Blog Post by Kelly Zaccardelli
Improvement in literacy is high stakes in education today. It is clearly a hot topic. We all know to look for basic use of punctuation and spelling when marking students’ work, and we all have subject specific keywords and terminology that we use daily but it wasn’t until I started to really look at what literacy means in Art that I realised the curriculum covers so much more and that subjects have ‘invisible literacies’.
Arts-literacies enable students unique ways of looking at the world that aren’t available in any other subject area. Through artistic ideas, learners can both read, write, listen, think critically, and communicate ideas. Anything that must be “interpreted” can be defined as text, that includes artwork and art prints. So anytime I have my students “read” a work of art, I am embedding literacy! Since art-work is truly a text itself and most visual art is deployed as a form of communication, background information and a viewer’s understanding of art principles is needed to be an informed participant. Students in Art lessons analyse artists work, critique their own work and the work of others. Throughout KS3 and KS4 students regularly annotate their work to explain processes, learning and next steps. Students write statements of intent, development reviews and evaluations. Students discuss mood and atmosphere, artist intent, historical and cultural influence. They read the formal elements and visual language of a work. Research, form their own opinions, compare and contrast. All in aid of developing their own style as an artist, in developing their own original ideas and creativity, as well as helping them to understand the world around them. What invisible literacies are in your subject area?
The biggest challenge I’ve encountered is getting students to recognise key skills are transferable between subjects. Haps students at KS3 were not analysing or describing at the same level in Art as they were in English. Another hurdle has been preparing students for independent practice to ensure students do not become reliant on writing frames or structure strips. I have discovered sentence starters were restrictive as students couldn’t see beyond this and answers would be minimal. As Rosenshine’s Principles in Action explains,
“…students need to be weaned off them as they reach higher levels where a greater degree of flair and individuality is expected.”
The knowledge organisers have been a key tool in getting students to retain key concepts, terminology and vocabulary seeing a vast improvement in quality of writing already. Weekly review is significant in that it allows students to reactivate recently acquired knowledge and provides a platform for prior knowledge to be built upon in the subsequent lesson. Knowledge organiser tests at the beginning of lessons have provided routine, consistency and a calmer working environment but much more than that they have enabled me to add more layers of complexity each lesson knowing that students have understood. It allows me to check misconceptions quickly and easily and then provide extra challenge. Curriculum mapping has also been crucial in considering how Year 7 impacts results at Year 11. For example; Year 9 is now used to embed analytical skills with students preparing rough drafts and using tables to help them organise and structure information. Year 10 use structure strips and model answers to aid content in extended writing and Year 11 are now no longer reliant on such support but use them as self-assessment tools, allowing more time for practical investigations. It’s important to remember that scaffolds are temporary if we want students to write with more sophistication.
