1.2 Why Activities?

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From the course by The Museum of Modern Art

Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Art

627 ratings

The Museum of Modern Art

Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Art

627 ratings

Art can be a powerful catalyst for building skills and understanding a range of subjects. Intended for primary and secondary teachers of all disciplines, Art & Activity builds upon the inquiry-based approaches of Art and Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies for Your Classroom, while delving into activity-based strategies that will make your students empowered participants.

From the lesson

Introduction to Art and Activity

Welcome to Art and Activity: Interactive Strategies for Teaching with Art. Art can be a powerful catalyst for building skills and understanding across a wide range of subjects. Establish your foundation by watching each module's video lectures and reviewing the required readings, artworks, and additional resources. Then, test your knowledge with the quizzes and be sure to comment on videos and post in the discussion forums to share your thoughts.

1.1 Introduction2:09

1.2 Why Activities?2:57

1.3 Philosophy Behind Active Learning6:14

1.4 Designing Engaging Activities6:32

1.5 Skills and Benefits of Activity-Based Learning3:00

Meet the Instructors

Jessica Baldenhofer
Associate Educator, School Visits & Partnerships
Education
Lisa Mazzola
Assistant Director, School and Teacher Programs
Department of Education
Stephanie Pau
Associate Educator, Interpretation & Research
Department of Education

At The Museum of Modern Art, we incorporate activities into every lesson with students,

whether in the museum galleries or the classroom. We believe that active, hands-on learning

is crucial to creating an environment where all students have an entry point into exploring

artwork or expressing their own ideas. Activities can be a way-in, or a vehicle for interpreting

a work of art. They can offer multiple entry points for students with different learning

styles, students with English as a second language and students with learning disabilities.

Activities can give all students options for investigating a work of art, sparking a creative

response.

At MoMA, we always teach thematically, meaning all of our lessons connect four to five works

of art around a universal theme, such as Characters, Spaces and Places, or Society and Politics.

Themes provide a unifying framework for connecting artworks across time, space, and mediums.

And because the relationship between a theme and an artwork isn't always readily apparent,

themes have the power to get your students looking deep below the surface. In our teaching

at MoMA, we stress that activities, themes, discussion all support each other within a

lesson.

Let's begin with some definitions. When I say "activity", I don't necessarily mean a

full-on art project. In the context of this course, an "activity" could comprise a way

to frame a discussion, a game, or a quick drawing or writing exercise. Some activities

involve the whole group, some ask students to pair off in partners, and others are done

individually. Despite their variety, all activities have one thing in common: the focus is on

process, as opposed to making a finished product.

This course will break down many of our activity examples into two categories. Week two will

explore activities for analyzing and reflecting. These activities give students a framework

for looking, investigating and breaking down the information in front of them.

Week three will explore activities for creating, imagining and connecting. These activities

will help students to think creatively, while connecting the artworks and their own experiences

to big ideas.

Week four, we'll share our tools for assessing student learning. We'll look at examples of

student work, and how they can be a window into students' thought processes and understanding.

We'll also give you some resources to help you design tools that will help you assess

student learning and engagement. We hope that by the end of this course, you will walk away

with concrete activities that you can immediately put to use in your classroom.

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