established by the District5 and the design of the lesson essential questions focus on what the students can do with the instructional goals established. The unit engages my students in different levels of thinking: from applying knowledge to analyzing information. The activities are scaffolded to build and encourage critical thinking by using the arts. Therefore, the higher order thinking strategies hone in various levels of inquiry but center on student work and how they can apply visual information.6

Rationale

“Art is a means of expression that must be understood by everybody, everywhere. It grows out of the earth, the textures of our lives, and our experience.” –Rufino Tamayo7

Project-based learning and Learning Focused Strategies8 are platforms that shape learning in my Spanish classroom. Therefore, the application of this unit is grounded not only on how students respond using their contributions but also when grouped. Together these interactions will establish an environment rich in communication because of the base premise of ability grouping with art integration. These are the underlying fundamentals of the design of this curriculum unit when considering how the arts will enhance my tailored instruction. The design and implementation of this unit employ Latin American art supporting a hands-on instructional planning approach and focuses on meaningful social context. The unit rationale explores the following modes of communication: (1) Interpretive learning – with teacher guided questions, (2) Presentational speaking -by sharing their opinions with their partners; and (3) Interpersonal writing - by analyzing and composing written descriptions based on comparing and contrasting themselves, their class partners, and others as a form of exchanging information.

Further explained by Moran, Kornhaber, and Gardner, “students with complementary profiles (in which one student’s weak areas are another student’s strengths) can work together to compensate for one another.” 9 As the facilitator of my student’s learning, my teaching is inherently one that is multi-level because I must effectively address their

unique learning needs. Introducing this curriculum unit, I plan on scaffolding learning in the sense that as a group of students may be strong at their interpretive communication skills, there is another group whose forte demonstrates an ability to make outstanding interpersonal communication projects.10 Such implications for my classroom include:

1. Supporting students in developing their social interactions so that meaningful learning and engagement can take place. Unique contributions to maximize their learning are created when students are aware of their role in their groups and their peers.

2. Developing a flexible approach to accommodate not only different levels of Spanish learning but also different learning pace and instructional methods.

3. Selecting relevant artwork that allows a degree of scaffolding for those students at the lower-levels with appropriate materials while adapting the information to challenge the higher-level students.

Learning Objectives

“I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.” –Frida Kahlo11

How can art reflect the relationship between people and their environment? Learning with the arts supports an integrated approach to curriculum development and teaching12. Conversely, teaching with art occurs when an art form is the source of the study13. In this unit, we explore how artists convey culture in figural portraits and the relationship between visual and verbal expression by looking at paintings/murals by Latin American artists. Burnham and Kai-Kee suggest that “words build interpretation and construct understandings of the works we encounter.”14 To this end, this unit encourages understanding: (1) by strengthening Spanish interpretive speaking and writing skills, (2) by increasing vocabulary, presenting them with cultural context and information; and (3) by guiding how to write short texts constructed for artistic interpretation. Students will learn to organize their communication skills while learning about multiculturalism.

Overarching Goals

Students will be able to:

• Analyze art and cite art sources;

• Make connections between primary and secondary sources; and

• Identify ways in which artists draw upon Latin American Culture as a source of inspiration.

Curriculum Unit Goals

Students will be able to:

• Express opinions about arts;

• Create a short video or commentary about arts;

• Compose a critique or review of artwork; and

• Understand an art description in a magazine or website

Student’s learning outcomes are ‘all’ on a language proficiency-model that hones in on what the students ‘can’ do in three modes of communication15: (1) Interpretive Communication (students listen, view, or read authentic text/artwork with ability to question or answer information), (2) Presentational Communication (students establish connections with their peers in a presentational setting by sharing their ideas/research/ideas/opinions about Latin American art), and (3) Interpersonal Communication (after receiving feedback, students engage in communication about Latin culture and meaning).

By implementing this proficiency approach, the unit will promote intercultural communication by exploring language and culture16. Students will engage the target language in an authentic context. The instruction will become more student-centered and continue to build upon what students need, what they already know, and they can do. Diverse learning styles will be evident but maximized for new opportunities as well, while encouraging the development of a wide range of skills and learning strategies.

This Spanish I lesson is designed for students who begin their communicative proficiency journey with general knowledge of general topics about (1) how to describe themselves, (2) how to elaborate on their school life; and (3) how to expand on the activities and hobbies they do. At the beginning of this unit, students should be working on developing conversation dialogues about themselves as well as their understanding and usage of Spanish interrogatives (Qué/Cómo/Quién/Dónde/Cuánto/Cuándo/Por qué). One recommendation will be to develop a 2 (or 3)-day lesson plan that incorporates a review of how they could improve the use of question words, verb conjugation, how they describe their classmates, and agreement of adjectives. The in-between learning segment can provide insight on to how to connect content with critical thinking skills. In turn, students will arrive at this unit with an increased understanding of the grammatical components, a stronger connection construction a dialogue involving direct questions and the ability to apply their knowledge when interacting with art.

As the unit progresses, students will be expected to demonstrate: (1) Knowledge of descriptive vocabulary (i.e., alto/bajo for tall/short, etc.), (2) Verbs related to family activities (i.e., bailar – to dance), (3) How to describe people and what takes place using various adjectives, and (4) Discuss the differences and similarities of family life in the United States versus those that are Spanish-speaking. Students will conjugate action-related verbs with competence and choose the correct forms of adjectives to describe a family accurately. All reading, listening, writing, and speaking activities will focus on these abilities. Through the unit, students will be able to progressively discuss the artwork as related to the unit vocabulary with the teacher and peers because the lessons rely on the previous knowledge.

Content Objectives

“When you start a painting, it is somewhat outside you. At the conclusion, you seem to move inside the painting.” –Fernando Botero17

The way in which the content objectives address the development of student’s communicative proficiency in the target language is by using a framework of proficiency-oriented language instruction focused on: (1) Develop activities that are authentic portraying interactions, characters, and events, and (2) Enhance communicative expression with an open-ended approach. (All writing and speaking opportunities are defined but limited regarding how much the student writes or says).

The whole unit is designed to build on itself. Each activity is meant to rely on the last one. The basic progression for the unit is as follows: (1) Introduce a daily activating strategy. My students’ knowledge is limited at the start of lesson #1, so I often establish connections with the use of cognates, (2) After the warm-up, the students interact with the smartboard, and the vocabulary is delivered with a digital presentation that is also available via Schoology, and (3) Introduce two daily activities that follow with an in-between check for comprehension. The first activity aligns with strategies that help to reinforce the new vocabulary, and the second one uses this vocabulary in practice. The goal through the whole course is to use less English and apply the target language at 80-90% of the time. The presentation of the material is in the target language, and the vocabulary supports visual comprehension rather than English translations. The counterparts will be images to Spanish vocabulary.

The strategies embedded in this unit help students achieve the learning objectives in a meaningful way, and by providing opportunities to validate what their interests are, they can focus on what the new content is. When designing the main activities of the unit, the unit vocabulary will connect activities that capture interest to make teaching and learning culturally relevant. The aim is to enable prior knowledge upon which new skills and concepts can be built. It will be essential to understanding how cultural and linguistic backgrounds profoundly influence art interpretation in the classroom. The arts will enhance language development by offering non-verbal methods for communication and understanding and by providing a platform to create mental images. Integrating the arts into the foreign language classroom give room to engage in new and varied approaches. Students gain from the exposure of different perspectives and how the interplay of ideas communicate meaning.

In preparing and delivering this learning unit, I plan to incorporate material that gives a glance to different cultures and that spark student’s interest with relevant content.

Moreover, the instructional approach targets motivation for language learning and personal interests and their own previous language learning experiences regarding background knowledge. At the core of this unit, it is important to familiarize the students with authentic material, so that motivation is maintained; in contrast, this aspect is one

that can be effortlessly adapted to standard practices in foreign language classrooms given the nature of the teaching subject. In my classroom, reading, listening and writing methods become feedback tools to provide students with confidence to expand their knowledge and reinforce their concepts. I believe learning a foreign language lends itself to creating opportunities to explore real-world scenarios from formative to summative assessments and thus student’s anxiety of the unexpected is a reduced factor.

Strategies

“Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.”–Pablo Picasso18

In my classroom, reading, listening and writing practices become feedback tools to provide students with confidence to expand their knowledge and reinforce their concepts 19. I interpret the learning process as one that never ends. Therefore, I hope in the application of these strategies is to impart to my students the notion of continuing their foreign language learning outside the classroom walls. Reflecting on my teaching practice, I strive for implementing strategies that provide an insight into how students learn best. While end of unit assessments provide a single snapshot of what students learned, they are given multiple opportunities to apply and use authentic language in a series of sequential strategies that guide learning beyond isolated written or spoken assessments.

Aligning student-centered lessons to critical thinking and learning theory-based strategies contribute to students’ achievement in my foreign language classroom 20. The strategies for this learning unit aim to increase student’s proficiency skills by allowing opportunities for extended responses, thus providing prospects for students to respond in a familiar and in an “all-you-can-include” approach to what they have learned. Additional factors that provide validity to learning is demonstrated in the inclusion of all learning and cognitive styles21.

A variety of factors and strategies will influence how effectively students will engage the arts. These factors and approach include providing (1) well-defined tasks, (2) realistic learning goals; and (3) flexibility for students’ learning pace that involves the integration of real-world materials22. Echoing on my teaching practice, I strive to planning lessons that provide an insight into how students learn best. While end of unit assessments provide a single snapshot of what students learned, students have multiple opportunities to apply and use authentic language in a sequential and guided process beyond a written or spoken assessment. As noted by Hadley on “Teaching Language in Context,” the focus of the instructional should align with prior learning as to:

• Encourage students to use the language actively to explore a particular theme.

• Plan activities that help students reach functional objectives.

• Plan a variety of activities to facilitate differentiation.

• Apply strategies that are appropriate to the proficiency level of your students23.

Several of the strategies embedded in this unit will focus on how connections promote comparisons and connections to the culture learned. They include:

Strategy #1

Question/Answer Relationship

Purpose: Classify Information

Application: Comprehension Strategies to Recall and Identify

Artist: Carmen Lomas Garza

Art Source: Google - http://carmenlomasgarza.com/artwork/paintings/

This strategy targets the question “Where is the answer?” The teacher and students will develop questions that are scaffolded into four categories. A comprehension guide is created to show four levels in which students use explicit and implicit information drawn from the artwork/text presented to them (See figure 1) to create questions regarding the artwork.

Students build independence and establish connections from the question/answer relationships from the selected artwork allowing students to make connections between texts and their own interpretations. This strategy allows students to learn types of relationships, identify how and where answers are found, and develop understanding when analyzing the paintings of Carmen Lomas Garza. Students will generate new questions about her paintings in Spanish, and working in small groups to apply relevant vocabulary.

Procedure (Explained and Modeled):

Figure 1.

Strategy #2

Comparison Matrix- Recognizing Similarities and Differences

Purpose: Order and Analyze Information

Application: Comprehension Strategies to compare and contrast

Artists: Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera

Art Source: Google - 1. Pablo Picasso - https://www.pablopicasso.org/large-bather.jsp for “Guernica” and “La Lecture” and 2. Diego Rivera - https://www.diegorivera.org/jacques-lipchitz.jsp for “Jacques Lipchitz” and “Crossing the Barranca”

Students focus on ordering information and analyze attributes, characteristics, details and topics to organize information using a matrix in order to recognize and interpret reasoning for their answers (See figure 2 and 3).

Procedure (Explained and Modeled):

Figure 2

Figure 3.

Strategy #3

Response Journal

Purpose: Writing as an Instrument for Learning

Application: Comprehension Strategy for Questions, Inferring and Activate Background Knowledge

Artists: Diego Velasquez and Rufino Tamayo

Art Source: Google - 1. “Las Meninas” http://www.spanish-art.org/spanish-painting-las-meninas.html and 2. “Man with Maguey” https://americanart.si.edu/artist/rufino-tamayo-4739

This strategy will provide opportunities for students to use writing as a tool for learning. It implements art interpretation as a tool to explore thinking. Students will be able to extend thinking and infer from the ability to pose their point of view, define their ideas and incorporate interpretation with their background knowledge. Students deepen their understanding by analyzing open-ended questions before, during and after engaging in the artwork. Students present their work in a discussion forum setting and are able to share ‘live’ with the whole class their perspectives. Benefiting from open-ended questions, students have the range for extending meaning in this strategy.

Response journal entries can be varied in complexity and adjusted before students are given the art pieces to analyze, during artwork analysis or after an art work is discussed in smaller groups. For this strategy, the teacher poses an open-ended question for students to pair, write and share using examples such as: Was the title of the artwork a good one? – Why/Why Not? / How is this painting similar or different to other paintings you have seen? / Is there anything in this artwork that so far you would like to know more of? –why? / If you could change anything about this painting what would it be? /What makes a

painting a ‘good’ one for you? – Is this painting in that category? Student responses will require evidence and documentation of their ideas from the painting given or to respond to another student’s response to extend thinking (See figure 4).

Procedure (Explained and Modeled):

Figure 4.

The teacher should model a complete, thoughtful response and include a discussion in the lesson plan of his/her thinking process in order to prevent below expectations responses. The teacher should discourage the outline of responses and try to build accountability in this writing strategy. Students should be encouraged to share quotes and responses during the assignment discussions. For an extension of the strategy, the teacher can promote the construction of meaning and deepening understanding by implementing a third column in the journal entry. The third column would allow students to share their entries with their partners and create connections between

reading and writing in response to a piece of art.

An additional extension to this strategy is a dialogue-share of student’s notebook. The teacher asks students to share aloud their responses. Students are asked to state what is appealing, intriguing or confusing about the work of art. Students can relate to other examples of art presented in class and create comparisons while expressing their own point of views. Examples of responses could include: (1) Their reaction to the painting and why, (2) What the work of art reminds them of from their own experiences or other works, and (3) Their position on the bias of the artist and indicators of their response. The verbal quality of this extension as a learning tool is an opportunity to establish connections to the whole class and question their perceptions, ideas and extend knowledge in a whole class setting.

Strategy #4

Art Tour

Purpose: Reading-around-Artwork

Application: Comprehension Strategy to Construct Meaning and Improve Comprehension

Artists: Ten Most Influential Latin American Artists

Art Source: Google - http://www.latina.com/lifestyle/our-issues/latino-artists-know

In this strategy, students will benefit from learning how to use information in the works of art to construct meaning and improve comprehension. Reading-around-the-artwork is the primary goal of this pre-reading strategy. The art preview will provide a glance and opportunity to formulate preliminary ideas about what art work students will be presented with.

Activating prior knowledge while implementing an Art Tour will helps in the development of a clearer understanding about concepts to be learned. In the Art Tour (Gallery Walk) activity students get introduced to several art paintings that are associated with a specific key word. Students proceed to categorize and organize their interpretations around these topics, applying their background knowledge and eventually developing new knowledge from the artwork presented.

Procedure (Explained and Modeled):

Strategy #5

Organizing information

Purpose: Synthesizing and Summarizing

Application: Comprehension Strategy to Organize Information

Artist: Fernando Botero

Art Source: Google - http://www.artnet.com/artists/fernando-botero/

Strategy will help create a visual representation to organize main ideas. Students will be presented with a variety of organizers to fit varied learning styles and art work. Graphic thinking organizers are visual representations of the organization of the ideas. These representations will clarify the relationships of ideas and make summarizing the ideas easier. Students must have a wide variety of organizers to fit varied learning styles and interpretations. The main objective for this strategy is to be used as a pre-assessment, and monitoring tool for teachers. Teacher will guide students to organizer information that fits the text and purpose of the artwork (See figures 5 to 10).

Procedure (Explained and Modeled):

Time Order, Sequencing of Events, or Flow

Figure 5.

Bridge

Figure 6.

Problem/Solution Organizer

Figure 7.

Venn Diagram

Figure 8.

Fact and Opinion

Figure 9.

Fishbone

Figure 10.

Strategy #6

Inferring or Prediction

Purpose: Expressing opinion

Application: Comprehension Strategy when Making Inferences

Artist: Frida Kahlo

Art Source: Google - https://www.fridakahlo.org/frida-kahlo-paintings.jsp

The strategy provides connections to prior knowledge, engage students with the topic and encourage them to explore their own thoughts and opinions. Following a prescribed format, the strategy focused on creating a series of general statements related to the art the students are going to be exploring as students relate to content and expressing opinion.

This vocabulary activity introduces a list of potentially unknown content words to students along with various pieces of art. It is designed to help students become aware of how much they may already know about the subject to which the words are related. By using this activity, the teacher will be able to gauge the depth of students’ existing knowledge and note what areas need special attention during instruction.

Procedure (Explained and Modeled):

Figure 11.

Strategy #7

Visualizing the Idea Using Semantic Maps

Purpose: Summarizing

Application: Comprehension Strategy to promote recall of information

Artist: Jose Clemente Orozco

Art Source: Google - http://www.theartstory.org/artist-orozco-jose-clemente-artworks.htm#pnt_3

Artworks that evoke strong emotions often do so because interpreters can picture a particular situation. Students create visual images or pictures in their minds as they are reading about the art work. This strategy focuses on student’s comprehension and visual recall. With the general idea that good readers create visual images or pictures in their minds as they are reading, this strategy focuses on visualizing to enhance a student’s comprehension and memory of the artwork.

Procedure (Explained and Modeled): Part A

For Part B, teacher introduces a semantic map as a visual presentation of a knowledge. The teacher emphasizes that when creating a semantic map background knowledge is essential and encourages making predictions about the artwork to be shown.

Procedure (Explained and Modeled): Part B

1. The teacher selects a big idea or topic in the art description, writes it on the smartboard, places it as the big idea or main topic (See figure 12).

2. Students brainstorm subtopics related to the topic as the teacher presents artwork based on the descriptions. Lines are used to connect these to the main topic.

3. Students then brainstorm specific vocabulary or ideas related to each subtopic. Record these ideas to each subtopic.

4. Students read the description and revise the semantic map to reflect new knowledge or add new circles. There is no limit to the subtopics.

5. The teacher closes this activity with a discussion of how students can use semantic maps in their own reading and learning of artwork.

Figure 12.

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Notes